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DVD Review : Wrestling Memoirs with Doug Basham

Last year Strong Style Productions entered into the wrestling dvd market with a 3 DVD series focusing on the life and career of world renown female wrestling star Allison Danger. This year they return with a new project in collaboration with Wrestling Entertainment DVD entitled Wrestling Memoirs with Doug Basham.

As one half of the Basham Brothers tag team, Doug climbed to the pinnacle of the business capturing the WWE tag team titles on two occasions, and while that is probably what he will most be remembered for and is most recognized for, Doug Basham actually has quite the story to tell.

Following in his uncle’s footsteps, Doug trained at his uncle’s now infamous training center which was the WWE’s official developmental system, Ohio Valley Wrestling. From there he would head onto the indy scene, earn a developmental deal, work his way into the WWE, get paired with a kayfabed twin partner and  work side by side with John Bradshaw Layfield as part of the cabinet in 2004. Eventually, like almost every tag team in the WWE nowadays the team would split, single competition would not go so well for either man, they were repackaged as personal security for Paul Heyman on the new ECW and would eventually find themselves future endeavored, and like many who end up on that pile, they would try a short run in TNA that didn’t work out in 2007.

In regards to his major league experience, Basham speaks candidly on working with John Bradshaw Layfield, his run in the WWE and why he got released, as well as his run in TNA and why he believes he got released.

This DVD not only touches on all that but much more as well. Presented in a shoot interview / documentary mix, the host not only sits down with Basham for a shoot style interview but also goes on the road with  him as he tours the independent scene leading up to what was to be his retirement. A lot was made about this fact when the DVD was being advertised but Basham would later change his mind and return to the ring.

Amongst the interesting on the road footage is seeing Basham visit the birthplace of US President Barack Obama’s forefathers, as well as meeting descendants of the president. The best part has to be seeing his interaction with the fellow independent wrestlers, how he prepares to work with them, the execution of that, and his interaction with the fans, as well as thoughts on how independents are run.

All together Wrestling Memoirs with Doug Basham runs nearly 4 hours over 2 discs. Including over an hour of outtakes and extra matches and promos from the indy tour they follow him on.

This is a independent DVD release, but nowadays indy companies productions values are beginning to improve leaps and bounds. The video and audio presentations is of high quality with only a few of the on location shoot’s suffering from some audio loss. Basham is no slouch when it comes to his wrestling knowledge and can get his point across clearly and unlike some shoot interviews keep you from becoming extremely bored with the one line answers. To be quite honest, when I heard Doug Basham was being featured on a DVD I was far from excited, nothing against the guy, but he didn’t appeal to me as someone I would need to see a DVD feature on, but surprisingly this was actually quite entertaining and might be worth a look if your looking to add something slightly different to your wrestling dvd collection.

Wrestling Memoirs with Doug Basham is now available on DVD from Strong Style Productions and Wrestling Entertainment DVD. For more information or to order your own copy head on over to .. and to read my previous DVD reviews check out www.wrestlingdvdreview.com