WWE Vault Appreciation Thread

[air_raid]

5 hours ago, BomberPat said:

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. 

This was round about the same time in December 97/early 98 they had another look at The Headhunters and even Paul Roma too. Odd times.

[Chili]

9 minutes ago, air_raid said:

This was round about the same time in December 97/early 98 they had another look at The Headhunters and even Paul Roma too. Odd times.

Didn't Rick Martel get a look in with Don Callis as his partner or was that just negotiations and never a match before Martel took the WWF offer. It would be interesting seeing Martel in that era though I see their run going about as well as the Quebecers 2nd run. 

[Browser Brady]

How likely is it that that the unedited version of the Blacktop Bully Vs Dustin Rhodes match from uncensored 95  actually exists ?

 

 

Edited May 25, 2025 by Browser Brady

[air_raid]

21 hours ago, Chili said:

Didn't Rick Martel get a look in with Don Callis as his partner or was that just negotiations and never a match before Martel took the WWF offer. It would be interesting seeing Martel in that era though I see their run going about as well as the Quebecers 2nd run. 

Martel and Callis were indeed floated as potentially bringing their tag team from Canadian indies to the WWF but WCW made Rick a better offer.

Here they are against Christian Cage & Adam Impact ;

 

[davertfnewman]

The Supermodels - pretty sure Martel or Callis did an interview saying they wanted to do a video of them wearing thongs on the beach, to which Martel said to Callis to give it a go in the WWF but he was going to see if WCW had anything for him.

Weird mashup of gear in that video above - looks like Survivor Series '90 boots, 1993 run jacket, and blue kneepads and trunks.

[Dai]

On 5/23/2025 at 2:03 PM, 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.   

Oh yes, there was one recently uploaded that was a triple threat against LOD and The Nasties. Was a cracker. Its great to see LOD and in particular Hawk just getting manhandled by Scotty. Dont think anyone else could get away with as much offense against Hawk as Scott did, probably because of the rep The Steiners had. There is also a match from NJPW from around this time, where I think its a 6 man tag with Sasaki as the third Road Warrior, and they suplex the shit out of both Hawk and Animal. Fantastic stuff. Im waiting to see if any of the Nitro's they upload soon have them against Public Enemy, as that would be a fun watch too I imagine.

 

Speaking of the WCW Vault, I hope one day they chuck all the Nitro's into a Playlist in order, which I think would be a great idea.

 

On the flip side to how great The Steiners were, the Vault seems to be focussing on 2000 Thunders too, which are absolute dog shit.

[SaitoRyo]

As if this could be anything less than a ridiculously fun hour of professional wrestling.

Features matches from PPV, Nitro and weekend shows like Saturday Night and WCW Pro. 

 

[davertfnewman]

Just to show a. how loaded with talent WCW was, but also b. how they wasted talent by doing nothing with them, they had a guy like Hector Garza on the books who looked and wrestled like the greatest Mexican babyface ever without wearing a mask and they did nothing with him.

[air_raid]

17 hours ago, davertfnewman said:

Just to show a. how loaded with talent WCW was, but also b. how they wasted talent by doing nothing with them, they had a guy like Hector Garza on the books who looked and wrestled like the greatest Mexican babyface ever without wearing a mask and they did nothing with him.

Objection. This was amazing.

 

[tiger_rick]

On 5/24/2025 at 5:00 PM, Browser Brady said:

How likely is it that that the unedited version of the Blacktop Bully Vs Dustin Rhodes match from uncensored 95  actually exists ?

From WCW? Someone probably taped an episode of Thunder In Paradise over it.

[The Reverend]

On 5/24/2025 at 5:00 PM, Browser Brady said:

How likely is it that that the unedited version of the Blacktop Bully Vs Dustin Rhodes match from uncensored 95  actually exists ?

 

 

How organised was the WCW library? I always assumed that up to a point it was in quite good shape being that it was part of the professional TBS set-up, but was this not the case? 

Speaking of WCW - One thing I'd love to see on the Vault channel for WCW is the all-nighters they did in the mid-90's. I remember watching these on DSF and they were a mix of random matches from all eras with links between in a studio from Tony Schiavone and Booby Heenan, which were like the old WWF primetime episodes. 

Edited May 27, 2025 by The Reverend

[tiger_rick]

32 minutes ago, The Reverend said:

I always assumed that up to a point it was in quite good shape being that it was part of the professional TBS set-up

They ran out of tape at a TV taping, had to give refunds on their first Internet audio broadcast because there was no audio and went over PPV time twice causing millions of pounds in refunds. Their video packages were absolutely dreadful and production snafus became a weekly event later on. It wasn't all bad but they certainly didn't take full advantage of being under the umbrella of a major television network.  

[Chili]

I believe the tape library itself took a while to restore and sort when WWF purchased them because some of it was just unlabelled shit in loads of boxes.

[davertfnewman]

2 hours ago, air_raid said:

Objection. This was amazing.

 

It was, but it was pretty much his high point, and not a lot else from there.

[CTXRussomark]

1 hour ago, tiger_rick said:

From WCW? Someone probably taped an episode of Thunder In Paradise over it.

Outside of the raw footage (which would be hours long if the changes in light throughout the version that aired are anything to go by) would there even be such a thing as an unedited version?  I thought the production guys had to piece the raw footage together after the "no blood" edict had already been given, so what aired is likely the only edit that would exist.