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 #8

It's Royal Rumble day! Hooray!

This means it's time again for another go around with some old school wrestling VHS boxes. I'd put this series on hiatus last year because I ran out of tapes to scan. While I have yet to add any new tapes to the collection, I did manage to find some good quality scans of tape covers online, so that's what this edition will consist of. I'll give full credit of where the scan came from in the caption.

In this particular edition, since it's Royal Rumble day and since the event turns 30 today, I thought there'd be nothing better than to look at some old Royal Rumble covers. I've gotten covers from most of the early Rumbles except for 1988 (which was never released on video) and 1992 (sadly, I couldn't find a good scan of the front and back cover anywhere).

WWF Royal Rumble 1989

Scan credit: The Canadian Collection

This was the first Royal Rumble event broadcast on pay-per-view and the first one with 30 participants. The prior year it was shown on the USA Network and only featured 20 entrants. I just re-watched this recently and it was a decent show, nothing special, but the Rumble match told a good story throughout. I also liked the six-man tag match and the Haku vs. Harley Race match, which got cut out of the VHS release. I hadn't actually seen this box since I rented the tape ages and ages ago from a place called West Coast Video, which had the largest wrestling selection in town. I got the tape, took it back to my grandparents house, and popped it in the VCR in the basement. That was the last time I saw this show until recently. As a matter of fact, I think that was the last tape I ever rented from that store as I'm pretty sure it closed shortly after.

WWF Royal Rumble 1990

Scan credit: VHS Wasteland

The Royal Rumble was starting to finally find it's feet by this time and 1990 was an interesting show, especially with the underneath matches. It's probably best remembered, at least by hardcore wrestling fans, for the excellent submission match between Ronnie Garvin and Greg Valentine. It also had a memorable face-off between Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior that teased their match against each other at WrestleMania 6. Also, there's a very unfamiliar voice on commentary as long-time WCW announcer Tony Schiavone called the action with Jesse Ventura. Schiavone would wrap up his WWF run soon after and head back to WCW.

WWF Royal Rumble 1991

Scan Credit: VHS Wasteland

Here we have a very strong contender for one of my favorite VHS covers of a wrestling tape ever. I mean, just look at it. How could you not call this a work of art. You've got every major star of the time rumbling down a dark alley in search of a fight. It has a very gritty, almost gang warfare aspect to it. The back though, isn't as impressive with the matches and some studio shots of the wrestlers. The design on the front though was so amazing that it was brought back the next year (1992) and ten years later (2001). It should be noted as well that the tape did not contain "each and every exciting match" as the Koko B. Ware vs. Mountie match was cut out for time. It did, however, contain the awesome opening tag match between the Rockers and the Orient Express and the historic WWF Championship change when Sgt. Slaughter beat Ultimate Warrior to set up Hulk Hogan vs. Sgt. Slaughter at WrestleMania VII.

WWF Royal Rumble 1993

Scan Credit: The Canadian Collection

The WWF in 1993 was in the midst of change from the Hulk Hogan era to the New Generation era. I remember the first time I watched this particular event, I didn't really like it and to be honest, I found the Rumble match kind of boring. However, this show has really grown on me and now when I'm in the mood for a show from this time period, I tend to put this on. While the Rumble match on this show is still a bit boring and predictable, the undercard is what really makes this show shine with an awesome Steiner Brothers vs Beverly Brothers match, a really good Shawn Michaels vs Marty Jannetty match, a fun match between Big Boss Man and Bam Bam Bigelow (in what was Boss Man's final WWF pay-per-view until 1998) and a good Bret Hart vs. Razor Ramon match. This was also the last pay-per-view that Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan would call together and it was the last one  where Monsoon himself was the lead play-by-play announcer for the company as he would be replaced by Jim Ross at WrestleMania.

WWF Royal Rumble 1994

Scan Credit: The Canadian Collection

I'll wrap up this post with one of the most memorable shows (and not in a good way) of the mid-90s. This is the show most remembered for two things. First, the goofy "levitation" of the Undertaker after he was beaten by about 12 of the most random collection of heels, or bad guys, in the company. Then, there was the whole co-winner of debacle at the end of the Rumble match itself where Bret Hart and Lex Luger supposedly both touched the ground at the same time. It was a bad ending for a bad show. The box art however, kind of makes up for it with the pretty fun cartoonish drawing of everyone just battling each other. The background kind of looks like their coming out of a TV as well. Just a really fun cover for a really interesting time period.

Well, that does it for this round of VHS boxes. Hope everyone enjoys the Royal Rumble tonight and the first "double Rumble" in WWE history with both a men's and a women's Rumble match. Hopefully, I'll be able to find enough scans to continue this series as it's really one of my favorites to write.

Wacky Wrestling VHS Boxes #7

It's Royal Rumble day! You know what that means, it's time for another round of Wacky Wrestling VHS Boxes. These are the last of the scans of the tapes that I have in my collection so if I continue this on, it'll be pictures I've found via the internet.

Super Slams (1995)

This is one of those tapes that was released by someone other than Coliseum Video. While they produced the tape, it wasn't released by them. Regardless, these tapes always had some interesting matches and were always an easy watch since they clocked in at just around 60 minutes each. This particular tape has a pretty interesting match with Undertaker vs. Tatanka and Jeff Jarrett facing Adam Bomb. The front of the box is pretty cool with the big action shot of Jeff Jarrett getting tossed into the ropes. The back though is pretty bland with just some text and a few stills.

Global Warfare (1993)

I bought this tape long ago right off the shelf at the local Family Video, one of the few video chains still in existence. A friend and I were killing some time one day so we decided to stop in just to browse around. The place was empty aside from the guy working the desk. As we looked around, I noticed a section with a ton of VHS for rent. There was a sticker on it that said ($2.99 rental/$5.99 purchase). I had no interest in renting it as I was probably never going to go back so I just decided to buy it outright. I've watched the tape a few times since then. It's not the best tape in the world but it does have a pretty fun match between Mr. Perfect and Samu. The whole theme of the tape is that it's matches filmed around the world with songwriting tips in between each match from Jimmy Hart, which I could do without.

UFC 18: Road to the Heavyweight Title (1999)

I know this isn't a WWF tape but it didn't feel right to leave this out so I decided to include it here. I picked this up for a mere two bucks from the awesome used DVD/video/game store next to Maverick's card shop in Dayton. This is from a pretty dark period in UFC history, as they had been kicked off all major cable outlets completely due to the perceived brutality of the events and were only available if you had satellite. This was part of the "Road to the Heavyweight Title" series in which UFC determined a new Heavyweight Champion after Randy Couture vacated the belt. Quite a few big names including Pat Miletich, Tito Ortiz, Mark Coleman, and Pedro Rizzo competed on the card. It also featured Bas Rutten making his debut in the United States dispatching Tsuyoshi Kosaka via TKO.

In Your House: Ground Zero (1997)

I could be wrong on this but I believe this was the first tape that WWF distributed in house, without using Coliseum Video. By this time, Coliseum Video was starting to be phased out with the final Coliseum releases coming in November of 1997. This tape was never released in stores to the best of my knowledge and was only available by ordering through the WWF magazine. The card on this wasn't too impressive either, with Bret Hart defending the WWF title against the Patriot, a four way tag match for the Tag Team titles, and a Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker main event which was probably the best match on the whole show.

Bashed in the USA (1993)

I found this tape buried in a bin of miscellaneous stuff one day while doing some cleaning and organizing. I haven't watched it in years but I would really like to watch it someday. Maybe when I have some downtime, I'll fire up the VCR and pop this in. The line up looks pretty interesting with  a 40-man battle royal, Razor Ramon vs. Big Boss Man, and a pretty wild six-man tag. I'm not sure what the title of the tape has to do with anything though, perhaps it was released around the 4th of July? Not sure.

That does it for this round of Wacky Wrestling VHS boxes. While I've run out of tapes in my personal collection, I might continue this series provided I can find pictures of some interesting VHS boxes online. Enjoy the Rumble everyone!

Wacky Wrestling VHS Boxes #6

It's that time again! Time for another WWE tent pole PPV event (Survivor Series) which means its another entry in the Wacky Wrestling VHS Boxes series. This is the one-year mark of the series which started last year on Survivor Series Sunday. Join me in raising a glass for this series surviving one year by reading about some old wrestling tapes. 

Invasion '92

My first memory of this tape has nothing to do with actually watching it. When I was a kid, the video store down the street had two WWF tapes, Royal Rumble 1992 and SummerSlam 1994. I constantly rented both of those on a revolving basis. The Royal Rumble tape I remember had Mean Gene at the beginning hocking new releases, one of those being Invasion 92. Many, many years later I found this on eBay at a more than reasonable price and picked it up. While the matches like Hulk Hogan vs. Typhoon and Randy Savage vs. Virgil may not be five star classic, the pure nostalgia of seeing Sean Mooney and the Coliseum Video crew cosplaying as the crew from the USS Enterprise throughout the whole tape worth it.

Monday Night Raw: Prime Cuts

Back in the summer, on a trip up to Maverick's card shop in Kettering, I stopped in to another cool place a few doors down in the same shopping center called Game Swap. I think I've mentioned this before but the place has the exact feel of a video store from the 1990s. DVDs sectioned off by genre, old VHS tapes along the wall, arcade games for 50 cents, and other assorted movie and TV stuff. Toward the end of the VHS wall, they have a section for "sports" and bunched in with said sports tapes are the wrestling tapes. Mostly the tapes are stuff from the Attitude Era but occasionally there's an old Coliseum Video tape hanging out there as well. Such was the case with this tape. There are a few fun matches on here like Mr. Perfect vs. Doink, a 20-man battle royal, and three title changes. The Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jannetty match on here though is definitely recommended viewing. Couple that with the fact that I'm pretty sure this is the only tape Rick Martel was ever featured on the cover of and I'd say this is a really fun tape.

Supertape 4

What's that in your VCR? It's super! It's a tape! It's a Supertape! I always thought that the Supertape name was sort of limiting. Would this still be called "Supertape" if it was re-released on Blu-Ray? Perhaps I'm putting too much though into these things. Anyway, the Supertape series took over the original Best of the WWF Series and this is the 4th of the said series. Only one more Supertape was released after this and that was in January of 1992. Anyway, it's been a while since I've watched this tape but there are some interesting bouts on here, especially Undertaker vs. Tugboat where Undertaker is actually going by the name of Kane the Undertaker, which was shortly after his debut. 

In Your House #1 (May 1995)

Let's end this with a first, the first In Your House that is. In Your House was a series created in 1995 to be ran on the months where there wasn't a tentpole event or King of the Ring. This first one took place on Mother's Day 1995 and has a pretty interesting card. I like the fact that they threw in two bonus matches to make this feel a little bit special. By the way, look at Sid on the cover of this. He looks like he's ready to just ... well, I don't know what. 

Hope everyone enjoys Survivor Series tonight. If anything else, it's definitely going to be an interesting show. 

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.

Wacky Wrestling VHS Boxes: UFC Edition

I'm not a big UFC or MMA person. Figured I should get that out of the way early. I'll watch the UFC specials on Fox and might also check out a pay-per-view once in a while with some friends at the local sports bar but that's the extent of it. I guess you could call me a casual fan. I know the big name fighters like Rousey, McGregor, Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre, etc but past that, I'm lost. However, back in the day when UFC first got going is a different story. To me, those are the glory days where it was the wild west and you had fighters like Dan Severn, Ken Shamrock, Royce Gracie, Mark Coleman, Tank Abbott and a whole host of others going in there and slugging it out.

That's a fascinating period behind the scenes as well as UFC was getting kicked off every cable outlet known to man because of the brutality of the sport, Congress was seeking to get them banned in every state that had an athletic commission, and there was even one event that had to be moved in the dead of night on the eve of the event to a different location. There's a book available on Amazon (and probably in some used bookstores) called "No Holds Barred" written by Clyde Gentry that is a fantastic read for anyone interested in how the UFC and MMA developed and came to be.

Anyway, since there's a pro wrestling tie-in with Brock Lesnar competing on UFC 200, here are six old UFC tapes from the early days of the UFC. Some of these I'll have a lot to say about, some I won't but regardless, it'll be a fun trip back in time.

UFC 11: The Proving Ground (1996)

This event is notorious for having the worst ending ever in the history of UFC, even worse than UFC 33. As was the norm for early UFC shows, this was presented in a tournament format with eight fighters of different disciplines. The tournament was stacked with fighters such as Mark Coleman, Tank Abbott, and Jerry Bohlander. Due to a large number of injuries, and the fact that the two tournament alternates, Scott Ferrozo and Roberto Traven, were also injured, the tournament ended by default when no one was available to fight Mark Coleman in the final. 

UFC 14: Showdown (1997)

This was the first official UFC tape I ever owned and I got it from the local flea market back when VHS was still a thing and readily available. Before getting this tape, my only exposure to UFC were two compilation tapes of the seven of the first eight UFC events I'd dubbed from a friend of mine. For the record, I still have those tapes too and they still play even though the quality isn't that great. This event featured two mini tournaments as the UFC had recently introduced weight classes, so there was a four-man middleweight tournament featuring people I've never heard of and a heavyweight tournament featuring the likes of Mark Kerr, Brian Johnston, and others. The main event was a superfight between Mark Coleman and Maurice Smith which was pretty good match if I remember correctly.

UFC 17: Redemption (1998)

Looking back now, this was a pretty historic show. This was the last event to feature a tournament format that the UFC had relied on for years, it featured the UFC debuts of future stars Carlos Newton, Dan Henderson, and Chuck Liddell, and was the first event promoted under the title of "mixed martial arts". It's been a long time since I've seen this show in full but I think I'll have to pop this tape in and check it out as soon as I get my VCR dug out.

UFC 20: The Battle for the Gold (1999)

This particular event was based around the main event of Bas Rutten vs. Kevin Randleman for the UFC Heavyweight Title that was forfeited by Randy Couture. Rutten and Randleman were the survivors of a multi-event tournament and met here to crown a new champion, that ended up in a controversial decision. Rutten soon forfeited the title himself to drop down a weight class, which pretty much ended up making the match pointless. A few other notable fighters on this card were Pedro Rizzo, Pete Williams, and Wanderlei Silva. I'm not horribly familiar with this time period in UFC and really need to dig into this era some more.

Ultimate Ultimate 1995

After UFC 7, there was this bright idea to bring in tournament winners from the past and match them up with some of the other top fighters to crown the best of the best, so to speak. This was also promoted as a two-year anniversary show at the very arena UFC launched at, the Mammoth Gardens, in Denver. The concept was pretty cool but I don't remember a single thing from this show.

UFC Ultimate Brazil (1998)

The famous moment from this show that is replayed every time Vitor Belfort steps in the cage in were he just charges Wanderlei Silva with lighting fast punches as soon as the fight starts and destroying him in about 45 seconds. I'm not sure where I got this tape from but apparently it cost $9.95 from wherever it was. There was also a Tank Abbott vs. Pedro Rizzo fight and two title bouts. Looking through the card, this sounds like a fun show. I'll add this to my queue to watch. I hope the tape still works.

Enjoy the fights tonight if you're into the UFC. It should be a wild show.

Wacky Wrestling VHS Boxes #2!

Before jumping to this, a quick announcement ... I've launched an official Facebook page for the blog! I'll be doing some mini-posts and sharing random things on there along with new blog posts when they go up. So, if you are on Facebook, I'd appreciate the like and a follow. Here's the link:

www.facebook.com/cardboardclubhouse

Shameless plug over.

Now, if you remember back in November, I launched an ongoing series called "Wacky Wrestling VHS Tapes" which will look at and feature random wrestling VHS tapes in my collections. Every time one of the tentpole WWE events airs (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series), one of these posts will be up.

The January tradition known as the Royal Rumble is upon us. It's one of those events that just seems to spark nostalgia upon past and present wrestling fans who can't help but talk about their memories of the event as a youth. This year, the nostalgia is really coming hard as the 1992 Royal Rumble keeps getting brought up as it was the only previous time where the WWE (then WWF) World Title was on the line in the match.

Unfortunately, I don't own any Royal Rumble tapes in my collection. However, since the Rumble match is all about the random draw, here are four random tapes from my collection for your enjoyment.

Crunch Classic (1992)

Here's a tape that sort of has a tie-in to the Royal Rumble as it features Roddy Piper hosting the tape and conveniently the match from the 1992 Royal Rumble where he won the Intercontinental Title from the Mountie. As you can tell, this box has seen better days as the front of it is all beat up and the back sports some handwritten branding informing me where it came from ... in the case, apparently it came from someplace called Food Country

In the late 80's and up through the mid 90's, the WWF issued tapes like this that were nothing but compilations of random matches that were filmed at house shows around the country or filmed before the marathon TV taping sessions they used to do. Case in point, this tape. Just look at the line-up of random stuff ... Jim Neidhart vs. Skinner, Jim Duggan & Sgt. Slaughter vs. The Natural Disasters, and a bunch of other randomness.

Free For All (1997)

This is one of a handful of tapes that were released over the years by independent video companies but still carried the Coliseum Video name but were not included in the Coliseum Video lineage. This particular tape chronicles the first year of the Free For All, which was the live pre-show that the WWF used to do before the pay-per-view on the preview channel.

There's a lot of stuff crammed into this 60-minute tape from the Body Donnas vs. Godwinns match on the WrestleMania 12 pre-show to a minis tag team match from the 1997 Royal Rumble pre-show (hey look, another Rumble tie-in!). Probably the most famous match here is the Steve Austin vs. Yokozuna match that ended in about 90 seconds after Yokozuna fell off the ropes, as you can see on the front cover.

Rampage '92 (1992)

Continuing with the Royal Rumble/battle royal theme, this tape has a big 40-man battle royal on it that featured a bunch of stars thrown in with a bunch of no-name guys. For me, that was the main reason I picked this tape up on Ebay a few years ago. Not only that, but it was sealed!! Less than 10 bucks for an old Coliseum tape that's still factory sealed? Yes, please!

As I mentioned with Crunch Classic, these types of tapes were issued on occasion in between releases of pay-per-view tapes. Looking at the back of the box, it lists perhaps one of the strangest tag team matches I think I've ever heard of ... Ultimate Warrior and Undertaker against Papa Shango and Berzerker. That for me is just enough to fire up the VCR and pop this in.

Slamfest (1995)

I have to admit, this is the second copy of this tape I've gotten. In the late 90s, I was at the CD store in the local mall and was looking over their VHS and DVD section. Mixed in with a but of current tapes, was this. It was sitting all alone on a shelf near the bottom and looked forlorn and forgotten about. Luckily, I was able to convince my mom to buy it for me and I brought it home and watched it all the way through. Eventually, I watched this tape so much that I wore it out and I eventually had to throw it out as it wouldn't play anymore. 

I'd been searching for a copy of it ever since and was shocked to find it thrown in with a bunch of tapes that a friend of mine gave me that a friend of his didn't want. I've watched it since and it still holds up today. The tag match with Bret Hart and British Bulldog against Owen Hart and Jim Neidhart is great but the true gem of this tape is the Shawn Michaels and Diesel vs. Razor Ramon and 1-2-3 Kid tag team match which is one of the best tag team matches that you will ever see ... period. I encourage you to look it up on YouTube if you haven't seen it before. Trust me, you'll thank me later.

Hope you enjoyed this entry in the Wacky Wrestling VHS Tapes series. The next entry in this series will be coming up on WrestleMania Sunday and should be fun!