WWE Vault Appreciation Thread

[Chili]

Absolutely LOVE Repo Man just because of the effort and fun Barry Darsow has in the part. Do like it making a bit of sense having him reposess the title for DiBiase. Cute.

[air_raid]

On 12/3/2025 at 8:53 AM, tiger_rick said:

I always thought I was a bit odd for being instantly drawn to Bret Hart, despite him just being half of a tag team at the time but, when you go back and see old shows, you realise he always had a load of love amongst the fan base. They clearly tested it in 1989 and Survivors 89 is a great place to see it as he gets a tremendous reaction.

Yes. For those that haven’t seen it or don’t remember it, Chicago goes bananas when Bret tags in to go face to face with Randy Savage. Despite being several rungs above him on the totem pole, Randy goes out of his way to make Bret look his equal in a cracking mini match, until Dino Bravo tags in to suck the life out of everyone.

[wandshogun09]

Starrcade 92 up on the WCW channel…

Vividly remember renting this from Blockbuster as a kid. The ‘Lethal Lottery’ tag stuff is pretty wank as it usually was. Although there are some little highlights to be found like the Sting/Dr Death vs Jushin Liger/Erik Watts match. Just for the novelty of seeing Sting vs Liger for (I think) the only time, plus Watts’ hideous attempt at a dropkick that had such a lack of height on it that it would’ve probably just about clipped Hornswoggle in the bollocks. Plus there’s a nice little Vader vs Barbarian collision in the one match and Muta/Windham vs Pillman/Scorpio is decent while it lasts. None of it’s what it could be though. The usual rushed shite these ‘Battlebowl’ matches always were.

The stuff you want starts about 1h35m in with the cracking Steamboat/Douglas vs Windham/Pillman match. A precursor to the Hollywood Blonds series in 93, only with Windham in Austin’s place. Really good match and one of the only periods in Shane Douglas’ career when I found him genuinely good to watch.

Then around the 2 hour mark you get the Sting vs Vader match for the stupid ‘King Of Cable’ trophy. I don’t think they ever had a bad match together but this particular match is one of my favourites of their rivalry. Make sure you don’t skip the entrances though because you get to see Vader in a do-rag. 

Did make me laugh though how in the show opening video, they do the rundown of the card and haven’t bothered to take out the Ron Simmons vs Rick Rude bit, even though the match was already off. WCW all over. 

Edited December 8, 2025 by wandshogun09

[Snitsky's back acne]

I quite liked the Bill Watts era of WCW. It was very basic, no frills wrestling which provided a nice contrast to the OTT WWF at the time. 

[air_raid]

2 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Did make me laugh though how in the show opening video, they do the rundown of the card and haven’t bothered to take out the Ron Simmons vs Rick Rude bit, even though the match was already off. WCW all over. 

Reminds me of one of the first times I saw a Nitro-era PPV on home video release, Uncensored 97, the prerecorded intro video refers to Rey Rey challenging Prince Iaukea for his “newly won Cruiserweight title” even though Prince was TV champ - Syxx held the CWT.

2 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

I quite liked the Bill Watts era of WCW. It was very basic, no frills wrestling which provided a nice contrast to the OTT WWF at the time. 

Well, apart from frills like Lethal Lottery. And right before that, Spin The Wheel Make The Deal.

[JNLister]

Best part of Starrcade 92 is Scotty Flamingo getting increasingly pissed off at not being drawn. After the last match is determined, he punches a table and presumably fucks off home.

[poetofthedeed]

."The 10th annual starrcade 92"

Getting Pillman and Windham the wrong way round.

Talking about Muta and showing Mutoh.

The intro is utterly brilliant.

Sting breaking out Capo kicks and release German suplexes on Vader....... I love this show.

[The King Of Swing]

Pretty sure Starrcade 92 was the first WCW tape I ever bought. 

Always thought it was a fun show.

[Chili]

Yes, please and thank you.

It rightly includes the Death Match with Super Crazy where Tajiri starts skirting chairs into crowd and nearly beheading the front row of the ECW arena, the fans start giving him shit, so he bows at them like a right shithouse, and he'd be right to do so.

 

Edited December 12, 2025 by Chili

[wandshogun09]

Haven’t even clicked play on that yet and I know it’s full of gold. Love Tajiri. And that ‘Death Match’ with Super Crazy is tremendous. Their best match together for me, at least of the ones I’ve seen anyway. And every time it comes up I never ever pass up the chance to post this incredible bit of bastardry from the Buzzsaw…

[tiger_rick]

On 12/13/2025 at 5:01 AM, wandshogun09 said:

Haven’t even clicked play on that yet and I know it’s full of gold. Love Tajiri. And that ‘Death Match’ with Super Crazy is tremendous. Their best match together for me, at least of the ones I’ve seen anyway. And every time it comes up I never ever pass up the chance to post this incredible bit of bastardry from the Buzzsaw…

I watched through some on Friday and absolutely cried at this bit again. I love that Tajiri got the chance to be a star in the WWF but toning down his act took away a load of his natural charisma. 

[FLips]

He's right at the top of the list of most underrated wrestlers. Fantastic arsehole in ECW, and then went to WWE and was over as rover doing comedy spots and cruiserweight stuff. I'm sure someone will have one, but off the top of my head I can't think of a stinker he had, at least not in WWE. 

[BomberPat]

He was still brilliant in WWE, but there's stuff in those ECW matches that as good as anyone in wrestling at that time. It speaks to how good he is that he managed to fit into WWE well as a comedy act who could still go, and still be treated as a dangerous opponent, rather than just being reduced to a one-note stereotype, though. I've said before, there's a period of a few years from around 1999 to 2001 where you could make a strong argument for Tajiri being the most consistently great wrestler in the world.

[Chili]

The match against Steve Corino from Hardcore Heaven 2000 is worth a go. It's one of the only matches where Tajiri really comes across as terrifying. It's basically a 10 minute extended squash and it's Steve Corino bleeding buckets whilst Tajiri revels in kicking the absolute shit out of him in various ways with no intention of stopping. An proper heel getting a cathartic battering match. It's great.

I also love his TV debut against Crash Holly. Tajiri was great at extended squash matches, that kick when Crash is on the apron is out of this world. Also get a kick out of Regal at ringside realising this weird little fella he's got running errands for him is actually a killer!

 

 

Edited December 15, 2025 by Chili

[Snitsky's back acne]

Watching the Tajiri video reminds me how much I loved Cyrus and Joey Styles on commentary too.

Callis could go from comedy heel to genuine analysis within a single breath and both men played off each other very well.

"Fluent in all languages? I didn't know you were fluent in all languages?'
"I'm a cunning-linguist"
"I walked right into that one, didn't I?"
"Yup".