WWE Vault Appreciation Thread

[Chili]

Still one of the best matches for pure crowd heat in WWF history, genuine unbridled emotion coming out of that Calgary crowd. The Hart Foundation looking like the gunmen of the apocalypse riding into town. Steve Austin absolutely loving getting to be a proper shithead defiant heel for the night. Jim Neidhart getting the pop of his life. Brian Pillman being a brilliant dickhead, Owen Hart doing the Terry Funk return spot. Bruce stewing in resentment in the front row the entire time before fucking up his spot. Bulldog clapping in time to Owen's entrance. Everyone over like rover. It's the Canadian Stampede motherfuckers.

 

Edited July 6 by Chili

[AshC]

25 minutes ago, Chili said:

Still one of the best matches for pure crowd heat in WWF history, genuine unbridled emotion coming out of that Calgary crowd. The Hart Foundation looking like the gunmen of the apocalypse riding into town. Steve Austin absolutely loving getting to be a proper shithead defiant heel for the night. Jim Neidhart getting the pop of his life. Brian Pillman being a brilliant dickhead, Owen Hart doing the Terry Funk return spot. Bruce stewing in resentment in the front row the entire time before fucking up his spot. Bulldog clapping in time to Owen's entrance. Everyone over like rover. It's the Canadian Stampede motherfuckers.

 

I had seen very little of the WWF in 1997 as a kid - it had fallen out of fashion, as you know, so despite following it in the magazine, I'm not sure I saw anything beyond WrestleMania and a Raw that a newfound pal had recorded and lent me.

A different mate took pity, perhaps, and said they'd record me all the TV until the blank VHS I gave him was full. So his aunt or whoever filled it up with the recap shows, presumably. But before I got to see them, the Canadian Stampede was rolling round. Did I want them to tape over all the TV stuff they'd recorded with this Canadian Stampede instead? I opted for 'yes'.

Still remember watching it for the first time, he brought the tape to school and we had it on in an afternoon lesson or lunch or something.

An incredible WWF show and a moment in time. Tragic in terms of what followed. But for that sweet evening in Calgary, everything in the world was perfect.

Pro wrestling at its peak.

[poetofthedeed]

7 hours ago, Chili said:

Still one of the best matches for pure crowd heat in WWF history, genuine unbridled emotion coming out of that Calgary crowd. The Hart Foundation looking like the gunmen of the apocalypse riding into town. Steve Austin absolutely loving getting to be a proper shithead defiant heel for the night. Jim Neidhart getting the pop of his life. Brian Pillman being a brilliant dickhead, Owen Hart doing the Terry Funk return spot. Bruce stewing in resentment in the front row the entire time before fucking up his spot. Bulldog clapping in time to Owen's entrance. Everyone over like rover. It's the Canadian Stampede motherfuckers.

 

How do so many people fuck up pro wrestling when it's this easy to get right.

[Dai]

2 hours ago, poetofthedeed said:

How do so many people fuck up pro wrestling when it's this easy to get right.

What do you mean this easy? The reason this one is so good is that that there are 10 guys who have charisma pissing out of them, and for the home team there is genuine love for the wrestlers, which had to be built up over years and years. Nothing about this is easy, and there are a tonne of moving parts and history that had to align to make this what it is.

 

And what it is is one of the best of all time. My Canadian Stampede VHS was easily top 3 of my most played ever growing up. What a match!

[Chili]

We all know Sid's best WWF entrance is him looking the business at Survivor Series in MSG but this Summerslam one is a close second. Just mumbling 'THE MAN IS HERE' repeatedly as he walks down, cutting a promo to himself to the bit where he's like conducting the audience yelling SID. The charisma and it factor just pouring out of our Sidney here.

 

Edited July 8 by Chili

[SoloJones]

2 hours ago, Chili said:

We all know Sid's best WWF entrance is him looking the business at Survivor Series in MSG but this Summerslam one is a close second. Just mumbling 'THE MAN IS HERE' repeatedly as he walks down, cutting a promo to himself to the bit where he's like conducting the audience yelling SID. The charisma and it factor just pouring out of our Sidney here.

 

Its an absolute blast to watch as well, I've always been a bit conditioned to think Sid was a bit shit outside of squashes, and that Bulldog was past it at this point, but its a really fun easy watch and Sid is a charisma machine.

[Devon Malcolm]

Imagine trying to explain to somebody not in the know that this man was a huge softball fan.

[Chico Torres]

If we’re talking great Sid entrances, always loved this one from a Clash in January 1991 where he destroys jobber Joey Maggs.

Spinning Sid on a podium

 

[davertfnewman]

So much good about that entrance and match. Maggs coming out for one time to some generic babyface music, Dusty hyper on his first night, Sid having to make a quick sidestep in darkness to get into place because WCW, getting on the platform and slowly spinning around and looking up, plus the portraits hanging in the background.

[Snitsky's back acne]

1 hour ago, davertfnewman said:

So much good about that entrance and match. Maggs coming out for one time to some generic babyface music, Dusty hyper on his first night, Sid having to make a quick sidestep in darkness to get into place because WCW, getting on the platform and slowly spinning around and looking up, plus the portraits hanging in the background.

Plus, he hails from "Anywhere he darn well pleases", which is just brilliant.

[Chico Torres]

The two greatest teaming up to destroy their opposition. A gift to us from the WCW channel.

 

[Rossman]

Undercard of Bash at the Beach 96. Disco has a crack at Malenko's cruiserweight title. Prior to this, Disco was portrayed as a comedy character and they're trying to move him away from this. He takes a beating from Malenko for a long portion of the match but they're trying to show he's resilient and a worthy contender. Deano gets a good match out of him and one of Disco's best.

 

 

[wandshogun09]

Been a bit underwhelmed by a lot of the recent Vault uploads, on both the WWF and WCW channels. Even the Razor Ramon comp they put up the other day turned out to be mostly a ‘here’s a load of this guy’s well known PPV matches that you’ve definitely already seen’ thing.

I did see this though, the AWA documentary from the DVD they released years ago…

I remember loving that at the time. Felt like it was one of the better docs they did when they were banging out the DVD sets back then. That was probably partly because I didn’t know a ton about AWA so a lot of the footage and stories were more fresh to me than the usual WWF stuff. But I really liked this. Well worth the time if anyone hasn’t seen it. 

[The Gaffer]

Really miss how WWE done docs during the Ruthless Aggression era, when they were finally starting to capitalise on and re-build their video vault after the name change. 

Obvious exceptions aside, they generally had a surprisingly respectful, prestige feel about them. 

I miss when people looked at the interviewer and not straight down the lens. 

I miss when Sam Roberts wasn't in any of them. 

[Chico Torres]

28 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

Been a bit underwhelmed by a lot of the recent Vault uploads, on both the WWF and WCW channels. Even the Razor Ramon comp they put up the other day turned out to be mostly a ‘here’s a load of this guy’s well known PPV matches that you’ve definitely already seen’ thing.

I did see this though, the AWA documentary from the DVD they released years ago…

I remember loving that at the time. Felt like it was one of the better docs they did when they were banging out the DVD sets back then. That was probably partly because I didn’t know a ton about AWA so a lot of the footage and stories were more fresh to me than the usual WWF stuff. But I really liked this. Well worth the time if anyone hasn’t seen it. 

Will check it out assuming they don’t have the likes of The Miz as talking heads. I hope the story isn’t that the AWA was thriving, Verne didn’t put the belt on Hogan, he left and the AWA went into terminal decline because the reality is they continued to do very strongly and thrived long after Hogan left, it was actually much later in 86/87 when things started to do downhill.