Wacky Wrestling VHS Boxes #11

So, I meant to post this the day of Survivor Series back in November, however, I was stuck in my blog "doldrum" so to speak during that time. So instead, this will be a month late and tonight is the annual "WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders, and Chairs" event (and honestly one of my favorites of the year). What better way to talk about that, than talking about some old wrestling tapes.

Survivor Series 1988

Scan credit: Canadian Collection

The Survivor Series started off in 1987 as a new pay-per-view event designed to piggyback off the success of WrestleMania III and the Andre the Giant vs. Hulk Hogan match that headlined it. It was also run in opposition to the first NWA/JCP pay-per-view event, Starrcade 1987. The 1988 version of the event featured the Mega Powers co-captaining a team against a team co-captained by the Big Boss Man and Akeem, collectively known as the Twin Towers. The most notable thing to come out of this show was the big tag team double turn of the Powers of Pain and Demolition, with Mr. Fuji turning on Demolition and joining up with the Powers of Pain to be their new manager. This led into a match at WrestleMania V between the two with Fuji teaming with the Powers of Pain to challenge Demolition for the tag titles.

I recently watched this event all the way through for the first time and it was an ok show, nothing too insane but provided a good base for some of the event going into WrestleMania 5 the upcoming spring. The VHS covers for the early Survivor Series shows weren't all that impressive either, with this one just showing Hogan and Savage on the front. One other thing I always found interesting was that Coliseum Video labeled the Survivor Series starting with this one as the "2nd Annual" Survivor Series. That would get confusing a bit down the line in the early 90s when it was the "5th Annual" and "6th Annual" on the spine.

WWF Terminators (1996)

Scan credit: Canadian Collection

In the mid-90s, WWF compilation tapes like this seemed to be really hard to find. The only tapes that seemed to be found in video stores and retail stores were the pay-per-view tapes from the "big five". If memory serves me right, tapes like these, were mail order only through the WWF Magazine. This particular tape is a whole lot of matches from early 1996 and includes the infamous football themed "Raw Bowl" match where wrestlers fought in football jerseys. 

While I always liked the tapes of the pay-per-view events, getting to see some of these more rare compilation tapes is a treat for me. I was able to acquire a DVD copy of this tape via someone on a wrestling message board about ten years ago. The first half of the tape is lots of stuff from Raw tapings in early 1996 but my favorite part was the second half with random matches taped before Superstars tapings and a couple really odd matches with Ringmaster (aka Steve Austin) against Fatu and Jake "The Snake" Roberts against Tatanka. This is something I would try to recommend to watch if you can find it.

WCW Halloween Havoc 1995

Scan credit: The Canadian Collection

WCW always had their hits and misses but one thing they always knew how to do right was Halloween. Take for example this box for the 1995 edition of Halloween Havoc. This box just screams "halloween". You've got Hulk Hogan smashing a jack-o-lantern with his bare hands and a funky looking background to boot. On the back The Giant is striking his best "mummy" pose and the match listing is bordered in some type of mystery ooze. 

The event itself wasn't really anything to write home about and is known for the infamous Monster Truck Match between Hulk Hogan and The Giant which culminated in Hogan throwing Giant off the roof of the arena. The actual match between the two occurred shortly thereafter and featured the debut of the Yeti, who proceeded to accomplish absolutely nothing. It's really no stretch to say that the box of this tape may actually be better than the event itself. 

WWF Survivor Series 1991

Scan credit: The Canadian Collection

Whenever I see this cover, I always think it has to do with Halloween but it doesn't. The 1991 Survivor Series tagline was "The Gravest Challenge" as the main event featured Hulk Hogan defending the WWF Title against the Undertaker. The box just has a spooky feel to it with the tombstone in the background, the dark leaves, etc. It's one of those boxes where the artwork just absolutely grabs you and that was the case for a number of VHS boxes during this time. Whoever was in charge of the artwork was on the top of their game!

This event holds the distinction of being the first Survivor Series to have a WWF Championship match. The match itself set off a chain reaction of things, starting with Ric Flair interference in the match which lead to a Hogan/Undertaker rematch a week later at a special Tuesday night pay-per-view. That match, and the chaos in it, led to the title being vacated and being given to the winner of the 1992 Royal Rumble match (which is a classic). That was such a fun time period and probably the peak of that whole early 90s era.

So theres another batch of old wrestling video tape boxes. I'm going to try to get another round of these out for Royal Rumble but since that's only about six weeks away, I may just hold off until WrestleMania weekend.

Wacky Wrestling VHS Boxes!

To help celebrate on of WWE's longest running traditions, the Survivor Series, I wanted to focus on one of the other things I collect, old WWF video tapes from the 80s and 90s. The idea for this came from an ongoing feature that Matt over at Dinosaur Dracula does during his annual Halloween Countdown where he looks at, as he calls them, "Vicious Videocassette Boxes". So here, I'll be doing what I call Wacky Wrestling VHS Tape Boxes.

Unlike today's DVD and blu-ray cases where the back of the case is littered with the list of special features and barely has room for the movie description, VHS cases had to be attention grabbing and had to convince you to rent (or buy) the tape since there were no special features to entice someone to take a chance. The box art, front and back, was the ONLY chance to make an impression. The majority of my wrestling video experiences came in local video stores and the library, all of which had extensive collections of wrestling tapes available for rent.

This will be an ongoing series that will show up whenever one of the four tentpole WWE events (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, or Survivor Series) is taking place. Each entry will have four tapes featured. Yeah, its not baseball cards but hey, VHS boxes are made from cardboard too, right?

Survivor Series 1997

Since this is Survivor Series Sunday, I figured the best way to start this off would be with the only Survivor Series VHS tape I own, the infamous 1997 Survivor Series that featured the "Montreal Screwjob", the background of which is way too complicated to get into here (but if you want to read about it, click here).

Since this was the next to last Coliseum Video release, you can tell not much effort was made to the back of the box as it is gray and void of any graphics whatsoever. The front doesn't look like much effort was put into it either, with the graphic from the event poster and a nondescript triangle on the bottom promoting the Shawn Michaels/Bret Hart match. I haven't watched this particular tape in ages but that last time I did, it was just weird seeing the old blue Coliseum Video title screen show up at the beginning, seeing as the roots of the "Attitude Era" were firmly planted by the time this show happened and Coliseum Video seemed like an ancient relic from the past.

WrestleMania VIII (1992)

This is one of my favorite WWF events of all time and the box just absolutely grabs you the minute you see it with lots of bright yellow sent against a purple background. The show itself is pretty epic too. Beginning with the Vince McMahon narrated opening that sets the stage and the opening shot of a packed Hoosier Dome to the closing pan out, it just leaves you with a warm and fuzzy feeling of your childhood.

The event itself featured two huge showdowns. The first between Randy Savage and Ric Flair for the WWF Title in what turned out to be an absolute classic thanks to the wrestling, the story behind the match, and the drama during the match with Miss Elizabeth. The other was what was billed as Hulk Hogan's final match against Sid Justice that had a huge surprise at the end of the match (back when the phrase "huge surprise" meant something in wrestling). There was also a classic match between Bret Hart and Roddy Piper for the Intercontinental Title which was a great straight-up classic wrestling match.

SummerSlam 1990

Here's a show I rediscovered just recently as I hadn't seen it since probably the mid 2000's. The box for this just screams summer and blazing, brow mopping heat with the orange hue and the yellow sun in the top center. Sort of makes you want to have a big ice cream bar and jump in the pool.

While it's not the best SummerSlam on record (1989's version was way better), it still had some memorable moments with Kerry Von Erich winning his only WWF singles championship and, in probably the best match on the show, The Hart Foundation beating Demolition for the Tag Team Titles thanks to the debut of the Legion of Doom. Also, you had the first steel cage match in SummerSlam history with Ultimate Warrior against Rick Rude and a showdown between Hulk Hogan and Earthquake.

Hulkamania Forever (1990)

Last summer I stopped in to the retro game and movie store that is a few doors down from Maverick's Card Shop in Dayton. The store is laid out like an old video store with movie posters all over the walls, arcade games, and racks of DVDs and video tapes everywhere. In the back, was the "special interest" section where all the sports tapes usually reside, that was where I found this. Unfortunately, the majority of old WWF tapes are cut up like this and jammed into these clamshell boxes. This is the fifth in the series of Hulkamania tapes which were nothing more that Hulk Hogan "best of" tapes featuring matches that were taped exclusively for home video.

I haven't watched this tape since I bought it as I don't have my VCR hooked up currently but judging by the back of the box, it sounds like fun with matches against Randy Savage, Ultimate Warrior, and Ted DiBiase and a series of matches against Earthquake.

I'll continue this series in January when Royal Rumble comes along with a look at four more tapes in my collection. Hope you enjoyed this trip back in time.