WWE Vault Appreciation Thread

[wordsfromlee]

I wonder if it was just coincidence but it was announced a couple of days before that doc about him was uploaded to the vault that he had been hospitalised after a fall.

[Mr.Showtime]

7 hours ago, Dai said:

Maybe a coincedence, but the Vault has just uploaded a singles match between the two on the Taker channel. Or does the Vault guy lurk here when hes waiting for the uploads to complete?

Ha yes I saw it pop up and gave it a watch! Super straightforward but entertaining nonetheless.

[wandshogun09]

Watched some of that Pillman compilation last night. It’s great. The Luger match at the start is one of my favourites. I’m glad they included the two cracking TV matches with Flair from 90/91. The Hollywood Blonds title win over Steamboat and Douglas is fantastic as well. About as strong a TV match as you could’ve possibly got in 1993.

Watching his stuff pre-car crash here and then seeing how much a shadow of himself he was in the Austin match on Raw in 97 at the end, it’s one of the biggest travesties in wrestling history for me. By 96, he’d finally found his character with the ‘Loose Cannon’ thing and it would’ve perfectly aligned timing-wise with both the edgier direction wrestling was taking at the time and the rise of Austin who he had history with and would’ve been such a natural rival. If he never got in that wreck and had his ankle fused, he might not have had the issues with drugs and alcohol, he might still be here today and you have to assume he’d have been a prominent player in the Attitude Era. I don’t think he’d ever have been ‘the guy’ because, as much as timing would’ve been great for his character in the late 90s, timing also would’ve kind of fucked him because nobody was getting pushed above Austin and Rock at that point. Nor should they have been. But imagine a Pillman who could still go in the ring like he could in 93-95, but with the rest of his game - the character, the look and the promos - to go with it? As great as Pillman was, we never really got a version of him where he had all of that at the same time. He’d have been awesome as a thorn in Austin’s side in 98/99. 

He was only 35 when he died. I know guys wrestling into their 40s wasn’t looked at the same back then as it is now but he could’ve potentially had another five years in the WWF at a good level. Picture Pillman in the WWF in 2001/02. During the Invasion stuff and all that. There’s a whole run there that I can’t even picture in my head. Even before that, had he came in healthy in 96, Christ, imagine Pillman against Shawn Michaels when he was champ in 96? Pillman vs Bret in late 96/early 97 before the Hart Foundation reunion? Later on you could’ve had Pillman vs babyface Mankind, The Rock etc. I’ve rambled. I know none of this is stuff we haven’t all thought about or posted about on here before but watching that video just made me sad thinking again about all the possibilities. 

Edited May 23 by wandshogun09
I respect you, booker man

[Chili]

Mentioned it before in the past and it's in @Liam O'Rourke's lovely book, but I always chuckle at Undertaker not liking Pillman, because Brian had his big hard man act sussed and had no time for that nonsense.

[Devon Malcolm]

Yeah, the Pillman video is a cracking compilation. You could make an argument for having Canadian Stampede and the Goldust stuff on there, and certainly some of the bits he did in ECW, but with Pillman you'd have to make the video 10 hours long for it to be a legitimately satisfying compilation. Which obviously they should have done.

What we did get was:-

vs Lex Luger, Halloween Havoc '89

An instant classic, as @wandshogun09 mentions. One of Luger's best ever matches. Crowd are brilliant, Luger has an argument with Hat Guy while he's in an armbar. Still surprised at the clean finish but it's a belter.

vs Ric Flair, WCW TV Feb. '90

Superb TV match with an ace crowd. A standard Flair match in a lot of ways but shorter and faster. Not as good as the one they would have a year later though.

vs Richard Morton, Halloween Havoc '90

Probably the weakest of the compilation. Morton was pretty good as a heel but this match was too slow. You can understand Morton slowing down from his babyface tag work but they needed to find the middle ground. Not bad but I wouldn't have put this on here.

vs Jushin Thunder Liger, Superbrawl II

Obvs. There's nothing more you can say about it that hasn't already been said. Hasn't aged a day and I can watch it anytime. One of the greatest matches of all time.

vs Flair, WCW TV April '91

Even better than their first one, great intensity. Shame about the ending when El Gigante lumbers out but fair play to Arn for selling like death for him.

vs Z-Man, WrestleWar '92

The One Where Tom Zenk Gets the Shit Scared Out of Him By His Own Pyro. The best match of Zenk's career, wakes up a comatose crowd after a few minutes and Zenk works much better as a heel. Excellent match, been a while since I've seen it.

with Steve Austin vs Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas, WCW Worldwide March 93

As much as Shane Douglas was shite, he made a pretty smooth team with Steamboat. Then again it's Steamboat. Quality tag match, obviously. Austin's selling and bumps were fantastic and very funny. Always fun, this one.

Then they squeezed in a Flare for the Old, which showed off how funny and good on the mic Pillman and Austin were. Austin does a great job of not corpsing on two occasions.

with Austin vs Arn Anderson and Flair (2/3 falls), Clash of the Champions 22

More evidence for the 'Flair was better as babyface' file, he's superb here. An all-time great tag match with a stupid finish and one fan holding up a 'Hollywood fagots' sign. Classic WCW!

vs Liger, 1st WCW Nitro

Obvs. Not as good as Superbrawl II but a great TV match. I still think the Mall of America was a cool-looking place to do a wrestling show.

vs Johnny B. Badd, Fall Brawl '95

I always forget what an epic this was, out of nowhere. But when you see the rest of the card, you can see why they asked them to go half an hour. It's a brilliant match but why have a fucking time limit if you're just going to keep going?

vs the Taskmaster, Superbrawl

Nice, glad they included this! Don't know why they included the match against Arn Anderson afterwards but fair enough.

vs Pencil

6 stars.

vs Austin, Raw sometime in '96

Jim Ross casually namedropping the Hollywood Blondes there, right next to McMahon. This is the one where the Hart Foundation are handcuffed to the ring posts but still get free. A shame seeing Pillman's clear limitations at this stage but he still knew how to work with it.

I like Brian Pillman.

[Chili]

Great they've began uploading the pre 1990 coliseum video comps as I do believe they weren't available in the UK until the Supertape (multiple other names) rebrand.

 

[wandshogun09]

1 hour ago, Devon Malcolm said:

but with Pillman you'd have to make the video 10 hours long for it to be a legitimately satisfying compilation. Which obviously they should have done.

Yeah I’m not gonna complain because the compilation is fantastic as it is. But they could’ve easily got a two parter out of it like they did with 1992 Sting recently. As well as the stuff you mentioned, I’d have included more Blonds stuff. They had a few belters against Steamboat and Douglas and also some cracking TV matches against Scorpio and Bagwell. If they have it in good quality, I’d have included the other Liger match from Christmas Day 1991 where Liger won the title, before the much more well known rematch at Superbrawl 2. I’d have definitely included the stuff where he turns heel on Brad Armstrong in 92. Think it was a Clash but can’t remember. He was great in that and you could see how happy he was to finally be a villain. Could’ve included the singles match with Sting from the King Of Cable tournament in late 92. It’s a travesty that there’s not a big blowoff match between him and Austin when they split the Blonds up.

1 hour ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Then they squeezed in a Flare for the Old, which showed off how funny and good on the mic Pillman and Austin were. Austin does a great job of not corpsing on two occasions.

Austin telling Arn to his face “the last time I saw a body like that, it had an apple stuffed in its mouth and it was roasting over an open flame” kills me every time. They were so great together. I’d have chucked the original ‘Flair For The Gold’ segment which started the whole Horsemen vs Blonds rivalry in there as well. Since they didn’t, it’s always worth sharing again…

I know the whole storyline was that Austin and Pillman were winding Flair and Arn up for being old but they really did make them look like relics here. It probably didn’t seem it so much at the time but the bit before the Blonds come out, Flair and Arn’s schtick feels really dated. Then the Blonds come out and they’re just pissing charisma. I do love that Arn sits there just taking the snide digs until Pillman mentions that he “looks like he hasn’t missed too many meals lately”. The tipping point for any insecure fat lad. And Flair keeping his cool until the mention of a “Geritol on ice” makes him finally flip. Classic.

1 hour ago, Devon Malcolm said:

vs Johnny B. Badd, Fall Brawl '95

I always forget what an epic this was, out of nowhere. But when you see the rest of the card, you can see why they asked them to go half an hour. It's a brilliant match but why have a fucking time limit if you're just going to keep going?

A real surprise gem. I’ve said before that I think a lot of the criticism Mero got for his in ring performances was often harsh. But he’s not a guy you’d ever have imagined would be suited to a 30 minute match. A much better match than it had any right to be really.

1 hour ago, Devon Malcolm said:

vs Austin, Raw sometime in '96

Jim Ross casually namedropping the Hollywood Blondes there, right next to McMahon. This is the one where the Hart Foundation are handcuffed to the ring posts but still get free. A shame seeing Pillman's clear limitations at this stage but he still knew how to work with it.

June 97 that one was. I assume they basically just had the match they were supposed to have at King Of The Ring before plans got switched to Austin vs Shawn Michaels. It obviously wasn’t what it could’ve been with Pillman being hindered physically, which is why I guess they added all the outside the ring handcuff shenanigans. But it was decent enough for a TV match and I’m glad they at least had one singles match during that run.

1 hour ago, Devon Malcolm said:

I like Brian Pillman.

Edited May 24 by wandshogun09

[Chico Torres]

It’s a very good comp and they covered a good number of highlights from his career but I think the notable omission is the fantastic feud he had with Barry Windham in 1991. Not only the great tapes fist match at Superbrawl but they had a lot of terrific TV matches around that time too.

Excuse me while I curate an “extras” comp to highlight the Pillman/Windham dynamic.

Here’s a great trilogy of TV matches from early/mid 1991

When Pillman turned heel he started teaming with Barry which then transitioned to the Hollywood Blondes.

Finally this is a great tv match with an all-timer, maybe the greatest to ever do it as Pillman is in limbo after the end of the Blondes doing nothing but it’s WCW so why not have a great match with Terry Funk on a weekend C show

 

[wandshogun09]

Fuck. I didn’t even know about the Funk match. Thanks for that. 

[Snitsky's back acne]

Minoru Tanaka had a WWF dark match in 1998.

Very random.
 

 

[Merzbow]

1 hour ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

Minoru Tanaka had a WWF dark match in 1998.

Very random.

Wonder if it was due to his shoot-style background? You had Shamrock and Severn around at that time.

[Chico Torres]

WWE Vault on a pretty terrible recent run but WCW guy is here to remind you that Macho Man on WCW was in fact awesome up until the time he got his hair done in Istanbul and had Gorgeous George and took all his vitamins.

Kicks off with a lovely deep cut against The Enforcer Double A, teaming with Hogan against Flair and Vader, matches against Flair, DDP, Hogan, Sting and the infamous portaloo match against Rodzilla.

It’s 2 and a half hours of the fucking Macho Man, of course it rules. Dig it!

 

[SuperBacon]

I genuinely think his work with DDP was the best of his career. Their feud was absolutely incredible, really made it feel like they hated each other.

[Chico Torres]

I honestly think that as far as feuds go, there was no one better than Savage because when he feuded with someone he went all in with the intensity and he made you feel that nothing else mattered in the world and he committed fully with the intensity, hatred and manic energy.

I think of the feuds with Hogan (best WWF feud ever in my opinion), Warrior, Jake, Steamboat, Flair (in WWF and WCW), Crush, George Steele, Dusty, DDP…no matter who he was always fully locked in as the youngsters say these days. No one did feuds better.

Edited May 29 by Chico Torres

[wandshogun09]

He absolutely legitimised DDP as a top guy in 97 as well. DDP was getting more popular towards the end of 96 and into 97 anyway but without the rub from one of the established big stars, he’d have only gone so far and likely would’ve plateaued around the midcard along with Eddie, Benoit, Regal etc. On a roster full of big stars, Savage stuck a hand out and pulled him up a few rungs on the ladder. How many of the top guys in WCW back then would’ve done that for him? DDP worked his arse off to get better and he deserves a lot of credit for that but he needed someone like Savage. He was ‘made’ after that. Savage did for DDP what Bret did for Austin, except Savage went the whole way and actually took the loss in the middle of the ring. I think Bret would’ve inevitably done the same for Austin eventually if their rivalry was allowed to fully play out to a natural conclusion into 98/99. But Savage doing that for DDP, who was fucking around with the ‘Booty Man’ just over a year before, is what really cemented him.