This is hands down one of the biggest memory Coliseum Video tapes. I’ve watched this a ton of times over the years, starting right from when it was a new release on the shelf at Home Movie Rentals. I’ve watched it with all my old classic wrestling buddies back in the day and a ton of times on my own, eventually picking up a copy off of eBay in the early 00s. Watching it now, it’s one of those tapes that has the magical ability to take me right back to the summers of grades 5 through 8, when time felt endless and a two hour wrestling tape seemingly filled the whole afternoon.
This is a far superior edition of Battle of the Superstars. The first was a true piece of garbage and the 91 version was marginally better. Once again Sean Mooney is the host, but this time he dumps the horrid military impression. He’s on the deck of the USS Intrepid, and throughout the tape he takes us to various museum displays around the ship. Yeah, it was as boring as it sounds. But at least he wasn’t doing that wretched, grating military voice!
1) Hulk Hogan & WWF IC Champion Roddy Piper defeated WWF World Champion Ric Flair & Sid Justice (w/ Harvey Wippleman) at 12:50 when Hogan pinned Flair with a clothesline (3/9/92; Mobile, AL)
Beginning in late 91, the WWF starting booking all kinds of these zany tag matches, a trend that thankfully continues throughout 92 (and gets even wackier). The crowd is off the charts for this explosive battle. The wrestling itself leaves a lot to be desired, but who cares, this was a straight up fun match. Hell, this could have even been a main event on a secondary PPV between the Rumble and Mania if those existed back then. Another cool note about this match is that we get the rare chance to see the HT and IC champs team up, even more notable in this case because it’s Hogan and Piper. Lots of fun and craziness throughout, with Justice now in full heel mode. The match breaks down into an all out brawl as expected and I thought it was leading to the usual DQ finish, when Hogan suddenly pins Flair after a clothesline! A fucking clothesline! I didn’t remember that finish at all!! Flair sold it like he was hit by a truck and Hogan and Piper win, sending the fans into hysterics. Great way to kick off the tape!
How about an aerobics class next? Cause that’s what Mooney pitches us to. We get some early 90s babes doing aerobics (remember how big aerobics were in the 90s? Long before yoga and zumba became a thing lol), when suddenly the Bushwhackers march in! It’s time for the Bushwhacker aerobics and they soon get the ladies doing the Bushwhacker march. This was beyond stupid, but what had me laughing is that the women basically no sold the Bushwhackers showing up. They just continued on with their aerobics despite all the “woooooahhhhhing” and “yayyyyying” going on around them!
2) The Beverly Brothers (w/ the Genius) & the Nasty Boys (w/ Jimmy Hart) defeated Sgt. Slaughter, Jim Duggan, & the Bushwhackers at around the 7-minute mark when Brian Knobs pinned Bushwhacker Luke after Jerry Sags hit Luke with Hart’s megaphone (3/9/92; Mobile, AL)
Speaking of the Bushwhackers, they’re in there against the Nasty Boys and Beverly Bros, their never-ending rivals. With eight wrestlers, this match is somewhat better than it should be. Of course there’s lots of ridiculous nonsense, like the Whackers, Duggan, and Slaughter clearing the ring, then doing the Bushwhacker march together. I marked out at the ending as the heels cheat to win, using the omnipresent megaphone to get the victory. After a solid 1991, the Nasties are pretty much wasted throughout 92, always in these six and eight man tags.
3) Davey Boy Smith defeated Shawn Michaels (w/ Sensational Sherri) via disqualification at 7:58 when Sherri grabbed hold of Smith’s hair while on the ring apron and wouldn’t let go (2/17/92; Tampa, FL)
Cool! A Bulldog-Michaels from very early in Michaels’ heel run. These guys would of course go on to have many battles in the ensuing years, including PPV main events. Always fun to watch these kinds of matches from early on. Both the Bulldog and Michaels had very similar paths in 92, before inevitably meeting for the IC title in the fall. Both guys were competing up and down the roster from January through summer, picking up a lot of wins over lower card opponents and even flirting with the odd main event match. This was an excellent match, a classic battle of power vs speed. Michaels was a great dick heel, and was still coming in to his own style wise. Bulldog looked to be heading for the win, when Sherri jumped on his back to save her man. Of course the Bulldog would do what any good guy would do in this situation and hoist up Sherri for what would likely have been a career-ending powerslam! But Michaels saves his woman much to the dismay of the fans lol
Next up is a Wrestlecrap classic – Needles the Tailor! Maybe because I was so young when I first watched these tapes, but I loved this kind of wacky stuff. I laughed my butt off at Rick Martel and the Mountie bullying the little dweeb. Still found it funny even now.
4) Bret Hart & the Natural Disasters defeated the Mountie & the Nasty Boys (w/ Jimmy Hart) via count-out at 10:50 when all three heels left ringside after losing a brawl in the ring, with the Mountie almost sustaining Earthquake’s sit-down splash (2/18/92; West Palm Beach, FL)
LOL see what I was saying about the Nasty Boys always being in these kinds of multi tags? The Natural Disasters face turn makes less sense to me now than it did back then. Obviously it was done out of necessity because of the problems with Hawk and LOD, but it felt so forced. The fans were pretty cold to them in this match, but it was smart of the WWF to create a simple storyline of them turning on Jimmy Hart, very easy to understand, but it took some time until they started to actually get over. Bret was concluding his feud with the Mountie around this time, so that added some easy heat to this match. Bret worked hard, but everything with the Nasties and Disasters was pretty boring and terrible. Still, it was cool seeing Bret and the Disasters team up, a pretty rare combination.
5) Repo Man pinned Virgil at 5:59 with his feet on the ropes after catching Virgil with an elbow to the face (3/10/92; Biloxi, MS)
Haha, this was actually a feud stemming from the Survivor Series Showdown when Repo helped Dibiase regain the million $ belt. I don’t think Virgil was ever able to get the better of Repo, and this is the last true feud he really had. Repo was fantastic as always and wins in a sneaky cheating way of course! Love it!
6) El Matador pinned Skinner at 11:47 with the flying forearm (11/11/91; Utica, NY)
We laughed and laughed about this match for years, and this is what slanted our views on Coliseum Videos being full of nothing but headlocks, armbars, and El Matador matches lol. This was actually taken from the Surivor Series Showdown, something I never knew until watching it this time around, having recently seen Showdown for the first time. Because I’m such a geeky mark for this era, I watched this again lol. It was an enjoyable match, and it seemed like the fresh character upgrade was going to lead to something bigger for Tito, but that of course never happened.
7) Macho Man Randy Savage pinned the Berzerker (w/ Mr. Fuji) at 4:04 with the flying elbowsmash after Fuji accidentally threw powder in Berzerker’s face, with Savage then coming off the top and hitting Berzerker with Fuji’s cane (2/18/92; West Palm Beach, FL)
Man did I ever love this match as a kid, and still loved it now! Savage and Bret were the two main faces that battled just about everyone on the roster in 92 and 93, and it’s great fun to see a big contrast of styles like this. Berzerker immediately attacks Savage and starts beating the shit out of him. The Berzerker was so awesome! He was just waylaying on Savage, tossing him to the floor and continuing the beating. Berzerker rips the mats off the floor and slams Savage on to the concrete cause he’s insane! The ref takes a wild bump, and Fuji instructs Berzerker to hold Savage. He attempts to throw salt, but Savage ducks and Berzerker gets a face full. Savage nails Fuji, steals the cane, and in repeat of Mania IV, flies off the top rope with the cane, cracking the Berzerker over the head and gets the pin! So much fun!
8) Tatanka pinned the Warlord by turning an attempted slam into an inside cradle at 8:07 (2/18/92; West Palm Beach, FL)
Yeesh, this match used to feel like half an hour to me back in the day. While boring, it wasn’t as boring as I remembered it being. I thought Warlord was gone by the end of February, but he actually hangs around until the spring, filling in on house shows, but not really appearing on TV. Something I’ve always wondered – why did the Warlord only wrestle mid-carders for the most part? He never wrestles Hogan, Savage, Sid, Undertaker, etc. He has a few IC matches with Bret, but that’s about it. You’d think they would have used him to give some big wins to the Hulkster. This match moves at a crawl, with the Warlord dominating Ta-tank-a (as Lord Alfred calls him). Suddenly Tatanka reverses a bodyslam and pins the Warlord! Whaaaaat just happened! It’s like they just said fuck it and went for the finish.
Wow, what a trip down memory lane! I loved watching this again, and really, really enjoy this wacky, pre Mania VIII era.
the RepoDan Wrestling Institution 