After digging out the Diesel tape a few weeks ago, I happened upon a couple more of these 90s budget tapes in my collection. I have such a fondness for these VHS tapes, and love the colorful packaging and artwork; such warm and fuzzy nostalgia! I’m feeling the itch to start collecting and buying any and all classic WWF VHS tapes I can get my hands on! I feel the need to have an entire shelf dedicated to these tremendous releases. Even these budget tapes used to be plentiful at used shops but are becoming tougher to find as time goes on. Sounds like I have a new mission to pursue lol.
Super Slams was another Christmas or birthday present, likely received at the same time as the Diesel tape. Stan Lane is our host and pops up periodically to introduce these matches with his usual smooth delivery. He’s also on commentary for the majority of these, along with Gorilla Monsoon, and they have a natural and fun conversational style, entertaining themselves as much as the audience. There are surprisingly a number of exclusive matches in this collection!
1) Bret Hart & Razor Ramon defeated WWF IC Champion Jeff Jarrett (w/ the Roadie) & Hakushi (w/ Shinja) at 12:09 when Bret reversed a small package by Jarrett, putting Razor on top for the pin (4/5/95; Lowell, MA)
Things kick off with this crazy pairing, bringing together two of the main feuds from early 1995. I was excited to see these strange teams together, especially in the classic Lowell Auditorium. It’s a pretty basic TV match, something like an Action Zone main event, so nothing too crazy, but still well wrestled and fun nonetheless. The feuding parties mainly faced each other, so we had limited Razor-Hakushi interaction, which was too bad. Stan and Gorilla go off on a hilarious side tangent about whether or not someone was ever pinned with a side headlock and start listing off all kinds of ancient names from the past. I always get a kick out of hearing this kind of wrestling history in the strictly kayfabe world of the WWF! Lots of funny commentary can surprisingly be found deep in these Coliseum releases. Fun ending as Razor small packages Jarrett, but Hakushi comes in behind the ref’s back and reverses it, and while the ref is clearing Hakushi, Bret rolls them over again and Razor scores the clean pin! Really fun TV style main event and I wish they would have included far more of these kinds of unique matches on Coliseum Video.
2) The Undertaker pinned Tatanka with a chokeslam at 6:32 (8/14/95; Worcester, MA)
HAHAHA oh fuck did this suck! The Undertaker’s never-ending, year-long feud with the Million $ Man even makes it to a Coliseum exclusive. Seriously, what the fuck happened to Tatanka when he turned heel? Like this was comically awful – dreadfully slow and full of non action. Tatanka’s crappy chops and chinlocks are terrible, as he seemed to just get worse as 1995 wore on. Tatanka was a really good fan favorite with some truly great and exciting matches. His heel turn just lead to snorefest after snorefest and endless losses, as was the case here, losing to a chokeslam and not even the tombstone.
3) Lex Luger & Davey Boy Smith defeated Jacob & Eli Blu (w/ Uncle Zebakiah) at 6:36 when Smith scored the pin with a sunset flip off the top as the Blu attempted to piledrive Luger, moments after the Blus made an illegal switch in the ring (WrestleMania XI – 4/2/95; Hartford, CT)
Why in the hell did THIS make it to a Coliseum tape?! I’ve talked a lot about the Allied Powers before – great team in theory, but a huge step down for Luger, who even chokes in tag team title matches. This match features the debut of their tremendous entrance theme though, but once the bell rings, it’s overall crappy. I liked the combined power of the… err… Powers, but holy shit did the Blu twins suck. Not exactly a classic or exciting way to kick off a Wrestlemania, but it was a good basic win for the new team of the Allied Powers and a decent push seemed on the horizon.
4) WWF IC Champion Jeff Jarrett (w/ the Roadie) pinned Adam Bomb at 9:25 after the Roadie interfered (1/25/95; Ft. Myers, FL)
Another exclusive match on this tape! I liked seeing Jarrett defending the title against Adam Bomb, who never seemed to get a fair shake. His face run wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire on this point, probably because he never won any big matches or was even in any interesting feuds. He’s huge and powerful, so it takes a lot of cheating and interference from the Roadie to keep Jarrett in control. Bomb’s fired up comeback up was great, but it was ultimately the cheating of the Roadie – lightly tripping him off the top rope – to cause Bomb to take a tumble and eat another pin. They definitely did a great job of protecting Jarrett and giving him lots of wins. Overall a decent and unique match on this tape.
5) Bret Hart defeated Owen Hart via submission with the Sharpshooter in a no holds barred match at around 12:54 (3/13/95; Stockton, CA)
The final match is the real highlight of this collection! It’s the Bret-Owen blowoff from the Raw right before Wrestlemania 11, a card that sure could have used this match instead. It was also picked by Bret to be featured on the Dungeon Collection, so I’ve seen it a good number of times over the years. It’s a solid fight, all around ringside, with Bret and Owen going at it full speed. It’s non-stop action as they looked to close the book on this long running feud. Bret decisively claims victory by making Owen submit to the sharpshooter and keeping it locked on until officials forced him to break it. Great match to end a surprisingly good tape, minus the real dud of an Undertaker match!
the RepoDan Wrestling Institution 