Where did they go?

[TomJones233]

I miss The Wrestling Channel. Sure you had your TNA but you also had your kooky and werid wrestling as well as ROH.

[PowerButchi]

6 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Did anyone ever have the 1998 series of VHS tapes that all looked like this? I don't remember ever seeing these in the wild before.

Never. I assume they were mail order only. I think the first they released in shops since the early-mid 90s was Uncensored 99 through Warner Brothers.

Edited December 29, 2020 by PowerButchi

[Merzbow]

That sounds about right, I bought a few of those '99 tapes from charity shops later on but would always see them being sold in MVC. There were a few really short "Best Of" tapes around then with a weird mixture of matches, they looked pretty bad.

The best thing was that they finally had t-shirts over here at the same time, looking like a dickhead with Hall & Nash on my chest.

[PowerButchi]

7 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

That sounds about right, I bought a few of those '99 tapes from charity shops later on but would always see them being sold in MVC. There were a few really short "Best Of" tapes around then with a weird mixture of matches, they looked pretty bad.

The best thing was that they finally had t-shirts over here at the same time, looking like a dickhead with Hall & Nash on my chest.

I bought this swank number from MVC during that period.

 

 

Best 14 (would have been 15 without an MVC card) quid I've ever spent.

[The Ratt]

8 hours ago, Merzbow said:

Did anyone ever have the 1998 series of VHS tapes that all looked like this? I don't remember ever seeing these in the wild before.

Yes I owned all of these. I used to order them monthly I think after initially seeing them advertised in Powerslam. 

As Butch said they were only available via mail order. If I remember correctly they released all the 1997 / 1998 events apart from the Halloween Havoc shows. (Which I can only think that there was an issue with the Slim Jim advertising all over the ringmat/posts which maybe caused an issue in the UK) . They also went back and did BATB 1996 and I think they had plans to release older shows but then Warner Bros took over the UK distribution in 1999. 

[Chris B]

12 hours ago, PowerButchi said:

Same. I think my favourite wrestlers in 1991 were Jerry Lawler (no change there) and the other Terry Garvin.

I always wondered how you had so much knowledge about feds like that, and seemed to have been following them so long ago. Good to finally learn.

[Maikeru]

I’m surprised to hear people went years not knowing what had happened to Hogan and Savage - WCW magazine had a short lived run here around 94/95 I think but PWI would have been in WH Smith’s throughout the decade right? What about the Billionaire Ted skits?

Definitely remember spending years wondering what happened to Warrior after ‘92 though. Also Sid Justice, Demolition Ax (knew who Repo Man really was think) and Dusty Rhodes (he was mainly behind the scenes in WCW at the time wasn’t he?).

 

[kidzero]

On 12/29/2020 at 11:05 PM, PowerButchi said:

Never. I assume they were mail order only. I think the first they released in shops since the early-mid 90s was Uncensored 99 through Warner Brothers.

There used to be a shop out my way that mostly sold books but for some reason the would always get the wcw videos in for sale thats how I got my wcw fix and I bought starrcade 98 as well as others

Edited December 31, 2020 by kidzero

[Kamaras-Tash]

22 hours ago, Maikeru said:

I’m surprised to hear people went years not knowing what had happened to Hogan and Savage - WCW magazine had a short lived run here around 94/95 I think but PWI would have been in WH Smith’s throughout the decade right? What about the Billionaire Ted skits?

Definitely remember spending years wondering what happened to Warrior after ‘92 though. Also Sid Justice, Demolition Ax (knew who Repo Man really was think) and Dusty Rhodes (he was mainly behind the scenes in WCW at the time wasn’t he?).

 

WCW mag had a run right through here in the North East till at least 98 from 91-ish, I was buying other mags as well so always seemed to know where people had gone along with Baron Von Rasche and that weird looking fella with the pointy top hair who was in the mags every month

 

Mongolian Mauler is the 1 I'm thinking of

Edited December 31, 2020 by Kamaras-Tash

[Jazzy G]

I used to ask the owner of the paper shop where I had my round to order the WCW magazine in for me every month. Not the comic, though. 

[tiger_rick]

On 12/30/2020 at 11:19 PM, Maikeru said:

I’m surprised to hear people went years not knowing what had happened to Hogan and Savage - WCW magazine had a short lived run here around 94/95 I think but PWI would have been in WH Smith’s throughout the decade right? What about the Billionaire Ted skits?

Don't recall ever seeing WCW magazine until after the nWo boom. Typical of WCW that by the time they really had merch out over here, UK tours and then a TV slot on Channel 5, they'd already gone to pot.

The figures and toy cars and stuff I remember seeing around 2000 was the first WCW stuff I'd seen sunce the Galoob figures and ring were in the Index/Argos catalogues around 91.

I do remember having a PWI (or similar) mag in the very early 90s. Always thought it was absolutely shite with it's black and while telephone book pages. It was no Match Or Shoot!, for sure. There's no way I'd gave bought that again. 

I know people give PowerSlam shit for never changing it's format but when I first discovered it around 97/98, I thought it looked great. It wasn't on the level of WWF Magazine, which was beautiful even more than a decade earlier, but it battered PWI. 

[wandshogun09]

I was big into WCW initially because I was able to follow it on ITV every week. We never had Sky until about late 95ish I think. My only exposure to WWF was through the videos my dad would buy, the hasbros and seeing it at my friend’s house who had Sky. I’ve got a vivid memory being around his house and seeing Ric Flair for the first time on WWF. Was probably in the run up to either WrestleMania or SummerSlam in 92 and he was in a suit having a confrontation with Macho Man and I think he was getting bumped around. I couldn’t believe it when my friend’s dad was telling me Flair was a wrestler. He just looked like an old man to me. I thought he was probably some President Jack Tunney figure. And that was 92. Little did I know I’d still be watching him 15 or so years later. That’s one of my earliest memories of wrestling at all. It must’ve been before I started getting the WCW videos and figures because I’d have been well aware of Flair by then.

Edit - it was definitely this! From before SummerSlam 92. The bit at the end...

 

Edited January 1, 2021 by wandshogun09

[Pier Six Brawler]

The early 90s WCW magazine was definitely sold here in WH Smith etc. It was published by the same people who did the Apter mags. At some point around late 93 or early 94 they brought it in house and I think it stopped being sold here. Then it came back later in the decade. Towards the end it became an insider mag.

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by Pier Six Brawler

[Mikeymike83]

38 minutes ago, Pier Six Brawler said:

The early 90s WCW magazine was definitely sold here in WH Smith etc. It was published by the same people who did the Apter mags. At some point around late 93 or early 94 they brought it in house and I think it stopped being sold here. Then it came back later in the decade. Towards the end it became an insider mag.

 

Not sure whether this was a popular/well known photo, but I swear I had that. 

My elder sister bought me a PWI once too, was from a second hand book store that had loads of old magazines in too. Like most who don't follow wrestling (at least back then anyway), she saw wrestling and thought it was purely WWF. Was from 91/92 ish (whenever Tito was transitioning to El Matador anyway), the main interview inside was of Santana talking of his Mexican heritage and becoming El Matador. I remember the rankings in the mag, and seeing all these established names I'd been familiar with but listed for WCW (And the like). 

There was also a set of trading cards which had a picture of a specific wrestler/match on the front with a 'humorous' caption on the image. For example, someone in a headlock would have a speech bubble with them 'saying' something like... "bleurgh, could have put some deodorant on". They seemed to be NWA/WCW heavy because I seem to recall Flair and Luger, amongst others, on these cards and recognising them once they appeared in the WWF.

[Kamaras-Tash]

5 hours ago, Pier Six Brawler said:

The early 90s WCW magazine was definitely sold here in WH Smith etc. It was published by the same people who did the Apter mags. At some point around late 93 or early 94 they brought it in house and I think it stopped being sold here. Then it came back later in the decade. Towards the end it became an insider mag.

 

Might have been a difference between shows as I was buying all the 96 ones etc. Not sure if I saw much from the 94/95 wise though