WWE Vault Appreciation Thread

[Chili]

Who was it who put together the Desire videos. Was it David Sahadi?

[The Dart]

9 hours ago, SaitoRyo said:

There's some real lore behind that Grimes/O'Grady dark match. From what I remember, it was the same night as the Tyson/Austin confrontation and basically people gave even less of a shit than usual about the dark match. So somebody (Cornette I think) told them to go out there and do whatever they wanted, which they certainly did. They were criticised for ignoring house rules and failing to work the hard came when they got backstage, but the effort they put in earned them both developmental deals. Fair play. 

 

You remember wrong I'm afraid.  It was the day after.

[SaitoRyo]

58 minutes ago, The Dart said:

You remember wrong I'm afraid.  It was the day after.

Ah, then they must have been preoccupied with the big TAFKA Goldust segment, then. My mistake!

That Creed video is a belter, but it's also not the original. It says 'end of 2001', but there's clips from 2002 in there (Steph being 'fired', HHH winning at WM18, Eddie versus RVD etc.), so they've clearly replaced a bunch of clips. I'm presuming one of them is Benoit coming off the cage with a diving heabdutt against Angle and the rest are likely problematic for one reason or another. 

[Cannibal Man]

if they're in the mood for uploading old VHS tapes and taking requests then i'd like to see the rebooted Best Of Raw series Silver Vision released three volumes of, the first two became Tagged Classics but the 3rd has only ever been on tape

[tiger_rick]

15 hours ago, The Gaffer said:

Still think this video caption on today's Kane & X-Pac timeline upload is a better recap, though:

Was really enjoyed the X-Pac & Kane comp they put together. Might be subliminal but I fell asleep when Taker got involved!

Pac & Kane were such a cool little team. Do remember there was a abit of an obsession with Kane being green on some sites I used to read back then. Kane was awesome a good few times. The pops when the lights go out and people know he's coming are great on this comp.

[LaGoosh]

99 was my first year as a fan. I was 11 years old and I loved the Kane and X-Pac team with all my heart. I thought they were the best thing ever. 

[tiger_rick]

Pac was awesome for a good year or so after he returned. Was easily the most over member of DX for a while. They missed opportunities to push him a bit higher when they were lacking depth at the top of the card and then by late 1999 he's having mediocre matches with Chris Jericho, is part of a dreadful reincarnation of DX and is just never as over again despite always being pretty good. Then he's in X-Factor and is doooooomed. What a shame. 

[LaGoosh]

44 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Pac was awesome for a good year or so after he returned. Was easily the most over member of DX for a while. They missed opportunities to push him a bit higher when they were lacking depth at the top of the card and then by late 1999 he's having mediocre matches with Chris Jericho, is part of a dreadful reincarnation of DX and is just never as over again despite always being pretty good. Then he's in X-Factor and is doooooomed. What a shame. 

X-Pac is always a guy I enjoyed watching but I've always been a bit confused by his reputation as a super worker. Maybe it was based on his 1-2-3 Kid period which I completely missed. As X-Pac I can't think of many particularly great or note worthy in-ring performances he ever had. 

[The Gaffer]

I think Kane & X-Pac is the best thing either guy's ever done. 

With Kane, the only real competition is that initial cinematic path from his Badd Blood debut to WrestleMania XIV. The tag team still pips it for me though. Watching back that timeline, the guy's entrance was getting Austin pops on episodes of Heat. He was a lean, mean, superbly over babyface in the summer of 99. 

I've enjoyed loads of Waltman's career but this was easily his brightest spot for me, too. Characterisation and - particularly - promo work has always been his weak point but in the team with Kane there was genuine believability to him and he wasn't too bad on the mic. A sort of laid back stoner who could still throw down, had bundles of integrity, would never give up, but was still fundamentally outweighed and outnumbered in the land of the giants. 

They could have gotten a lot more out of it. It probably should have went a full year. Since we're glowing about it, it's only fair to mention that it ultimately ended in some really unsavoury stuff with the two of them and Tori. I'd have flipped it after a year and had Kane come out of it as the heel. It could have done wonders for X-Pac.

[wordsfromlee]

Do X-Pac and WWE currently have any kind of relationship? I always expected him to get a job with them as a trainer or producer as I'm sure I remember reading that he was always their go-to guy for try out matches with prospective talent as he was such a solid, safe pair of hands.

[CavemanLynn]

48 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

X-Pac is always a guy I enjoyed watching but I've always been a bit confused by his reputation as a super worker. Maybe it was based on his 1-2-3 Kid period which I completely missed. As X-Pac I can't think of many particularly great or note worthy in-ring performances he ever had. 

I think his rep comes from the other guys in the locker room at the time, and the era they were in. You have to imagine the Kliq liked him because he had the tank to go in the ring as well as keep up with them in the bars, and the rest liked him because he was smaller but still willing to take a hiding in matches. There's also the fact that what constitutes a great worker to the other wrestlers back then is different to now. He may not have had what could be regarded as stellar matches, but my understanding is that he was easy to work with, had great instincts, timing and positioning, and knew his role. It's like Austin being eyeballed for greatness early on by some vets due to how he ran the ropes; there's assets they'd value higher than fans would.

Edited March 5 by CavemanLynn

[tiger_rick]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

X-Pac is always a guy I enjoyed watching but I've always been a bit confused by his reputation as a super worker. Maybe it was based on his 1-2-3 Kid period which I completely missed. As X-Pac I can't think of many particularly great or note worthy in-ring performances he ever had. 

I think it mainly is that. In that era of a load of lumbering guys, he'd bump his arse off and make people look better than they were. I think the match with Bret is probably the best of his career but he's always someone I enjoy watching no matter who he's in there with.

When he came back in 1998, he'd obviously had a serious injury and toned it down a bit and that combined with the fact that good matches were nobodies priority at that time. I always thought he was good but it was generally in 3 minute matches with no finish. He still performed miracles with the likes of Shane McMahon. Actually, it's probably his biggest crime that he convinced everyone Shane could go.

He was definitely really popular and probably should have been put in a position to have more important matches that went a bit longer on PPVs. By the time they had a good midcard and put more emphasis on match quality on PPV, he was damaged goods.

[BomberPat]

1 hour ago, wordsfromlee said:

Do X-Pac and WWE currently have any kind of relationship? I always expected him to get a job with them as a trainer or producer as I'm sure I remember reading that he was always their go-to guy for try out matches with prospective talent as he was such a solid, safe pair of hands.

He's been a kind of unofficial talent scout for them for a long time, and is involved in the WWE ID program now. 

X-Pac and Kane were a great double act, and made some absolute bollocks soap opera nonsense work for them. Kane has a knack of finding people to keep him relevant when the gimmick is at risk of getting stale, even that early on. And there's just few better dynamics in wrestling than a massive bloke and his little mate.

[CavemanLynn]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

X-Pac and Kane were a great double act, and made some absolute bollocks soap opera nonsense work for them. Kane has a knack of finding people to keep him relevant when the gimmick is at risk of getting stale, even that early on. And there's just few better dynamics in wrestling than a massive bloke and his little mate.

It also started the headcanon in our house that Kane could absorb powers from whoever he was teamed with. A couple of weeks with 'Pac, and he was busting out enzuigiris and at least one suicide dive; the same amount of time back with Taker, and his gut was back and he was getting puffed out doing chokeslams.

[HarmonicGenerator]

3 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

Pac was awesome for a good year or so after he returned. Was easily the most over member of DX for a while. They missed opportunities to push him a bit higher when they were lacking depth at the top of the card and then by late 1999 he's having mediocre matches with Chris Jericho, is part of a dreadful reincarnation of DX and is just never as over again despite always being pretty good. Then he's in X-Factor and is doooooomed. What a shame. 

I was always a big X-Pac fan and I'd go to bat for his brief run as Light Heavyweight Champion at the start of the Invasion. Had (what I remember as) good matches with the likes of Tajiri and Kidman that summer.