WWE Vault Appreciation Thread

[Devon Malcolm]

Next thing I watched out of the WCW / NWA tombola was this:-

Mr. #1derful Paul(a) Orndorff kicked it off with a DQ win over Ron Simmons for the TV title. Nice start, this, although this felt like it should have been more of a fight. Orndorff was ace, wasn't he.

2 Cold Scorpio and WCW Rookie of the Year Marcus Alexander Bagwell beat the future pig farmers Tex Slazenger and Shanghai Pierce in a match that threatened to be good at times. There's one horrible botch by Scorpio that was fortunately mostly missed by the camera.

A weird match between Erik Watts and Lord Steven Regal in which Regal got not one moment of offence in and Watts looked somewhat competent ended when Sir William hit Watts with something and Regal pinned him. No idea what the business was here.

Johnny B. Badd and Maxx Payne had a rotten 5 minuter which the former won, probably to make time for the next two belters.

The Hollywood Blondes kept the tag titles by beating Arn Anderson and Paul Roma in a brilliant match. I've never cared for Roma at all but even he looked good in this. How could you not by being with three of the greatest of all time? The more you watch Austin around this time, the more you realise what a daft cunt Bischoff was. THAT was a fumble.

Dustin Rhodes and Rick Rude went to a 30 minute iron man draw (1-1) so the US title continued to be held up. The crowd were quiet for the most part but I thought the pacing on this one was superb and I enjoyed it all the way, even though I largely don't like long matches.

Ric Flair beat Barry Windham for his 10th world title in a rushed match that was still good but far from the best these two were capable of. Crowd were on Flair's side, which hurt the heat somewhat. I still love you, Barry.

Sting and David Boy Smith beat Vader and Sid Vicious in the main event. The former mostly got pasted for 15 minutes and it didn't feel like a main event but it's a good fun match.

Up next - ooh, WrestleWar 1991. The greatest War Games match of all time, and the rest.

[Chico Torres]

A must watch leading up to the Beach Blast main event, a beautiful work of art

The dastardly Cheatum, explosions, Sid in flip flops, our Daveys acting. 

[Snitsky's back acne]

1992 was the greatest War Games match ever but I did enjoy 1991.

Roma was great with Paul Orndorff in Pretty Wonderful I thought. 

[wandshogun09]

4 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

The Hollywood Blondes kept the tag titles by beating Arn Anderson and Paul Roma in a brilliant match. I've never cared for Roma at all but even he looked good in this. How could you not by being with three of the greatest of all time? The more you watch Austin around this time, the more you realise what a daft cunt Bischoff was. THAT was a fumble.

Not only a great match but it provided one of the greatest wrestling gifs of all time as well. 

[The Gaffer]

17 hours ago, Chico Torres said:

Unfortunately the WWE Vault is on a bit of a shocking run the last few days

I feel personally slighted when I open it up for my daily check and see that they've put some stuff in HD on there. 

Hornswoggle, Big Show, even a John Cena thumbnail is a no. 

Someone up there's mad at us. 

[The King Of Swing]

Time to rejoice. 

[tiger_rick]

WWF Wrestling’s Fan Favorite Matches is the latest home video upload. Them pretending fans have written in to request Koko B. Ware vs. Warlord or something is one of my favourite gimmicks on the Colisseum tapes so whole tapes of them are hilarious. There are quite a few of them, UK Fan Favourites, German Fan Favourites and I think some sort of Best of the WWF: Fan Favourites tape. This one is curious in that quite a lot of the matches are on other tapes. They're almost all from the very end of December 1991 to May 1992 but the Warrior/Quake match is from Feb 91 and is on Wrestlefest 91.

Seeing Taker and LOD tag up is a curiosity. Great moment in the match where one of the Beverleys runs in to get smashed by Hawk. The Mountie also steps through the ropes but sees The Undertaker also step through and gets back out again in typical fashion. Funny stuff. Also typically, Lord Al calls one of the Beverley's "Beau Blake" at one point.

 

[Mr.Showtime]

Yeah I enjoyed that Undertaker/LOD tag match, but mainly for my man The Mountie, taking the piss out of Taker before the match and pretending he isn't scared, but of course it doesn't last. Did The Mountie and Undertaker ever have a 1-on-1 run at any point?

[Chili]

5 minutes ago, Mr.Showtime said:

Yeah I enjoyed that Undertaker/LOD tag match, but mainly for my man The Mountie, taking the piss out of Taker before the match and pretending he isn't scared, but of course it doesn't last. Did The Mountie and Undertaker ever have a 1-on-1 run at any point?

They have a match on the UK Fan Favourites tape from 1992.

I'm currently watching 1988 weekly TV and the newly heel Rougeau Brothers are a highlight, especially Jacques. He does arrogant, silly and punchable very well. Dynamite Kid was obviously worked.

[wandshogun09]

22 hours ago, The King Of Swing said:

Time to rejoice. 

Fond memories of renting this from Blockbuster multiple times. This and Starrcade 92. I never owned those tapes but I got my old man to rent them so many times I think they were at our house more than they were on Blockbuster’s shelf.

Obviously, the War Games match goes without saying. The best one they ever did and it was all downhill after. 93’s effort was shite in its own right but especially having to follow this.

The Steiners battering poor Fujinami and Iizuka (but mostly Iizuka) all over the gaff is a laugh. Not for the Japanese lads though. Scott braining himself on the first moonsault slam thingy attempt is brutal to watch.

Even madder is Scotty immediately popping back up and doing it properly straight after. He was already a nutcase by all accounts but shit like this can’t have helped.

I remember the Big Josh vs Ricky Morton match from when I did those WCW reviews years ago and, while the match itself is nothing to write home about, I’d recommend watching it anyway just to hear Jesse The Body ripping into Matt Bourne’s lack of hygiene. Morton rips the shirt off him at one point and Jesse goes “that shows you right there how rotten those clothes are if they’ll rip that easily. Flannel like that? Means it ain’t been washed in months”. Then even on the finish he’s going “look at Morton grimacing from the smell”. I love it.

In closing, here’s the Z-Man shitting himself of his own pyro…

[Egg Shen]

That Steiner fallaway slam effort is one of most mental moves in the game. Has anyone else ever attempted that? 

[Merzbow]

4 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

That Steiner fallaway slam effort is one of most mental moves in the game. Has anyone else ever attempted that? 

A fair few guys do it from the ropes or when a guy is running at them which gets that extra momentum. I think Jeff Cobb did a purely standing one like Scotty.

[Chico Torres]

Not turning Tom Zenk heel is such a missed opportunity. By wrestling standards he was very handsome in that 80s/early 90s kind of way and that made him an unlikeable babyface because he was too good looking and also exuded so much arrogance. Instead they later teamed him up with fellow cheeseball Johnny Gunn and then he disappeared forever until he showed up for a few years later where he was an entertaining guest on various shows talking shit about everything. 

[The King Of Swing]

Watching the show now and as @wandshogun09 says, Jesse spends most of the Morton/Josh match ripping the absolute piss out of Josh. 

Has to be some sort of insider dig. He's relentless. 

[davertfnewman]

When Josh was teaming with Ron Simmons (US tag team champs!), Jesse asked during one of their matches what they had at all in common: "Do you think Josh has ever heard of MC Hammer?!"