WWE Vault Appreciation Thread

[The King Of Swing]

Have a vague memory of Takako Inoue, getting a tryout. From memory, AJW was either already dead by then or on it's last legs and GAEA wasn't far behind, so I would be surprised if politics played a part in her not being signed.

[BomberPat]

Got around to watching the Vic Grimes/Crash Holly dark match last night, lovely stuff. Obviously you have to set your mind back to the time when seeing it as a crazy and innovative match, as there's nothing in there really that wouldn't be pretty par for the course on TV today, but knowing it's a pre-show dark match and how they normally operate, it's bonkers seeing chair spots, missed planchas, Crash Holly doing springboard Tornado DDTs, and Grimes doing the sort of moves that would be all over the indies four or five years later.

I mostly know Vic Grimes as a Baldie in ECW, so seeing him as a long-haired nutter with one of those looks that's kind of uniquely awful for the WWF but that I wish more wrestlers looked like today - he's shaped like a pear - wasn't what I expected.

[Snitsky's back acne]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

 

I mostly know Vic Grimes as a Baldie in ECW, so seeing him as a long-haired nutter with one of those looks that's kind of uniquely awful for the WWF but that I wish more wrestlers looked like today - he's shaped like a pear - wasn't what I expected.

Agreed. UK's Will Kroos is shaped like a potato and is one of my favourite wrestlers currently.

Live, I have never seen him have a bad match and he is inevitable a highlight of any show I have seen him on.

Plus, he can bust out a moonsault if needed and seems like an absolutely sound bloke so what's not to love?

[Chili]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

Got around to watching the Vic Grimes/Crash Holly dark match last night, lovely stuff. Obviously you have to set your mind back to the time when seeing it as a crazy and innovative match, as there's nothing in there really that wouldn't be pretty par for the course on TV today, but knowing it's a pre-show dark match and how they normally operate, it's bonkers seeing chair spots, missed planchas, Crash Holly doing springboard Tornado DDTs, and Grimes doing the sort of moves that would be all over the indies four or five years later.

I mostly know Vic Grimes as a Baldie in ECW, so seeing him as a long-haired nutter with one of those looks that's kind of uniquely awful for the WWF but that I wish more wrestlers looked like today - he's shaped like a pear - wasn't what I expected.

If Grimes was around now he'd get shit for being out of shape or looking terrible. Like when people say Eddie Kingston has an awful physique, when it's not the point.

Not enough wrestlers look fucking weird. Thank god for people like Otis for example.

[TheScarlettChad]

I don't understand why wrestlers get shit for being fat. Yes it's an looks business but a burly bear type lad with a hairy chest is a striking look and actually looks like he'd fuck you up. Which is the point of wrestling. Believability. 

[Snitsky's back acne]

50 minutes ago, TheScarlettChad said:

I don't understand why wrestlers get shit for being fat. Yes it's an looks business but a burly bear type lad with a hairy chest is a striking look and actually looks like he'd fuck you up. Which is the point of wrestling. Believability. 

Fatness in wrestling in an odd one - well, physiques in general to be fair.

As an example - I never consciously thought of Vader as fat. He obviously was but he was such a killer when he was in WCW and New Japan that he was just Vader and it worked for him. Vader could not have been anything else other than fat.

Yet (in my opinion) when Chris Hero got fat he just looked like a guy who got fat. Maybe it was the overall presentation but he just looked like a regular fat guy, yet he was no fatter than Vader. Maybe he got shit because he wasn't fat but got fat whereas Vader was always fat, I don't know.

I think it works the other way too - small and skinny wrestlers. It works sometimes and other times it doesn't. 

Wrestling needs all shapes and sizes but there are instances where the physique, whatever it may be, doesn't match what is being presented.

[FTR2020]

Didn't Chris Hero purposely put on weight to help with bumping in the ring.  

I think he said he did it to help taking bumps so it wouldn't hurt as much. 

I probably have that wrong though. 

[SpykeDudlei1]

10 hours ago, TheScarlettChad said:

I don't understand why wrestlers get shit for being fat. Yes it's a looks business but a burly bear type lad with a hairy chest is a striking look and actually looks like he'd fuck you up. Which is the point of wrestling. Believability. 

As a kid, old school (fat) UK heel Scrubber Daly scared the bejesus out of me. I genuinely believed he was going to hurt me and kill Big Daddy’s chosen white meat babyface ‘fodder’ of the moment.

And then of course there’s Giant Haystacks.

[TAFKA Jonny Vegas]

11 hours ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

Fatness in wrestling in an odd one - well, physiques in general to be fair.

As an example - I never consciously thought of Vader as fat. He obviously was but he was such a killer when he was in WCW and New Japan that he was just Vader and it worked for him. Vader could not have been anything else other than fat.

Yet (in my opinion) when Chris Hero got fat he just looked like a guy who got fat. Maybe it was the overall presentation but he just looked like a regular fat guy, yet he was no fatter than Vader. Maybe he got shit because he wasn't fat but got fat whereas Vader was always fat, I don't know.

You've said it yourself though they're different types of fat and the image/persona/presentations are different.

Chris Hero in particular was one of those guys where when he got fat he looked like custard poured into a carrier bag. I didn't think he ever looked particularly strong, nor intimidating. Just fat.

Also because fans had seen him when he was not (as) fat, he just looked fat.

Guys like Vader, Bam Bam, Earthquake, all had gimmicks and presentation as being tough guys who were massive all round but also powerhouses.

 

[theringmaster]

Wasn't Chris Hero a medical thing? I seem to remember reading about a Thyroid issue?

 

[davertfnewman]

That reminds me of a Jasper Carrott routine:

"'It's me glands! It's me hormones! I'm only eating lettuce now!' Yeah, the crop of Cornwall(!)."

[JNLister]

The current live stream appears to be their library on shuffle. In the past hour they've had the main event of Capital Carnage, a Buzz Sawyer squash and a non-televised Mabel vs Quebecer Jacques MSG match. It's what the Network live stream could have been.
 

Came across this because I was trying to figure out the update schedule for regular content, beyond just posting random matches. It appears to be:

Monday/Tuesday: Dark matches
Wednesday: Story of (ie a storyline compilation)
Friday: Best of/Mixtape for a wrestler.
Sunday: Coliseum Video

And then full shows as and when they upload them. Seems to be about 3-4 a month and I've only just clocked that quite often it's an "on this day in history" deal.

[davertfnewman]

CV on Sunday and a Clash on the WCW channel. I imagine once the latter dry up it'll be over to the PPV events they don't have up there already.

[Dai]

Just flicked it on and it was Rey vs Undertaker. Had to turn it back off after 30 seconds as Matt Striker is completely unbearable. He was constantly talking too. How did such a control freak as Vince (seemingly) allow him to just take over the booth with his constant bollocks talking, which surely wasnt getting fed into his headset? Strange.

[WyattSheepMask]

16 hours ago, davertfnewman said:

That reminds me of a Jasper Carrott routine:

"'It's me glands! It's me hormones! I'm only eating lettuce now!' Yeah, the crop of Cornwall(!)."

Billy Connolly had a similar line

”’I’m just retaining water.’ You’re not retaining water, you’re retaining chips”