WWE Vault Appreciation Thread

[air_raid]

1 minute ago, TibBo said:

Even the 'Get well soon' Matilda campaign was just a cunning way to build the merchandise catalogue mailing list wasn't it?

Probably, Prichard admitted that’s what the Hogan friendship bracelet scheme was.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

The Ban The DDT campaign was as well. It was simply "give us your addresses please."

[Chili]

Was the Honky Tonk Man vote of confidence in 1986 another of these nifty little schemes too?

[Snitsky's back acne]

8 hours ago, air_raid said:

No chance did that happen. That would mean when they repurposed the same set of matches for a UK Fan Favourites and a German Fan Favourites tape, that they wasted money air mailing letters to both Ian Simister of Barnsley AND Herr Raid of Dortmund, just to say “Sorry, I know you asked for Adam Bomb vs Crush or IRS vs Chuck Norris, but we literally just taped Bomb vs IRS in a dinghy little community centre for Raw, can we put your name on that?” Doesn’t sound like something the cash-strapped WWF of the early/mid 90s would do. They were taking water coolers out of Titan Towers because they didn’t want to pay the bill any more, they weren’t posting anything that wasn’t a catalogue or similar invitation to spend money.

Are you saying the letters section of Powerslam magazine lied to me!?

[SaitoRyo]

 

[The Gaffer]

This is worth it alone for Sting running the ropes like a madman and clattering into Giant - who completely no sells it - at the start of the match.

Perfect photo/thumbnail as well that shows what wrestling is. Or at least should be. 

 

Edited May 21, 2025 by The Gaffer

[Merzbow]

The fact that WCW and WWF couldn't keep this kind of aura on The Giant for long is just baffling, you'd think it'd be one of the simpler stories you could tell.

[Vamp]

Has anyone managed to keep an aura on a monster like The Giant since the territory days? 

I suppose there's Brock but he wasn't a traditional monster and he was booked somewhat like a territory monster in his second run.

Its partly the curse of keep people around forever. Its a character with a very short shelf life unless you can move them in and out. 

[Chili]

Yes, that'll hit the spot thank you.

 

[jm29195]

Re the Earthquake matches, I was hopeful for a sec that they might have put Tenta vs Sabu from a WCW taping in 1995 on here. Foiled again!

[The King of Old School]

Tenta as Earthquake in 2001 just sounds so strange to me, I know they had him at Mania for the battle royal but still.

Thought he actually looked ok in that dark match, moved around quite well, crowd loved him.

Surprised he didn't end up in TNA at some point in 2002.

[Dai]

Earthquake in 2001 WWE is bizarre, but so is the obligitory thought that he was only 38. Does not compute that he was that age and seen as a relic from a bygone era.

 

The WCW vault churns out so much greatness, and the one big takeaway Ive had was just how good The Steiners were. A couple of the recent uploads had matches of them against The Nastys, and also Flash Norton and Ice Train, and its unbelievable how good they are, especially Scott. Has to be one of the great wastes of all time by not having him be a main eventer at some point in the 90s.

[Chili]

1 hour ago, The King of Old School said:

Tenta as Earthquake in 2001 just sounds so strange to me, I know they had him at Mania for the battle royal but still.

Thought he actually looked ok in that dark match, moved around quite well, crowd loved him.

Surprised he didn't end up in TNA at some point in 2002.

I've always thought he'd have been absolutely fine as another 'Surprise' 2002 Rumble entrant. No idea why they didn't pick him up, maybe it was just whatever mood Vince was in that day?

I think his lack of TNA run might be down to him being in All Japan and maybe with the time off he preferred the family time. 

There's a few more unseen Tenta dark matches actually. He faced Mr. Perfect around the same time as that Sam Houston tryout and in early 1998 he had one before an episode of RAW that got him rehired. One Man Gang had a tryout around then too. Basically, upload more WWE tryouts!

[wandshogun09]

26 minutes ago, Dai said:

The WCW vault churns out so much greatness, and the one big takeaway Ive had was just how good The Steiners were. A couple of the recent uploads had matches of them against The Nastys, and also Flash Norton and Ice Train, and its unbelievable how good they are, especially Scott. Has to be one of the great wastes of all time by not having him be a main eventer at some point in the 90s.

They were the bollocks weren’t they? My favourite tag team as a kid who didn’t have Sky Sports at the time and only had regular access to WCW Worldwide on ITV. But to be honest, they’d probably have been my favourites anyway even if I had been able to easily watch LOD vs Money Inc and the Natural Disasters around the same time. They had everything for me. The colourful outfits, the cool moves, two different and distinctive looks. Always loved that Rick had the amateur wrestling headgear and odd boots and Scott was at his physical peak back then in that he looked like a beast (although not to the cartoonish levels of the ‘Big Poppa Pump’ days later) but could also still move like a Cruiserweight. Nobody had a better bunch of double team moves either. The top rope bulldog off the shoulders and the terrifying DDT version blew me away as a kid.

Good shout on the matches against Scott Norton and Ice Train as well. They had quite a few matches against ‘Fire & Ice’ in 96 that I really enjoyed and they were the only matches I remember really liking of Norton and Ice Train. Just four big bastards chucking each other about and knocking lumps out of each other.

This is the era I associate with them most, when I became a fan…

They were both great but Scott was legit awesome back then. There was nobody else quite like him between 89 and about 94. A scary combination of freaky explosive power and then athleticism which a man of his build really had no right to have. Think Bron inherited a lot of that from his uncle even more than from his old man. 

Edited May 23, 2025 by wandshogun09

[Chili]

I like pretty much all the Steiners work except a lot of their squash matches in retrospect, because they are literally doing the opposite of what you are meant to accomplish in wrestling and taking care of the opponent. It's worse because it's actively known how openly who gives a fuck they were about it. Which I'm not into, pair of fucking horrible nutters just absolutely bodying some enhancement talent on the basis they could. Sid wasn't a cunt like that.

Put them against actual guys who probably made a gentleman's agreement or were into that style, it's grand, do as you wish. Then you get some absolutely incredible matches and they really shine. They are amazing when against a really good team.

Also, I had no idea what the amateur headgear was about with Rick Steiner as a kid. I had no idea what it was obviously so, and I'm being completely honest here, I thought Rick Steiner wore it because he was DEAF and it protected his ears or something.