Ok back in 1991 when i first got in to wrestling, i use to watch shows like WWF Superstars, Wrestling Challenge and Prime Time Wrestling.
Being in the UK, i would look forward to Superstars, which would be shown on Friday nights. I was always looking forward to seeing the latest news or feud segments which they would have. Back then it was the only way to keep up to date with what was going on. We would be treated to a main event, which wouldn't be between the major top drawers, which was not cool.
Now at times Superstars would be screened where all the matches would be with jobbers, which was annoying.
I would like to know when they only showed jobber matches, the fans who attended these events wouldn't they be disappointed? Or did they have matches between the top superstars, which were not shown on tv? How long would a Superstars taping event actually be?
Having seen a bunch of matches on youtube with the top superstars (Hogan, Warrior, UT etc) were these matches also taped or where they at the house shows? I have noticed that house shows seemed to have dimmer lights. At the house shows would the cards be all major match ups or a mixture including jobber matches?
Finally i did see some match where in the arena they had a banner up showing 'Collesium Video', i think it was UT v Razor Ramon. Where there actual events which were taped just to be released on video? Or during certain events they would record matches which would be put on to a compilation video?
No, no, no. I will fill you in. I started watching wrestling in 1990, so not too much longer before you did.
WWE taped television every 3 weeks, so TV tapings for pretty rare, back then. You were very fortunate to get a TV taping in your market.
Here is the way it worked.
Superstars tapings would tape 3 weeks worth of jobber matches for Superstars ... and 3 weeks full of 1 hour tapings for Prime Time Wrestling. Superstars tapings were usually held on Monday nights.
Wrestling Challenge tapings were usually held on Tuesday nights, and they taped 3 weeks worth of jobber matches for Wrestling Challenge, and then taped the other half of the 3 weeks full of 1 hour matches for Prime Time Wrestling.
Being that Prime Time Wrestling was 2 hours, essentially Superstars and Wrestling Challenge shared the work load into each of their tapings. Therefore when Week 1 of Prime Time Wrestling was put together, they would take Week 1, Hour 1 of Prime Time matches from the Superstars tapings, and Week 1 Hour 1 of Prime Time matches from the Wrestling Challenge tapings, and combine that into the Prime Time show ... mixed with some segments from the studio.
Don't be fooled by the banners, as they had a computer device which automatically flipped the banners between Superstars/Challenge banners and Prime Time Wrestling banners. Later, they added a Coliseum Video banner as well. But all the Coliseum Video matches were done at the same Superstars and Challenge tapings. Sometimes they took from Madison Square Garden, as well.
The tapings themselves were LONG, and therefore very frustrating for a lot of people, since most people had to work the next day.
I was lucky enough to attend one Wrestling Challenge taping in Landover, MD back in 1992, and the show began at 7:45 and went until 12:05 AM.
The way the format of the actual taping went was as follows:
Dark match between Big Boss Man and Nailz (advertised first in the weeks leading up to the taping to try and get everyone there on time).
Then, they did a match for Prime Time Wrestling.
Then, they did the Week 1 tapings for Wrestling Challenge.
Next was a Prime Time Wrestling match.
Then, they did an Interview segment for Wrestling Challenge.
Then, they did Week 2 matches for Wrestling Challenge.
At this point Gene Okerlund came out to get the crowd to cheer as loud as they could while they filmed the crowd for the opening shots for Challenge and Prime Time. They also recorded the audio for fans cheering so that they could pipe it in during the matches.
Then, Okerlund had the crowd boo as loud as they could, so they could pipe this in, as well.
After that, Okerlund had everyone chant "Weasel, Weasel" so they could pipe this into the opening of the tapings. The reason this was done was because the actual commentators were actually never there at the tapings. Or they may have been there (obviously Vince was there), but they never appeared to the crowd. When you saw the opening of the segments with the commentators, they are actually standing in front of a blue screen, as those openings were filmed at the WWE TV Production studios in Stamford, CT.
After that stuff, they then did another interview segment for Challenge.
This was followed by 1 or 2 matches for Prime Time Wrestling.
Finally, around 9:45 or so, they filmed the final week of Wrestling Challenge matches, along with the Prime Time matches that followed.
Around 10:45 or so, they wrapped this up and began the Big Matches. Some were taped for Coliseum Video and others were simply Dark Matches.
They had:
British Bulldog vs Papa Shango
Randy Savage vs Razor Ramon (just debuted the night before in Hershey, PA)
The Undertaker vs Ric Flair for the WWF Title
Ultimate Warrior vs Kamala (final match and over in 2 minutes)
So the taping wrapped up a little past 12:00 AM the next morning. That was my first ever TV taping and I loved it, but my father who had to get up the next morning, was not pleased to say the least.
Hope that helps explain how the tapings worked back then. So no, people who were in attendance at Superstars and Wrestling Challenge tapings didn't just see those squash matches. Otherwise, there would be some quickly emptying arenas if that was all WWE was going to give them. WWE had to give them something to get the fans to sit through the squash matches, and the dark matches later on, was what that was.
