Plot: What’s it about?
At one time, reality based fighting was popular and could been seen often on pay-per-view television, but new laws and such have prevented the events from happening too often these days. As such, I have looked far and wide for new materials to watch and more often than not, it means picking up home videos from foreign and past events. I was curious when I stumbled upon this World Combat Championship disc and of course, I had to check it out for myself. This one seemed more like a technique based event, as opposed to the persona/wildness shown by The Ultimate Fighting Championship. In truth, these guys do lack the shine and charisma of the UFC guys, but they are just as skilled in their arts, which is all that counts once the fight starts. This program gives us some background on the fighters and their styles in between fights, which is nice and the whole, production values are good though a couple errors surface. The cameras capture the actual fights well and overall, I had a lot of fun with this disc. You don’t see many domestic (United States) releases of this stuff anymore, but this one turns out to be very good.
This is a special interest title of course, as not everyone likes to see no holds barred action, but fans of this kind of event will not be disappointed with this disc or program. I’d never heard of this organization before and I had some doubts, but this is a superb and exciting presentation. This organization uses only martial arts style fighters though, which means no pitfighters, survival fighters, or other freelance non discipline styles can be found here. This takes means less blood is shed of course, but the impact and brutal nature is still in full effect. I was worried the lack of the non martial artists would slow down the pace of the fights, but I never found myself wishing the action was picked up. A few slow spots creep in of course, but the matches never become dull in the least. I was pleased with the overall selection of fighters, but I did wish some wilder, no discipline contenders were allowed to enter. This disc looks and sounds good, which is all you can ask for with a release like this one. If you’re a fan of no holds barred combat, then make sure you check out this disc.
Video: How does it look?
World Combat Championship is presented in a full frame transfer, which preserves the event’s original aspect ratio. This disc is authored well on the whole, with no compression errors and no serious problems to mention. This seems like a television style event and as such, it doesn’t look as sharp as a feature film. But this transfer doesn’t falter in the least and makes this event look as good as you could want, which is what counts. The colors seem natural and contrast is well balanced, which is all that really matters here.
Audio: How does it sound?
This disc offers a remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track, which makes those thumps and bumps sound a little powerful. Aside from the occasional massive thud when someone gets slammed, the crowd noise also makes good use of the surrounds, which kind of makes it feel more like a live event. The announcers come through in fine form also, with crisp vocals and no volume problems. This is as good as you could want this to sound and I am pleased this new surround track was included. You can also find a nice stereo surround track, in case you don’t have an expansive home theater system.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This disc contains no bonus materials.
