WWF Coliseum Video Collection: The Life and Times of Captain Lou Albano (1986)

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: The Life and Times of Captain Lou Albano (1986)

Coliseum Video compilation – hosted by Gorilla Monsoon. The cover of the tape features Lou Albano, and promises that the Captain will even play the piano for us if we rent this. Man, talk about the hard sell…

Lou Albano v Tony Angelo: From way back in the early 1960s. Angelo gets in his face with a quick dropkick, and corners with him a series of inanely worked looking punches before tossing Lou out to the floor. Albano blades on the way back in, but manages to dodge a cross corner charge and get the pin at 1:20 shown of 7:34. Total crap (backyard wrestlers work more realistically), but short, and a fine way to show us a bit of the Captain's earlier years.

Lou Albano v Rick Martel: I'm not sure exactly what year this is from, but it's definitely the early 80s. Gorilla claims that it's ten years ago (1976), but I don't think these two would have crossed paths until the early 80s. Albano jumps him during the pat down, and tosses Rick out to the floor, then rams him into the post when he tries climbing back in. He makes it in only to get his eyes raked - a lot, as Albano does it no less than ten times in the span of about a minute. Martel comes back by pulling the Captain's beard in the corner, and he unloads a series of right hands. Martel chokes him with his wrist tape until Albano bails to the floor, and he's counted out at 4:05. Nothing match. DUD

WWF Tag Team Title 2/3 Falls Match: Chief Jay Strongbow and Jules Strongbow v Mr. Fuji and Mr. Saito: From July 1982 this is for the vacant titles (vacated after a controversial decision in another match between the two teams the month before), but we only get quick clips of Fuji pinning Jules with a handful of salt for the first fall at 0:38 shown of 8:56. This was just to establish that Albano (who managed Fuji and Saito) cheats, basically.

2/3 Falls Six-Man Tag Team Match: Lou Albano, Mr. Fuji, and Mr. Saito v Tony Atlas, Rick Martel, and Tony Garea: From February 1982. Joined in progress with the heels ganging up on Tony Garea, but Saito failing to cut the ring in half to allow the tag to Tony Atlas. He press slams Saito for two, but quickly gets overwhelmed in more double-teams, and tags Martel to unload dropkicks. Clip to later, as the heels cut the ring in half on Martel, but he managed to slide through Albano's legs to tag Garea. Tony tries to finish Fuji with a quick abdominal stretch, but Saito comes off the top rope with an axehandle, and Fuji falls on top for the pin at 5:20 shown of 16:28. I won't rate it, but it was energetic from what bits we were shown.

No Disqualification WWF Tag Team Title Match: The Wild Samoans v Soul Patrol: From November 1983. Joined in progress with the Samoans cutting the ring in half on Rocky Johnson, but he gets the hot tag to Tony Atlas - Atlas a house of arson. The referee gets bumped during the four-way brawl, and Albano (manager of the Samoans) runs in with a chair - only for it to backfire, hit Afa, and allow Atlas the pin for the titles at 1:00 shown of 8:22. Not enough shown to be anything, but it's nice to see some of these rarer title changes no one remembers today.

WWF Tag Team Title Match: Dick Murdoch and Adrian Adonis v The Wild Samoans: From 1984, with Albano as the guest referee. Adonis starts with Sika, and gets quickly backdropped. That draws Murdoch in to trigger a four-way brawl, and the Samoans clean house. Clip to another four-way brawl later, with the Samoans controlling again, but a cheap shot from Murdoch slows them down. He ends up missing a cross corner charge before he can properly cut the ring in half though, and we clip to later with Adonis cutting the ring in half on Sika, but getting knocked off the top rope to the floor when he tries to finish. That starts another four-way brawl, but Albano is reluctant to count the fall for the Samoans, and instead disqualifies them at 5:45 shown. Pretty dull stuff, but the angle was classic fun stuff.

We take a break from in-ring action to watch about thirty five minutes worth of various Albano clips - most from the TNT Show as well as a bunch of Piper's Pit segments with Albano as the guest. God, whoever's decision it was to put Piper and Albano together in front of a live mic should be given a medal. Albano cooking for Piper and Bob Orton is a highlight, and this was all good stuff, especially since Albano was most entertaining on the microphone, and not in the ring.

Six-Man Tag Team Match: Andre the Giant, Hillbilly Jim, and Lou Albano v Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy, and Bobby Heenan: From November 1985. Joined in progress with Bundy working Hillbilly Jim over, but a clothesline misses, and Andre gets the tag. That doesn't go well for Bundy - Andre choking him in the corner like a jobber. Bundy tries to slow him down with a front-facelock (Really? On Andre the Giant), but quickly abandons that to tag Studd. The heels triple team the Giant in their corner, and Andre actually becomes the face-in-peril as they cut the ring in half. Andre lets them have their fun, then casually shrugs them all off to pass back to Hillbilly. Jim comes in hot with a ten-punch count, but a cross corner charge doesn't go his way, and he ends up in the heel corner with a triple-team. Heenan waits for the opportune moment to tag in, but still gets smacked around by Jim, and Andre tags in to really slap him around. He lets Albano get his licks in, and Heenan bumps around like a champ for all three before falling to a big boot from Andre at 10:49 shown of 12:18. Considering they spent literally the entire tape hyping this it was certainly disappointing - though pretty much exactly what you'd expect from these six. It worked for the crowd, though, and that's all that really matters anyway. And it was basically unclipped, at least. ¼*

BUExperience: Considering the subject, I wasn’t expecting much going in. Albano was an entertaining guy, but his in-ring work was never much notable (especially since most of his in-ring career took place well before I was born), though luckily about a third of this tape focuses on his antics on stuff like TNT or Piper’s Pit. There are some entertaining moments, but overall it’s not a good addition to your Coliseum Collection.