Over the past decade or so, The UFC and Pride fighting events have really gotten their acts together. What began as essentially sensationalized brawling has evolved into a real sport which finds its foundations in grappling, striking, and submission. Those three skills take from a number of fighting styles, from boxing, to wrestling, to judo, and so forth, making it truly mixed martial arts. The packaging for these showcases still has a near WWF air with lots of macho posturing and some over the top personalities getting most of the camera time. That hurts mixed martial arts in terms of legitimacy, and while it helps them make some pay per view dollars, it is also what keeps it from the sports pages, ESPN, and the your local news sports segment (Though Fox Sports does air hour long UFC recaps). Also, with no real federation body, there are a number of tournaments, of varying degrees of quality, from your Extreme Combat Challenges, to Warriors Quest, to King of the Cage, to K1, and the list goes on and on. Still, I wish there was some unifiying force because it deserves that attention. Hell, if hot dog eating contests and dogs catching frizbees can get on ESPN...

Anyway, SuperBrawl is one of those inbred cousins in the world of the mixed fighting arts. SuperBrawl is, pretty much, one level above toughman competition. To be fair, SuperBrawl has evolved over the years but not as much as its competitors. It still exists in the fringes and seems content with a cheaper scale in terms of production values and talent pool. This comp shows its carnival like atmosphere when, in an earlier era fight, a roid rage referee is doing spin kicks to entertain the crowd between rounds.

This SuperBrawl "Greast Hits" DVD goes from the early days of the show in 1996 to 2003 when SuperBrawl had hit number 32. Now, before I get into how subpar this comp is, I will say that UFC's first "Ultimate Knockouts" DVD compilation is also terrible and has bad production values, crappy fights from UFC's early days, and was hosted by an awkward presenter and a very stiff current champ Chuck Liddell. The three fighters that get the most coverage in this SuperBrawl compilation are Jay R. Palmer, Jason Miller, and Enson Inoue. Of the eight fights on this disc (not counting the "bonus fight extra) only three fights do not feature one of these fighters.

Jay R. Palmer is a wiry black guy who was ready to rumble and had a penchant for foot stomping a downed opponent. The first fight featured is from Superbrawl 2 (1996) with Palmer Vs. Maurice Corty. Corty, whose body reminds me of Exidor from "Mork and Mindy," begins the fight by standing in a funny old timey pugilist stance. The two stumble awkwardly with Palmer doing most of the punching, trying some chokes on the ground, until he eventually ends the fight by (what else?) stomping on Corty's head. We then see Palmer in a largely boring fight with kickboxer Danny Boy Bennet. The fight is mainly on the ground with Bennet hugging close to Palmer so neither man can do much. This goes on forever, then the announcer says only 19 minutes remaining, and you feel like you spent half your life watching these two. Finally they get on their feet, Palmer poses like an arrogant ass and he receives a knockout kick to the face for it, mercifully ending the fight.

Jason Miller's nickname is "Mayhem", but I think, based on his personality, his should change it to "Wigger." Anyway, he is mainly a submission fighter who really likes choke holds. And, choking is just what he does in his fight with Sean Taylor from SuperBrawl 31 (2003). It is pretty much just an all-Miller choke frenzy, with Taylor barely surviving various chokes before Miller finishes him. His second fight is with Egan Inoue from SuperBrawl 32 (also 2003). It starts with the usual bad blood business and Miller trash talking, thinking he's much more funny and charismatic than he actually is. In the fight, Inoue dominates with his grappling skills, until a weird, how did it happen?, rib injury forces him to quit.

Egan Inoue is recognizable to mixed fight fans as the brother of Enson Inoue. Both of them have losing records in Pride, but big brother Enson's overall record fares a bit better. Still, the real highlight of this comp is the Egan Inoue Vs. Yukia Naito fight from Superbrawl 28. Egan is a sturdy muscle-bound middleweight but Naito is much bigger, at least a head taller, with a definite reach advantage. Egan has to work his way past that reach and takes the fight to the floor. The fight shows its first hint of weirdness when Egan stands, Naito remains on his back and actually waves Egan to come on, so Egan smiles and leaps in with a perfect shot to Naito's nose, effectively, I believe, breaking it. The fight goes the distance, but at least two more occasions of the larger Naito taunting Egan result in Naito getting pummeled and Egan grinning away.

The DVD: Razor Digital

Picture: Full Screen, Standard. Well, it varies, but the overall production of SuperBrawl looks very poor. Especially in the early days, the stadium lighting goes from too bright (because the stadium audience is lit too) to too dark (because only the ring is lit- and lit poorly). Again, I cannot find too many faults with the transfer, though there were probably some tv pic to DVD issues. The overwhelming fault lies in the actual production values of the fights. The later era fights do look better.

Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo. Again, this all comes down to the roots of the production, not the transfer. This is some of the worst qulaity audio I've heard for a sports broadcast, and that includes local UHF Southern wrasslin' shows in the 80's. You flat out cannot hear the ring commentators in some of the early fights, their voices lost in the muffle of the crowd.

On a final Audio/Visual note: The bumpers between the fights are very annoying. It consists of some bland graphics and an annoying song, "You're in for the fight of your liiife... Super-Brawl!". Though they only last 5-10 seconds, the bumpers were so lame and overused that halfway through the disc I was actually fast forwarding through them. The DVD producers use these bumpers (over and over), didnt bother to edit in any new fighter highlights/background info, and just edited the raw, uneven clips from the actual event. Bad move.

Extras: The sole extra is a bonus fight from SuperBrawl 38, featuring Tim Sylvia Vs. Wes Sims. I thought a Superbrawl comp would have more Sylvia, since he pretty much started out in EC and SuperBrawl. Anyway, it is a one-sided affair with a slightly out of shape looking Sylvia easily taking out his opponent, Sims, who talks a better game than he can deliver.

Conclusion: First, I would like to note that any one of the fighters, even the worst losers, from any SuperBrawl could beat me to a pulp with one of their cauliflower ears. I respect anyone that will willingly, even gleefully, put their body at risk like these guys will. No matter how caveman stupid it may sometimes seem, it takes guts. But, that doesn't deter from the fact that SuperBrawl is one of the many low quality mixed fighting tournaments out there. This compilation just showcases its weaknesses. The production values are very poor and the fights usually go a long way just to get to that one highlight-worthy move. That is a pretty bad sign, especially when you consider that the fights on this comp span six years worth of competition and this is the best they had to offer. In the future, SuperBrawl DVD producers should put more into the editing, both in the actual fights (editing down boring fights to show their best moments/more fighter history and less interview bits) and the transitions (no more cheap graphics and cheesy, repetitive theme songs). Skip it.