WWE Vault Appreciation Thread

[SpykeDudlei1]

7 hours ago, Merzbow said:

 

What a find! Got it straight on.

Second match and nice to see Michael PS Hayes on a UK trip where he won’t end up getting his precious hair cut on the flight home.

[JNLister]

Bulldog Vs Vegas from this show was on Worldwide a few weeks later. There was never any explanation of how or why the match was filmed, thought it seemed to be a "look, Bulldog, who is getting a world title shot soon, is well popular in Britain."

[SpykeDudlei1]

I love how in match 3, despite Cappetski telling the crowd in the pre-show announcements that Bill Watts’ inane ‘no top rope moves’ rule was in place, Ravishing Rick comes off the top rope with a move onto Van Hammer and Nick Patrick does diddly squat.

Ohhh…and now ‘Heavy Metal’ himself does the same followed by another Rude top roper.

Yeah…wrestling!

Edited March 22, 2025 by SpykeDudlei1

[wandshogun09]

Fantastic stuff. Although why isn’t it on the WCW Vault channel rather than the WWE one? OCD’s kicking in.

I hope there are more shows like this and unseen matches that they’re gonna uncover along these lines. They’re sitting on so much gold, including stuff like this which wasn’t even on the Network. There’s a WCW card from the Royal Albert Hall in October 93 that has a one-off Flair/Steamboat vs Hollywood Blonds match that I’m dying to see. I hope that match at least was filmed, and you’d think it would be, but it’s WCW we’re talking about so there’s a decent chance they didn’t bother. 

[davertfnewman]

7 hours ago, SpykeDudlei1 said:

I love how in match 3, despite Cappetski telling the crowd in the pre-show announcements that Bill Watts’ inane ‘no top rope moves’ rule was in place, Ravishing Rick comes off the top rope with a move onto Van Hammer and Nick Patrick does diddly squat.

Ohhh…and now ‘Heavy Metal’ himself does the same followed by another Rude top roper.

Yeah…wrestling!

Technically, what was still disallowed was knees or shots to the throat or head from the top rope on a prone person, which Watts had already differentiated. That said, people like Bobby Eaton were still using them as soon as Watts was out (which he was here).

 

[wandshogun09]

The top rope rule (and taking away the mats around the ring) would’ve been stupid at any time but it was particularly goofy in 1992 when they were supposedly trying to establish a Light Heavyweight division. Why bother bringing in guys like Liger if you want them to wrestle pretty much like everyone else? Thankfully Watts was on the way out by the time 2 Cold Scorpio came in at the end of 92 and they’d already abandoned the top rope rule by then anyway due to a ‘fan vote’. AKA - ‘Yeah we know we’ve fucked up so we’re just gonna pretend that rule was never a thing’. 

[SpykeDudlei1]

3 hours ago, davertfnewman said:

Technically, what was still disallowed was knees or shots to the throat or head from the top rope on a prone person, which Watts had already differentiated. That said, people like Bobby Eaton were still using them as soon as Watts was out (which he was here).

 

Ahh ok, my ageing memory had forgotten that.

12 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

The top rope rule (and taking away the mats around the ring) would’ve been stupid at any time but it was particularly goofy in 1992 when they were supposedly trying to establish a Light Heavyweight division. Why bother bringing in guys like Liger if you want them to wrestle pretty much like everyone else? Thankfully Watts was on the way out by the time 2 Cold Scorpio came in at the end of 92 and they’d already abandoned the top rope rule by then anyway due to a ‘fan vote’. AKA - ‘Yeah we know we’ve fucked up so we’re just gonna pretend that rule was never a thing’. 

Unless I didn’t hear right on this video (admittedly the sound wasn’t the best) I’m sure Gary Michael Cappetta was announcing that the rule was still in place here in Mar 1993 but maybe I misheard.
 

[davertfnewman]

GMC was announcing Watts' rules as well as the updated top rope rule.

Sadly, although the likes of Les Thornton, Tony Charles, Nelson Royal and others of their ilk were masters of their craft, the light-heavyweight genre was no longer ground-based technical wrestling with fluidity and grace, which is Watts thought they could go back to. Genie was out of the bottle with Liger flying all over the place and Pillman trying to keep up.

[wandshogun09]

17 minutes ago, SpykeDudlei1 said:

Unless I didn’t hear right on this video (admittedly the sound wasn’t the best) I’m sure Gary Michael Cappetta was announcing that the rule was still in place here in Mar 1993 but maybe I misheard.

Didn’t even watch the video, just going off my memory, which could be a bit off. I’m pretty sure they did a poll on whether they should keep or sack off the top rope rule at the Clash in September 92 and the results were overwhelmingly ‘fuck it off’. They even had to put a No DQ stip on the Steamboat vs Austin match on that show, just to allow Steamer to hit his flying cross body finish off the top without technically breaking the silly rule. Right pain in the arse.

Maybe the rule was back in 93 though. It’s WCW, no point losing brain cells trying to make sense of this shit. 

[SpykeDudlei1]

37 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

Didn’t even watch the video, just going off my memory, which could be a bit off. I’m pretty sure they did a poll on whether they should keep or sack off the top rope rule at the Clash in September 92 and the results were overwhelmingly ‘fuck it off’. They even had to put a No DQ stip on the Steamboat vs Austin match on that show, just to allow Steamer to hit his flying cross body finish off the top without technically breaking the silly rule. Right pain in the arse.

Maybe the rule was back in 93 though. It’s WCW, no point losing brain cells trying to make sense of this shit. 

True. Could turn brains to mush trying to do that.

Meanwhile, just up to the match between Cactus and Vader. Sweet Jesus the Slam Jam-era theme tune (it wasn’t actually on the album) they did for Vader was horrific although first and only time I’ve heard it. I know most of them were dreadful anyway but at least some were either cheesily catchy or presented an opportunity to create our own lyrics which a mate and I used to do*. His was just shite!

*example lyrics to Barry Windham’s ‘Smokin’ theme…

“Big and tall, lean and mean…his family like to print counterfeit green…his daddy was a forger, his brother was too…the three of them together made a buck or two”

Edited March 23, 2025 by SpykeDudlei1

[JNLister]

8 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Fantastic stuff. Although why isn’t it on the WCW Vault channel rather than the WWE one? OCD’s kicking in.

I hope there are more shows like this and unseen matches that they’re gonna uncover along these lines. They’re sitting on so much gold, including stuff like this which wasn’t even on the Network. There’s a WCW card from the Royal Albert Hall in October 93 that has a one-off Flair/Steamboat vs Hollywood Blonds match that I’m dying to see. I hope that match at least was filmed, and you’d think it would be, but it’s WCW we’re talking about so there’s a decent chance they didn’t bother. 

I was at this match (which was part of a late cobbled-together card thanks to the Sid/Arn scissors deal) and it was tremendous. I don't remember any sign of it being filmed, but then there's a good chance seeing it again would spoil the memory of how good it was. 

[air_raid]

20 hours ago, Merzbow said:

 

@Jazzy G Hope this brings back some memories for you.

[JNLister]

5 hours ago, davertfnewman said:

Technically, what was still disallowed was knees or shots to the throat or head from the top rope on a prone person, which Watts had already differentiated. That said, people like Bobby Eaton were still using them as soon as Watts was out (which he was here).

 

Even watching it at the time from a more innocent perspective, it was very obvious this was a way for Watts to get things back to normal without admitting that he dropped a bollock. It's also to keep his logic of "if something is banned, it makes it more impactful when a heel does it" without completely screwing up the whole appeal of the light-heavyweights.

[TheScarlettChad]

Love the Auld Granny asking if "Big" Barry Windham is married. And she loved Marcus Alexander Bagwell, Buff is The Stuff with the auld ladies.

[SpykeDudlei1]

4 minutes ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Love the Auld Granny asking if "Big" Barry Windham is married. And she loved Marcus Alexander Bagwell, Buff is The Stuff with the auld ladies.

Creased me that. I was waiting for her to start talking about Mick McManus, Jackie Pallo and Big Daddy so that threw me a little ?