WWE Vault Appreciation Thread

[Browser Brady]

6 hours ago, Chico Torres said:

Have to give top marks to our Brian for committing to his heel turn. He got a new darker outfit, grew an evil goatee, added face paint, dropped his theme music, hired an evil manager (a sinister foreigner no less), aligned himself with the top heel (USA hating) world champion, dropped his babyface finishing move and added more martial arts and at least in a WWF magazine changed his race to one of those naughty countries by claiming that his ancestors were from the Fujisaki family.

When checking the box of all the things someone could do when turning heel, he managed them all outside of perhaps shaving his head.

I always maintain that the Crush heel turn angle was great………

 

Now what came after it is a different story. 

[air_raid]

32 minutes ago, Browser Brady said:

I always maintain that the Crush heel turn angle was great………

 

Now what came after it is a different story. 

Agreed, like all the best villains you could appreciate what drove him to his actions.

Following up by deciding to be a foreign fanatic, not so much. But at least bad Crush vs USA Luger was consistent in quality to Kona vs Narcissist…

[davertfnewman]

In the heel turn interview, Crush has this great bit where you think Macho has talked him down and he goes "It's too late for it now!" in frustration, as if he doesn't want to turn heel after he's realised he's been duped. That's followed up by Bobby Heenan egging him on a bit and him turning against him and telling him to keep his nose out of it. Crush of course plays along that Randy has made him wake up to being manipulated by Fuji, THEN turns on him.

I generally thought he did have a decent heel run but he lost his momentum when he took some time off in the summer and then by the time he returned with Clarence Mason he had gone as dull as ditchwater.

I've just realised that Randy wore the same pink and yellow tights (with different overall gear) for the Crush angle as he did when he got bitten by the cobra.

Edited March 29 by davertfnewman

[Browser Brady]

10 hours ago, davertfnewman said:

 

I generally thought he did have a decent heel run but he lost his momentum when he took some time off in the summer and then by the time he returned with Clarence Mason he had gone as dull as ditchwater.

 

Thats a very polite of way of putting it….

[wandshogun09]

Grudges, Gripes and Grunts. Sounds like my Hooneymoon but in this case it’s the Coliseum Video tape.

Notable for the Savage/Bret vs Flair/Shawn match, that’s what you want here. Can’t even remember what else was on this but that tag match is obviously worth your time. 

[wordsfromlee]

Whoever has been making the thumbnails for the WWE Vault recently really loves a dusty paper texture overlay.

[davertfnewman]

15 minutes ago, Browser Brady said:

Thats a very polite of way of putting it….

I wasn't really referring to the legal stuff, he'd come off the cards before SummerSlam after tying up his feud with Lex and then came back for that one shot, where he actually looked quite decent, at the Rumble.

[Chili]

Some great little bits and pieces in this. Genuinely wish there was more, I'd gorge on do much raw footage of Wrestlemania III.

[davertfnewman]

Love those interviews with fans that are so genuine and into it.

"Who's gonna win: Hulk or Andre?"

"Hulk - he's the best!"

"Hulk - well, he wins most of them, doesn't he?"

It's like this video too:

 

[Chico Torres]

56 minutes ago, Chili said:

Some great little bits and pieces in this. Genuinely wish there was more, I'd gorge on do much raw footage of Wrestlemania III.

Incredible stuff, Wrestlemania peaked early.

[SaitoRyo]

That WrestleMania III footage is exceptional. Loved seeing the finishes of Savage/Steamboat and Hulk/Andre from the hard cam and without commentary. 

And I will back up what @wandshogun09 said about that Flair/Michaels versus Hart/Savage tag earlier. Just four excellent professional wrestlers doing their thing for twenty minutes and a real hidden gem. 

[The Gaffer]

I've sent this screenshot to about four different friends on WhatsApp as it's an exact approximation of what it was like to walk into our rent share at about 8PM on a Friday evening back in the day:

[air_raid]

On 3/29/2026 at 7:32 PM, wandshogun09 said:

Grudges, Gripes and Grunts. Sounds like my Hooneymoon but in this case it’s the Coliseum Video tape.

Notable for the Savage/Bret vs Flair/Shawn match, that’s what you want here. Can’t even remember what else was on this but that tag match is obviously worth your time. 

This is another one where they get JR to record comms for matches that took place long before he joined. Despite being a 93 release, that tag is from when Savage was WWF Champion and Bret held the ICT. Conversely, the Hogan/Beefpiece vs Beverlys tag was recorded after Hulk dropped the big belt at King of the Ring, nearly a full 12 months later.

[davertfnewman]

That becomes a little bit of a double-edged sword because he tries to add some depth to the commentary (background details on Flair that most others wouldn't touch upon) but it lacks authenticity with him pretending to be there but it being a long time removed.

They did similar stuff on Prime Time in '92, replaying a Dibiase/Snuka match long after Snuka was gone and Sherri had moved onto Shawn and pretending Sherri was filling in for Jimmy Hart on manager duties.

Edited April 2 by davertfnewman

[Dai]

We have talked about the greatness of the 1996 WCW tag division a fair amount in this thread, so its only right to bring up the latest match they have uploaded. Steiners, Nastys, Road Warriors. 10 minutes of chaotic, disjointed, balls to the wall action, where it just feels like 6 hard as nails wrestlers just having a good old scrap. Feels like they have planned nothing ahead of time, are calling it on the fly, and are just blasting out suplexes and power moves (and no selling them) whenever they feel like it. I know for a fact I enjoyed this more than anything they could do at Mania in a few weeks. This makes up for the Ziggler shite uploaded a few days back.