WWE Vault Appreciation Thread

[wandshogun09]

Oh I didn’t know what the headgear was with Rick either as a kid because why would I at 7 years old or whatever? I probably just assumed they were just earmuffs because he didn’t like the cold weather and I didn’t bat an eyelid at that. Set him apart as a bit of a goof though. A really dangerous, dopey but dead hard goof who liked suplexes and hated getting his ears cold. Made sense to me. 

Edited May 23, 2025 by wandshogun09

[SaitoRyo]

This is quite the sought-after footage, no? Pretty sure people have only ever seen fan photos of this before. 

 

[gmoney]

1 hour 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.

If you start from the beginning of 96 Nitros, there's such a great run of tag matches with the Steiners, Nasties, LOD, Harlem Heat, American Males and a few others. They're not what you'd call 5 star classics, but they're all good, hard hitting fun. My kind of wrestling.   

Edited May 23, 2025 by gmoney

[Chili]

5 minutes ago, SaitoRyo said:

This is quite the sought-after footage, no? Pretty sure people have only ever seen fan photos of this before. 

 

Yeah this is a clip people have wanted to see since the fan pic surfaced. Though honestly having just watched it, the most jarring thing for me was seeing Hogan having any contact with Damien Demento. Just seems like a funny combo you never thought had a moments interaction on-screen.

[SaitoRyo]

11 minutes ago, Chili said:

Yeah this is a clip people have wanted to see since the fan pic surfaced. Though honestly having just watched it, the most jarring thing for me was seeing Hogan having any contact with Damien Demento. Just seems like a funny combo you never thought had a moments interaction on-screen.

Damien Demento would've been able to put his kids through college after working loops with The Hulkster back in the late 80s, brother. 

[BomberPat]

1 hour ago, Chili said:

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!

I remember reading that the Tenta dark match in 2001 was because he was facing a guy he had a hand in training, and wanted to put his opponent over to the WWF, rather than because they were seriously looking at bringing Tenta back in. He put a shift in, though, and I definitely think they could have found a spot for him, though wrestling moved so quickly and Tenta always looked so much older than his age that I suppose the worry was either that he would end up looking like a relic, or that he had lost too much weight to convincingly be "Earthquake" any more and they couldn't think of anything new for him - but I still think they could have done for him what they did for Boss Man and just modernised the gimmick a bit, had him shave his head and wear different gear and just be a heavy/bodyguard for someone. 

Realistically, though, that dark match was December 2001. If they hadn't set themselves on all of the Rumble returns in 2002 actually getting a proper run, I think he'd have been a good fit as a one-off cameo, but they had an embarrassment of riches as far as their roster went, post-Invasion and with a lot of the bigger WCW names starting to become available, the nWo coming in within a couple of months. I can see why they wouldn't prioritise John Tenta at that time.


I never knew One Man Gang had a WWF match in 1998, though! I love this stuff, and find "tryouts" for guys who have been around for years very odd. Gang only would have been 38 then too, but would have seemed like such a throwback. I know he popped up in ECW around that time, but I'm fascinated by what an Attitude Era One Man Gang would have looked like. 

[Chili]

2 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I remember reading that the Tenta dark match in 2001 was because he was facing a guy he had a hand in training, and wanted to put his opponent over to the WWF, rather than because they were seriously looking at bringing Tenta back in. He put a shift in, though, and I definitely think they could have found a spot for him, though wrestling moved so quickly and Tenta always looked so much older than his age that I suppose the worry was either that he would end up looking like a relic, or that he had lost too much weight to convincingly be "Earthquake" any more and they couldn't think of anything new for him - but I still think they could have done for him what they did for Boss Man and just modernised the gimmick a bit, had him shave his head and wear different gear and just be a heavy/bodyguard for someone. 

Realistically, though, that dark match was December 2001. If they hadn't set themselves on all of the Rumble returns in 2002 actually getting a proper run, I think he'd have been a good fit as a one-off cameo, but they had an embarrassment of riches as far as their roster went, post-Invasion and with a lot of the bigger WCW names starting to become available, the nWo coming in within a couple of months. I can see why they wouldn't prioritise John Tenta at that time.


I never knew One Man Gang had a WWF match in 1998, though! I love this stuff, and find "tryouts" for guys who have been around for years very odd. Gang only would have been 38 then too, but would have seemed like such a throwback. I know he popped up in ECW around that time, but I'm fascinated by what an Attitude Era One Man Gang would have looked like. 

I believe Gang's tryout is the same show or around the time Crash Holly and Vic Grimes did a dark match so good they both got hired. Loads of dark matches I still want to see. I want to see Bart Gunn as 'Black Bart' in 1997/8 when they tried something with him that I'm not sure of.  All those Tuesday in Texas tryouts with the Harris Brothers and Godfather doing a gimmick called 'Sir Charles' (which I've always imagined probably looked a bit like Mr. Hughes or something, instead of a butler) and an infamous 2001 MSG match with Doring/Roadkill Vs Guido/Tony Mamaluke where Heyman told them to go all out to get a job and they did and got in shit for it for popping the crowd too much, or whatever petty reason they had to have a whinge.

[mim731]

35 minutes ago, Chili said:

Yeah this is a clip people have wanted to see since the fan pic surfaced. Though honestly having just watched it, the most jarring thing for me was seeing Hogan having any contact with Damien Demento. Just seems like a funny combo you never thought had a moments interaction on-screen.

Similarly the idea there was an overlap between Hulk Hogan and The Smokin' Gunns is something I had never considered til seeing this video and feels weird and massively incongruous. They feel like products of too very separate eras with far thicker boundaries. Weird. 

[Chili]

1 minute ago, mim731 said:

Similarly the idea there was an overlap between Hulk Hogan and The Smokin' Gunns is something I had never considered til seeing this video and feels weird and massively incongruous. They feel like products of too very separate eras with far thicker boundaries. Weird. 

Yeah its completely down to how we view that time change in a vacuum. Hogan leaving after Wrestlemania VIII really makes so many jarring 'they were on the same roster' so Smoking Gunns, Damien Demento, Bob Backlund in his return run and BOTH working Wrestlemania IX in back to back matches, Adam Bomb, Mr. Hughes, Jerry Lawler in his first run, Headshrinkers, Steiners. It just seems so odd doesn't it. Like watching an old SNL cast member appear host with a new batch.

[BomberPat]

41 minutes ago, Chili said:

 Godfather doing a gimmick called 'Sir Charles' (which I've always imagined probably looked a bit like Mr. Hughes or something, instead of a butler)

"Sir Charles" was Charles Barkley's nickname, so it was probably a play on that. So you can probably add "basketball player" to Charles Wright's list of gimmicks alongside pimp, voodoo witchdoctor, and black power activist, which isn't at all problematic when you see it all laid out like that.

[tiger_rick]

1 hour ago, gmoney said:

If you start from the beginning of 96 Nitros, there's such a great run of tag matches with the Steiners, Nasties, LOD, Harlem Heat, American Males and a few others. They're not what you'd call 5 star classics, but they're all good, hard hitting fun. My kind of wrestling.   

I stuck a Nitro on in the background the other day and it had back to back tag matches featuring WCW's big, bastard tag teams smashing each other. Think it was Harlem Heat v Sting and Luger and then Steiners v Fire and Ice. Should have been the template for AEW's tag division as soon as Hurt Syndicate got the belts. Put all the midget teams on ROH.

[tiger_rick]

1 hour ago, SaitoRyo said:

This is quite the sought-after footage, no? Pretty sure people have only ever seen fan photos of this before. 

 

Fascinating watch. Should have been Hogan v Gonzalez at Mania 9. Was just a Hogan feud in waiting.

[gmoney]

1 minute ago, tiger_rick said:

I stuck a Nitro on in the background the other day and it had back to back tag matches featuring WCW's big, bastard tag teams smashing each other. Think it was Harlem Heat v Sting and Luger and then Steiners v Fire and Ice. Should have been the template for AEW's tag division as soon as Hurt Syndicate got the belts. Put all the midget teams on ROH.

FUCKING YES MATE

[CTXRussomark]

3 hours ago, SaitoRyo said:

This is quite the sought-after footage, no? Pretty sure people have only ever seen fan photos of this before. 

 

Quite jarring seeing babyface Hogan essentially running away at the end.  Can't recall that happening too often, even with the likes of Zeus and Andre.  I guess it was never intended to air so he probably didn't give a fuck at the time, but must have been strange for the live crowd. 

[Chili]

Why WWE Vault, with these recent drops you are really spoiling us!