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: 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.

My First COMC Order

Just before the 4th of July weekend, I splurged and treated myself to some cards from COMC. They came in the mail the day before I left for a July 4th excursion in Akron but I didn't have a blog at that time, so I couldn't share them. Now I do, so here they are ...

My order consisted of five cards, one from each sport I collect. It wasn't a big order, but just big enough to test out their service. Also, I splurged for the expedited shipping, which was only $4.99.

Here's my order:

2013 Bowman Sterling Prospect Certified Autographs - Michael Lorenzen

I ordered this since Lorenzen is a good young pitcher and this will fit nicely in my Reds collection. Funny thing though, I saw this exact same card at the card shop in Dayton I frequent and it was nearly $10 more than I paid for it on COMC.

2014-15 Upper Deck Series Two - Martin Brodeur

We're big fans of hockey in my house and it saddened us last year when Brodeur left the Devils where we were sure he'd retire. This is only one of a handful of cards that are out there that feature him as a member of the Blues and I intend on collecting all of them. I figured the cheapest one available would be a good place to start.

2006-07 In the Game Heroes and Prospects - Mark Messier

I hadn't planned on picking this up as I though it was just another Messier card, but then I looked closer. See the jersey? Yep, that's Messier as a member of the Cincinnati Stingers! Messier as a Stinger? I had no clue that even happened. Definitely had to get this as it's a nice addition to my hockey collection. My goal is to eventually start collecting all of the Stingers cards available. That'll be easier said then done however, as hockey singles are hard to come by in my area.

2008 Leaf Limited Threads - Cris Collinsworth

I just recently got into football collecting so I'm starting with Bengals cards and going from there. I'm not really a big football fan, but do keep up with the Bengals. This was a nice card to add to the handful of commons I already have.

2010 Topps UFC Series 4 Fighter Gear Relics - Dan Severn

As a far MMA goes, we'll watch the big specials on FOX in our house but won't really splurge for a PPV, mainly because they're insanely expensive. This card however, was not. It ran me about $3.50 and Severn is one of my favorites from old school UFC. Nice guy too, I met him at an independent wrestling show a few years ago and he signed my copy of Swamp Zombies, a low budget horror film he has a small role in.

All in all, not a bad pick-up with some nice variety. Shipping took about a week through regular mail. I'll definitely be ordering from COMC again, that is once my budget for cards goes up.