Rob Butcher or Glen Radford?

[Egg Shen]

i think i had a few tapes of both guys, but i bought/traded with loads of different guys over them years.

 

I feel kinda glad that i experienced the tape trading thing, but i dread to think how much money i spent on them things. I remember i had tapes coming out of my fucking arse at one point, i had them stacked fucking everywhere. Some of the packages i had delivered to my house were like banana boxes, it was f'n insanity.

 

I had one guys make a couple of 8 hour compilations (4 hour long play muthafucker!) of WCW stuff, i scoured through listings of episodes of Nitro and Thunder and got him to put together tapes of random matches from them...cost like a tenner a tape, it must have taken him f'n days to do em...god bless him.

 

People have it so much easier these days with tape trading and disks, plus the quality of everything is so much better but i get the feeling that it aint half as much fun.

[Truth]

People have it so much easier these days with tape trading and disks, plus the quality of everything is so much better but i get the feeling that it aint half as much fun.

Half the fun was to find tapes that were rare and wait for them to arrive in the post. Now there is so much available that can be downloaded instantly at no cost. The more that is available the less it is worth.

[Big Benny HG]

When you think about it, the

[Adam Young]

Dave Pick was the last ever tape trader I used in 2003/4. I remember being so excited after finding out a tape trader lived within a half-hour's drive from me (I arranged to pick them up from his house instead of getting them posted to me). Then 2005 came along and it was all "yousendit" and "rapidshare" files, then youtube, then torrents etc.,

[keeper4pool]

Glen Radford for me, the man is a legend. His handwritten was as bad as mine, so I knew what I was getting.

 

SST were always good to me, he had cool covers and stuff.

 

Dave Pick was also first class.

 

I missed those days

[Egg Shen]

Pick's service and the quality of his tapes were fantastic...he was a smug fucker though.

[Sheffbag]

Kawasaki Dream King of the Death Match was the also the first tape I got off Rob, It had a random W*ING event on the end. I remember I was shit scarred of the Grave Digger guy on the W*ING event. Looked like a right nutter.

 

Yeah I remember the W*ING show at the end, had a Pibulls tag match on it and I think Sandman may of been on it as well. The main event was a coffin match with Leatherface against some guy I'm sure.

 

I remember the 1st Japanese tape I tried out was one of the best of JapTv videos, was October-Novemember 98 or Sep-Oct and I was blown away by the AJPW stuff. It had this awesome Kobashi/Misawa match on it and an equally good tag match but I cant remember everyone in it apart from Akira Taue.

That was first one i got too along with a 80's violence one with concession brawls/slaughter vs patterson/funk lawler empty arena match. it was ECW vs W*ng (according to Johnny grunge on promo) - remember watching KOTDM with no commentary finding it weird. Used Rob Butcher only and always found him ok to deal with.

 

have to dig out the KODTM vid to chekc out the coffin match, remember it was built like a kids woodwork project

[adequate8]

cant remember who I used first (maybe Rob), remember asking my mum for a 5 quid cheque (I was 13!) and sending it away. Didnt hear anything for ages and had to scan in the bank statement showing proof he'd cashed the cheque so he finally sent out (Heatwave 98)

 

Started trading myself end of 1999 to 2002 ish (under Socko's Tapes), dealt with FuseMP/SST, Si Trader, Mark Renshaw?, dutch guy called Winzen? god knows

 

I was 15 and had an Australian trader who would send me the WCW PPV's (2000 to 2001) the day after they aired, thems were the days.

 

Ended up losing interest (and VCDs came in), sold quite a few masters on here in bulk deals. As soon as I moved out my old dear threw the rest away.

 

Remember getting up every 3 hours to swap tapes in VCRs.

 

Brilliant thread, nothing better than when the mail man came over these years.

[Dash X]

Socko's Tapes rings a bell.. not sure if we traded or I just heard of you from somewhere. I used to trade as JW TAPES. When I first stared trading around 1998 I would type my lists up on a typewriter because I didn't even own a computer back then.

[Adam Young]

I think I might have some of Rob Butcher's old tape lists in a draw somewhere. I think I might dig them out and scan them to complete this trip down memory lane!

[adequate8]

Socko's Tapes rings a bell.. not sure if we traded or I just heard of you from somewhere. I used to trade as JW TAPES. When I first stared trading around 1998 I would type my lists up on a typewriter because I didn't even own a computer back then.

 

 

Yeh JW does ring a bell actually, my old site is still knocking about

 

check out the traders list!

 

Good/Bad Traders

[Dash X]

Socko's Tapes rings a bell.. not sure if we traded or I just heard of you from somewhere. I used to trade as JW TAPES. When I first stared trading around 1998 I would type my lists up on a typewriter because I didn't even own a computer back then.

 

 

Yeh JW does ring a bell actually, my old site is still knocking about

 

check out the traders list!

 

Good/Bad Traders

 

Recognize a few names from that list. Used to trade with Ringside Violence Tapes all the time.

[Hugh Thesz]

Ahh, memories!

 

I always got Glen Radford's lists in the post, but I can't remember if I actually ever bought anything off him.

 

Rob, on the other hand, was the first trader I ever got stuff from in 1993 and a large chunk of whatever money I had went to him for a good few years. I can still remember the first tapes I got from - WCW / NJPW Supershows I & III. Awesome to be able to get that stuff at the time, as I'd never seen any of it before. I still remember absolutely marvelling at the lists and wishing I had more money. I think it was also him that got me hooked on 1994-96 ECW, which I was a HUGE mark for at the time.

 

Other people I dealt with in the early-mid 90s (see if these names ring any bells with anyone)....

 

* Darren Levy (still a friend to this day).

* Mark Allsopp (used to meet him in Nottingham to trade tapes).

* Rodric Williams from Guernsey, who I got some early ECW stuff from.

* Steve Pendle from Grimsby, who I got to know considerably better a decade later.

* Dean Ayass, who I also got to know considerably better a short time after trading.

 

I'm sure there are others, but the names escape me now. Can anyone else remember some others?

 

I thought that Rodric Williams was the guy who ripped everyone off and had (from memories of either Hulk Who and SuckerPunch) talk of collective legal action against him. If I am wrong then I apologise.

 

Dean Ayass was honest to a fault explaining that should he miss his (self imposed) two week dispatch deadline that he would add free tapes onto the next order. As these delays were due to his studies I always held that with such respect as it was not called for.

 

Steve Pendle took over nine months and a couple of phone calls to either refund me or (as he did eventually) get me the tapes I had ordered. Even at that my order was well short. Thing is he was either a great bullshitter or was as he seemed on the phone which was a genuinely nice guy.

 

As many have pointed out here it is difficult to explain just how good the businesses of both Glen Radford and Rob Butcher were. Suddenly all the matches that I had read about in SOW/Powerslam in the early nineties and in some US boxing magazines before that were available. After being ripped off a couple of times (as I can't be arsed searching my loft for my magazine collection I am thinking the guys name who did me for about seventy quid was something like Dave Wright) having a legitimate and trustworthy source was incredible. The only "cult" (and I hate the way that term is associated with any shite these days) that I was in from the start was ECW tanks to both Rob and Glen in 1993. Similarly the Best of W*ING 91 and 92 were the first time that I had heard swearing in wrestling when Victor Quinones proudly avowed that he and his charges "were the Headhunters ................ and no-one fucks with us". Seeing this, or some of the NJPW, AJPW and AJW, comparing it to the WWF of the time made the cost and wait for another tape well worth it. It took me fucking ages to obtain the Gorilla Monsoon vs Ali confrontation yet today anyone here could get it within seconds. This is wonderful but it also takes something away.

 

The best example I can give is that when both WWF and WCW were still cartoonish or Hogan led ECW's The Night The Line Was Crossed gave me something I had never seen before. Shorty after that there was the short lived fued when Shane Douglas was made to look a million dollars when he backed up his bodyguard Mr Hughes in the big man's battle with the Harris Brothers. Though I did and can criticise the promotion I always despair when people knock the original ECW based on a comparison with what else wrestling has done in the past eighteen to ten fucking years of the original promotions run. Sorry, I am rambling here but I think it is relevant to how much fanzines, PowerSlam and especially it's previous incarnation and tape traders changes our perception of wrestling.

 

Shuggy

[SpursRiot2012]

nfc90210: Were either of these guys who you used to get WCW PPV's off? I seem to remember waiting until at least the end of January for you to receive Starrcade 97 so I could borrow it off you.

[Dean Ayass]

I thought that Rodric Williams was the guy who ripped everyone off and had (from memories of either Hulk Who and SuckerPunch) talk of collective legal action against him. If I am wrong then I apologise.

 

Dean Ayass was honest to a fault explaining that should he miss his (self imposed) two week dispatch deadline that he would add free tapes onto the next order. As these delays were due to his studies I always held that with such respect as it was not called for.

 

Did I really? Shit, I don't remember doing that. Ah, the naivety of youth What's your real name then, if you don't mind me asking?

 

That wasn't Roderic Williams, you're thinking of Nic Higton from round Croydon way. You're confusing your people who spell their first names in a poncey way.