Blockbusters

[air_raid]

My very intro to wrestling was my mate Simon's sisters video shop on Warstones Road, Wolverhampton (not there anymore). The story about watching Mania VI then borrowing Survivors 90, 91 and 92 all on the same weekend, I've told many times - the symmetry therein of seeing Bret with the tag belts, the ICT then the big one was something I enjoyed greatly. I was soon into buying tapes but yes, I also borrowed them from my local video shop to do scart-to-scart copies. One tape in particular I remember squeezing WrestleFest 92, Rumble 89 and Battle of the Superstars 92 onto 1 3 hour tape on long play. Despite upgrading most of my copies to buying the tapes proper (and in fact selling some since), at my mums house I still have one - my copy of Survivors 92 for some reason I never bought "proper" nor taped over.

As a child, same shop also lent me Transformers, He-Man, Gobots, Ewoks, Droids and plenty of other cartoons. The row of shops also included a couple of newsagents and the chippy where I got my first donner kebab, and above said shops were some really scummy flats. My mate Wayne lived there, and when I lent him my Transformers they frequently came back dirty because he was unable to stop his little brothers burying them in what passed for a garden. There's nothing there now, the whole row is derelict while the council desperately looks for a buyer. I think every small town has a "nice side" and a "rough side" of the busiest main road that bisects it, and this is definitely the rough side.

[Mr_Danger]

I worked at a Global Video during the turn of the century. We didn’t stock wrestling tapes but we did used to watch erotic parody films when it was quiet. Erotic Planet of the Apes was a particular highlight.

[air_raid]

4 hours ago, Mr_Danger said:

Global Video

I probably still have my Global card from Aber somewhere. I feel like we've had this conversation before. Which is fitting because that's where I rented The Matrix, Fight Club, Memento and Identity, all of which left me a little confused.

Or maybe its a White Hole.

[Mr_Danger]

47 minutes ago, air_raid said:

I probably still have my Global card from Aber somewhere. I feel like we've had this conversation before. Which is fitting because that's where I rented The Matrix, Fight Club, Memento and Identity, all of which left me a little confused.

Or maybe its a White Hole.

Almost certainly spoke about it many times on here. Damaging a couple of bags of sweets and watching softcore porn with my buds in a public space was one of the happiest times of my life.

[bbabba]

Tapes I was able to rent.

Blockbusters ~1999:

• WCW/NWO "Superstar Series" Goldberg and Sting (light green background).
• WCW/NWO "The Best of" Great American Bash and Bash at the Beach (pink background)

Council library from ~1996-2001

• Wrestlemania 12
• In Your House Mind Games
• No Mercy 1999

I also bought from Blockbuster second hand:

• Survivor Series 1990
• Wrestlemania 9
• Survivor Series 1994

[Chico Torres]

Would always rent the WCW vids, personal faves included Capital Combat 90 (Robocop and country whipping matches), Halloween Havoc 91 for the Chamber of Horrors and inspirational Ron Simmons training montage and Starrcade 90 which was uncut.

My video shop also had a lot of USWA videos (Texas version not Memphis) like Renegades Rampage, The Main Event and Best of Kerry Von Erich. Haven’t watched them in 30+ years but loved them. Also a lot of UWF (Herb Abrams not Watts sadly) which were mostly shit but obviously watched them all.

There were also a lot of GLOW or GLOW equivalent videos which featured various farmers daughters and cheerleaders but never had the courage to rent them out because of the saucy covers. Renting wrestling vids and buying wrestling mags at the newsagents was already embarrassing enough.

[davertfnewman]

My origin story with wrestling takes place during the Easter holidays of 1991. My dad had been a wrestling fan already (remember my mom being called into the living room from the kitchen when she was doing chips on a Saturday lunchtime to see Kendo Nagasaki with his mask off, probably at the hands of Dave Taylor and Marc Rocco) who had borrowed a copy of WrestleMania VI off a workmate during Italia '90. I had picked up the Thumb Wrestler toys of Hogan and Sheik, which I called arsehole wrestlers and didn't get the concept of a Sheik and ended up calling him Shriek most of the time.

Anyway, my dad got into the idea of getting Sky TV, so it was booked in and the guys came first thing on a Friday, which I spent reading the expanded satellite TV guide, finding all sorts of cartoons and shows I planned on watching. Only problem was that the blocks and channels seemed to finish at 5pm and our installation concluded at 4:55pm, so I was left slightly frustrated with nothing to watch.

However, slightly later I was flicking through the channels and happened across a show set in a gym, but with cuts to matches. It was this particular episode of Prime Time Wrestling:

Quote

4/2/91 (2.8) – the show took place at Gold’s Gym in Venice Beach, CA with guest appearances by WWF Tag Team Champion the Nasty Boys & Jimmy Hart, WBF’s Mike Christian and WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan:
– The Mountie (w/ Jimmy Hart) pinned Koko B. Ware at 4:43 with a two-handed chokeslam; after the bout, the Mountie handcuffed his opponent to the bottom rope and assaulted him with the shock stick (3/15/91; Madison Square Garden)
– Ricky Steamboat pinned the Brooklyn Brawler at 1:58 with the flying bodypress (Steamboat’s return after a 3-year absence) (WWF Superstars – 3/11/91; Pensacola, FL; Civic Center)
– Greg Valentine pinned Dino Bravo (sub. for the Honkytonk Man) (w/ Jimmy Hart) with a small package at 8:53 after reversing Bravo’s attempt at the figure-4 (1/21/91; Madison Square Garden)
– Ted Dibiase (w/ Sensational Sherri) defeated Pat Armstrong via submission with the Million $ Dream at 1:02; prior to the bout, Dibiase officially introduced Sherri as his new manager (Wrestling Challenge – 3/12/91; Biloxi, MS; Coast Coliseum)
– The Bushwhackers defeated Black Bart & Joe Mirto at 3:24 when Butch pinned Mirto following the double gutbuster (Wrestling Challenge – 12/12/90; West Palm Beach, FL; Auditorium)
– The Big Bossman pinned Jim Corbitt at 2:16 with the sidewalk slam; after the bout, Bossman handcuffed his opponent to the middle rope and left him there (Wrestling Challenge – 3/12/91; Biloxi, MS; Coast Coliseum)
– Marty Jannetty pinned Pat Tanaka (w/ Mr. Fuji) at 10:52 by reversing a tombstone piledriver attempt and hitting his own for the win (WrestleFest 91) (3/15/91; Madison Square Garden)
– WWF IC Champion Mr. Perfect (w/ Bobby Heenan) pinned Reno Riggins with the Perfect Plex at 2:30; after the bout, Gene Okerlund interviewed Heenan on the interview platform until Andre the Giant appeared and crushed Heenan’s hand as he was shaking it, eventually bringing Heenan down to his knees before standing on his hand (Wrestling Challenge – 3/12/91; Biloxi, MS; Coast Coliseum)
– The Barbarian pinned Jim Brunzell with a boot to the face at 7:13 (3/15/91; Madison Square Garden)
– Kerry Von Erich pinned Scott Allen with the tornado punch at 2:57 (3/12/91; Biloxi, MS; Coast Coliseum)

Pretty much fell in love with it instantly. From there began the odyssey of watching Brian Dixon shows at the local Prince of Wales Theatre whenever they came by, Orig Williams shows on holiday in Rhyl, checking out the regular video rental places like Chaplin's/Video Days for some back catalogue videos dating back to WrestleMania I and joining other local ones like a corner shop that my gran and grandad got their papers from and sherbet lemons for me. The latter had an interesting collection of WrestleMania III (WITH Billy Jack Haynes blading in it), More/The Best of Saturday Night's Main Event and No Holds Barred. Love the first two videos, but couldn't get past the dookie scene of NHB and therefore have never completely watched it, nor do I plan to.