My favorite thing you've ever done are (is? you're the writer) the Colosseum Video rants. I'll admit, I'm as much of a * rating whore as anyone, but I loved the way you would pass or fail the match, then look at the tape as a whole like it was the back of a baseball card. Anyways, I'd love to see a quick "Best Of" list from your memories of the Colosseum tapes. 5-15 matches/skits would probably suffice, but if you (or the board) would want to compile say, a 2 disk fantasy DVD set that'd be cool too.
PS... It's a true shame that the "Sea Hawk" was never brought in to the 80's WWF fold
A lot of the cool stuff from the Coliseum vids have already ended up on DVD and WWE Classics as it is, so there's not THAT much unmined gold out there. I think I'd like something like the "Greatest Hits" video, which was just a quickly-edited collection of oddball matches and pieces rather than any kind of definitive collection. The main doc could be a YouTube-style edited 2 hour piece with stuff like Roddy Piper beating AJ Petrucci with one hand behind his back, Magnificent Muraco eating the hoagie while squashing some geek, Roddy Piper's trick-or-treating tips, the Fuji Vice bits, Nikolai Volkoff's "This is your life" on TNT, Ricky Steamboat fighting the ninjas, the coconut angle, etc. Just a bunch of the stupid crazy stuff we used to love and hate simultaneously. Second disc would be the rare dream matches like Michaels v. Dibiase from 1990, maybe a classic Harts v. Bulldogs match that they haven't put on DVD before, maybe a couple of rare Hogan title defenses like the mythical Jake Roberts match...you know, just the usual smorg of good stuff they used to pull out for these things. I always loved the wacky and random nature of the Coliseum vids back in the day and this would be something to help recapture that.
Here's a question?
ReplyDeleteYou know how the idea about WWE letting consumers pick from the library and they burn a DVD of random matches was floated around throughout the years?
And forgive me if this has been thought up before here, but what about WWE doing their own version of itunes?
That way, matches and such could be downloaded/paid for and tracked by them better?
I don't know if the technology exists (I am nowhere near a techie kind of guy) but what do people think/feel about that?
Isn't it harder to illegally take off of itunes rather than other places? Again, I really do not know.
Why did the WWF even have Colosseum home videos? Why not just call it WWF Home videos?
ReplyDeleteIt was a separate company that WWF outsourced to. By the Attitude era, WWF had formed their own home video division, and the last Coliseum release was the Canadian Stampede PPV.
ReplyDeleteI always thought that Hulk Hogan vs Stan Hansen match from Japan was a coliseum gem. It was on one of the world tour tapes. I bought a comp of coliseum video matches back I the day that was great. I'd buy an official release for sure.
ReplyDeleteThat match was on Hulkamania 6 IIRC. There's a hilarious segment on Hulkamania 1 of Hogan making "python powder" milkshakes and then swallowing packets of pills to build muscles. In retrospect, based on steroids and other drugs in the business at the time, I couldn't stop laughing at it.
ReplyDeletewell, the last event (chronologically) released was Survivor Series 1997 Coliseum Video. Super rare. The final release, period, was Badd Blood. When I was a collector, I had the Coliseum version of SurSer, but I couldn't find a decent price on the Badd Blood. I had to settle for a shittier version that was dubbed in EP mode. Ugh. Remember that? SP, LP, and EP (or SLP)?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.prowrestlinghistory.com/videos/wwf/catalogue/coliseum.html
Makes sense. Why not have some form of online "a la carte" for matches. Im not a techie either, but it could be like itunes wherw you pay to download or what individual matches, a website subscription service where you pay X amount of dollars to watch unlimited matches, etc.
ReplyDeleteYoud think theyd have had this idea at sone point.
Oh wow. Is it actually any good, because I can't see their styles meshing at all?
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure there are already individual matches on iTunes.
ReplyDeleteIt's fantastic. Just a great brawl.
ReplyDeleteI sold both of those on Ebay last year got in the $20s for them
ReplyDeleteTO THE YOUTUBES!
ReplyDeleteHahaha. Awful Alfred couldn't handle the shake.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could get the unedited match with Hogan vs David Shultz that was on Hulkamania 1. Basically both guys just kick the shit out of each other.
ReplyDeleteOk Scott, now if you can get me the full unedited version of Hogan vs Shultz I will bow down to the motherfucking king.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sNFf1smZUk
ReplyDeleteWell there's the actual video for a start.
Yeah, most of the ones that I tracked down during the vhs days have been released on dvd. Harts/Steiners, Hart/HBK ladder, Flair/Hart. The biggest one to me was Savage/Hart vs Flair/HBK. A tag match where Hart was #4 of the participants? Sold.
ReplyDeleteWell with the girlfriend working Saturday night I know what I'm doing after a few drinks!!! (assuming of coURSE that the HHH DVD still isn't in stores yet.) So...as...promised....BOW DOWN TO THE, BOW DOWN TO THE (MOTHERFUCKING) KING!!!
ReplyDeleteLegit question....before they both ended up main eventers, was Michaels (who I prefer over Hart) ever really higher up the ladder than Hart was? It always seemed like Hart was a little higher up the card than Michaels.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds similar to what they used to do with their WWE Classics website. You could buy monthly, yearly, or by the match.
ReplyDeleteBy the time the rockers showed up in the wwf as full time performers, Bret had already been in the company for three or four years and had already been a tag champ. Bret won the ic and wwf title first, so I'd say Bret was always one step ahead until 96.
ReplyDeleteI totally forgot about that, but I loved their web streaming service back in the day. They had tons of episodes of raw and superstars and if I remember correctly, it was only $3.99 a month. Now it's probably all on YouTube for free, but at the time it was great.
ReplyDeleteYeah it was really cheap. It was inexpensive enough that I bought it for the full year on the off-chance that I might use it. The downside is that this was back when their website video quality wasn't the best (very small screen).
ReplyDeleteI'd say by late 1994, even though Bret had won the belt twice, it was very close between the two and it was at least the full on Bret and Shawn era.
ReplyDeleteI'd respectfully disagree there (though I can definitely see your view). From late '92 on, Bret was always positioned as the # 1 or # 2 guy in the company. When Lex was given the monster push, Bret was the other main eventer. In '94, Bret was the man. In '95, with Diesel on top, Bret was easily the # 2 guy. I'd say it was around mid-95 when Shawn and Bret started to be on the same level (Diesel never seemed to catch up to Bret's name value, and Shawn seemed to have passed Diesel). From late '92 through early '94 though, I'd say Shawn was on top of the midcard. (When Shawn took a break in '94, I'd say Razor took the spot from there until the build to WM 12.)
ReplyDeleteThat being said, if someone said "What 2 guys defined WWE from late '92 through late '96," I'd say Bret & Shawn without hesitation. (Taker would of course be the man to round out the trio.)
ReplyDeleteThere was nothing better as a kid then finding a new Coliseum Home Video at Blockbuster on a Saturday Morning. I loved watching them, and still do. I have the entire set, over 150 DVDs, and been watching them. Amazing matches and some fun comedy, much better then the current crap. I've been recapping as I go along at my site http://nala310.wordpress.com/ if anyone wants to check them out. I just did the TNT DVD which was amazing, next up is the first Macho Man DVD, which should be fun.
ReplyDeleteThat was just something to see, Hogan with a little baggie of pills. Even as a kid I thought that was pretty messed up.
ReplyDeleteI love the TNT segment where Hogan does the protein shake thing with Vince and Lord Alfred.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of that why is Lord Alfred not in the WWEHOF?!?!?
Colosseum Home Video was actually a subsidiary of Titan Sports it just used a shell name of Evart Enterprises. Vince used that title, as with other stuff, so he could eventually distribute other things and it would not have the WWF stigma on it. The reason it was dropped for WWF Home Video is that the WWF name was such a big name at that time, they wanted to leverage that distribution wise.
ReplyDeleteDoubt that is going to happen. I see WWE creating their own Wrestling Hulu/Netflix service where you can see everything they give access to for $8/month. It will just be six months off the current product to allow for HuluPlus, Replay, DVD commitments.
ReplyDeletejust about 5-6 years ago, they were going for about $75. nuts.
ReplyDeleteThumbs down for liking HHH, Hulk Hogan and the Yankees.
ReplyDelete