WWE Vault Appreciation Thread

[davertfnewman]

Just a shit match where both guys could very easily have rattled if you shook them. I do like Rude going forward by wearing his new black robe but backward by wearing his Royal Rumble '89 boots. I thought he was wearing some New Japan tour tights as well, with a picture of Hiroshi Hase behind his right knee, but that's Johnny B Badd.

[wandshogun09]

Rude was on a terrible run of form at that time. At the time of that Hawk match in November, he was coming off back-to-back stinkers against Ric Flair at Fall Brawl and Halloween Havoc. I enjoyed his matches with Dustin Rhodes earlier in the year but his 93 was mostly a write-off after a strong 92 (apart from the rotter against Chono at Havoc). I love Rude but if he didn’t gel with an opponent or he wasn’t feeling it on a specific day for whatever reason, he was capable of some awful matches. 

[davertfnewman]

I was watching the Halloween Havoc match a year or so ago for the first time in decades and I mentioned to my mate that Rude didn't look good and had a pretty runny nose... which then proceeds to drop all over Flair's back. No wonder he wasn't a fan of him. It's Adonis/Spivey with the snotty sleeper all over again.

[The Reverend]

If anyone who is collating the WWE Vault is reading this, after your awesome WWE and WCW Channels on Youtube, could you release a 'Best of the Rest' channel please and thank you. I know there's been a few bits and pieces released on the WWE channel, but it would be great to see some WCCW, Smoky Mountain, Louisville, Georgia etc, released - there must be some hidden unseen gems in the vaults of the territories too. 

 

[WyattSheepMask]

18 minutes ago, The Reverend said:

If anyone who is collating the WWE Vault is reading this, after your awesome WWE and WCW Channels on Youtube, could you release a 'Best of the Rest' channel please and thank you. I know there's been a few bits and pieces released on the WWE channel, but it would be great to see some WCCW, Smoky Mountain, Louisville, Georgia etc, released - there must be some hidden unseen gems in the vaults of the territories too. 

 

Basically, we’d like the Network back please

[waters44]

I’m so depressed we’ve lost the Network. I honestly thought Netflix would have it somewhere but I’ll hold my hands up and say I got that completely wrong. 

There’s nothing other than WWE and even then there’s massive gaps. I wanted to watch some old Raws and there’s hardly any available. 

I didn’t think I’d ever need my Raw DVD sets and just threw them in the bin.

WWE Vault is great but having that library at our fingertips - if only we knew we were in the good ol days when we’re in the good ol days

I seriously may have to get back in the trading scene if it even exists anymore 

[The Reverend]

3 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

Basically, we’d like the Network back please

Basically - yeah! But at least a few well curated examples of classic regional stuff would be ace. There is so much stuff that they could do with this, particularly some of the features they've done on specific wrestlers would be great with some of the rarer Race, Rhodes, Sullivan etc. matches. 

Also, and I doubt they own the rights anyway, but a decent upload of the that PWI 'Lords of he Ring' compilation. Watching this as a kid blew my mind that there was other wrestling other than WWF or WCW. It's not the best, but I have a lot of fondness for it, and IIRC it did cram a lot into its short running time. 

[jm29195]

2 hours ago, waters44 said:

I’m so depressed we’ve lost the Network. I honestly thought Netflix would have it somewhere but I’ll hold my hands up and say I got that completely wrong. 

There’s nothing other than WWE and even then there’s massive gaps. I wanted to watch some old Raws and there’s hardly any available. 

I didn’t think I’d ever need my Raw DVD sets and just threw them in the bin.

WWE Vault is great but having that library at our fingertips - if only we knew we were in the good ol days when we’re in the good ol days

I seriously may have to get back in the trading scene if it even exists anymore 

Completely agree with this. I already had Netflix, so I'm £9.99 pcm better off, but I'd happily have continued to pay this in order to continue to able to access everything that was on the Network. Just a bizarre decision to me from WWE, choosing to limit access to their library and cutting a revenue stream in order to do so. Was there an exclusivity agreement with Netflix or something?

[The Reverend]

2 minutes ago, jm29195 said:

Completely agree with this. I already had Netflix, so I'm £9.99 pcm better off, but I'd happily have continued to pay this in order to continue to able to access everything that was on the Network. Just a bizarre decision to me from WWE, choosing to limit access to their library and cutting a revenue stream in order to do so. Was there an exclusivity agreement with Netflix or something?

I don't know about this kind of stuff - but would it be that there would just be too much to transfer over to Netflix? I guess they wanted the most popular stuff in order to lure in new subscribers. Although we all love it, it'd be interesting to know just how many views some of the older territory stuff had on the Network. 

[jm29195]

Just now, The Reverend said:

I don't know about this kind of stuff - but would it be that there would just be too much to transfer over to Netflix? I guess they wanted the most popular stuff in order to lure in new subscribers. Although we all love it, it'd be interesting to know just how many views some of the older territory stuff had on the Network. 

Agree with what you are saying about the older territory stuff but not having complete back catalogues of RAW and Smackdown almost a year in is just odd. When they have series of things on Netflix, it's odd not to see every season on there and not just random episodes out of context like we have for most of RAW and Smackdown. 

[Snitsky's back acne]

My only issue with the Network - and the subsequent YouTube channels - is an unavoidable one but it does disappoint me.

I appreciate music cannot be used without paying loads so you will never get the beauty of an "Enter Sandman" entrance but the editing and altering of old footage like that is sad in my opinion.

Also, we know it was WWF. Just allow WWF to be shown/said. We know there were things that were unacceptable or in bad taste but let them be shown. Put a disclaimer up. I acknowledge that I'm that grumpy middle aged guy who is shouting at clouds by the way but it just grinds my gears.

Still, it gives way to bootleg stuff I suppose. "Hey I've got an original copy SummerSlam 1989 with Rick Rude's original entrance theme. It's a collectors item". 

[WyattSheepMask]

1 hour ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

My only issue with the Network - and the subsequent YouTube channels - is an unavoidable one but it does disappoint me.

I appreciate music cannot be used without paying loads so you will never get the beauty of an "Enter Sandman" entrance but the editing and altering of old footage like that is sad in my opinion.

Also, we know it was WWF. Just allow WWF to be shown/said. We know there were things that were unacceptable or in bad taste but let them be shown. Put a disclaimer up. I acknowledge that I'm that grumpy middle aged guy who is shouting at clouds by the way but it just grinds my gears.

Still, it gives way to bootleg stuff I suppose. "Hey I've got an original copy SummerSlam 1989 with Rick Rude's original entrance theme. It's a collectors item". 

If you were to have an Xtreme Wrestling Torrents account, there are ECW Packs on there that someone has lovingly restored the original music and inserted any other missing pieces over/alongside the Network footage. , giving you everything in the best quality possible. Im fairly sure there was someone doing the same for WCW.
If you have the time and hard drive space it’s definitely worth looking into……so I’m told.

Aa for the other issues regarding the old territory stuff - apparently those were very low in terms of people watching on the network. I can understand why Netflix wouldn’t have been interested in it. 
Id have been perfectly happy to have continued paying my tenner a month if it had just transferred over to Netflix and you had to pay an add-on to watch it

Edited November 18, 2025 by WyattSheepMask

[The King of Old School]

Watching Jericho come out in WCW to his "break the walls down" theme tune just feels very odd.

[The Gaffer]

Conversely, I continue to Mandela Effect myself with Harlem Heat's theme and keep refusing to buy that - yes - that pretty much is Booker T's WWE theme and they were using it all those years in WCW. 

[davertfnewman]

Kind of a "Yes, yes, yes! No, no, no!" situation, then?