Wacky Wrestling VHS Boxes #5

Tonight is SummerSlam, WWE's self-proclaimed biggest party of the summer. As is tradition here, anytime one of WWE's four tent pole events happens, I look at some old wrestling video boxes. For this installment, I'm going to go way back in the archives and check out some of the old non-PPV tapes that Coliseum Video released. Let's dive in!

Even More Unusual Matches (1987)

For the majority of their early releases, Coliseum Video issued tapes in these large, plastic clamshell cases, similar to what Disney would release their tapes in during the 1990s (Lion King for example). This particular tape was a sequel to one of the first round of tapes released by Coliseum Video and the WWF in 1985 and contains all sorts of crazy matches taped in arenas in Canada and the U.S., however most of the matches came from the monthly Madison Square Garden shows that were broadcast on the MSG Network. Some of the more fun matches on this tape include Randy Savage vs. Bruno Sammartino in a Lumberjack Match, a Bunkhouse Battle Royal, and a series of Texas Death Matches between Hulk Hogan and Harley Race. Personally, I like these older tapes more than the more common ones from the early 1990s as these are much harder to find in playable condition and just in general, they are a lot of fun to watch.

Inside the Steel Cage (1986)

Long before TNA Wrestling (or Impact Wrestling or whatever they're called these days) had their annual all cage match show, there was this tape chronicling some of the best cage matches from around the WWF. In particular, there are a few matches on here that haven't really seen the light of day much on current DVD and Blu-Ray releases such as Andre the Giant vs. Kamala from Toronto and a tag team cage match with Randy Savage & Adrian Adonis facing Bruno Sammartino & Tito Santana. Any tape from this era featuring a cage match also has to include the extremely overrated, at least in my opinion, Don Muraco/Jimmy Snuka cage match where Snuka dives off the top of the cage. As I mentioned previously, these older tapes are really a lot of fun to watch, if you can find them that is.

Andre the Giant (1985)

This particular tape I picked up years ago at the local flea market and I've watched it maybe once. For modern fans, this should look familiar as it was re-released in the late 90s on both VHS on DVD, which makes it the only Coliseum Video tape that wasn't a pay-per-view to be re-issued. The tape is only an hour long but there are a lot of things stuffed in here, especially an especially hard to find boxing match against Gorilla Monsoon from Puerto Rico. 

Wrestlefest '90

The Wrestlefest series ran for most of the Coliseum Video lifespan, debuting in 1988 as a release of a house show at Milwaukee County Stadium (which is a really hard to find tape by the way) and continued with this release. By this time, the switch had been made to the oversized slip covers from the plastic clamshells. I personally prefer the slip covers and the designs are much better. Take this for example as they've taken pictures, presumably from action on the tape, and laid them against a backdrop of the crowd from WrestleMania III. I'll admit, some of the matches on here like Ultimate Warrior vs. Dino Bravo are pretty boring, but popping in a tape like this should take anyone back to being a kid again sitting in front of the TV with a big bowl of popcorn ready to watch some WWF action.

Hope you enjoyed this round of wacky wrestling tapes! Enjoy SummerSlam and there will be more tapes coming up in November when Survivor Series rolls around.

WrestleMania Week: Random Wrestling Cards

It's the last day of March and another day in WrestleMania Week. Today I thought I would share some of the better wrestling cards I have in my collection.

I'll start off with some cards of one of my all time favorites, Rob Van Dam. From the first time I saw him wrestle in ECW, I was blown away by how unique his style was. The wild moves like the Van Daminator (where he would spin kick a chair into his opponents face) that was then followed up by the Five Star Frog Splash was usually the end for many opponents. 

This card is from the WWE Raw vs. Smackdown set from 2003. I can't remember where I got this from but if I had to saw, it was probably from the card shop I worked at during this time. The owner would get in wrestling boxes here and there and I'd always partake in a few packs. I'm not sure if I pulled this from a pack or bought it out of the case. I always liked this card because of the die-cut gears on the bottom right.

When I first started watching ECW in the fall of 1999, RVD's main rival was Jerry Lynn. Fast forward to 2001, when WWE (then WWF) brought in RVD and paired him up with Jeff Hardy in a series of matches. Their first was in 2001 at the Invasion pay-per-view and people raved about it. They wrestled each other on and off over the next year or so until Jeff Hardy was released in 2003. I've never been a huge fan of Jeff Hardy but the only reason I bought this card back in the day was because RVD was on it.

These two cards are from the 2003 Fleer WWE Aggression set. Again, another RVD card but this will segue perfectly into the Steve Austin cards in my collection (well, actually my wife's collection). 

I like this card because of the filmstrip design on the top and bottom. It's also a WrestleMania flashback card to the Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels match from WrestleMania 14 in 1998. The match itself has become pretty historic, mostly due to the involvement from Mike Tyson and the fact that Austin won the WWF Title, but also because it was Shawn Michaels' last match for over four years.

The last Steve Austin card is from the 2004 Fleer WWE Chaos line. Honestly, it's a pretty plain card aside from the fact its got a relic on it.

Finally, one of my best pack pulls from last year, this Bruno Sammartino refractor #'d out of 75. I didn't buy a lot of Topps Chrome last year, maybe only about 3-4 packs but this was a really great pull of a true legend. Sammartino is the longest reigning WWE World Champion of all time with two reigns totalling 4,040 days over 11 years. In 2013, after being away from WWE for many years, he was officially inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Hope you enjoyed these random wrestling cards! I'm back tomorrow with more WrestleMania week fun!

2015 Topps WWE Heritage Blaster Box

It's Royal Rumble weekend! So to celebrate, let's do a few wrestling related things. First up, this blaster box of 2015 Topps WWE Heritage that I got for Christmas. We get 7 packs plus one relic card (that I hope is actually someone decent). Let's jump in the ring ...

The 2015 Heritage design is based on the 1985 Topps baseball design, which I've always liked. Undertaker is still around wrestling on a part-time basis and Harper, Ambrose, and Rollins are three of my current favorites right now. Ambrose, especially, since he's from Cincinnati and I've seen him wrestle live numerous times from the time he debuted in the area with the now defunct HWA.

This box had two black-framed parallels included. I know there are other parallels in the set as well, as I picked up a Finn Balor silver bordered parallel at a card show back in November.

Here's a good batch of legends that were included in the packs.

One of the insert sets is NXT Called Up and here's the best of the batch that I got.

One of the other insert sets is the Rookie of the Year cards, again here's the best of the batch. I noticed that in the 2016 Topps Archives previews, they use this same design for their #1 Draft Pick cards.

Ok, as for the bonus relic card, we have ...

... a Wade Barrett turnbuckle relic card numbered 23/25. Not bad, I could've done worse as I fully expected someone like Darren Young or Jack Swagger. 

This was a pretty fun break and a neat product and I'll probably be going after any singles or cheap relics I can find from this.