WCW Slamboree 1993

For 1993, WCW introduced a new event for the month of May (a slot previously filled by a revolving door of pay per views) with Slamboree. The first show was billed as ‘A Legends Reunion,’ and promised a night focusing on the stars of yesterday (including an induction ceremony for the new WCW Hall of Fame), as well as a main event showdown between WCW Champion Vader and Davey Boy Smith – fresh out of the WWF’s midcard, and into WCW’s main event – an expensive move WCW was hoping to justify.

From Atlanta, Georgia; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko. They start by bringing all the Legends out into the ring (for a reunion!) – including Stu Hart and the Fabulous Moolah, both of whom it is downright bizarre seeing in a WCW ring.

WWF WrestleMania V

WrestleMania IV ended with Hulk Hogan dramatically hoisting new WWF Champion Randy Savage’s arm up in victory – saving him from the devious plans of Ted DiBiase and Andre the Giant, and forming an alliance known as the ‘Mega Powers.’ Over the course of the year, the Mega Powers dominated in feuds with DiBiase, Andre, the Twin Towers, and others – but tensions between Hogan and Savage became flared when Savage became increasingly jealous of the Hulkster’s budding friendship with his girlfriend/valet Miss Elizabeth.

Things reached a boiling point on the WWF’s primetime ‘Main Event’ NBC special, when Elizabeth took a bump during a Mega Powers tag match, and Hogan running to her assistance finally sent Savage over the deep end – whacking Hulk with the title belt at the medical station, and launching into a brilliantly paranoid, jealously laden promo. While WrestleMania IV didn’t have a clear main event to sell the show on, WrestleMania V was built and sold on the anticipated showdown between Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage – billed as where the ‘Mega Powers Explode.’

From Atlantic City, New Jersey (once again at Trump Plaza); Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura. Rockin’ Robin sings America the Beautiful to kick things off.

WWF WrestleMania IV

Following WrestleMania III is a tough act. In fact, a challenge the WWF wasn’t really up to going into the fourth edition (they were still wildly popular, though they didn’t have a main event as marketable as the year before), so they went with something completely out of left field. A month before the show, at the WWF’s record smashing NBC primetime ‘Main Event’ telecast, Hulk Hogan lost the WWF Title to Andre the Giant after Ted DiBiase (who wanted to purchase the title belt) engineered one of the more famously devious plots in WWF history – using the official referee’s twin brother to get the title off of Hogan. Kayfabe WWF President Jack Tunney wouldn’t stand for it, however, and set up a fourteen-man single elimination tournament for the now vacant title at WrestleMania – with Hogan and Andre getting a bye past the first round to face each other in the quarter-finals, and the big angle being that DiBiase will do anything to cheat his way to the title.

As a diehard fan during my childhood, I made it a point to see all the WrestleMania’s that happened before my interest in wrestling (so, basically, I-IX), but WrestleMania IV took me the longest to get around to – our local video store not stocking it. I did eventually find it in another video store a year or so later, and was impressed by the fact that it was on two VHS tapes, inside of a giant box advertising sixteen matches – still the most of any WrestleMania to date.

Meanwhile, for the first time, the WWF was facing competition on the night of its flagship show. After Vince McMahon’s counterprogramming surrounding Starrcade/Survivor Series ’87 and Bunkhouse Stampede/Royal Rumble ’88, Jim Crockett and the NWA fired back – creating Clash of the Champions as a television special, set to air head to head with WrestleMania. While WrestleMania was still hugely successful, the weak card and the NWA’s promise of a pay per view caliber event on free TV at the same time certainly made a dent – though it would be one of Crockett’s last.

From Atlantic City, New Jersey (at Trump Plaza, as part of a cross promotional move with Donald Trump, which led to an arena filled with casually interested tourists); Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura. Gladys Knight sings America the Beautiful to kick things off.

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: Wrestling’s Bloopers, Bleeps, and Bodyslams (1985)

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: Wrestling’s Bloopers, Bleeps, and Bodyslams (1985)

This is notable for being the WWF’s first ever Coliseum Video release, and is a compilation hosted by Gorilla Monsoon. The cover of the tape features Lou Albano whacking one of the Samoan’s with a chair, and promises the best of the ‘worlds most entertaining sport.’

WWF WrestleMania III

WrestleMania III, the absolute pinnacle of the 1980s Golden Age of wrestling, was built and sold less on celebrity involvement, or novelties the way the first two editions were – instead focusing on the truly epic showdown between WWF Champion Hulk Hogan and former pal Andre the Giant. To say that the match was ‘highly anticipated’ would be a grand understatement, as it was a dream match the likes of which the WWF had never promoted (though they had run Hogan/Andre before, pre-Hulkamania), and drew an unprecedented 93,000 to the Pontiac Silverdome in suburban Detroit to witness it live.

While that attendance figure has been heavily disputed by sources outside of the WWF over the years, the facts are that the Silverdome did hold a legitimate 81,000 for the Super Bowl five years earlier (which had the ‘disadvantage’ of a field, which can/did act as floor seats for a wrestling card), and some 90,000 to see Pope John Paul II not long before WrestleMania. While it is possible that the attendance was slightly inflated, I strongly believe that some 90,000 were on hand – with millions more watching on closed circuit and pay per view across the country.

From Pontiac Michigan; Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura. Aretha Franklin sings America the Beautiful to kick things off – introduced by a choked up Vince McMahon.

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: MORE Saturday Night’s Main Event (1989)

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: MORE Saturday Night’s Main Event (1989)

Coliseum Video compilation of the best from the WWF’s popular Saturday Night’s Main Event specials. The cover of the tape features The Rockers, and promises MORE of the best from SNME.

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: Saturday Night’s Main Event – The Greatest Hits (1988)

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: Saturday Night’s Main Event – The Greatest Hits (1988)

Coliseum Video compilation, hosted by Gene Okerlund. The cover of the tape features Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and Elizabeth – promising the best of the WWF’s popular late-night NBC special, Saturday Night’s Main Event.

ECW Heatwave (July 1996)

For 1996, ECW turned Heatwave (released the year before as a home video compilation of matches and angles over the summer of 1995) into a proper show for the iPPV market – following up on the events at Hardcore Heaven.

From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Your Host is Joey Styles.

ECW Hardcore Heaven (June 1996)

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ECW Heatwave 1995

In the days before a pay per view deal, ECW put on a lot of non-televised shows at the ECW Arena – some shot for release on home video. Heatwave ’95 was a compilation video, covering an assortment of stuff from the summer of 1995.

From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Your Host is Joey Styles. ECW Commissioner Tod Gordon and anti-hardcore referee Bill Alfonso brawl before things get underway.

ECW Hardcore Heaven (July 1995)

The summer of 1995 was an interesting time for wrestling fans – with the WWF and WCW at some of their weakest points creatively. There seemed to be an unsaid desire for not only something different in the ‘big two’ – but something different period. Not coincidentally, around this time, ECW (which had been a fairly quiet regional promotion since starting a few years earlier) started getting more and more attention – from the wrestling magazines, to TV.

Before a pay per view deal, and before even an Internet pay per view set up, ECW used to hold sporadic supercards at their home base (the ECW Arena in Philadelphia) to advance and blowoff angles they developed either on their local TV programming, or at arena shows – taped to later sell on home video. Hardcore Heaven 1995 – right in the middle of the summer – came just as Vince McMahon started to take notice of the up and coming regional promotion, after holding King of the Ring in Philadelphia the month before, and having the crowd filled with ECW’s vocal fan base. Both he and Eric Bischoff would soon start raiding their talent roster extensively, but with the fan base growing, and more eyes on the promotion than ever, ECW didn’t have any plans on slowing or toning down – instead, promising another night of blood filled mayhem.

From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Your Host is Joey Styles.

WWF WrestleMania 2

After the massive success of the first WrestleMania, the WWF had the heavy task of having to follow their own act. WrestleMania 2 was promised as an even bigger, even more star studded event (with so many celebrities and pseudo-celebrities on hand, they were hard to keep track of) – this time broadcasting live from three locations in three time zones, as well as airing on closed circuit.

While the event was a terrific success, the decision to run three venues has been universally derided, though it was certainly ambitious – competing with the NWA (Starrcade ’85 had aired live from two venues), trying to jump the bar set with the first WrestleMania, and the idea that the WWF (now a national wrestling promotion) would take its flagship show literally across the country – with live matches from New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

From Uniondale, New York - Chicago, Illinois - and Los Angles California; Ray Charles sings America the Beautiful in New York to kick things off.

Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Susan St. James in New York; Gorilla Monsoon, Gene Okerlund, and Cathy Lee Crosby in Chicago; and Lord Alfred Hayes, Jesse Ventura, and Elvira in LA. St. James, Crosby, and Elvira are all celebrity guest commentators with little/no knowledge of the product (think Art Donovan) other than that it’s giving them paid exposure, so they play along.

ECW Living Dangerously (March 1998)

With ECW’s popularity growing rapidly by the end of 1997, and a shaky pay per view deal in place for the next year, ECW introduced a new event for the spring of 1998: Living Dangerously – their fourth true pay per view effort. The event was more-or-less another of the standard sporadic ECW supercards that the promotion used to hold in the ECW Arena for their local fan base, with this one used mostly to push the Shane Douglas v Al Snow feud for the next pay per view – though it ended up becoming etched in the minds of ECW fans for something else entirely.

From Asbury Park, New Jersey; Your Host is Joey Styles.

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: SlamFest (1995)

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: SlamFest (1995)

Coliseum Video compilation, hosted by Ted DiBiase. The cover of the tape features Bret Hart battling Owen Hart at WrestleMania X, and promises exclusive strategy tips for the latest videogames from Acclaim!

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: Wham, Bam, Bodyslam (1995)

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: Wham, Bam, Bodyslam (1995)

Coliseum Video compilation, hosted by Ted DiBiase – talking on a 90s cell phone. He really is the Million Dollar Man! The cover of the tape features Bull Nakano and Alundra Blayze, and promises action that can only be seen exclusively on Coliseum Home Video.

Heroes of Wrestling (October 1999)

In 1999, pro-wrestling was the hottest it had been since the peak of the Golden Age of the 1980s – if not more. To capitalize on the success, a series of ‘legends reunion’ pay per views (an idea even WCW had scrapped by 1996) were promoted, the first of which was to be Heroes of Wrestling.

Unfortunately for promoter Bill Stone, the show itself ended up becoming a legendary train wreck – panned by many in the industry and fans alike as the ‘worst pay per view of all time.’ Not that it looked like a classic on paper (the event did so few buys that they weren’t financially able to make it to the next show), but the shitstorm that transpired would have probably kept them from trying again, even if it were profitable. 

From St. Bay Louis, Mississippi – in the ballroom of a casino. The atmosphere/production values are right out of the ECW Arena, though the gritty look is out of place with this crowd/card.

Your Hosts are Randy Rosenbloom and Dutch Mantel – the heavily advertised Gordon Solie (because his involvement legitimized the show to many old school fans) not appearing.

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: Global Warfare (1993)

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: Global Warfare (1993)

Coliseum Video compilation, hosted by Jimmy Hart. The cover of the tape features Crush, and promises WWF action from around the globe – much like the ‘World Tour’ video series that preceded it.

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: Invasion 1992 (1992)

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: Invasion 1992 (1992)

Coliseum Video compilation, hosted by Sean Mooney, with a Star Trek theme. The cover of the tape features Ric Flair, and promises a profile on him.

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: 2nd Annual Battle of the SuperStars (1991)

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: 2^nd Annual Battle of the SuperStars (1991)

Coliseum Video compilation, hosted by Sean Mooney as George C. Scott in Patton – down to a shot for shot recreation of the opening scene. The cover of the tape features Roddy Piper, and advertises a profile on Jim Duggan – promising to delve into his childhood, and find out what makes Jim Duggan tick. No wonder I never saw this one on the shelves as a kid – didn’t really browse the horror section.

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: Hottest Matches (1990)

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: Hottest Matches (1990)

Coliseum Video compilation, hosted by Sean Mooney in a set meant to resemble hell – with the temperature getting hotter as the tape progresses, and Mooney more disheveled. The cover of the tape features Jake Roberts, and promises a profile on him – as well as ‘Superstar Workouts,’ hosted by George Zahorian.

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: Mega Matches (1991)

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: Mega Matches (1991)

Coliseum Video compilation, hosted by Sean Mooney. The cover of the tape features Randy Savage, and promises a profile on him.

WWF WrestleMania (March 1985)

In early 1985, the WWF becoming alarmingly popular with Hulk Hogan and their cross promotion with MTV, introduced an event that has become known as not only the flagship show for the promotion – but all of wrestling. With the first WrestleMania, the WWF (popular, but still considered a ‘fad’ by many in the business – most notably Jim Crockett and the NWA), needed something to put them over the top, and cement their position as the premiere wrestling promotion in North America. What they came up with was WrestleMania – an extravaganza that could rival the NWA’s Starrcade supercard, and that would air on closed circuit in theaters and arenas across the country to bring Rock ‘n’ Wrestling and Hulkamania to fans everywhere.

Hulkamania, combined with the celebrity involvement of Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper, made WrestleMania a must-see for serious and casual fans alike – not only in the WWF’s Northeast ‘territory,’ but across the country – with crowds packing closed circuit locations en masse. It became a huge success, not only as an event, but in catapulting the WWF to the top of the mountain.

All eyes were on New York that faithful day in March – turning into the ultimate ‘put up or shut up’ show for McMahon and Co – as failure with WrestleMania would not only dash the WWF’s hopes of expanding, but also put the entire future of the company in jeopardy.  

From New York, New York; Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura – with Gene Okerlund ‘singing’ the National Anthem to kick things off.

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: World Tour ‘91 (1991)

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: World Tour ‘91 (1991)

Coliseum Video compilation, hosted by Lord Alfred Hayes. The cover of the tape features The Undertaker being creepy, and promises WWF action from around the globe.

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: US Rampage ’92 (1992)

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: US Rampage ’92 (1992)

Coliseum Video compilation – hosted by Sean Mooney, dressed as a cowboy. The cover of the tape features The Ultimate Warrior, and promises WWF Superstars getting OUT OF CONTROL!!

WWF UK Rampage '92 (April 1992)

UK Rampage (not to be confused with several Coliseum Videos of similar names) was a UK only pay per view, held as the finale of the WWF’s post WrestleMania European tour. Booking wise, it was basically a glorified house show, put on for the increasingly popular European market.

The market in England was so strong, in fact, that the WWF would return four months later to hold SummerSlam at Wembley Stadium, drawing over 80,000 people – one of the largest crowds ever for a WWE/F event (including recent stadium WrestleManias). At this point, though, SummerSlam was still scheduled to be held States-side (Washington D.C., to be exact), and there’s even a bit during the show that offers a lucky family of four a trip to D.C. for SummerSlam (along with a rental car, and hotel accommodations). Unfortunately for that family, they’d be across the pond while SummerSlam was taking place within driving distance of their home.

From Sheffield, England; Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan.

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: WrestleFest ’92 (1992)

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: WrestleFest ’92 (1992)

Coliseum Video compilation – hosted by Gene Okerlund and Bobby Heenan, on a tennis court. The cover of the tape features Randy Savage, and promises a profile on Bret Hart – plus a feature on how to plan a successful party! Considering this is early 90s WWF, expect coke. Lots and lots of coke.

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: WrestleFest ’91 (1991)

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: WrestleFest ’91 (1991)

Coliseum Video compilation – hosted by a 'recently retired' Randy Savage. The cover of the tape features the ‘Texas Tornado’ Kerry Von Erich, and promises a new feature on how the WWF’s managers see the action from ringside.

ECW November to Remember 1998

By the end of 1998, ECW had firmly established itself as not only the #1 Indy promotion in the United States, but as (somewhat) real competition to the WWF and WCW. Unfortunately, the big two clued in (particularly the resurgent WWF), and with the rise of the Attitude Era bringing ECW’s hardcore, wild style to the mainstream (and with better production values, workers, availability), ECW started to drown in its own excesses. With every day that passed, the promotion was becoming less and less like that cool indie band that only you and your buddies knew about, and more of a polished product to secure TV and merchandise deals.

From New Orleans, Louisiana; Your Host is Joey Styles. Terry Funk comes out right away, and bitches out long time friend Tommy Dreamer – in what would become a theme for the evening.

ECW November to Remember 1997

For 1997, November to Remember finally made it to pay per view. Though Barely Legal stole a bit of its thunder, ECW was riding high on a wave of popularity, and anticipation for the show was strong – from casual fans, to ECW’s hardcore mainstays alike.

From Monaca, Pennsylvania; Your Host is Joey Styles – as ECW holds its flagship show away from the ECW Arena for the first time, in front of a record crowd.

ECW November to Remember 1996

By late 1996, awareness of regional promotion ECW was expanding rapidly, to the point where both the WWF and WCW (the two biggest promotions in North America) had worked cross promotional deals, and started openly raiding their talent pool for guys like Rey Mysterio, Chris Benoit, Mick Foley, and Steve Austin.

ECW’s popularity was expanding so much so (based on strong word of mouth, and their exciting, gritty television programming), that they were angling to move their internet-pay per views onto proper cable. Though concerns about the violent and profane nature of the product would delay their ambitions for a few more months, by the time flagship show November to Remember had rolled around in ‘96, wrestling fans everywhere were starting to get behind the ‘little Indy that could.’

From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Your Host is Joey Styles. Taz comes out right away to cut a promo on Sabu and Paul Heyman. This was in the midst of a long feud with Sabu, that was supposed to be paid off here - but which Heyman wanted to save for ECW's pay per view debut. It was an intense, well worked feud (going as far as having Taz 'unofficially' on WWF programming to promote it), but ended up having one of the absolute most disappointing blowoffs of all time when ECW did finally get onto pay per view for Barely Legal, and couldn’t live up to the hype.

ECW November to Remember 1995

November to Remember was ECW’s flagship show – their punk-rock version of WrestleMania – beginning (like most flagship shows) when the promotion was barely on its feet in 1993, and still known as ‘Eastern’ Championship Wrestling. The 1993 and 1994 shows were non-pay per view productions, run for ECW’s local fan base, and taped for their television programming, as well as release on home video.

By 1995, with the promotion starting to gain some serious credibility (and notoriety) as an ‘extreme’ alternative to the WWF and WCW’s very polished products, November to Remember was offered as ECW’s first internet pay per view (ECW wouldn’t secure a true pay per view deal until 1997 – and even then, just barely), bringing the annual supercard one step closer to legitimacy.  

From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Your Host is Joey Styles.