By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

ALERT! Before you read Pt. 2 of my Black Friday Buyers Guide, read Pt. 1 with my top independent wrestling DVD picks from DGUSA, PWG, AIW, AAW, Beyond Wrestling, JCW, and more by clicking HERE

This is the second part of my buyers guide for Black Friday. Part two includes my top picks for the absolute best wrestling documentaries and interviews. Also included in this guide are my top picks from Kayfabe Commentaries and UFC. The guide wraps up for my top picks for wrestling themed videogames. I’ve included directions on how to find the best deals for all of these releases below.

Documentaries

-“Seven Levels of Hate” - (8.5): “Seven Levels of Hate” is an excellent documentary produced by Adam Pearce that looks at his NWA Championship feud against his longtime friend Colt Cabana in 2011 and 2012. The focus of the documentary is about how politics continually got in the way of Cabana and Pearce’s efforts to elevate the NWA Championship in 2011 and 2012. Cabana, Pearce, and NWA Hollywood producer David Marquez are all strong talking heads during the documentary and presenting their side of the story. The in-depth look at their best of seven series of matches in 2012 is fascinating, especially given how it was derailed by NWA politics just as the series was about to end. The documentary is missing key commentary from the people that took control of NWA in 2012 during Cabana and Pearce’s series of matches, but otherwise it is a compelling story from start to finish with strong production values.

Now through Sunday at Midnight, EVERY SINGLE PURCHASE at http://www.SevenLevelsOfHate.com/ comes not only with the two-disc DVD set, but also with a free mystery gift pack worth more than $40.

[ FYI: You can purchase “Seven Levels of Hate” by clicking HERE; or by visiting SevenLevelsofHate.com. ]

-”Jim Crockett Promotions: The Good Old Days” – (9.0) “Jim Crockett Promotions: The Good Old Days” is a great documentary about the greatest territory promotion in wrestling. The documentary covers Jim Crockett Promotions from its humble beginnings when Jim Crockett Sr. moved to Charlotte in the 1930s and began promoting a variety of entertainment ventures with wrestling eventually becoming the backbone of everything he promoted all the way through the collapse of the promotion of the late 80s when the excesses of the promotion and the ego of booker Dusty Rhodes caused it to collapse.

The documentary is a fantastic learning tool, as the entire evolution of the company is discussed in-depth by the people that were there during the rise and fall of the promotion, but the key is the interview with Jimmy Crockett Jr., who has never been interviewed and gives his side of the story from when he took over the promotion in the early 70s through the sale of JCP to Ted Turner when the money ran out. The extras are well worth checking out as well.

Highspots.com is currently offering a 20% off discount on all documentaries during their Black Friday sale.

[ FYI: You can purchase “JCP: The Good Old Days” by clicking HERE; or by visiting Highspots.com. ]

-”Barbed Wire City” – (9.0) “Barbed Wire City” is an excellent and well-rounded look at ECW, particularly when it comes to what the promotion meant to the wrestlers and what it did to their bodies. The documentary, which was made by John Philapavage and Kevin Kiernan, provided a well-rounded a sobering look at ECW through the eyes of wrestlers, fans, journalists, and people that worked backstage in WCW. Philapavage and Kiernan began making the film in 2000 and eventually got the funding they needed through Kickstarter.com to complete the film, which was released earlier this year. It was particularly interesting to see whether or not the opinions of the wrestlers featured in the film that were interviewed in 2000 changed when they were interviewed recently for the final edit of this project. This is a must-buy.

”Barbed Wire City is currently available at Highspots.com with a 20% discount during their Black Friday sale.

[ FYI: You can purchase “Barbed Wire City” by clicking HERE; or by visiting Highspots.com. For more information on Barbed Wire City and to purchase the VOD version for $9.99 visit BarbedWireCity.com ]

Kayfabe Commentaries

-”YouShoot with Kevin Nash” – (9.0): This stacks up with the best editions of “YouShoot” that I’ve seen. Kayfabe Commentaries did a great job of ramping up their production values and Nash is the perfect guest for this vehicle. The segments using the green screen are particularly funny, especially the segment with Kevin Nash and Sean Oliver tasting wine at the vineyard. Although he protects his friends and passes off responsibility for some of the things he’s taken part of in wrestling, Nash is genuinely entertaining and funny.

[ FYI: You can purchase Kayfabe Commentaries “YouShoot with Kevin Nash” by clicking HERE;. For a VOD version of this interview, visit WWNLive.com. For more information about other KayfabeCommentaries.com releases, visit KayfabeCommentaries.com;. ]

-”Timeline: The History of WCW 2000 as told by Vince Russo” - (8.5): Normally I’m not a fan of Vince Russo interviews, but this release takes the cake. Russo is in rare form during this look back at his time in WCW in 2000. To be fair, Russo never really had a shot given the politics in the company during his run as booker during this period, but listening to him contradict himself throughout the interview is definitely something that is amazing to watch in the sense you’ll be saying to yourself, “I can’t believe this guy is saying what he’s saying.” Russo also doesn’t hold back, as he goes into his time in TNA and buries Dixie Carter, Christopher Daniels, and The Young Backs because according to Russo, this is the last interview he’s doing for wrestling. Another fascinating discussion is Russo’s story about his angle with Hulk Hogan at “Bash at the Beach 2000.” Once Russo says, “If this were real,” you’ll be shaking your head for days.

[ FYI: You can purchase Kayfabe Commentaries “Timeline: The History of WCW 2000 as told by Vince Russo” by clicking HERE;. For a VOD version of this interview, visit WWNLive.com. For more information about other KayfabeCommentaries.com releases, visit KayfabeCommentaries.com. ]

KayfabeCommentaries.com isn’t having a sale for Black Friday, but their releases are well-worth checking out on DVD and VOD.

Shoot Interviews

-”The Kevin Steen Show with Eddie Edwards” -(8.0): This release is well worth going out of your way to check out. Steen gets good interviews out of his guests and there are a lot of funny stories about Edwards’s career coming out of this interview. Highspots does a good job of making these fun shows with little text blurbs popping up on the screen and by using multiple camera angles, so it’s not just a static shot of Steen and Edwards talking throughout. Although this was a lengthy interview, I would have preferred if there had been more time spent on Edwards talking about his time in ROH from 2012-2013 and PWG. If you’re looking for an interesting interview with a ton of funny stories that’s easy to watch, look no further than here.

[ FYI: You can purchase “The Kevin Steen Show with Eddie Edwards” by clicking HERE; or by visiting Highspots.com. ]

-”The Kevin Steen Show with Michael Elgin”-(8.5): Overall this was an excellent release. The text captions on the screen are hilarious and Cheeseburger’s role as co-host is hilarious, as he is constantly picked on by Steen. Steen did a great job of guiding Elgin through the interview and got some good insight from Elgin on his current run in ROH and his frustrations from last year. Elgin’s story about his mother’s background as a professional arm wrestler is worth the price of admission alone.

[ FYI: You can purchase “The Kevin Steen Show with Michael Elgin” by clicking HERE; or by visiting Highspots.com. ]

-”Striker University: Finishing School 101” – (9.0): This release will change how you watch professional wrestling. Striker does sit down interview segments in-between the footage shown of him training wrestlers at the Highspots Wrestling School. Striker is hilarious and makes a lot of good points about how wrestlers sell certain moves and gives advice to wrestlers trying to make their way into WWE on how to make the in-ring action look real. One of my favorite segments is Striker talking about how wrestlers often begin the match with a lockup, transition into one of the wrestlers holding a headlock, and then the wrestler in the headlock shoots the wrestler off the ropes. Striker talks about how very few wresters that he’s seen actually look like the headlock they are being held in hurts and demonstrates to the students the proper way to fight the headlock before doing the standard opening match spot. I’ve found myself yelling at my TV screen after watching this release because Striker makes so many suggestions that might seem like small things, but they actually make a huge difference in terms of selling the action in the ring as being legitimate. Fans and independent wrestlers will both benefit from buying this release and hearing Striker share his knowledge about in-ring action.

[ FYI: You can purchase “Striker University: Finishing School 101” by clicking HERE; or by visiting Highspots.com. ]

All shoot interviews are on sale at Highspots.com right now for 40% off the original price.

UFC

-”UFC Ultimate Fight Collection 2013” – (9.0): This is a must-have collection of fights for any UFC fan. The collection includes fight cards from June 2012-July 2013. In all, there are over 200 fights included on 20 DVDs in this collection. This is a great looking box set, as the DVDs come in a case that looks like a book. When you open up the first page, the fights included from each PPV or TV special are listed, so if you want to see Silva-Sonnen II for example, you know where to go right away. The best part of this collection is that the boring fights have been cut from each card included in this set, so you’re never bored as you make your way through each DVD. The only downside is that the entrances, montages, and post-fight interviews are edited off of this release with the exception of the main event winners having their interviews included from what I could tell by watching a good portion of this release.

From what I can tell, Amazon.com has the best price on “UFC Ultimate Fight Collection 2013.” See the link below to purchase this release.

[ FYI: You can purchase “UFC Ultimate Fight Collection 2013” by clicking HERE; or by visiting Amazon.com. For more information on UFC, visit UFC.com. ]

Videogames

-”Saints Row IV,” released August 20, 2013 on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC – (8.5): I enjoyed “Saints Row IV” more than any other game in the series. The addition of superpowers makes this game a blast to play. The wrestling influence on the game is well-done and if you’re a wrestling fan, you’re going to want to play this game. Rob Van Dam and Rowdy Roddy Piper are featured in the game as characters. JCW announcer Kevin Gill plays himself as a DJ in the game and does a fantastic job introducing a wide variety of songs. Christopher Daniels also plays a character DJ in the game. The humor in the game is what makes “Saints Row IV” stand out. Different characters deliver hilarious dead-pan one-liners throughout the game and the creators of the game just nailed it with their spoofs of pop culture, movies, and television shows.

[ FYI: You can purchase “Saints Row IV” by clicking HERE; or by visiting Amazon.com. For more information on “Saints Row IV, please visit SaintsRow.com. ]

-”WWE2K14”, released Oct. 29, 2013 on Xbox 360 and PS3 – (8.5): “WWE2K14” is a fun game because of the variety of options it offers. If you like creating your own cards on TV and PPV, there’s WWE Universe mode. If you like playing online and downloading CAW’s, the online features are fantastic, especially given how detailed some of the downloadable CAW’s are for independent and Japanese wrestlers. Although the gameplay is improved from last year with moves having more impact and the reversals being more forgiving, the game controls are largely the same, which isn’t a bad thing. It feels like it’s time for this game to move to another engine and with Xbox One and PS4 recently hitting shelves, that’s bound to happen for the next edition in this series. For now, the main reason to purchase this game is for the 30 Years of WrestleMania mode, which is extremely well done and will take you back all the way to the beginnings of WrestleMania complete with tinted graphics made to look like what you would see on the screen in the mid-80s. With plenty of gameplay options, there’s endless opportunity to have fun with this game.

[ FYI: You can purchase “WWE 2K14” on PS3 by clicking HERE; or by visiting Amazon.com. For more information on “WWE2K14," please visit WWE.2K.com. ]

You might be able to find a better deal than the Amazon price by shopping at your local videogame retailer, but right now Amazon has WWE2K14 on sale for just $35.00.

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