Hello everyone and welcome to the first edition of Coliseum Corner presented by @ColiseumVideo. We are extremely excited to partner with WWEDVDNews.com and look forward to reconnecting you with your WWE childhood memories on a weekly basis. For those who have been supporters of us on Twitter, this blog now gives us the opportunity to go in-depth well beyond our 140 character limit. Each week we will be going into the vault to dust off the memories (and VHS cassettes) on a time in professional wrestling that we all grew up loving!
Since this is our introduction post, we wanted to leave you with the first article that was ever published about Coliseum Video in the pages of the WWE Magazine. It was the August/September 1985 issue that featured the classic picture of Rowdy Roddy Piper, Nikolai Volkoff, Iron Sheik and Cyndi Lauper on the cover!
See you next week for an exciting new release…
Until then… #BeKindRT
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A cardboard figure display of World Wrestling Federation Champion Hulk Hogan stands in a video shop. “Take Me Home”, the print on the display says. So a customer picks up the figure and starts to cart it out of the store.
“No way,” says the store owner. “It’s an ad.”
The Hulkster figure is an advertising display for the new series of official WWE home video cassettes, featuring live WWE action, not only of recent years but of the past. Video store owners report that some customers are taking the display literally and trying to take the cardboard Hulk home with them. Well, that’s a no no. But now you can bring Hulk and the other top WWE wrestlers into the living room on videotape cassettes.
The cassettes, between 75 and 80 minutes long are a product of Coliseum Video, a branch of A&H Video Sales of New York City, which owns the Video Shack retail chain and is one of the largest distributors of home video cassettes in the world. A&H distributes videos for most of the major motion picture studios.
The WWE videos are produced by veterans in the business who also happen to be longtime fans of the WWE. They know the video business, and they know wrestling. The result is a series true to all the action and drama of WWE competition through the years. Three types of programs are available in a series of six video cassettes. One features the best matches in the WWE, including classic bouts between Bruno Sammartino and Larry Zybysko, Jimmy Snuka, and Roddy Piper and Gorilla Monsoon and Heavyweight boxing champ Muhammad Ali.
Another series of video profiles top stars. Already on sale is a cassette on the Hulkster and Hulkamania. It tells something of the champ’s background, describes his secret conditioning methods and looks at some of his favorite matches, including his win over the Iron Sheik for the WWE title. A third series features some of the oddities and humor of the WWE ring, starting out with a cassette called Wrestling’s Bloopers, Bleeps and Bodyslams. Covered in the video are some of the classic moments on WWE’s TNT television program, including the wedding of Paul “Butcher” Vachon.
Additionally the video series enables WWE fans to relive the wild excitement of the greatest closed-circuit wrestling show ever presented. A special cassette has been issued on WrestleMania which, when it occurred March 31, was hailed as one of the most thrilling sports entertainment events ever. – WWE Magazine August/September 1985
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I remember when Coliseum Video advertised a Junkyard Dog & Royal Rumble 88 Coliseum Video’s, but were never made. I wonder what the covers would of looked liked?
haha I remember those boxes. Some were from the “World Tour” and “Battle of the WWF Superstars” sets. Some of the Hogan VHS had those too like Hulkamania forever. I remember you could fit a whole stack of pens, along with the VHS itself in those oversized cases. haha
Blockbuster (at least around my house) had a decent selection of coliseum videos but mostly were from 95-96…and few selections of WCW fromf the same years. Never had a chance to buy any when they were getting rid of all their VHS for DVD.
The mom and pop rental stores, especially near my house, was were all the goodies were at…they had a bunch of coliseum videos like best of wwf volumes 1-10, British bulldogs, demolition, Ricky steamboat and all in their clamshell cases too. They also had a bunch of ppvs but the boxes were cut up to fit in the hard shell cases, especially the oversized boxes they used from 90-92.
Thanks for the memories. I love what your doing. Any chance the VHS tapes will be put on DVD? I’m from the uk and the first tapes I remember being released were we’d high flyers and the British bulldogs. Good times. Did these ever go to DVD? Keep up the good work!
@ Dave. I remember the same thing. The VHS tapes were pricey to say the least, also back then though we only had 4 PPV events each year so it wasn’t that bad. But, the colisuem video tapes were a bit pricey too. I remember all of the tapes and renting hours upon hours of video tapes. Then Blockbuster came along and made it difficult to get any tapes any longer. I’m still pretty nostalgic about that stuff. I had all the magazines, the figures, the cups, the shirts, went as the warrior for halloween, everything. i was obsessed. All of the rental stores in my area went out too and like you i took all they had. I still sit and look at my vhs pay per views like fully loaded and unforgiven and releases like brains behind the brawn and the slammy awards and wonder why anyone would EVER part with them.
Also don’t forget during that time WWF tapes were expensive, some up to $65.
I remember Wrestlemania 4 double set was $40 that came in a Hulk Hogan Pop-up.
When i was a kid, there was a video rental store near my house and every weekend use to rent out couple of the WWF and WCW/NWA tapes…good times! Then when i got older, it started to close down and they were getting rid of everything. I bought majority of the wrestling tapes that were remaining from the 80s to early 2000s (WWF and WCW). They even had the ultra rare Bash at the Beach 2000 that only cost me $2.
In 2001 then started to collect DVDs, and never looked back.
Anyway i still have those tapes in a box in my basement. Haven’t watched them in ages.
hey is there a complete list that anybody knows or were i can get to complete my collection of colliseum videos? i just dont want to have to accidently purchase 2 of the same videos
Wow….good read. Thanks Coliseum Video and WWEDVDNews. I’m going to really enjoy these articles.
I watched “Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage & Elizabeth” on WWE Classics yesterday, and I think that came out in 1986. Awesome memories of these great videos. Good times. Thanks again.
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I remember when Coliseum Video advertised a Junkyard Dog & Royal Rumble 88 Coliseum Video’s, but were never made. I wonder what the covers would of looked liked?
Im a wwf wcw vhs collecter. Id say im one of the best.
haha I remember those boxes. Some were from the “World Tour” and “Battle of the WWF Superstars” sets. Some of the Hogan VHS had those too like Hulkamania forever. I remember you could fit a whole stack of pens, along with the VHS itself in those oversized cases. haha
@ SRB
Blockbuster (at least around my house) had a decent selection of coliseum videos but mostly were from 95-96…and few selections of WCW fromf the same years. Never had a chance to buy any when they were getting rid of all their VHS for DVD.
The mom and pop rental stores, especially near my house, was were all the goodies were at…they had a bunch of coliseum videos like best of wwf volumes 1-10, British bulldogs, demolition, Ricky steamboat and all in their clamshell cases too. They also had a bunch of ppvs but the boxes were cut up to fit in the hard shell cases, especially the oversized boxes they used from 90-92.
Thanks for the memories. I love what your doing. Any chance the VHS tapes will be put on DVD? I’m from the uk and the first tapes I remember being released were we’d high flyers and the British bulldogs. Good times. Did these ever go to DVD? Keep up the good work!
@ Dave. I remember the same thing. The VHS tapes were pricey to say the least, also back then though we only had 4 PPV events each year so it wasn’t that bad. But, the colisuem video tapes were a bit pricey too. I remember all of the tapes and renting hours upon hours of video tapes. Then Blockbuster came along and made it difficult to get any tapes any longer. I’m still pretty nostalgic about that stuff. I had all the magazines, the figures, the cups, the shirts, went as the warrior for halloween, everything. i was obsessed. All of the rental stores in my area went out too and like you i took all they had. I still sit and look at my vhs pay per views like fully loaded and unforgiven and releases like brains behind the brawn and the slammy awards and wonder why anyone would EVER part with them.
@ SRB
Also don’t forget during that time WWF tapes were expensive, some up to $65.
I remember Wrestlemania 4 double set was $40 that came in a Hulk Hogan Pop-up.
When i was a kid, there was a video rental store near my house and every weekend use to rent out couple of the WWF and WCW/NWA tapes…good times! Then when i got older, it started to close down and they were getting rid of everything. I bought majority of the wrestling tapes that were remaining from the 80s to early 2000s (WWF and WCW). They even had the ultra rare Bash at the Beach 2000 that only cost me $2.
In 2001 then started to collect DVDs, and never looked back.
Anyway i still have those tapes in a box in my basement. Haven’t watched them in ages.
hey is there a complete list that anybody knows or were i can get to complete my collection of colliseum videos? i just dont want to have to accidently purchase 2 of the same videos
$2.25 for a magazine… Those certainly were the days. Great column
I like the potential this column has, though I wish you’d use WWF instead of WWE.
Wow….good read. Thanks Coliseum Video and WWEDVDNews. I’m going to really enjoy these articles.
I watched “Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage & Elizabeth” on WWE Classics yesterday, and I think that came out in 1986. Awesome memories of these great videos. Good times. Thanks again.