WWF Wrestling Grudge Matches

Late in 1993, ads started popping up in WWF Magazine for three special collectors tapes – Wrestlefest 93, UK Rampage 93, and Wrestling Grudge Matches. To a 92-93 fanatic I was practically salivating at the idea of these new tapes soon showing up in Home Movie Rentals. Much to my disappointment, these tapes never made it to any of our local video stores. From what I gather, they were released primarily as a holiday special for fans to purchase, rather than aimed at the rental market.

Unfortunately complete match listings weren’t shown, leaving me to wonder just what the heck was on these new videos. A few years later I finally would discover the matches for these three mysterious tapes thanks to the internet, and of course they blew away my expectations. These tapes were PACKED with all sorts of weird 1992 matches, the kind of crazy shit I would always dream of seeing. Grudge Matches itself was 2 and a half hours long!

Once I started regularly using eBay in the early 2000s I made it a goal to try and get my hands on these gems. I was able to successfully order Wrestlefest and UK Rampage 93, but for whatever reason, much to my disappointment, could never track down a reasonably priced copy of Grudge Matches. Once I was able to start building my digital collection, this was one of the first things I immediately tracked down… and never watched lol.

Yes, despite the mystery and hunting for this for years, when I finally did score a copy of this video, I just sat on it and never watched it. I was too preoccupied with the NWA, SNMEs, and all the other shit I’ve been watching for the past few years. Working my way through all these Coliseum Vids had me really excited to reach this point and finally watch this!

Lord Alfred Hayes and Sean Mooney are our hosts in “London”, which is some truly terrible green screening. I usually enjoy the Sean and Lord Alfred segments, but wow, the well was definitely dry here as they pointlessly bicker over Sean Mooney not being dressed for some sort of a fancy dinner function. We get all kinds of “hilarity” like Mooney not being able to adjust his tie and other inane shit. Too bad.

1) Randy Savage pinned Papa Shango with a bodyslam and the flying elbow drop at 5:38 (9/22/92; Brandon, Manitoba; Keystone Centre)

Ahh.. here’s the start of the Macho Man era that everyone seems to hate the most. After dropping the title to Flair, Savage’s matches become extremely formulaic, with him getting his ass beaten down for 5 or 10 minutes by the heel du jour, then making a super quick comeback and quickly winning with the big elbow. This match against Shango was the blueprint for that formula. Like the majority of the matches on this tape, this one comes from Prime Time wrestling. Having never seen any of these Prime Time feature matches, these were all new treats for me. This match comes to us from Brandon, Manitoba! Too bad no Coliseum exclusives were released from the Winnipeg taping the day before. Shango beats down Savage for five minutes, then falls to the big elbow, which blows the roof off the Keystone Centre. As much despised as this Macho formula became, at the time fans were just eating it up, as Savage was still so mega over.

2) Tito Santana fought Terry Taylor to a 10-minute draw (10/12/92; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan)

I won’t bother pointing it out again after this, but this is another Prime Time special. I’d have to look into it, but I think just about everything on this tape is. Terrific Terry Taylor’s return to the WWF in fall 92 was super weird. I’m not sure why he jumped from WCW where he was a mainstay in the mid-card and winning secondary titles, to come back as a jobber to the stars. He does end up with an office job with the WWF later in 93, so maybe that was the end goal? His return was also bizarre in that it seemed to only exist in the Prime Time/Raw universe. I remember reading about his return in an Apter mag, fully expecting him to show up on Superstars, but I don’t think he ever did. Maybe once on Challenge, but he definitely did nothing on the two main shows. This match against El Matador is from the famous taping where Bret wins the title from Ric Flair. A pretty damn good match between Taylor and Matador, mat wrestling and trading holds. I really enjoyed the wrestling on display here, but wow did the lame time limit draw finish ever suck. It just came out of nowhere and seemed ridiculously cheap.

3) Virgil & the Big Bossman defeated the Beverly Brothers (w/ the Genius) when the Genius threw the Bossman’s nightstick in the ring (2/18/92; West Palm Beach, FL)

Hahaha here’s a match we would have laughed our butts off at as kids! I just love the randomness of this tag match. Bossman and Virg make for a pretty great team and the crowd is just nuts for them. After watching so many Coliseum Vids, the Beverly’s are the absolute kings. They’re on nearly all of these 91 – 93 vids. Tito might be the all-time Coliseum champ, but the Beverlys can’t be far behind. Of course the Genius’ interference backfires and he costs his team the match by DQ. No doubt Bossman and Virgil headed over to Ichiban to celebrate their victory.

4) Bob Backlund defeated WWF IC Champion Shawn Michaels via count-out at 9:33 when Michaels began to leave ringside; moments later, Backlund brought Michaels back to the ring and hit the atomic drop (1/5/93; San Antonio, TX; Frank Erwin Center)

Man do I love seeing these weird pairings! This is one of the few Coliseum exclusives on this tape, not taken from a Prime Time. It’s a really weird visual seeing the young and fresh Michaels opposite the pasty white Backlund. Even though he was only 42 or whatever, Backlund just looks like a fucking senior citizen in there, a relic from another era. His haircut, tights, and personality were so unusual for the day. Hell, he was already outdated when he left back in 84. Anyway, it’s a mat based match, and fans are surprisingly pretty into Backlund. Michaels toys with him and showboats and acts like a general asshole, which gets Backlund all fired up. It goes back and forth but when Backlund starts getting the better of Michaels, he simply rolls out of the ring, grabs his belt and walks down the aisle, earning a countout. What a fucking cheap ass finish! Man do I hate lazy countouts! At least have them brawling on the floor or whatever. Michaels just walking away feels so lazy. Backlund is all fired up and chases after Michaels, dragging him back to the ring to further beat him up. Backlund then delivers a BELT SHOT to Michaels head! WTF!! I don’t recall good guy Backlund ever getting this aggressive.

5) Bret Hart pinned Repo Man by reversing a small package (9/2/92; Landover, MD; Capital Centre)

Another fun and zany match! Taped right after SummerSlam, we get a post IC champ Bret colliding with the Repo Man. Fun back and forth action, with Repo getting in a fair amount of offense. Repo is just endlessly entertaining, constantly jawing at the fans and his opponent, sneaking around and snickering the whole time. Bret makes a big comeback and surprises Repo with a small package for the win.

6) Owen Hart, Koko B. Ware & WWF Tag Team Champions the Natural Disasters defeated Ted Dibiase & IRS (w/ Jimmy Hart) & the Beverly Brothers (w/ the Genius) when Koko pinned Beau after he received a splash from Typhoon & a sit-down splash from Earthquake (7/21/92; Portland, ME)

High Energy were a great team! Too bad they only lasted half a year and only had one true PPV appearance. I definitely loved the… ahem… energy they brought to the ring. The good guys dominate early until Koko becomes the punching bag for the majority of the match. I always enjoy these big multi man matches, especially when all hell breaks loose at the end. The Disasters take turns flattening Beau and make the tag to Koko to put him away. I laughed super hard at the end when Koko gets Typhoon and Earthquake doing the bird dance. So ridiculous!

7) Crush defeated Rick Martel via count-out (10/13/92; Regina, Saskatchewan)

This tape is just chock full of strange matches! My head certainly would have exploded back in grade 6 if I could have got my hands on a copy of this. Mooney and Lord Alfred ponder why the Model is wearing a yachting outfit to the ring when they’re in Regina, nowhere close to the ocean. Like most of Crush’s good guy matches, this meanders, with Martel mostly dictating the pace. I dunno, seeing a huge guy sell for the Model just doesn’t really work. The match ends in the same fucking cheap fashion as Backlund-Michaels, with Martel having enough and just walking away. Ehhh whatever.

8) Tito Santana defeated the Berzerker (w/ Mr. Fuji) via disqualification when Fuji tripped up Santana with his cane (11/13/91; New Haven, CT)

We go way back to 1991 for this surprisingly great seesaw match up. I really enjoyed seeing yet another oddball pairing and both guys seemed to be pretty motivated. I laughed at Lord Alfred’s shock when the Berzerker throws Tito back into the ring from the outside, considering he was winning all his matches by countout still at this point. El Matador mounts several comebacks and the fans are really into him giving it to the Berzerker. Tito even gets a couple big kickouts and even I was buying into him getting a pinfall victory. But alas it’s a cheap DQ thanks to Fuji. Great action while it lasted.

9) Papa Shango defeated Marty Jannetty via count-out when Jannetty attacked Shawn Michaels in the aisle (11/24/92; Dayton, OH)

We’re now well into the jobber to the stars era of Papa Shango’s career. He’s facing the freshly returned Jannetty, who’s mega over with the fans. Shango’s facepaint starts to come off in the early going which looks really weird, like his face is melting or something. The match goes back and forth and Shawn Michaels starts making his way down to the ring, preening and gloating with the title. Shango continues to pound away on Jannetty who starts to fire back. In a hugely undersold spot, Jannetty nails Shango with a top rope dropkick to the floor!!! That’s pretty rare!! Jannetty then stupidly races down the aisle and goes after Michaels, taking him down with a huracarana in the aisle, pounding away. Shango actually wins by countout! Now there’s a surprise!

10) Typhoon pinned Kamala (w/ Harvey Wippleman & Kimchee) with a roll up after Kamala accidentally hit Kimchee; after the match, Kamala stood up to Kimchee and chased Wippleman backstage (11/24/92; Dayton, OH)

Coliseum exclusive alert lol! It looks like they intended this match to air on Prime Time as it furthers the Kamala-Kimchee storyline, but it never did for whatever reason. Call me insane, but I love seeing two big monsters like Typhoon and Kamala collide. As much as I love Kamala, this match was pretty much all theatrics and crap, and Typhoon pins him with a roll up after Kimchee’s interference backfires. Kimchee slaps Kamala around after the match until Kamala has had enough and attacks back and chases those geeks back to the dressing room!

Up next it’s a segment recycled from another Coliseum Video – Repo Cam with the Repo Man. And yes, of course I watched this whole thing again, even though I’ve seen it a billion times. Repo corners some geek with a video camera and threatens him to follow him around while he repossesses a Cadillac. We get clips of other great Repo Man moments, including him sneaking into a video store and demanding that they play a Repo Man’s Greatest Hits tapes or else their store will be repossessed! All of this was TREMENDOUS! Repo Man is so damn funny and entertaining. Love this shit so much.

11) Virgil defeated IRS via disqualification at 4:51 when IRS repeatedly hit Virgil with his briefcase outside the ring (1/8/92; Ft. Myers, FL)

This was mercifully short, yet still managed to be boring. This was during the dud of a feud between the Bossman and IRS, which I didn’t even realize continued after Series 91. IRS soon ends up in Money Inc and it’s completely forgotten about.

12) Tatanka pinned Blake Beverly (w/ the Genius & Beau Beverly) with the fall away slam (10/13/92; Regina, Saskatchewan)

Bobby Heenan is HILARIOUS in making fun of Tatanka and had me full on laughing out loud. It’s the third appearance of the Beverly Bros on this tape. Who in the hell thought that was a good idea? Pretty standard match, with Blake putting Tatanka to the test before Tatanka battles back and gets the win to remain undefeated.

13) The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) defeated WWF World Champion Ric Flair (w/ Mr. Perfect) via disqualification after Perfect hit the challenger with a chair (9/2/92; Landover, MD; Capital Centre)

Holy shit – 13 matches on this video! This probably would have been my favorite Coliseum Vid of all time had I been able to rent it back then. Flair is hilarious in this match, trying all kinds of cheap shit and getting his ass handed to him by the Undertaker. Perfect keeps trying to interfere from the outside, but to no avail. None of Flair’s offense is working on the Undertaker, so he resorts to low blows and eye rakes like the classic heel he is. Undertaker keeps firing back on Flair until finally Perfect brings a chair into the ring for the DQ. Undertaker tombstones Flair to a huge pop post match. What a fun match to end a fun tape! After all these years, I finally watched this video and was not disappointed!