WWE Vault Appreciation Thread

[Browser Brady]

Are any of the WCW Thunders recently posted any good ?

I normally associate anything 2000 era WCW as automatically being shite but said i’d take a chance and watched one posted a few weeks ago that had like a 30 man battle royal that nearly broke my brain…

 

I’ve been gun shy ever since about watching them.

[tiger_rick]

5 hours ago, Browser Brady said:

Are any of the WCW Thunders recently posted any good ?

There are very few good Thunders. Most are terrible. I still really like them for late night, CBA, telly. Fall asleep during most and never see the end but it's definitely soothing stuff for me.

[tiger_rick]

Given we haven't talked 1996 enough recently and Sid has been brought up, the New Gen Pod re-listen has brought up the ultimate question about how on earth Sid got so over in 1996. His performances are brilliant, when he's not flubbing his lines, but those WWF crowds just piss themselves for him for about 3 months like few people ever in the business. Not your "I've paid $500, I'm playing along" reactions but genuine joy like a superhero has entered the screen from some of the worst served crowds in company history. Sid is the fucking man. Whoever decided he was the heel after November should be shot out of a cannon.

[The Gaffer]

I'm not saying it's even half of it, but he stands out so much against the rinky-dink looking pre Raw is War tapings which definitely helps. Even when the houses were getting a lot better as 1996 trudged on, you were sitting there through back to back tapings with that tiny RAW set, dirty ring with its circus livery and prolapsed arse turnbuckle covers and then at a certain point the lights dim, this music cuts through like nobody else's theme on the roster does, and this giant, scary bastard walks out looking sharp as a tack (as long as he's not being asked for too much on the mic) fucking people up. 

Basically, Sid fits in to any era. But he stands out against the worst looking era. 

[tiger_rick]

What a Chrimbo pressie. Someone at the Vault loves us.

 

[wandshogun09]

Alex Wright schooling some ham and egger of a jobber at Starrcade 94…

Title of the video is bollocks though…

FULL MATCH: A young Triple H competes at Starrcade: WCW Starrcade 1994

The erasure of Alex Wright’s name like he’s Chris Benoit or something is absolutely not on. The disrespect to Das Wunderkind won’t be tolerated. 

 

[AshC]

I remember this being great, with its emotive show-long build-up and all... 

Just rewatched for the first time in years and it's just fantastic. What a crowd! What a heel! What a babyface!

This is how good pro wrestling can be. 

 

[Chili]

If you've never watched ANY of the Slaughter/Sheik series from 1984, you'll be in for a treat, they're ace matches full of incredible heat. Slaughter as the big bumping firey babyface is his finest work.

Also... Hello there Network, stop being so bloody good, posting stuff like this comp.

 

 

 

[Chico Torres]

The Slaughter-Sheik boot camp match is one of the greatest matches of all time, and all the other matches in the feud are top notch. There are some great matches between Slaughter and JYD vs Sheik and Volkoff from around this time too.

[AshC]

Yeah that Tornado Match with JYD and Slaughter vs Sheik and Volkoff at the Spectrum is ace. 

[wandshogun09]

Pre-90/91 WWF Slaughter is a real blind spot for me. To this day he’s someone I’ve barely seen anything of outside that run. So I just knew him as the guy with the big chin who was fighting Hogan and kept calling people “MAGGOT” or “PUKE” or whatever. I always read good stuff about those Sheik matches but never saw anything from them until one of those Twitter accounts that show condensed two minute highlight reels of matches had a Slaughter vs Sheik clip pop up on my timeline quite recently and it looked right up my street. Definitely gonna be giving that a watch later. 

Edited December 30, 2025 by wandshogun09

[davertfnewman]

When Barry Windham did his first RF Video shoot years ago he was talking about guys he worked with and he adds on "I used to do hour draws with Sgt Slaughter!" as if it was inconceivable, which based on the previous decade it probably was, but Sarge at one point had a lot of tricks up his sleeve he could pull out if he timed them right and paced himself properly. That corner bump he did was spectacular and he could get a good half a minute or so out of selling it before getting back in.

[gmoney]

He's a hell of a bumper in general. I love big guys like that who bump like superballs.

[Chico Torres]

Without exaggeration, I would say that Slaughter was easily one of the best wrestlers of the early to mid 80s. Big guy, great as babyface and heel, fantastic brawler and big bumper and bleeder.

In addition to all the Sheik matches he had great matches with Pat Patterson which included the epic alley fight, his matches with Bob Backlund, Stan Hansen in the AWA and the Final Conflict cage match with Don Kernoodle against Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood in Mid Atlantic. Even in his Iraqi run in 1991 he has an awesome “desert storm” street fight with Hogan in MSG and the Warrior match at the Rumble is great too.

[Chili]