"The Kliq Rules" Blu Ray Review

At long last, I finally received my blu-ray copy of WWE's latest production The Kliq Rules. The set features a documentary, as well as about seven hours worth of matches featuring Shawn Michaels, X-Pac, Triple H, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall.

To be honest, going in to the feature, I didn't have high hopes. The Daniel Bryan and Shield releases were underwhelming rehashes of WWE Network productions, and while the Macho Man and Jerry Lawler blu-ray sets were pretty good, Paul Heyman's was the only one that blew my doors off since 2013.

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WWE is known for its fantastic production on these sets, but since the debut of the WWE Network, it seems as if they've paid less attention to detail for home video releases. When I was told this was another hour-long documentary (in the vain of NWO and Big Show's), I was disappointed. As it turns out, 66 minutes was the perfect length to tell the story of the Kliq.

The story starts with Michaels meeting Scott Hall in Minnesota in the mid-1980's, describes how all five men ended up in the WWF, and went all the way up to Kevin Nash's Hall of Fame induction this year. Almost every era is covered, including the group's ill-fated 2002 run with the nWo.

Perhaps my favorite part of this set were the unique group of talking heads the company brought in. While it's always cool to see Undertaker or Vince McMahon sharing their perspective, the WWE went above and beyond. Longtime Kliq-hater Shane Douglas was brought in, as well as loosely affiliated member Justin Creidble. The WWE also had guys like Billy Gunn, Bret Hart and The Godfather at their disposal.

There are some issues previously untouched on older WWE Home Video releases, such as the BSK group. BSK was a group, similar to the Kliq, which consisted of Undertaker, Yokozuna, Rikishi (then Fatu), The Godfather (then Kama), and several others. Bret Hart also recalls a story where the Kliq had approached him with the idea that they could "run wrestling."

The match selection of the set is outstanding, and contains several matches where combinations of the team either faced one another or teamed up. The five often combined for some of the best WWF matches in that era, so it made for an excellent compilation. One of the lost gems in WWF history is a tag team match of Shawn Michaels & Diesel vs. Razor Ramon & 1-2-3 Kid from Action Zone, which is a much watch.

The stories involved are typically brutally honest, and Shawn Michaels is in rare form (at least since 2002). He has no issues with calling people out, and the remainder of the cast seemed pretty open with doing so as well. The match collection, coupled with a good documentary about a fascinating group makes The Kliq Rules a solid buy, although the $27.41 Amazon price is pretty steep.

Overall Rating: 8.0/10