I found the WWF’s 1990-94 Hasbro line a bit hit and miss. You’d get a lot of good ones, but then you had ones that weren’t so great, like 1-2-3 Kid and Ric Flair. And a Ted DiBiase figure which looked more like Noel Edmonds.

I mean, let’s be honest, this one looks more like Noel Edmonds than Ted DiBiase:

Last night’s viewing:






World Tour 1992 is a bit of a misnomer as 3 bouts are from 1991. There’s also some recycling of bouts. As I’ve posted many times, Coliseum Video must have been sponsored by Greenpeace. Lord Alfred Hayes hosts.

The Texas Tornado vs. The Mountie

We not only start off with a rather mediocre bout (Mountie wins via pinfall, albeit by cheating after using the ropes for leverage following a monkey flip attempt by Tornado), but it was already included on the Battle Royal at the Albert Hall tape. And it’s from 1991, so why is it on the World Tour 1992 tape?

Davey Boy Smith VS IRS

We have our second consecutive recycled match, this is also on the UK Rampage 1992 tape. And it’s not very good. Bulldog wins via pinfall.

Davey Boy Smith vs. Earthquake

We’re back in 1991, making further mockery of the title of this tape (we’re in Barcelona, Spain). Oh, and we have our third consecutive recycled match, this one is on Davey Boy’s solo tape. It’s pretty solid, and Andre is in Davey Boy’s corner. Earthquake does attack Andre for no reason, and then prepares to finish off the Bulldog with a vertical splash, but as he runs the ropes, Andre hits ‘Quake with his crutch, Bulldog jumps up and then bodyslams and pins the big man. I approve of this cheating, ‘Quake shouldn’t have picked a fight with Andre.

At Home with El Matador

We see El Matador at home, and there is some “bull fighting” footage (I do not endorse such a ‘sport’). Nothing memorable about this one.

Rowdy Roddy Piper vs. The Barbarian

It’s another match from 1991 (Barcelona again)! This tape should have been called World Tour 1991/92 (the first World Tour tape was called World Tour 1989/90, and there was a World Tour 1991 tape, so maybe WWF didn’t want to confuse people, but this is our third 1991 bout). Anyway, this was fun while it lasted - under ten minutes - and Piper gets the win via pinfall. Barbarian was always convincing with his power moves, I felt.

16-Man Battle Royal

For some reason, this bout, from Munich in Germany, is joined in progress (I’m sure it wasn’t a long match, so should have been shown in full). Repo Man attempts a sunset flip on Bulldog. WHY? It’s a battle royal. This is pretty awful, to be honest, possibly the worst battle royal I’ve ever seen; the sole highlight is Mountie accidentally using his cattle prod on Saggs. Anyway, Bulldog wins by eliminating Mountie.

WWF Intercontinental Champion Bret Hart vs. Rick Martel

It’s our fourth recycled match of the tape, this one having also featured on the UK Rampage ‘92 tape. *Sighs* Anyway, I never thought these two had much chemistry, and all bouts that they had were rather underwhelming, if I’m honest. It’s no different here. Bret wins via pinfall.

WWF Champion Randy Savage vs. Shawn Michaels

We’re back in Munich - and it’s the match of the tape. Michaels is a credible challenger to Savage despite being perceived as mid-card at the time. Both men give it their all. There’s the customary cheating by Michaels and Sherri. In the end, after both men have given it their all, Savage wins via pinfall following an elbow drop from the top rope.

Summary

There is no excuse for a seven-match tape to feature four recycled matches. Shame on you, Coliseum. Even in the era of squash matches, there were other bouts that could have been included. This is lazy, unforgivable and blatant recycling, not good enough in an era when tapes were around £12-15. And only three bouts are really any good, so this is a tape that will be donated to charity.

I saw In Your House 1 from 1995. This is in Syracuse, NY, with Vince McMahon and Dok Hendrix (Michael Hayes) on commentary. This PPV was half the cost of the other WWF PPV’s of the time. Bret Hart will wrestle twice (thanks to Jerry Lawler’s haranguing) and we have Diesel vs. Psycho Sid for the WWF championship, plus a King of the Ring qualifier.


First match is Bret Hart vs. Hakushi (w/Shinja)

Bret wins after a little over 14 minutes with a victory roll (sort of) for the pin. Nice to see him win without the sharpshooter. I like when wrestlers win without their closing move. Overall, this was an excellent match. They didn’t bother to show any replays. This is on area where WCW is much better than the WWF at this point in time. Also, in this match, the crowd starts a “USA” chant…in a wrestling match between a Canadian and a Japanese wrestler. Sometimes I’m embarrassed to be an American.


Razor Ramon vs. Jeff Jarrett and The Roadie

This was supposed to be a tag match, with the 1-2-3 Kid teaming with Ramon, but he was injured. I don’t know if the injury was legit or not, but I assume that it was. Unfortunately, Razor decided to go with a handicap match. I hate gimmick matches, but let’s see how this goes. After some pretty good action and story, double J bumps into Roadie on the apron and Razor puts the Razor’s Edge on Jarrett for the win after about twelve and a half minutes. This was a pretty good match. I was surprised that Jarrett ate the pin instead of Roadie, but it’s good to be surprised sometimes.

After the match, Jarrett and Roadie gang up on Razor and start beating on him, until some unidentified “fan” charges in and takes both of them on for the save, then is escorted out by the police. This would later be revealed to be Razor’s buddy, Savio Vega (formerly Kang).


Next is a King of the Ring Qualifying Match: Mabel (w/Mo) vs. Adam Bomb

Mabel wins this match in under 2 minutes with a forward body slam after Bomb had gotten in most of the offense in the match. Not a particularly good match or anything, but it was short and Bomb actually did do some cool things in this match, some things I’d never seen from him before.


Next match is for the WWF Tag Team Championships: Yokozuna and Owen Hart (w/Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji) vs. The Smoking Gunns (Billy and Bart Gunn)

Bart goes sailing out of the ring, where Yoko gives him a leg drop on the floor (the ref was busy with Billy) then rolls him back in so that Owen can get the easy pin in under 6 minutes and the champs retain. This was a pretty good match. Owen was very good and the Gunns are a pretty solid tag team and again, this match was fairly short.


Jerry “The King” Lawler vs. Bret Hart

Bret Hart dominates this match, knocking Lawler all over the place. However, we get the dreaded ref bump (seriously, does EVERY PPV have to have a ref bump) and as the ref is tied up in the ropes (thanks to Shinja) he does not see Hakushi give Bret the elbow off the tope rope, allowing Lawler to recover for the pin, as the ref has now conveniently recovered. And we get another cheap win by Lawler over Bret, setting up the infamous “kiss my feet” match. This was not a very good match by Bret Hart standards, but not awful either. It served its purpose.


Next is the main event, for the WWF Title: Diesel (champ) Vs Sycho Sid w/ Ted Dibiase

Vince loves his big men, doesn’t he? Anyway, Sid does get to powerbomb (his finisher) Diesel, but poses for too long, allowing Diesel to kick out at 2, and Sid is shocked. Diesel then applies his own powerbomb (AKA the Jackknife) but Tatanka runs out to interferer and cause the DQ finish, which will obviously set up a rematch. This was a bad match, especially for a PPV main event.


Overall, I thought that this was a decent PPV, especially as it was “half price”. An excellent opening match, a bad main event, and all the matches in between ranged from acceptable to quite entertaining (though short).

I recently watched Great American Bash 1995. We’re in Dayton, Ohio. Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan on commentary with Mean Gene handling the interviews. Neither Hogan nor Vader will wrestle at the PPV. Okay, then. Well, for people sick of Hogan (count me in that group) this should be a treat.


First match is Brian Pillman v Alex Wright

Now this is what I call an opening match. WCW did something smart for a change. I haven’t seen Pillman in quite some time and had assumed that he was gone from the company. Anyway, he’s back, and is apparently a babyface, so we have a rare face-face match. However, the crowd is very clearly behind Pillman. Partly because this is his hometown crowd, partly because he’s got more personality, and partly because he’s a better wrestler than Wright. So, of course, WCW books Wright to win this match. I couldn’t believe it. Pillman goes for a sunset flip but Wright blocks it for the pin at a bit over 15 minutes. This was a great match. Wright is still a bit green and made some mistakes and Pillman had to help him out a bit, but both guys worked hard and this was a very enjoyable match, probably the best WCW match I’ve seen for WCW up to this point. Unfortunately, the rest of this PPV can only be downhill.

By the way, Pillman supplexed Wright out of the ring at one point, yet that’s not a DQ even though throwing someone over the top rope is an automatic DQ? That makes no sense! Just get rid of this stupid rule already! There was also some bad camera work here, making some of the action hard to follow.


Next is an Arm Wrestling match – Diamond Dallas Page v Evad Sullivan

If Evad wins he gets a date with the Diamond Doll and if DDP wins he gets Evad’s rabbit, which he will presumably turn into rabbit stew. I really couldn’t care less about this (though it does at least keep Evan from wrestling, which is a plus) but Evad wins with some accidentally help as Kimberly bumps into Muscle Maxx who bumps into Page, causing the loss, I guess.


Next is ”Hacksaw” Jim Duggan v Sgt Craig Pittman

This was supposed to be Marcus Bagwell instead of Hacksaw, but he suffered a legit inury. Apparently, his calf implants exploded. That is such a WCW thing, and also such a Buff Bagwell thing to have happen. WCW, in their infinite wisdom, thought it would be good to replace him in a match versus a very green, shoot style wrestler with none other than Hacksaw Jim Duggan. That goes about as well as you would expect. This match was awful. Duggan wins by DQ when Pittman refuses to release his submission hold (an armbar/armbreaker) even after Duggan reached the ropes. Oh, and the crowd chanted “USA”, and keep in mind Duggan’s opponent was a former US Marine. People’s stupidity never ceases to amaze me.

Oh, and our all American “hero” Duggan swing his 2x4 at the referee at one point! What a guy. Also, Renegade clotheslined Duggan over at one point, but of course it’s not a DQ because the wrestler’s “momentum” is what carried him over the top rope, not the clothesline itself WTF?


Next is Bunkhouse Buck/Dick Slater w/Colonel Rob Parker v Harlem Heat w/Sister Sherri

I guess Col. Parker forcibly kissed Sherri a couple of weeks ago, to help set up this feud.

Harlem Heat get the win when Booker has Buck in a small package, and Parker reverses it so that Buck is on top, then Sherri comes over an reverses it back so that Booker is on top, and the ref finally turns around and counts Buck out. Another bad match, but what do you expect when only one out of the four guys (Booker) is really all that good?


We see that Vader stormed out and roughed up Eric Bischoff and Prez Nick Bockwinkle during an interview, saying he’s sick of Hogan (aren’t we all?) and demanding a rematch. We’ll find out later what Bockwinkle’s response is.

We later find out that Bockwinkle says that Vader will get his rematch with Hogan, but that it will be a cage match, and it will be at the next PPV. Unfortunately, Bockwinkle forgets the name of the next PPV (making him a perfect. President for WCW). Uh, that would be Bash at the Beach, Nick, I guess this precipitated his departure from WCW.


Next match is for the TV title – Arn Anderson (c) v The Renegade w/Jimmy Hart

Renegade is a poor man’s Ultimate Warrior. Just think about that statement. Anyway, Arn Anderson tried, but Renegade is just awful. Oh and Renegade won (after about 9 minutes) with a splash off the top rope (probably his best move of the night). I don’t know how WCW could have thought it was a good idea to give the title to somebody so clearly lacking in talent and skill, but that’s WCW for you. Did they think that people still thought Renegade was really Jim Hellwig??


Next match is for the WCW tag titles – The Nasty Boys (c) v The Blue Bloods

The Nasties got the title back from Harlem Heat at the last PPV. The Blue Bloods are Lord Steven Regal and Earl Robert Eaton. Who??? Oh, that would be Beautiful Bobby Eaton, whom they’re now repackaging as a British aristocrat. Uh, sure thing.

The Nasties attack the Blue Bloods before the bell (who are the heels there) and break every rule in the book in beating on their opponents for a few minutes while the ref just lets it all happen. Eventually things settle down a bit and we get some semblance of a tag team wrestling match (Though even then tagging seems optional). The crowd start a USA chant because we hate thos evil Britishers, especially the ones from Alabama. At the end, Harlem Heat come out to apparently interfere on behalf of the Blue Bloods (even though they were upset that the Blue Bloods got the title shot instead of them) but it backfires, allowing the Nasties to pin for the win. Bad match. So far, the opener has been the only good match.


Next is the US title tournament final – Sting v Meng w/Colonel Robert Parker

The US title was vacant (I guess because of Vader’s violent actions towards Evad Sullivan, which doesn’t really make a lot of sense), so they held a tournament to crown a new champ. This is the final match of the tournament, so the winner is our new champ. We get highlights from the tournament, plus promos by all involved in this match.

Meng actually powers out of the Scorpion Deathlock, but Sting wins it with a jumping DDT. This was a decent match, thanks to Sting. At one point, I think Meng actually got knocked out by hitting the guardrail, so Sting stalled by going after Parker until Meng could revive.


Now we get the Main event – Randy Savage v Ric Flair

This is a major grudge match, as Flair (and Arn Anderson) attacked and viciously beat Savage’s father, Angelo Poffo, at the last PPV, with Flair then putting him in the figure 4. Poffo now comes to ringside with a cane. Savage wants to win this match for is father. Adding to the significance, this is happening on Father’s Day.

I don’t understand why Savage isn’t also mad at Arn Anderson, though. He was almost as involved in the beatdown as Flair was.

This is a brawl from before the bell even rings, with much of it taking place outside the ring. At one point, Savage delivers his patented elbow drop, but then pulls up Flair after 2 for more punishment. Big mistake. Flair eventually wins by knocking Savage out with Angelo’s cane for the pin.

This was a very good match, with a lot of intensity and good storytelling. Virtually no wrestling, though.



Overall, the first match was very good, the next several matches were not good, then the last 2 matches were good again.  Not a terrible PPV, but below average.  I guess it did a decent buyrate. for what it's worth.

Great write-up as ever, dbutler69 , and I’d love an excuse to share the pages as covered in WWF Magazine:












Okay, this event wasn’t shown live in the UK. I did like the idea of PPVs of lesser renown, it made the Big Five feel special, although at the time, I thought we’d be getting too much of a good thing. Between the WWF and WCW, there were 18 PPVs available for wrestling fans in ‘95. Us Brits got some of those included “free” as part of our Sky Sports packages, but could any American have afforded 18 PPVs?

However, it did show up on VHS - with two “dark matches” included: The Undertaker vs. Kama, and Tatanka vs. Bam Bam Bigelow. Beat that, Americans. 

Overall, I thought this was a solid PPV, and an interesting first instalment for the IYH series, but it pissed me off that the prize of a house was only available to Americans. Don’t we Brits count? I mean, who doesn’t want to win a house in Orlando, Florida?

Back to the dark matches: Owen Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith, and Bob Holly vs. Jean-Pierre Lafitte were also part of the PPV, but they weren’t included on the UK VHS release. I presume Silver Vision, the licensee for videotapes in the UK, believed that the Undertaker/Kama and Tatanka/Bigelow bouts were more worthy of including than Owen/Bulldog and Holly/Lafitte. That said, Owen/Davey Boy was a KOTR qualifying match, so its omission from the tape is bizarre. Kind of like “WCW logic”.

As for the main card, I don’t think there’s a bad match, and Bomb/Mabel was short, which means it worked well and didn’t outstay its welcome.

This did a 0.83 buyrate, and wasn’t a success (332,000 buys). I wonder, was there a perception among Americans that these were B-PPVs, or just a symptom of a WWF that wasn’t really having much success at the time? 

Last night’s viewing:






Hulk Hogan & Roddy Piper vs. Ric Flair & Sid Justice

I believe Hogan and Piper had teamed a few times in 1987, while Piper was a heel, but I’m not sure how many bouts were televised. Seeing two guys who went at in 1985 now working as tag team partners was a novelty, and the two teams put together a gripping bout, which sees Hogan pin Flair. Hogan and Piper then pose together for about 5 hours.

(The Bushwhackers take part in an aerobic workout, how can I possibly review that?)

The Bushwhackers, Hacksaw Jim Duggan & Sgt. Slaughter vs. The Nasty Boys & The Beverly Brothers

As a comedy bout, this is fine, although it’s odd seeing Slaughter acting like an “honourary Buswhacker” with the Bushwhacker stomp, a far cry from the serious guy who had an alley fight with Pat Patterson. Sags uses the megaphone on Butch, allowing Knobbs to get the pin on the poor Bushwhacker.

Davey Boy Smith vs. Shawn Michaels

This isn’t the match where Shawn won the IC Championship, but an earlier bout. The two had good chemistry, and Shawn does his customary bumps. Sherri interferes, though, giving Davey Boy the win via DQ. This might be the match of the tape.

(We visit a WWF tailor. He manages to piss off various heels. Enough said)

Bret Hart & The Natural Disasters vs. The Mountie & Nasty Boys

I expected a lot better from this, if I’m honest, and there’s an inconclusive ending as the babyfaces win via count-out. Still, there’s a certain novelty from seeing a technician like Bret Hart teaming with two behemoths.

Virgil vs. Repo Man

We get a pinfall finish as Repo Man pins Virgil (with his feet on the ropes, though). It’s a pretty mediocre bout, and I preferred Barry Darsow as Smash.

El Matador vs. Skinner

Like the preceding bout, we get a pinfall finish (El Matador pins Skinner), but it’s mediocre, with nothing really memorable happening.

Macho Man vs Berzerker

A few minutes long, this is fun: there’s plenty of shenanigans from Fuji and his salt, but Savage grabs the cane, hits Berzerker with it and gets the pin. Oh yeahhh!

Tatanka vs. Warlord

This is pretty good, both guys are convincing, and it reminds me of an era where it did look like guys were trying to hurt each other. It’s not too long, so didn’t outstay its welcome. And we get a clean win after Tatanka pins Warlord.

Summary

This isn’t Coliseum Video’s finest hour, and a few bouts aside, there’s nothing here that really grabs you. It’s okay and that’s it. Funnily enough, the US cover, which I’ll share below, features a photo of Jake Roberts choking Roddy Piper with his boot - from the 1992 Royal Rumble. Did WCW take over the production of this video? Nothing pertaining to that bout occured on the tape, so it’s rather random.

The US cover:






These things matter. Variant comicbook covers are bad enough, e.g. Hulk appearing on a Wolverine cover despite not being in the story (how many might buy it expecting a Hulk appearance?). Back in the day, someone might have bought that expecting a Roddy Piper/Jake Roberts confrontation - or even the ‘92 Rumble match itself. Wrestling is so random at times.