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Silver Vision Memories


Onyx2

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The Bloodbath name was actually a company decision. It was changed along with the colour of the sleeve as it was thought the supermarkets wouldn't take it as is.

 

As for people taping over masters, no. Master tapes aren't like normal video tapes, they are more akin to the old cinema reels, but in thick plastic cases and really heavy.

 

There were never plans to release any of the Collesium videos. When SV got the contract on 1989 there was already a huge catalogue out in the US and they had to pick and choose which ones to launch onto the UK market. It would have saturated a budding market to release them at the time, and later on the demand just wasn't there. Tagged Classics had pretty much run it's course by the time SV ended things with WWE - the decline in sales of these titles was pretty dramatic.

 

UMD sales were dismal. We never made one reorder on any title and had to scrap them in the end.

 

Billy Graham - bull rope matches were indeed the main problem. Anything to do with strangulation was a huge issue with BBFC and WWF/E releases.

 

The inserts disappeared when US stopped producing the artwork for them as they were stopping them themselves. I lobbied for see through cases so we put content listings in the reverse of sleeves, as a DVD collector myself I knew the worth.

Edited by Midnight Zeus
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Cracking thread, Silver Vision was an anchor of my childhood fandom, as it would have been for most of us, I would imagine. I did buy a fair few tapes in Woolies over the years, and in fact the last Silver Vision tape I ever bought was in Woolies in Aberystwyth (WrestleMania XX) but for me the Silver Vision journey started in a John Menzies in the nearest town to my home village (at the time) where as a post-dentist treat, Papa Raid told me "let's get you a tape of that wrestling you like." I picked up The Third Annual Survivor Series because my introduction to wrestling had been through WrestleMania VI so I could tell from the belts around Hogan and Warrior's waists on the cover that it wouldn't have been too long before it. I made myself promise to avoid spending too much pocket money on wrestling that I'd never buy anything older than that tape... that didn't last. My next tape was Rumble '93 virtually as soon as it came out, from there I picked up the odd one that Mama Raid would randomly spot at the local (now) Bookers cash and carry, and then for my 12th birthday I got taken back up to John Menzies and in addition to 6 Hasbros, I got to take home Rumble 91 (still my most-watched PPV tape), SummerSlam 88, SummerSlam 93, WrestleMania VIII, WrestleMania The Greatest Hits (the Sovereign Series one), Bashed In The USA and WrestleFest '93. I can still remember watching the Perfect/Flair match and thinking "this is why Ric Flair went to WCW with the rest of the has-beens like Sid Justice and Anvil Nige Hart."

 

Yeah, you didn't need to know any of that. But thanks, Silver Vision. Especially thanks for the Bret Hart shades, I still wear them.

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Yeah, I was well happy when I realized that through my mate's sister's video shop we could get straight from source and how excited I was when I first saw the Mega Mail black and white order form. The First Annual Survivor Series was in my first order, along with a bunch of random tapes where I had no idea what matches I'd see or even from what timeframe, such as Crunch Classic. They were exciting times for a 12 year old.

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I always thought HMV would have been the biggest distribution channel?

 

Did you ever get sales figures from the retail stores? I always wondered who the hell would buy WWE dvds from the likes of hmv at them prices?

 

I must have bought plenty of videos from woolies and WHS in the early 90's though.

 

Virgin Megastores used to stock a lot of WWE VHS back then, so it was always there or Woolies. HMV was aways expensive back then.

 

Used to love the Mega Mail catalogues, seemed to have loads without ever ordering from Silver Vision as a kid. Were the catalogues given away with WWF Magazine?

 

Am I right in remembering I may have bought the Ric Flair book from you guys? If so why didnt you ever branch into selling other books?

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I think we did the Mega Mail once or twice in the WWE Magazine, but it cost an arm and a leg!

 

We did indeed sell books at one point, and the WWE Magazine too, for about 2 years - we had lots of customers from France for the magazines. We also sold the WWE comic books at one point too - Austin, Rock and Foley. We even sold WWE live event hospitality packages for 2 events I think.

Edited by Midnight Zeus
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It's sheer logistics. How many people would buy huge VHS sets? 18? There are minimum print runs that must be ordered. Even on DVD these were a tall order. No-one's going to pick up a set in Tesco.

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