WWE Tagged Classics
WWE Tagged Classics is a series of two-disc DVD sets that were produced by Silver Vision and World Wrestling Entertainment for retail markets in Region 2 in PAL format. The sets would feature a WWE pay-per-view event from one year on one disc, paired (or "tagged") with another disc that features the same event from the following year, or two consecutive pay-per-views.
General information
The sets are composed of two classic World Wrestling Federation events each that were previously released on VHS. They contained absolutely no extras beyond the events (unless an extra was included in the original VHS release of the event i.e. WrestleMania XIV has the post match Press Conference with Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mike Tyson) up until the release of King Of The Ring 1999 & 2000, where 2000 contained the same extras that the original DVD release did when it was released in 2001.
These DVDs are simply re-releases of WWF commercial video tapes however, they are taken from master WWE source tapes of these releases. The same edits on the ex-WWF tapes (as different from the live broadcast PPV version of the event) are present in these discs. The series include events such as Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, King of the Ring, and Survivor Series, as well as the regular In Your House PPVs that began in 1995. There have also been releases of other shows such as The Fab Four, One Night Only and UK Rampage 1991 as well as other ex-VHS titles.
The sets for each of these events follow a specific pattern, a year for each big event (example: WrestleMania I & WrestleMania II), and a month for each In Your House event. The only exception so far was the second In Your House set, which covered In Your House 13: Final Four, and In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede
The first Tagged Classics DVD set released was WrestleMania I and II in 2004. http://www.wrestlingdvdnetwork.com/list-of-silver-vision-wwe-dvds/29242/
Exemption from censoring of WWF logo and initials
These sets prior to 2012 were unique as they were, for the most part, free from the former well documented legal restraints imposed by the federal lawsuits initiated by the World Wildlife Fund in 2002 that prohibited the referencing and use of the scratch logo and initials "WWF", with only the DVD covers and DVD menu screens of the "Tagged Classics" displaying the initials "WWE". They served as a more faithful representation of archived WWF material than the more WWE WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, SummerSlam and Survivor Series anthologies released before 2012.
They also contain no WWE watermark/DOG like new WWE Home Video releases do. They do however contain the watermark/DOG for that time frame. For instance, there is no watermark for anything up to 1994, and the "Golden-Era" logo is used, then the "New Generation Era" logo from 1995 onwards, and finally the scratch logo for all of the Attitude Era discs.
Some theme music is dubbed over on new WWE Home Video releases, but not on these Tagged Classics sets. For instance, on the WWE WrestleMania Anthology - Demolition's theme music is dubbed over with generic WWE-produced theme music. This is done to save on paying certain royalties to certain artists and music production companies. These sets have all of the original music included unless they were dubbed over in the original VHS/DVD releases, for example, Unforgiven 1999's main event video package featured music by Fear Factory and System of a Down, but it was dubbed over on the VHS release and thus is dubbed over on the Tagged Classics release.
It is not known exactly why these discs are exempt from blurring and editing, but many theories have arose. The first is that they are direct re-releases from the past. The second is that they are only available in the UK and Europe, therefore are exempt from legal restraints because of this. The third reason is that Silver Vision is a third party licensee of WWE DVDs in the UK, and technically this is not WWE releasing these discs. Also, the court order required the company to remove both auditory and visual references to "WWF" in its library of video footage outside of the United Kingdom. So Silvervision are legally allowed to release these events with the old Scratch WWF logo intact and references to WWF are allowed to remain also.
WWE Tagged Classic In Your House 7 & 8 has extra footage which the VHS release did not have in the U.K. The Free For All event can be seen on the In Your House 7 DVD Tagged Classic release and features the match between the 123 Kid and The Wildman Marc Mero.
During July 2012, WWE came to a new agreement with World Wildlife Fund which allows to WWE to abstain from editing the WWF attiude logo or censoring the WWF initials when spoken in archival footage. In exchange, WWE is no longer allowed to use any old school-logos for retro-theme programming outside the United Kingdom. Now using the WWF Block Logo, but modified, without the "F".[1]
Prior to losing the video license for WWE Silver Vision was also re releasing DVDs from the 2002 attitude collection including Austin vs McMahon which like the Tagged Classics was a direct re-release with no editing.
Status of the series
The current future of the Tagged Classics series is uncertain due to Silver Vision and WWE parting company at the end of 2012.[2] The new licensee, Fremantle Media have said they will consider similar programming in the future once they start producing WWE DVD's in 2013.[3] However, nothing has come from this since then. With the introduction of the WWE Network in 2014, WWE DVD and blu ray sales have been in decline.[4]
Tagged Classics in the U.S
A limited amount of WWE Tagged Classics are released in the U.S., spanning the years 2003-2005 and Canada 2002-2005, albeit not Silver Vision releases.