Here’s a Coliseum Video I watched a couple weeks back. There’s been a big renewed interest in Coliseum Vids on the net lately because they added a ton of the library to the Network. I’ve been reading through a lot of reviews on my favorite blog sites to see how they match my own. There’s a lot of fans like myself that enjoy the campy segments and questionable action in the ring, enjoying these videos for what they are. Refreshing to see others who like this kind of stuff as much as me.
This tape was another shelf warmer at video stores around town. I remember seeing this well into the early 2000s at Video Update on Portage. I also remember renting this tape with Matt, probably at a sleepover in the early 90s and not paying any attention to it. It was just on in the background while we did other things.
Sean Mooney is the host of the tape, and as per usual, is subjected to a goofball gimmick that runs throughout. This time, his suit keeps growing in size as this tape becomes increasingly more mega. Yeah, they didn’t even bother to try with this one.
1) Earthquake defeated Tito Santana via disqualification at 7:40 when Tugboat interfered; after the bout, Dino Bravo, Greg Valentine, and the Honkytonk Man attacked Tugboat until Jim Duggan made the save with his 2×4 (10/10/90; Cape Girardeau, MO)
Surprisingly good match to kick things off. Santana’s style worked well with Earthquake and we got a competitive back and forth battle. It was a unique pairing, and fun to see Tito actually try to wrestle Earthquake. Surprisingly Tito gets DQ’d (now that’s rare!) when Tugboat interferes on his behalf, leading to all of Jimmy Hart’s crew to race down and attack Tugboat until Hacksaw Jim Duggan makes the save. This really got me wondering if there was originally a different plan for Survivor Series. Maybe Hogan, Tugboat, Duggan, Santana vs Earthquake, Bravo, Honky, & Valentine? Not sure why else all these guys would be involved in the finish.
2) The Big Bossman pinned Bobby Heenan at the 18-second mark
Talk about lazy! This is nearly identical to the “match” featured on Supertape 4 or whatever. The same schtick with Heenan apologizing on the mic before attacking the Bossman and getting beat. Why bother to include another version of this same crap?
3) Sgt. Slaughter (w/ Gen. Adnan) defeated Jim Duggan via count-out at 3:05 after Duggan began chasing Adnan backstage (11/19/90; Rochester, NY)
LOL this tape is going downhill fast. So much for Mega Matches, more like random barrel scraping. This is the same brawl they always had, with the same DQ finish. Duggan was insanely over with the crowd though, which made this a little more fun to watch.
4) WWF Tag Team Champion Bret Hart pinned the Barbarian at 4:09 with a sunset flip (11/24/90; Madison Square Garden)
Why is this tape full of these quick, under 5 minute matches? Bret wins with a sunset flip out of nowhere in this surprisingly short match.
5) Greg Valentine & the Honkytonk Man (w/ Jimmy Hart) defeated the Bushwhackers via disqualification at 4:04 after Butch shoved the referee down and then hit Honky with a guitar as Luke was double teamed (10/10/90; Cape Girardeau, MO)
Thank the lord this was only five minutes long. One of the worst feuds of the early 90s.
6) Hulk Hogan (w/ the Big Bossman) pinned Dino Bravo (w/ Earthquake & Jimmy Hart) at 8:40 (8/8/90; Providence, RI)
HAHAHAHAHA!!! I nearly spat out my drink laughing at this match. Talk about a prototypical 1990-91 Coliseum Home Video match! But you know what, it was surprisingly good. Bravo could match up with Hulk in the power department and we had some pretty good back and forth action. Of course there’s no way in hell Dino Bravo is going to beat the Hulkster by himself, so they had Earthquake and the Big Bossman out in the corners for some entertaining interference. Hogan puts Bravo away to the delight of the fans who have just sat through a 5 hour TV taping. People are heading for the exits as the Hulkster poses and sends them home happy.
Up next was one of the worst atrocities to ever be put to videotape – a long ass segment on Hillbilly Jim “training” in Mudlick, Kentucky. Yup, it’s the stupid segment that was laughed about on WrestleCrap years back, where it looks like Hillbilly is fucking his dog and doing other dumb shit. Why in the fuck is this garbage on a tape released in 19 f’n 91?!
7) Davey Boy Smith pinned Haku with the running powerslam (10/19/90; Madison Square Garden)
A really good power match joined in progress for some weird reason. Why bother having all those pointless three minute matches, only to cut this one short? I never realized that the Bulldog debuted a few months before Survivor Series 1990. Because I didn’t watch all that much between Mania VI and Series, I had always believed that he debuted late in the year. It’s weird to think that the Bulldog was left off of Survivor Series. I truly never knew that until watching this tape. As I said, this was a good power match, with both the Bulldog and Haku destroying each other with some brutal looking moves. Davey Boy wins convincingly with the running powerslam.
The tape concludes with a profile on the Macho King Randy Savage. A Savage profile would normally excite me, but given who he feuded with during that era, I had low expectations.
8) Randy Savage (w/ Sensational Sherri) pinned Jim Duggan at 16:04 after Sherri put Savage’s leg on the ropes for leverage (10/28/89; Madison Square Garden)
For some bizarre reason we get a match that’s almost two years old by this point? Why go back that far? More surprisingly – this is great! It’s one of the best matches on the tape. Savage and Duggan go hard at it, and Duggan seems really fired up and is hanging with Savage all the way. I think Duggan might be underrated, because when he’s not working the gimmick so hard, he can deliver some decent matches. This goes back and forth and back and forth, with a crazy finishing sequence that sees the ref knocked out and Duggan covering Savage for an extended period of time. Heel chicanery follows and Savage is able to beat Hacksaw with cheating from Sherri. I’d call this one a hidden gem.
9) Randy Savage (w/ Sensational Sherri) defeated the Ultimate Warrior in a steel cage match at 10:33 by escaping over the top while the Warrior was distracted by an interfering Sensational Sherri, who entered through the door and climbed the cage to choke Warrior with her clothing (1/21/91; Madison Square Garden)
HOLY SHIT! Macho King beats the Ultimate Warrior?!! From two days after Rumble 91, and Warrior is no longer the champion. This match is all over the place, and I was distracted by the thought that this was the Warrior’s first major match since Wrestlemania VI without the title. Lots of brawling and using the cage, and the finish comes down to the wire, with Sherri cheating and costing the Warrior the victory. I actually marked out at Macho King winning, since he always seems to come out the loser against guys like the Warrior and Hogan. Cool match to see.
the RepoDan Wrestling Institution 