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I’m always watching hockey fights. Whether on DVD, my PC, or youtube, I’m checking out some of the best fighters ever. Now I usually pop in whatever strikes my fancy. At times I’m in an AHL mood or sometimes I’ll check out a player DVD. If I’m looking for a different feed of a certain fight I might be going through some team footage. Either way I’m always watching something. From Maloney to McGrattan, I’m always breaking down video. Of course I’m doing this because I love the fights and even if it’s just a straight up no nonsense, no frills style video- if it kicks ass- it’s going to get my seal of approval.

I think as fight fans back in the day, on the outer fringe of the hobby universe, we were just happy to get a tape with some fights on it. It didn’t matter if it was just something quickly spliced together-if it had two dudes on skates throwing down on it, we were happy. I didn’t need menus or intros or chapters-just give me the fights! Now every so often you’ll get one of those videos that combine great fights with good production. Some tapes/DVD’s I’ve seen over the years have been very good in terms of opening sequences, introductions and fight comps to kick things off. On some rare occasions, you’ll come across one that almost seems like it was professionally made. Mostly it was some dude like us who learned enough about video editing to put together those 1-2 hour long fight tapes we loved so much. In other words, a lot of what you got was of the ‘no frills, just fights’ variety.

Now a good, entertaining fighter can make you easily forget most production flaws. Because, let’s be honest, in the end all that matters is the fights. You simply can’t fuck up a Ryan VandenBussche DVD, right? Even if the fights are all jumbled and out of order or incomplete, it’s still going to be a damn good DVD, trust me. Seeing Vandy go to war with guys like Serge Roberge, Dan Kordic, Stu Grimson et all can easily cover up for there being no menu or opening “credits”. One thing it can’t cover up for though, is a poor quality video. We all have a copy of the Bruise Brothers but some have faded, 5th or 6th generation copies of this classic. Everyone loves that pristine copy of their favorite fight DVD. It just adds to how great the overall viewing experience is. A shit copy can kill the vibe instantly. My first VandenBussche DVD was of such terrible quality it was unwatchable. Once in a great while you’ll come across a fight video that is just perfect. It combines a great fighter with great fights and excellent quality with some good production as well. These are the kind of gems I’m looking for when I’m going through footage.

When I first began creeping around the internet fight boards, I found a great piece on the rivalry between Rob Ray and Tie Domi. It was written by ChrisY2J and was a great read. It was posts like that by not only him but others that really influenced me at the time. It was such a thorough break down with every fight analyzed blow by blow. I just love reading a hockey fight fans take on these kinds of fights and rivalries. So you can imagine my surprise all these years later when I discovered that there was an actual fight dvd called ‘The Definitive Ray-Domi’, which I believe was also put together by ChrisY2J. I had never seen or heard of this DVD before. So once I got a hold of it, I had to throw it in the ol’ DVD player and sit back and watch one of the great rivalries of the era.

I really have to say this is a fun disc to watch. Not only do you get all of the fights in their rivalry but you also get multiple feeds as well. Some of these alternate feeds offer different camera angles of the action on the ice. So on one feed you get Harry Neale’s call and on the other Rick Jeanneret’s. You simply can’t lose. On top of that you get all the little incidents that led up to the fights. You get all the little scrums, all the shoving matches, all the near fights and trash talking fests. In addition you get to see the evolution of the rivalry from start to finish-13 fights and countless run ins -a run that lasted a decade.

Another thing I found interesting was Tie Domi’s overall rivalry with the Buffalo Sabres in general. We are lucky enough to see his earlier bouts with former Sabre enforcer Gord Donnelly on this disc and even in the post Ray-era we get to see Domi tackle the next generation of Sabre enforcers in Andrew Peters and Eric Boulton. Domi gave the Sabres all they could handle over the course of his whole career and a good portion of that is on this disc.

But what really makes this DVD stand out is just the interplay between Ray and Domi during all their entanglements. Every time these two were on the ice the announcers, the fans and even the players themselves knew they were going to go at it. Even when they didn’t throw down there was always a ton of trash talking going on during scrums and in the penalty box. We know Domi liked to talk but he and Ray seemed to really engage in a war of words on the ice, in the box, in the media-you name it. It really helped to spice up this great rivalry.

Part of what makes for a great fight rivalry is the styles of the fighters themselves. Styles make fights and you can see that on display in this great feud. In the first fights of this rivalry Rob Ray was still doing his usual strip show routine where he’d completely lose his jersey and his shoulder pads so Domi would have nothing to hold onto. As time went by and the ‘Rob Ray’ rule went into effect we see how Ray adapted. Ray had great power but also could chuck’em fast and furious. Domi would switch hands and would exchange a few toe to toe punches before ducking and stepping back to pull Ray off balance and gain an advantage. I really loved the way their styles played against each other. It just made for some great bouts and a truly entertaining rivalry.

Please check out this disc. If you already collect, trade for it. If you don’t collect, trade something else for it. It’s worth it. This is the complete rivalry between two greats of the era fully fleshed out on one disc.

Here’s a Ray vs. Domi Rivalry Comp I put together. Enjoy!