WWE Vault Appreciation Thread

[Browser Brady]

Double post.

Edited February 22, 2025 by Browser Brady

[Ro_y Disco]

Has The Big Event ever been released before? It gives me hope they might upload footage of the "10 year anniversary" show WWF Xperience. I occasionally read the card for this one and marvel at just how mental it is! A strap match, a lumberjack, a casket match and a ladder match all on one show in 1996!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWF_Xperience?wprov=sfla1

[tiger_rick]

1 hour ago, Ro_y Disco said:

Has The Big Event ever been released before?

Yeah, there was a VHS release. 

[AshC]

It was on the Network as well. Still cool though!

[BigJag]

14 hours ago, Browser Brady said:

 

So this is “The Big Event” from August 1986 that drew a crowd of approximately 65,000 to CNE stadium in Toronto. Just uploaded today. 

I remember ordering this from a tape trader. Never got around to watching it. Thanks for highlighting the upload.

The opening intro is a bit bizarre. Really enjoying the show.

[Snitsky's back acne]

3 hours ago, BigJag said:

I remember ordering this from a tape trader. Never got around to watching it. Thanks for highlighting the upload.

The opening intro is a bit bizarre. Really enjoying the show.

It's bonkers that this was just a house show. Hogan v Orndorff was a massive draw. 

[2Xtreme_lives]

20 hours ago, Ro_y Disco said:

Has The Big Event ever been released before? It gives me hope they might upload footage of the "10 year anniversary" show WWF Xperience. I occasionally read the card for this one and marvel at just how mental it is! A strap match, a lumberjack, a casket match and a ladder match all on one show in 1996!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWF_Xperience?wprov=sfla1

There's been a fan cam around for some time but not wwf standard by any means. Let's hope as you miss a lot from the fan cam 

[air_raid]

22 hours ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

It's bonkers that this was just a house show. Hogan v Orndorff was a massive draw. 

Pardon??

It's August 1986. Wrestling on PPV was in its infancy. The WWF had only done 2 and only 1 of them got many buys. House shows were the primary source of income for pro wrestling companies. You made your money by selling tickets.

[The Reverend]

33 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Pardon??

It's August 1986. Wrestling on PPV was in its infancy. The WWF had only done 2 and only 1 of them got many buys. House shows were the primary source of income for pro wrestling companies. You made your money by selling tickets.

Literally came on here to say the same thing. Back then it was all about the house shows. Hence why over the years so many big feuds never ended up on TV - Warrior vs Undertaker, Kamala vs Hogan (87), Hogan vs Flair and why various match types never took place on TV either - like the Desert Storm matches Hogan had with Slaughter, and the King of the Ring - a house show staple throughout the 80's. TV was just a way of advertising the house show circuit. And back then with an A,B and a C show running it was where the money was, not only in ticket sales but the highly lucrative 1980's merchandising too. 

Other than this one and the original Wrestlefest in 1988, it's surprising that the WWF didn't try more big one off house shows in the 80's and 90's.  A big one based off Flair vs Hogan would've made big money I'm sure. 

[Ronnie]

29 minutes ago, air_raid said:

The WWF had only done 2 and only 1 of them got many buys.

Presumably you're referring to WrestleManias I and II. If so, there was another PPV, lost to the mists of time, sitting between them: the awful The Wrestling Classic.

(Given your acuity, it wouldn't surprise me if your response was that you were including TWC because WM I was broadcast to specific locations on CCTV, not ordered by households for private consumption, as we would come to understand PPV. Fair enough. That was my thought, too, but checking up on things showed that Wikipedia has WM I listed as the first PPV and TWC as the second. And I bet the existence of The Wrestling Classic will be news to a few people reading, anyway. Every day's a learning day!)

[The Reverend]

On 2/22/2025 at 9:23 PM, Ro_y Disco said:

Has The Big Event ever been released before? It gives me hope they might upload footage of the "10 year anniversary" show WWF Xperience. I occasionally read the card for this one and marvel at just how mental it is! A strap match, a lumberjack, a casket match and a ladder match all on one show in 1996!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWF_Xperience?wprov=sfla1

It's gems like this (and footage shows that WWF cameras were filming it) that the Vault should be used for. McMahon was such a perfectionist and was obsessed with crowd reactions that I get the impression lots was filmed so he could keep a check on the shows he didn't attend.  I get the feeling that there's lots and lots of house show footage in the archives, and hopefully one day it'll get released on Youtube. There's the match (89 I think) between Perfect and Bret that they both said was better than their 91 SS match which hopefully may see the light of day. 

[The Reverend]

6 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Presumably you're referring to WrestleManias I and II. If so, there was another PPV, lost to the mists of time, sitting between them: the awful The Wrestling Classic.

(Given your acuity, it wouldn't surprise me if your response was that you were including TWC because WM I was broadcast to specific locations on CCTV, not ordered by households for private consumption, as we would come to understand PPV. Fair enough. That was my thought, too, but checking up on things showed that Wikipedia has WM I listed as the first PPV and TWC as the second. And I bet the existence of The Wrestling Classic will be news to a few people reading, anyway. Every day's a learning day!)

You're right - Wrestlemania I wasn't a PPV in the true sense of the word. From what I understand It was available to some in the NY area on a pay per view  format, and the rest of the country on closed circuit, but not actual PPV for a wider audience. That does make The Wrestling Classic (with its god awful ring that wouldn't look out of place in a Butlins for a brit show circa 1988) the first true WWF PPV (anyone wanting to see this monstrosity it is actually available on Netflix). The real shame of it is that the Wrestling Classic does have a too short match between Dynamite Kid and Randy Savage - had these two been allocated a proper 20 minutes or so it would've been, well a, classic.  

[air_raid]

26 minutes ago, The Reverend said:

Other than this one and the original Wrestlefest in 1988, it's surprising that the WWF didn't try more big one off house shows in the 80's and 90's.  A big one based off Flair vs Hogan would've made big money I'm sure. 

Well, it depends if "the 80's and 90's" we mean the actual decades or "The Hulkamania Era" because you've also got the Sammartino vs Zbyszko feud-ender in 1980 that did 35,000+ at Shea Stadium. One of the earliest high-profile WWF Andre vs Hogan matches underneath.

22 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Presumably you're referring to WrestleManias I and II.

Nah.

24 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

(Given your acuity, it wouldn't surprise me if your response was that you were including TWC because WM I was broadcast to specific locations on CCTV, not ordered by households for private consumption, as we would come to understand PPV.

Yep. Didn't include closed circuit, my reference to "only done 2 and only 1 of them got many buys" was directly related to the Classic doing a 2.53 buyrate (approx. 47,000 homes) and Mania 2 doing a 7.01 (approx. 250,000 homes).

[The King of Old School]

Was Wrestlefest 88 a similar deal to The Big Event/Wrestling Classic?

https://prowrestling.fandom.com/wiki/WWF_WrestleFest_1988

[tiger_rick]

1 minute ago, The King of Old School said:

Was Wrestlefest 88 a similar deal to The Big Event/Wrestling Classic?

https://prowrestling.fandom.com/wiki/WWF_WrestleFest_1988

Wrestlefest 88 was a big house show that they filmed for TV and home video. They were planning to do it again in 1990 but business was down and the Wrestlefest 90 home video was just the usual random collection of matches.