Five From The Vault #3

It’s the first day of fall (thank god), and that sounds like the perfect time to fall into the WWE Vault yet again. I’ve jumped in two times before (here and here), but they’re really starting to add things. When I was writing the first column, there were 11 rarities available and I wasn’t sure how often I’d be able to write this. Now there are around thirty (thanks to Saturday Night, partially).

This week I’m looking at another assortment. I originally was going to just cover the Dump Matsumoto dump, but A) Jabroniville has a great recap of it in his Joshi Spotlight column and B) Believe it or not, they’re not all rarities by the definition of “not being on Peacock.” At least one of the matches is on an episode of Prime Time Wrestling available on Peacock and I wouldn’t be shocked if at least one more was, though I haven’t traced the lines to that yet. I will be covering two of the matches today, both of which are on episodes of Prime Time that are before the Peacock/Network upload time dates. I’m taking on one of the Saturday night matches to hit the 90s, a rare 00s instance of Cody Rhodes and CM Punk teaming up, and the much-hyped 1998 dark match between Minoru Tanaka and Christopher Daniels.

Quick reminder about my star ratings: they don’t matter. Like what you like. I’m one woman on the internet. WeeLC is five stars to me. Enjoy what you enjoy. Watch it for yourself and form your own opinions, don’t let some person on the internet tell you what you are supposed to feel.

Let’s go!

March 24, 1986 – WWF Prime Time Wrestling: Japanese Devils vs Velvet McIntyre & Linda Gonzalez (link)

This also aired a week prior on March 16 on a MSG Network card, sandwiched between Magnificent Muraco vs King Tonga and King Kong Bundy vs Hillbilly Jim. The Devils are, of course, Dump Matsumoto and Bull Nakano. Velvet wrestled many times for WWF, while this was the last of only seven matches recorded for Linda, all in WWF.

Our commentary team is Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura, who note Dump’s magnificent and/or scary warrior outfit. We cut to the match in progress, with Nakano whipping down Velvet. She tags in Dump. Nakano slams Velvet in the corner, Dump hits whatever a 1984 version of a Bonzai Drop would be called. Dump plays with Velvet, whipping her entire body towards Velvet’s corner and pulling her away when she tries to tag. It’s kind of awesome. Velvet gets a tag but the referee misses it as Bull and Dump tag out. Velvet was wrestling without boots which seems dumb and would never happen in the Wikifeet era. Double clothesline from the Devils, Velvet ducks under a second and hits them with a flying bodypress, but they catch and slam her. Gorilla is all over the referee, who is doing nothing to stop the double team.

Nakano openly pulls Velvet’s hair and slams her head to the turnbuckle. Whip into the ropes and Velvet hits a single foot dropkick. Linda tags in and hits a few dropkicks, going for a pin but only getting a two. Tag back to Velvet and they hit a double dropkick on Bull. Dump tags in and is hit with a dropkick. Double elbow. Linda’s back in and so is Dump, hitting a grazing running clothesline. A second hits her much, much harder. Dump lifts Linda into an airplane spin (Gorilla: “Kind of slow, I wouldn’t want to take off on that flight”) and into a slam for the academic three count.

I quite enjoyed this. Bull’s always been a favorite but this was my first actual in-ring exposure to Dump and she rules. ***

April 21, 1986 – WWF Prime Time Wrestling: Japanese Devils vs Susan Star & Candace Perdue (link – 14:10 mark)

This match might’ve aired elsewhere before Prime Time, but Cagematch is bringing me nothing – it doesn’t even acknowledge the existence of Susan Starr OR Candace Perdue. Maybe this was all a figment of Gorilla Monsoon’s brain as he’s on commentary. They do have matching gear, so I’m going to guess they have a history somewhere. We join in progress.

Dump with a slam on Candace. Dump pulls her partner in and slams her in front of Bull, showing off her badass dragon back tattoo. Bull chokes Candace for a four count. Dump comes in and she and Bull sandwich Candace between them, locking hands and squashing her. I dug that. Susan gets the upper hand and sidemares Bull down into a headlock. Bull punches out, trying to lock in a leglock but Candace fights out.

Tag to Dump with a crescent kick. Candace slings back at her, visibly upset. Dump offers a handshake but pulls it away. Susan is in and denies the handshake as well. Dump offers several more handshakes. Bull kicks Susan from behind when she finally goes to accept, which Dump leads into a two count. Tag and Dump pulls Candace in by her hair. Double whip into the ropes and she ducks, which leads into awkwardness and Candace taking Bull down for a headlock. Tag back to Susan who takes Bull down with multiple dropkicks and a backdrop. Dump tags in and pulls both opponents in, double whipping them and missing a double clothesline. Starr hits a dropkick but runs into a body splash. Dump hits the big clothesline and that’s it. Dump starts shooting birds at everyone who will look much to the censoring team’s dismay.

This was a bit of an oddity, with the women looking legit mad at each other at once point and not on the same page after that. I still enjoyed it. ***

August 27, 1994 – WCW Saturday Night: Vader vs Chris Nelson (link – starts at 1:06:33)

Our blog overlord Scott reviewed this entire show last week, but I’ll be peppering matches into these for a while since they are indeed rarities for Peacock sake. Our commentary team is Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan.

Vader and Harley Race enter to boos from the soundstage crowd who were hot the entire show. Chris Nelson has had 146 matches that Cagematch has found, as recently as 2017 as a member of The New Heavenly Bodies. He was definitely a mid 90’s TV jobber, with WCW losses to Rick Rude, Jean-Paul Levesque, and Alex Wright and WWF losses to names like Kwang, Kama and Hakushi. He even reappeared in 2000 to lose Jakked matches to Perry Saturn and the Hardys.

The fans grunt as Chris goes for a lockup. Vader pushes him to the corner and slaps him. He tells CHris to hit him and Chris does, though Vader just headbuts him off. Vader slingshots Chris into the ropes and knocks him down. The commentators have only talked about Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair here. Vader pounding Chris in the corner with hands. Powerbomb. Vader doesn’t even cover Chris, but the referee gets down and counts him to three for the win.

The ending was weird but I liked it. Chris wasn’t getting up, count him down. **

July 28, 1996 – Dark Match: Minoru Tanaka vs Fallen Angel (link)

The background for people like me who might not know: Minoru Tanaka is a character on Deathnote. He’s also apparently a legend of Japanese wrestling, one that is still active and regularly competing today. Fallen Angel is Christopher Daniels but with hair. Daniels is also active today as a member of the AEW roster, most recently taking a loss to Jack Perry.

This is hard-cam footage with tracking numbers and issues. Howard Finkel is here! He announces the Fallen Angel, already in the ring, and Minoru Tanaka who enters to no music. The men go for a lockup but Tanaka kicks Angel in the knee. Angels takes in the crowd’s boos. Headlock from Daniels into an armbar, which Tanaka flips out of and kicks him down. He rolls him into an armbar for a two count. Tanaka with a rolling DDT into another armbar, which is broken. Tanaka is caught in a slam and Daniels tells the crowd to shut up.

Daniels knees Tanaka and throws him over with a suplex. Hard chops by Daniels followed by a high clothesline. Daniels argues with fans in DX “suck it” shirts before getting a two. Daniels tries a top rope blow but is hit by Tanaka, who takes him down with several kicks. Tanaka tries a spinkick but Daniels ducks, catching him in a suplex for a two. Irish whip has Daniels duck over and hit Tanaka with a move we’ll call a jumping pedigree though it was much more and more impressive than I made it sound. Two count but the ref counts to three, getting a bell and then reversing the decision and continuing the match. Tanaka misses another spinkick but hits a dropkick for two. Back suplex for Tanaka as the dumb crowd chants “boring.” Tanaka with a back suplex arched into a pin and he gets the three.

First thought: horrible crowd. I get it, it was before Raw and all the Stone Colds and Rocks of the world, but it was a really good match. They were doing things that probably would’ve hit if they had made it on the main show, but of course neither did. ****

June 20, 2007 – OVW TV: Cody Runnels & CM Punk vs Shawn Spears & Jay Bradley (link)

We’re on OVW TV and boy did things change after this. Punk and Rhodes are amongst the biggest stars today and Spears is working well in NXT. Bradley is still at it today as well, primarily in NWA.

Cody has on tights that are half Dusty-tribute, half silver. Cody hits Bradley with several blows, Bradley hitting a hiptoss on Cody. Cody and Spears have some history before this apparently, as Cody keeps going after Spears. Cody whipped to the corner and hits a boot on Bradley before being caught in his arms. Punk tagged in and he mouths off to Bradley.

Slap from Punk and a series of kicks. Punk with a knee to the groin then missing a sweeping kick, giving Bradley the chance to tag a very hesitant Spears. Lockup and Runnels gets the tag, with Spears running. The commentator keeps talking about “THe Tuberculosus Man,” which is probably a reference I shouldn’t get.

Spears whips Punk into the corner, who turns into into a kick to Bradley. Tag to Cody and Spears bails out again. Punk catches him outside and throws him back in, Spears stuck with Cody. A distraction lets Bradley hit Cody and help get himself tagged back in as we cut to commercial break.

We come back to Cody stuck in a headlock. Cody elbows Bradley in the corner and the announcer is LOUD. Spears tagged in and kicks Cody. Continued attacks from Spears who gets a one count. Cody powers back up with punches but Spears pushes him to the corner, tagging in Bradley again. Bradley with elbows to Cody’s head for a two count. Tag to Spears who keeps kicking Cody. Cody tries to fight out of the corner. Two count for Spears. Bradley tagged back in and Cody is reeling. Cody again fights out of the corner but can’t escape. Back to Spears. This match is dragging for me, friends.

Cody hits the sliding uppercut but can’t make the tag. He escapes and Punk is in as the proverbial house of fire. Elbows for all. Bodyslam for Spears. Bradley is whipped in and takes a knee, then one in the other corner for Spears. Bulldog on Bradley. Punk goes up top and hits a flying clothes on Bradley, but a man in American flag tights pulls the referee out. Punk goes to attack but Spears counters. Cody comes in with a belt and whips Spears. Other randoms come in and take the belt, then Cody whips Spears some more. Punk hits the sidekick and locks on the Anaconda Vice on Bradley. The referee magically comes to life and calls for the submission.

This was something! It was hard to write about. A lot of good tag team work from Spears & Bradley, but it didn’t translate well to words. Not knowing the random people interfering is also a negative. **

Next time on Five From The Vault: Adam Pearce vs DDP?? A legendary hair vs masks match! And much more!