From 1989 to 2012, Silver Vision was the official licensee for WWE home video in the UK and later Europe and Saudi Arabia. I was a very small part of that story and really enjoyed my time there working alongside Zeusy Steve, so after prompting here's a few things about Silver Vision behind the scenes you may or may not already know.
The story of why the company even exists is interesting in its serendipity. The chairman was at a US PPV having a thoroughly great time. He commented out loud "this would go down great in the UK. Someone should put this on tape and sell it mail order." The guy in front turns round and says "why, yes it would. Do you want to do it?" A WWE executive was sat right in front of him and invited him to pitch for the business. He was already in the home entertainment business so after producing a huge proposal document under the brand "Silver Sounds" he scored the contract.
For clumsy reasons WWE titles were released under the Silver Vision banner, whilst other titles from the same company such as Minder, Gladiators and Jack Osborne were under Clear Vision. Later, UFC titles came under the FightDVD label again from the same company. There was no separation - marketing, distribution, sales etc. for all titles across all brands were handled by the same people.
The company itself was quite special. Very few of the staff were fans but the boss was, so all kinds of stuff littered the office. There were life-size standees everywhere, with Diesel rubbing shoulders with Trish Stratus. There was also a Hulk Hogan one, and when times were tense between WWE and Hulk, this cardboard cut out would be shuffled into the cleaning cupboard. But the best room in the building was the library.
Here you could find a copy of every VHS, DVD, UMD, Blu-ray and probably other formats I've forgotten. As a WWE fan it was brilliant. Here's a video Steve made of it. He made it in Tout because he's a proper company guy.
I don't have a shot of it, but the boardroom was special too - a chair from every WrestleMania, and other very unique items such as signed items of all descriptions. And everywhere you looked there were PPV posters.
I know catalogue numbers are a big deal for collectors. Here's the last list I could find in my files, which I know for sure isn't complete, but was used to create the order form you'd get tucked inside the Mega Mail catalogue. (Side note: keeping that list up to date for Mega Mail was a HUGE pain in the arse).
Why are there so many gaps in the numbering? We would get the DVD schedule from WWE around 12 - 18 months in advance, so we would slot them into the UK production schedule. That's when they'd get a SKU. Then down the line titles would be dropped, moved or amalgamated but we'd had the number in place. It's too awkward to release it and besides, they could come back into the schedule down the line so it was easier to not interrupt the numbering. Of course sometimes they never came back. For example there were plans in 2008 - 2009 to release Superstar titles for Iron Sheik, Superfly Jimmy Snuka and Goldberg. They were all given numbers but never came to fruition.
There were also a bunch of DVDs exclusive to Italy which most collectors would've missed - they would be bundled with a magazine and purchased in a kiosk and known as 'kiosk' titles. I remember a Big Show DVD, a Kane DVD and others - titles for superstars that at the time did not have their own 'official' releases.
Silver Vision were also the first company to release a sports Blu-ray in the UK: WrestleMania XXIV. WWE weren't convinced of the appeal in the US but we managed to get one produced.
Speaking of titles, a couple of my favourites:
The SummerSlam anthology had beautiful artwork. And best of all we were provided the layered PSD files so could pull out all sorts of shots for use in other collateral like banners, newsletters and social media. I also had a knack for pointing out errors in the US artwork so we had a chance to change it for UK - the number of spellings I saw for "intercontinental" was unreal.
And another thing: we got artwork changed if we thought it sucked. We often added a slipcase over the top. Such as this (US on the left, UK on the right):
And Steve and I commissioned original artwork too. Our favourite was probably the Edge one. Unfortunately we managed to spell the company name wrong :S
The relationship with WWE was not an easy nor smooth one. It was strained so trying to do impressive stunts was more difficult than you would expect. That said, when interviews happened we usually grabbed some decent prizes. Spoilers, but the stars only ever signed the DVD artwork which we then stuffed into a case, e.g.
There were also a few of these floating around the office:
Steve and I (among others) were instrumental in keeping the WWE Live in the UK releases coming out, as well as planning out those pesky Tagged Classics. I must've told American emailers a thousand times we weren't legally permitted to sell these exclusives to them via our website...
Well that's enough from me for now. Steve may well chip in if he remembers something interesting (or corrects my ailing memory!) but here's an interview Steve gave some years ago that fills in a few blanks. Feel free to ask a question if there's something you want to know about.
