Tag Archives: Hulk Hogan

The Best of The WWF Volume 1

best of the wwf 1

We are finally ready for the third and final of the first day release Coliseum Home Video tapes. Vince is the host again and he informs us that this tape chronicles the history of the WWF.

Hulk Hogan & Andre the Giant
vs
Big John Studd, Adrian Adonis, & Dick Murdoch
(7/15/1984, Meadowlands)

Announcers: Gorilla Monsoon & Red Bastien

This is a pretty standard southern tag match, but with double the face in peril segments. Yes, Andre plays face in peril here for a bit.

The highlight was Andre putting all three guys in the corner and then squashing them with the help of Hogan. For some reason Andre ran Studd off later in the match, making it two on two. A fun big butt splash by Andre for the win.

Overall a pretty standard tag match here, but with lots of heat and charisma. Seeing Murdoch and Adonis bump for Hogan and Andre was fun enough.

Rating: **

Fabulous Moolah w/ Lou Albano vs Wendi Richter w/ Cyndi Lauper
(7/23/1984, Madison Square Gardens)

Pre-match has Okerlund interview Captain Lou Albano and Moolah. Moolah is pretty low key and Albano does not think she can be beaten. She has been champion for 27 years!

Announcers: Gorilla Monsoon & Gene Okerlund

I won’t be able to rate this one, as there are a lot of video cuts. Cyndi Lauper is by far the highlight of this whole thing. She’s so great cheering on Richter and getting in Moolah and Albano’s faces.

The finish has Moolah go for the back suplex, but Richter gets her shoulder up at two to get the win and the title.

Post match Moolah nails the referee with a really stiff dropkick.

Gorilla Monsoon vs Baron Mikel Sculina

Announcer: Vince McMahon

Muhammad Ali is in the front row. After all the hype on Titans of Wrestling, I am very excited to see Sculina.

The match is nothing and this is all about the angle. Although Baron has a nice flurry to start, before Gorilla took him apart with chops.

The poor Baron just walks away as Ali takes off his jacket, shirt, and shoes to go after Gorilla.

The two circle, before Gorilla grabs him in an airplane spin and gets him all dizzy. Ali’s seconds lead him away. Such a weird angle. I guess this helps establish that Antonio Inoki can defeat Ali in a fight, but Ali looked like such a punk.

After the match Gorilla gives a great interview, using his classic “this guy doesn’t know a wrist lock from a wrist watch” commentary line. Gorilla finishes with “Great boxer, terrible wrestler.”

Jimmy Snuka vs Bobby Bass
(10/29/1984, Hamilton, Ontario)

“No Class” Bobby Bass sneak attacks, but gets quickly squashed by Snuka and the Super Fly Splash.

Piper’s Pit with Jimmy Snuka

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This is the classic segment where Piper hits Snuka with coconuts and runs away before Snuka can kill him. If you haven’t seen this angle, watch it now.

Jimmy Snuka vs Roddy Piper
(8/25/1984, Madison Square Gardens)

Announcers: Gorilla Monsoon & Lord Alfred Hayes

This was a super heated revenge match for Snuka. Piper got almost nothing in, as Snuka beat the crap out of him. Snuka even took Piper to the floor, ran him into the post and a chair to bust him open. The reaction from the crowd of Snuka realizing Piper was bleeding was amazing.

The finish saw Snuka go for the splash, but Piper gets up. As Snuka flies, Piper knocks him over the top for a count out win. This perfectly sets up rematches.

rating: *** 1/4

Cobra vs Black Tiger
(12/28/1984, Madison Square Gardens)

Announcers: Gorilla Monsoon & Gene Okerlund

The winner here will get the vacant WWF World Junior Heavyweight Title. From what we saw this looked like a well built NJPW style juniors match. There was a lot of nice matwork which built to some hot stuff, especially for the WWF in 1984. There was even a tope. Compare this match to the early Starrcade junior matches with the likes of Denny Brown and it’s staggering.

The finish was super hot with a Tombstone by Tiger for a nearfall. The second attempt was countered into a Tombstone and followed by a flying senton for the win. It’s really a shame that the WWF didn’t continue with Cobra and try to build a division around these guys.

We now get the build to Gene Okerlund wrestling.

Day 1

It’s 5:00 AM and Okerlund is smoking a cigar. That’s really hilarious. Hogan shows up and is pissed, tells him to throw away the bacon and eggs and gives him a real breakfast. Raw eggs. Hello salmonella!

They go for a run and Okerlund stops to grab a beer and a brat. Hogan is mad again.

Day 2

Weight training at the gym montage set to the Coliseum Home Video music.

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Day 3

This time Hogan comes in at 6:00 AM. No cigar, so there is progress (although he might had finished it in the last hour). They go and run stadium steps. Gene trying to go up steps with Hogan on his back is pretty funny stuff.

Day 4

We get more illusions to Rocky as they run up steps in Minneapolis. They both think they got it, so look out Mr. Fuji and George Steele. 4 days does not seem like enough training for Okerlund.

Hulk Hogan & Gene Okerlund vs George Steele & Mr. Fuji
(8/26/1984, Met Center)

Announcer: Vince McMahon

To start, Hogan rips off Gene’s shirt to leave him in just trunks and boots. Vince yells “Oh my what acion!”.

I love that the match starts with Fuji and Hogan. What a mismatch. This match is pretty edited as well. We do get one of the most annoying Hogan spots, as he high fives Okerlund and the referee counts it as a tag. Luckily Okerlund runs between Steele’s legs to make a tag. Hogan does almost all the work, but Okerlund blind tags in at the end. Hogan slams him onto of Fuji for the win.

Afterwards we get a double pose session with Okerlund and Hogan.

Bruno Sammartino vs Larry Zbyzsko
(1/22/1980, Allentown, PA)

Announcer: Vince McMahon

This is a pretty famous television match. The two are still friends and are student and teacher at this point.

The story of the match is that Larry is trying to win, but Bruno lets up every time he has the advantage. It’s really a great story and seeing Larry getting more and more angry every time is awesome.

Eventually Larry gets tossed and comes back in super pissed. He gets real aggressive and stomps the shit out of Bruno. He grabs a chair and nails him a few times leaving him bloody.

This is perfect slow build story telling.

Rating: *** 1/2

Bruno gives a promo after being weighted in before the cage match. Bruno is confident.

Bruno Sammrtino vs Larry Zbyszko
(“Cage Match” 8/9/1980, Showdown at Shea)

Announcer: Vince McMahon

This was very similar to the Snuka-Piper match as it was all revenge and very little offense for the heel. Except here Bruno beats up Larry and then walks out. Nothing much to say about this one, except it’s just a good pay off to a long feud.

Rating: ***

In Conclusion:

Really a good mix of things from the current product and the past. Nothing you have to go out of your way to see (except maybe Snuka on Piper’s Pit), but a good way to spend 90 minutes.

Next Tuesday, I will be back with a review of the “Most Unusual Matches” tape. Remember to send in your requests for the “Fan Favourites” match that I will review on Thursday.

Hulkamania (WF002)

hulkamania_coliseumvideo1

Let’s start off with a correction from last week. I started reading the “The Complete WWF Video Gudie, Volume 1” and although “Wrestling’s Bloopers,  Bleeps and Bodyslams” was the first numbered Coliseum Home Video the WWF actually released the first three Coliseum Home Videos on the same day (Last week’s Bloopers tape, this week’s Hulkamania, and next week’s Best of the WWF, Volume 1). Hulkamania makes way more sense as a debut tape, so I take back that criticism. Actually having a Hulk featured tape, a best of tape and a blooper tape is not a bad idea.

Vince McMahon is the host and welcomes us to the tape. The gimmick on this one is that Hulk Hogan gives us his thoughts on facing each opponent, during the entrances.

Hulk Hogan vs Greg Valentine
(8/4/1984, Philadelphia Spectrum)

Hulk’s Thoughts: All he was thinking was to avoid the figure-four leglock.

Announcer: Gorilla Monsoon

This was a fascinating match in terms of structure. After a nice shine sequence by Hogan, you get Valentine going after the leg in a pretty good heat segment. He even uses a chair on the outside to the knee. Hogan “Hulk’s Up” and starts to destroy Valentine, before a second heat segment occurs. During the heat segments Hogan sells the leg great, but during the first comeback he ignores it.

After all the good work on the leg, Valentine’s figure-four leglock gets shoved off. Axe Bomber. Big Leg Drop. It’s over! The finishing comeback was two moves, but very dynamic.

Although the first comeback was weirdly long and I don’t really understand what the purpose is of that part of the match, overall it was well worked. Hogan was so over, super charismatic, and such a huge seller that the crowd was nuts for this. Valentine was looking pretty good dropping elbows and working the leg.

Post match involves teasing a rematch and then includes Hogan gorilla pressing the referee, all the while selling the leg.

Rating: ***

john-studd.jpg

Can Hogan bodyslam the true giant of wrestling?

Hulk Hogan vs Big John Studd
(12/10/1984, Meadowlands)

Hulk’s Thought: He didn’t think he could slam Studd, but once he got the eye of the Hulkster and the crowd was going nuts it felt like Studd weighted as much as a feather.

Announcers: Gorilla Monsoon & Howard Finkel

What a truely bizarre team in the booth. The first thing they do is make sure that the $15,000 is on the line. At this time Bobby Heenan said he would pay out that money if anybody could bodyslam Studd, the true giant of wrestling. Bobby Heenan confirms that it is always on the line.

What follows is a surprisingly great match. It’s built around Hogan gaining control, then going for the bodyslam only for Studd to block it and then take control. The big moment occurs when Hogan goes for a bodyslam near the ropes and Studd is able block it and drag Hogan to the floor. He uses the table, ring post and guardrail to bust Hogan open! This leads to the longest heat segment of the match. Studd is so in control he even hits a flying ax handle off the top! During this segment we see the first bodyslam of the match and it’s by Studd. Hogan starts to “Hulk Up”, but he gets booted to the floor. After a little of bit of the King of the Mountain spots, Hogan drags him to the floor. We get some brawling and a comeback which leads to a bodyslam on the concrete floor and a countout win for Hogan.

I really can’t believe how great this match was.

Rating: ****

Remember on the “Wrestling’s Bloopers, Bleeps, and Bodyslams” tape how they had a short cut of Hogan giving a protein shake to Vince and Lord Alfred Hayes? Well we get the full segment here. Although the powder on Alfred’s nose joke is gone. We do get Hulk making the whole protein shake, using the protein powder. He is actually doing the whole shake well, except adding full eggs is not right. Folks you should not drink raw eggs.

Hulk Hogan vs David Schultz
(6/17/1984, Met Center)

Hulk’s Thoughts: Super redneck! Hulk was worried about Shultz cheating and doing anything to win. “Good wins over evil”, he says. It’s weird they have been giving spoilers during the entrances.

Announcers: Gorilla Monsoon & Gene Okerlund

This is the debut of the WWF in Minneapolis (home of the AWA), so of course you have a big Hulk Hogan title match in his old grounds.

What Hogan was afraid of came to pass early here as Shultz is choking and once he gets him outside nails him with a steel chair and busts him wide open.

A neat touch is for Shultz to play King of the Mountain for a while, which is a traditional AWA troupe.

We go on an interesting journey from there. Shutlz hits his finisher (flying elbow off the second rope) and we get the traditional “Hulk Up”. However, Hogan pulls Schultz up at two. He does this a few more times and even takes Schultz to the floor and rams him into the steel post to bust him open.

Schultz survives to get a lariat in to gain the advantage back. He decides to try his elbow off the top, instead of the second rope, Hogan moves. Axe Bomber by Hogan for the win.

We got double juice. We got Hogan being super pissed and his arrogance almost costing him. We had an insane crowd. This was damn fine pro-wrestling.

Rating: *** 3/4

Hulk Hogan vs Big John Studd
(Cage Match, 4/6/1984, Kiel Auditorium)

Hulk’s Thoughts: This one is personal and can only be settled in a cage. “Once you see the match you’ll know that I came out on top”.

Announcer: Gorilla Monsoon

From what we saw of this match it seemed pretty decent, but there was a lot of cuts. The previous matches had stuff edited out, but this one starts with Studd in control and the first half of the contest is cut after cut.

The finish is pretty good though, as they are brawling on the mat as Studd accidenty kicks him out of the ring. They brawl some on the floor.

Exclusive interview time by Vince McMahon made for this tape. We don’t get much here, but the list of people that Hogan idolized in wrestling was: Bruno Sammartino, Johnny Valiant, The Grahams and Andre the Giant. Johnny Valiant?

full-length-match-msg-iron-sheik-vs-hulk-hogan-wwe-championship-match-620x350

The night Hulkamania was born!

Hulk Hogan vs Iron Sheik
(1/23/1984, Madison Square Gardens)

Announcers: Gorilla Monsoon & Pat Patterson

The famous title change that started Hulkamania in the WWF. The crowd is insane in this match and was so ready for Hogan to become the top star.

This match is the format on how you make a new star. It’s actually very similar to the Golberg-Hogan title match. Hogan gets in a shine, Sheik takes control. Gets some nice nearfalls with some cool suplexes. He puts on the Camel Clutch, Hogan powers out of it and then pins him with a Big Leg Drop. 5:40 is all you need to get this over. Not a great match, but a really great moment.

Rating: ** 1/2

In Conclusion:

This tape was a lot of fun with two legit awesome matches and everything else being a lot of fun. Maybe skip the interview segment.

Next Tuesday I will review “Best of the WWF, Volume 1” so be on the look out for that. Remember to send in your suggestions for matches for the “Fan Favourites” segment on Thursday. I will review anything that the fans want me to.

Wrestling’s Bloopers, Bleeps & Bodyslams (WF001)

WF001 - Wrestling's Bloopers, Bleeps & Bodyslams

The WWF was hot in 1985! They had been on MTV and NBC. WrestleMania and Mr. T were a thing! Which means it was time for the WWF to invade the home video market. With this being the WWF and Vince McMahon there is only one way to start and that is with a bloopers tape?

Gorilla Monsoon is the host in the WWF home video control center and he assures us that we have some hilarious surprises ahead of us. To prove that, they insert Gorilla screwing up filming the opening into this without any warning.

The first clip we get is of a ten-man tag match from the Philadelphia Spectrum. I would give you a date and all, but it’s so quick we don’t even get to see all the competitors. What we get is “The Magnificent One” Don Muraco running into Andre the Giant’s ass and then it’s replayed.

Freddie Blassie is now on Tuesday Night Titans giving love advice. We are on a corny site and Vince McMahon is reading letters from TNT fans. First question comes from a wife who’s husband ignores her after watching TNT. Blassie’s advice? She should take a bath. Next we have a wife show says her husband practices moves on her after watching the WWF, including the Super Fly splash. It hurts her and she wants it to stop. Blassie says a man should beat his wife, like he did to his rotten second wife. Finally a  sixty year old women wants to date a wrestler. Blassie suggests Sgt. Slaughter, Tito Santana, Hulk Hogan and the Tonga Kid. Vince is not impressed.

Gorilla says we are about to learn a lesson about vanity.

“Iron” Mike Sharpe vs Steve Grey

Joined in progress and Grey’s toupee falls off.

Tiger Chung Lee tries to break bricks. Gorilla claims he was in charge of buying the bricks on this night and bought ones with steel running through the middle. Tiger can’t break them, but keeps trying. Vince is laughing his ass off.

Captain Lou Albano is on TNT. He rambles and doesn’t make sense.

We are back on TNT and Vince McMahon brings out Tony Atlas for a pose down. We hear the Coliseum Home Video music as Atlas poses in speedoes with the camera man zooming in a lot. “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff is here as competition. Same music, same zooming in, but smaller speedoes. The five people in the audience decide Tony Atlas is the winner. Orndorff is not happy and jumps Atlas. A man in jeans, jacket and a mask breaks it up. What was the blooper, bleep or bodyslam in that segment?

Gorilla is back in studio to tell us the life of a wrestler is lonely. He informs us that dog’s make great friends. However Iron Sheik’s friend is a camel. Which sends us to Vince with the Iron Sheik and a camel. Vince needs an expert here, so he brings out Lord Alfred Hayes. Sheik makes fun of Sgt. Slaughter and says the camel is his own training partner. Alfred makes stinky faces and we find out the name of the camel is super long in Arabic and is Claud in English.

It’s time for Kamala and the performing chicken on TNT. Friday and Blassie bring out the “Famous Performing Chicken”, which is just a chicken in a giant cage. They bring out Kamala who stalks the chicken and Blassie jokes about it being dinner time. We cut to Kamala eating chicken with feathers around him.

Gorilla says we are about to see one of the funniest midget matches of all-time.

Danny Carpenter vs The Haiti Kid

Joined in progress and Haiti bites the ass of Carpenter to get out of a hold. We get some silly referee midget spots.

Back on TNT Ivan Putski is teaching people the polka. Well that is what Gorilla said, but all we get is a bunch of dancing. Vince is more into this dance then he was into Shawn Michaels. This might had been the highlight of Vince’s life.

Hulk Hogan protein Shakes

Hulk Hogan making protein shakes on TNT.

Hulk Hogan is on TNT and we are joined in progress as he is pulling out the python pack (a custom 12 pack of vitamins) and gets Vince to drink the protein shake he made to swallow the vitamins. He likes it and they coax Awful Alfred to drink it. He throws up.

It’s now Captain Lou’s turn to give love advice. First up a wife says her husband refuses to use modern hygiene techniques like deodorant. He stinks. What can she do? Lou’s advice is to put some olive oil, witch hazel, sweetening lotion and rubbing alcohol and rub it on him. Second up, a women asks about her obese husband and if the “Fat Person Guide to Ectasy” is a good source. Lou hates fat people. Vince doesn’t understand and asks him how he sees himself. Lou is all muscle and that “Fat Person Guide to Ectasy” is about a low carb diet. Lou says the husband should look in the mirror and tell himself he is great. Finally a wife asks what to do about her husband who never takes off his boots. Lou says she needs to get him some deodorant, because that would start to smell Then completely rambles until the segment ends.

Julia Child move over, the Wild Samoans are here to cook. We are joined by Lord Alfred holding his nose, he thinks it’s the plague. It’s actually fish stew! Obviously they do some raw fish stuff and an actual fish stew. Alfred gets the head and gross bits and refuses to eat it and says he would rather get cat rabies.

Gorilla says we are now ready for the greatest blooper of all-time.

The Wild Samoans vs Tony Atlas & Rocky Johnson

Joined in progress as Atlas comes in on the hot tag. Referee bump and Albano grabs a chair. Atlas ducks as a Samoan gets nailed and pinned losing the Tag Team Titles.

Albano is now shown on TNT trying to explain the greatest blooper ever. He denies responsibility, since they were three-time champs they should had survived that technical mistake. Called the Samoans crybabies.

Gorilla back in studio raving about the wrestling credentials of Salvatore Bellomo. Bellomo is a credit to wrestling. Bellomo is on TNT making pizza. A real pizza man does not use a rolling pin. Alfred has some flour on his nose, which Vince points out that it’s not the first time he’s seen powder on Alfred’s nose. It lasts a minute before we get Italians in traditional Italian garb playing Italian music. Wow.

A quick clip of Dick Murdoch teaching Adrian Adonis how to get on a horse (which he sucks at) is followed by Adonis & Murdoch along with Mean Gene Okerlund on the mean streets of New York City. Adonis and Okerlund talk to some bums. Adonis claims a fire hydrant is a shower. A cute dog appears and Adonis pets it. Watching this I wasn’t sure what the point of this was, but my guess is that it is to show that Adonis is a fake New Yorker (since nobody knows him) and that New York is an awful place. A weird choice for a company based in New York. The whole thing ends with them getting some disgusting street hot dogs and Okerlund refusing to pay. Gorilla says that is why he’s called Mean Gene.

We get a bunch of short clips of slams and splashes, since Gorilla feels we haven’t had enough of them.

“Lucious” Johnny Valiant now gets a turn giving love advice. We finally get a male question where a husband claims he puts a mask on his wife to improve her looks. All of these questions are so awful and really portray some horrible marriages. We get a question from an unmarried women, who is hot, but likes ugly men. Who can she date? Valiant raves and raves about Brutus Beefcake being so hot. He’s a 15 to 20 to 25 out of 10. He lists Tito Santana, Junkyard Dog, Sgt. Slaughter as stone ugly. Last question is a women who wants to be in a battle royal. Vince thinks this is some weird fantasy orgy question, while Valiant doesn’t understand the question at all and talks about how battle royals are difficult to win.

We are told Andre the Giant sings the fish song, something advertised on the VHS box. Before that Andre compares Big John Studd to Sky Low Low. He shows off the size of his hand over Alfred’s face and we cut to Andre with the band. Sadly no singing, he just makes the fish face. This is pretty funny though.

Roddy-Piper-Lou-Albano-and-Cyndi-Lauper-left-with-

Cyndi Lauper on Piper’s Pit!

Moving on to Piper’s Pit where Cyndi Lauper is the guest. Lou Albano appears and cuts a great promo. He wants Cyndi to tell everybody that women belong in the kitchen and that he wrote all her songs, etc.. Lauper gets annoyed and beats up Albano and Piper, before she is pulled away.

Some more clips of slams.

We are now ready for the main event of the tape, it is Butcher Vachon’s wedding on TNT. First we start with the gifts. Albano gives them a lifetime supply of rubber bands. Blassie gives them some reading glasses, so that he could see how ugly the wedding ring is and how ugly the bride is.

We move onto the toasts and first up is George “The Animal” Steele who eats a champagne glass and makes some odd sound before he mutters out a short congrats. Albano toasts “Open your teeth, open your gums, watch out stomach here it comes!” Jesse Ventura says “the scum always rises to the top of the water”. Sky Low Low is not ready and then says “what the hell do you want a toaster?”. “Dr. D” David Shultz doesn’t want to toast nobody, so he toasts himself only. Albano is wasted and burps into the mic many times. He is now singing and starts stripping. The bride is dancing with Sky Low Low and Albano is dancing with a female little person which Blassie finds hilarious. Moving on and Albano and the Samoans are joined by Sky Low Low to sing.

Time for cake. The bride doesn’t like cake, so Dr. D throws it in her face and the Butcher does as well to his own bride. Somehow Albano finds a whipped pie and throws it at Sky Low Low. Now everybody has whipped pies and it’s a giant pie fight. Alfred even gets pie on his head. So does Vince. I don’t know why whipped pies are at a wedding, but there you go. We get champagne spraying and even more pies. Butcher breaks a beer bottle on the floor and starts throwing chairs and knocking over tables. It’s a giant food fight. Sika seems to enjoy this more than anyone. During this entire chaotic scene the band keeps playing. In a good attention to detail Dr. D is spraying Pepsi instead of champagne.

We get a a short highlight reel of segments that didn’t make the show and then some more slams to end this tape.

In Conclusion

What a strange tape to put out as the first WWF home video. On one hand there was some classic TNT moments and on the other there is nothing on here you would want to have in your permanent home library or re-watch more than once.

I was really looking forward to this project of watching the Coliseum Home Videos, but this tape was not a great start. However, I’m really looking forward to “Hulkamania” to go up next week!