WWE Vault Appreciation Thread

[Browser Brady]

On 10/30/2025 at 11:24 AM, theringmaster said:

Had a drink last night, one can lead to another and before I knew it, it was 1030pm on Wednesday, i'm drinking Jamesons and I'm watching Papa Shango. Those early matches and segments were brilliant, you could see how Vince felt he had the next big monster heel on his hands. 

Amazing they never brought Charles Wright back as Papa Shango at one of the Royal Rumbles for a nostalgia spot.

[SaitoRyo]

23 minutes ago, Browser Brady said:

Amazing they never brought Charles Wright back as Papa Shango at one of the Royal Rumbles for a nostalgia spot.

He mentioned in the past few years that they wanted him to do the Three Faces of Foley spot and enter as Kama, Godfather and Shango one year but it got scrapped (I think because of COVID?).

[JNLister]

In case anyone missed it, Vault is currently doing one of their "live marathons", where they just play a loop of stuff for days on end, this time for home video compilations:
 

 

If you're of a certain age, it's a fun game to randomly fire it up and see how quickly you can identify the tape.

[wandshogun09]

2 hours ago, SaitoRyo said:

He mentioned in the past few years that they wanted him to do the Three Faces of Foley spot and enter as Kama, Godfather and Shango one year but it got scrapped (I think because of COVID?).

I love the idea of Charles Wright showing up at the arena with dreadlocks so he can enter the Rumble as The Godfather, getting eliminated, going backstage and shaving his hair into a mohawk so he can enter again as ‘Supreme Fighting Machine’ Kama, getting eliminated, then rushing backstage again to completely shave his head and paint his face to enter again as Papa Shango. What a fuck about that would’ve been. You’d almost have to let him win the whole thing after that carry on. 

[davertfnewman]

That Godfather hair was always something stuck on/sewn on. Him, Scorpio and Road Dogg went from short hair to long hair overnight in '98, unlike Marc Mero who had to arduously grow it out for ages.

[SoloJones]

Surely got to be an urban myth than something that was actually serious, there's barely any nostalgia pops in the men's rumble any more, and I can't imagine anybody giving the tiniest bit of a shit about Kama.

[tiger_rick]

Watched this again recently. Still masterful. Can't agree with anyone who thinks the gimmick is the issue with these matches. It's the company's complete inability to create issues that need it, the times they choose to do them and the poor quality of the work and the agenting of the matches themselves. That goes back to WCW too, they did very few of these matches well after this one.

[air_raid]

36 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Watched this again recently. Still masterful. Can't agree with anyone who thinks the gimmick is the issue with these matches. It's the company's complete inability to create issues that need it, the times they choose to do them and the poor quality of the work and the agenting of the matches themselves. That goes back to WCW too, they did very few of these matches well after this one.

If the 1992 Royal Rumble isn’t this best match of all time, then this is.

[wandshogun09]

1 hour ago, tiger_rick said:

Watched this again recently. Still masterful. Can't agree with anyone who thinks the gimmick is the issue with these matches. It's the company's complete inability to create issues that need it, the times they choose to do them and the poor quality of the work and the agenting of the matches themselves. That goes back to WCW too, they did very few of these matches well after this one.

100%. The drop off in quality between the 92 War Games and the 93 War Games is depressing. All the ones I’ve seen pre-92 were good-great, 92 tops them all, and they were all presented as serious and dangerous matches. Then 93 comes around and they make the sodding Shockmaster the focal point and let him end the match with a bearhug. Rotten. I don’t think War Games ever fully recovered, although I remember enjoying a couple (94 with Dusty’s team vs Stud Stable and 96 with the NWO), most of the post-92 ones are shite.

Haven’t seen any of the WWE ones and I don’t want to because all I’ve read about them is negative. There’s no reason you can’t make War Games work as long as you have the right cast of characters and, like you say, a reason for the stipulation. I’ve never been a fan of shows being based on a gimmick match except for the Royal Rumble and to a lesser extent the Survivor Series elimination matches. Having a PPV specifically titled ‘Hell In A Cell’ or ‘Elimination Chamber’ or ‘War Games’ every year kills the gimmicks to me and waters down the stipulation because you’re forcing the match for the sake of it. WCW were just as guilty with Fall Brawl being War Games every year. It becomes ‘Oh it’s September so we’ve gotta throw together two teams for War Games’ instead of something more organic. Having a genuine grudge match that necessitates the gimmick rather than a gimmick that just needs bodies for a match is always better. 

[Chico Torres]

The 1994 War Games is great, it just suffers from being bloodless but otherwise it’s a fantastic match. Despite being the forums Battlebowl 1993 and King of the Ring 1995 truther, I can’t defend the 1993 War Games but as great as 1992 is, I would argue the original 1987 one is just as great. 

I can’t find it but I know I’ve seen it online somewhere, there a scan from a 1992 WCW magazine previewing War Games where it shows all the different feuds between the 2 teams and it highlights how amazing that period was from when Rude showed up at Havoc 1991 until War Games 1992 where every tv show - Saturday Night, Worldwide, Pro, Main Event, Power Hour - had one of multiple singles, tags, 6 mans or 8 mans between various combinations of Dangerous Alliance members and babyfaces and they were all great.

Here’s a great 8 man from Saturday night

 

[Chico Torres]

Apologies for double post but here’s the scan

[Chili]

The first five minutes with Barry Windham beating the piss out of Steve Austin so much that Windham's taped up fist ends up red is what every War Games opening should be. Shithouse heel who has had run-ins, cheating and interference to get away with wins, getting absolutely battered because they're trapped and cowards at heart and the babyface is absolutely zoned in on getting revenge. Lovely stuff. It's a match that can never be bettered.

Edited November 21, 2025 by Chili

[BomberPat]

something I see a lot in the modern era that I think is fundamentally missing the point is people assuming that a gimmick match is intended to be a feud ender, and that what a wrestling promotion tells you the point of a match is really is what that match is intended to do - so they get pissy at the booking when someone interferes in a cage match, or when a feud continues past the gimmick.

In reality, for most of wrestling history, gimmick matches were feud extenders where the point is to tell the audience that this time the heel can't possibly get away with what they've been getting away with; if they're in a steel cage, then they can't run away, and their mates can't get involved for them. So the audience pay their money to finally see the heel get what's coming to them, only for the heel to still find some way to win despite the stipulation, so you have to come back next week and hope that this time they don't get away with it again. It's why Memphis and Mid-South have a lot of really insane stacked gimmicks - the Loser Leaves Town Tuxedo Street Fight Coal Miner's Glove On A Pole Steel Cage Match, for example. War Games is great in that it can give you those moments of the heel being trapped with nowhere to run, but still come out with a heel win that continues the feud, without feeling like you've been screwed out of a decisive finish, because there's so many other people in there that still want to keep fighting beyond this one match.

The problem with that, and with any kind of gimmick match that hasn't grown into a stunt show, is that it only works if you really want to see the babyface win, and really want to see the heel get beaten up, and if you can get some genuine satisfaction out of seeing the heel get bested, and some genuine disappointment at seeing the heel win - and for that disappointment to be directed at the heel for finding a way to cheat a victory, rather than at creative for booking the heel to win. That last point is almost impossible today. But WWE's booking and style in particular these days is pretty much the complete antithesis of everything that makes a War Games match work, and even in WCW, the worst War Games matches were generally when they lost sight of who they were and were trying too hard to mimic the WWF formula.

Edited November 21, 2025 by BomberPat

[The Reverend]

1 hour ago, Chico Torres said:

 

I can’t find it but I know I’ve seen it online somewhere, there a scan from a 1992 WCW magazine previewing War Games where it shows all the different feuds between the 2 teams and it highlights how amazing that period was from when Rude showed up at Havoc 1991 until War Games 1992 where every tv show - Saturday Night, Worldwide, Pro, Main Event, Power Hour - had one of multiple singles, tags, 6 mans or 8 mans between various combinations of Dangerous Alliance members and babyfaces and they were all great.

 

Too right! I have a 12 disc Dangerous Alliance comp somewhere at home from my tape trading days. It is just stacked full of great matches even, as mentioned above, from the most mundane TV shows. I don't even know if the 12 discs covers everything. Amazing to think that the D.A weren't even around for a full calendar year either!! I know it wasn't all good, but with this, the Royal Rumble as well, 1992 really was a glorious year to be a fan

[Chili]

Good old network. Never seen these before, Elizabeth actually showing a load of unseen chirpy charisma in the first advert too. Were the LJN figures big in the UK or did the Hasbro line really launch the UK market for their action figures.