LOL, I’m now hooked on these old Coliseum Videos. The lineup for this tape looked promising, and much better than Vol. 8. I still question the ridiculous “Best Of” title though.
I know I rented this tape at least once as a little kid, as there’s one thing I for sure remembered from this tape, and it’s really funny, and was a big inspiration for many future LJN battle royals.
Gorilla Monsoon and Johnny V are the hosts for this “video cassette”, and as always Gorilla is the ultimate straight man, pitching how great these matches are, even when they obviously are going to suck. I’ve always wondered how Gorilla stayed awake during so many of those house shows, providing commentary for the most boring of boring matches. Maybe he really loved those 20 minute Steve Lombardi-Jim Powers battles?
1) Ricky Steamboat defeated WWF IC Champion Randy Savage (w/ Miss Elizabeth) via count-out after Savage failed a bodyslam on the floor, with Steamboat falling on top of him (7/27/86; Toronto, Ontario; Maple Leaf Gardens)
Wow! This tape starts off awesome, with a match truly deserving the “Best of” title! This is an intense, heated IC title battle from the summer of 86, a couple months before the Steamboat-Macho Man feud kicked off. It’s a phenomenal cat-and-mouse style match, with lots of great wrestling, fast-paced action, and even some blood and brawling on the floor. Steamboat wins by countout, and really him and Macho both look like superstars coming out of this one. Highly recommend this match! We’re off to a good start for this tape.
2) Nikolai Volkoff & The Iron Sheik (w/ Slick) defeated the Hart Foundation when Sheik tripped Neidhart, who had Volkoff up for a slam, and Volkoff fell on top for the pin (8/9/86; Boston Garden)
Cool! A rare heel vs heel tag team match from summer 86. The Harts, without Jimmy Hart, are really over as fan favorites, and given their even more hated opponents that makes perfect sense. It’s a highly entertaining match, and it’s weird/fun to see Bret match wrestling with the Sheik and the Anvil matching power with Volkoff. And to top it all off, Volkoff and the Sheik actually go over with a pin! It’s so rare to see them win a big match post their 85 title run.
3) Crpl. Kirchner pinned Nikolai Volkoff in a Bootcamp match after hitting him with his boot (7/27/86; Toronto, Ontario; Maple Leaf Gardens)
Holy smokes – a second entertaining Volkoff match! The endless feud between Kirch and Volkoff continues here in this boot camp match, which is essentially just a street fight, except Volkoff is wearing Russian army pants. The pants are a focal point in the match, as Gorilla keeps speculating when they’re going to fall off, which they almost do when Volkoff removes his belt as a weapon. Kirchner wins after taking off his boot and clobbering Volkoff, which looked pretty good. One cool feature about the Toronto house show matches is the WCW-style big wooden ramp that leads down to the ring. No idea why only in Toronto they had that ramp, but it did look cool.
4) Andre the Giant, Jimmy Snuka, & the Junkyard Dog defeated Big John Studd, Jesse Ventura, & Ken Patera when Snuka pinned Patera with the top rope splash after a boot to the face from Andre (3/17/85; Madison Square Garden)
No idea why this match from early 1985 was randomly included – especially since Snuka and Patera were long gone and Ventura was a commentator. But it is an entertaining six man tag, and it’s always fun to see Jesse actually wrestle – even though he was terrible. Andre gets further revenge on Patera and Studd in this match as well.
5) King Kong Bundy & Big John Studd (w/ Bobby Heenan) defeated King Tonga & Sivi Afi when Bundy pinned Tonga after a kneedrop to the chest at 8:33, even though it seemed Bundy wasn’t attempting to get the pinfall (7/12/86; Madison Square Garden)
Things were going so well. Now we get King Kong Boring and Big John Slow against the future Islanders, who are still under their original WWF gimmicks. This of course stems from the Tonga-Studd feud that was featured on the last tape. The match is duller than a Randy Orton chinlock, and 8 minutes seems to last forever. The ending is a botched fuck up, as Bundy drops an ordinary knee and I think Tonga forgot to kick out since everyone was confused. So why the fuck would they include it on a “best of” tape?
6) Cowboy Lang pinned Lord Littlebrook at 10:01 with a spinning roll up (6/14/86; Madison Square Garden)
A 10 minute midget match. Yep, fast-forwarded through this one.
7) Jimmy Hart won a 22-man $50,000 battle royal when Greg Valentine and the Junkyard Dog eliminated each other at 12:53; Hart spent the entire match hiding underneath the ring; other participants included: the Junkyard Dog, Harley Race, Billy Jack Haynes, King Kong Bundy, Sivi Afi, Brutus Beefcake, Bobby Heenan, Pedro Morales, Lanny Poffo, Mike Sharpe, Moondog Spot, Jimmy Hart, King Tonga, Big John Studd, the Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy Smith, Greg Valentine, Johnny V, SD Jones, Tony Garea, Moondog Rex, & Tony Atlas (7/12/86; Madison Square Garden)
HAHAHAHA! The infamous battle royal won by Jimmy Hart! I remember seeing this as a kid and rolling off my chair laughing. I thought it was unbelievably funny that a little geeky manager could win a battle royal! I emulated this a hundred times over with my LJNs, hiding Jimmy under the ring and making him emerge right at the end. The battle royal itself is more of a booking clusterfuck than battle royals usually are. At the beginning, everyone gangs up on Heenan, Bundy, and Studd and eliminates all three Heenan Family members immediately. This is something else I’d copy for years after too. The middle portion of the battle royal has some good action and interesting battles, but also some botches like Sivi Afi being thrown between the ropes and being eliminated. But then it boils down to five good guys against Greg Valentine. What kind of backwards ass logic is that? They kind of stand around while Valentine eliminates them one after another, including Lanny Poffo, who did a great showing. JYD pulls Jimmy Hart out from under the ring, but gets tangled up with Valentine, and they fall out together leaving Jimmy Hart the last man standing! The crowd is pissed and chanting “bullshit” and Jimmy Hart jumps up and down celebrating!
So Vol. 9 ended up being a lot better than 8, but having watched 10 already, I know things will return to the usual horribleness that this series is “best” known for.
the RepoDan Wrestling Institution 