"lost" matches

Red Sleeping Beauty

Ever hear of matches but could never find a tape of them ? In the WWF in the 90s there were a few matches that I don't think ever surfaced (at least not past the odd compilation tape you could never find in a shop).

First up was the Bret Hart Shawn Michaels ladder match from around 1992. It was featured on a video cassette called "Smack 'Em Whack 'Em" but you could never find this anywhere so a teenager in the 90s with no access to the internet or anything had no hope.

Then in '96 Michaels was in a world title ladder match with Goldust at some big house show. It was featured in one of the magazines with pictures at the time but it wasn't recorded. Actually, Michaels was also in some house show match with Owen Hart around '96 where he got juice and apparently had a match with Bret later that night with a massive bandage on his head. No sign of a video of that though.

In 1997 WWF had their first triple threat match in Toronto with Sid, Michaels and Bret. Don't think a video ever surfaced of this.

Triple H said that he and Austin had loads and loads of house show matches in '98 that rivaled their later matches. There's the Mayhem in Manchester tape which might be the only commercially available tape of (what was essentially) a house show.


I know my suggestions are mainly HBK-centric but I always wondered how come them matches were never filmed and released aside from the first ladder match there. There must be 100s of other matches especially from the 80s and other companies that were never recorded. Are many matches from the likes of the WWE lost or forgotten about now that so much is recorded ? And I know that there's a fan video of the Goldust ladder match and the Hart/HBK match is now on DVD but pre-internet unless you were trading tapes you'd have never seen these.

big syke

Alan Rouge wrote: »

First up was the Bret Hart Shawn Michaels ladder match from around 1992. It was featured on a video cassette called "Smack 'Em Whack 'Em" but you could never find this anywhere so a teenager in the 90s with no access to the internet or anything had no hope.

That one is on the ladder match DVD..

Snakeblood

Alan Rouge wrote: »

Ever hear of matches but could never find a tape of them ? In the WWF in the 90s there were a few matches that I don't think ever surfaced (at least not past the odd compilation tape you could never find in a shop).

First up was the Bret Hart Shawn Michaels ladder match from around 1992. It was featured on a video cassette called "Smack 'Em Whack 'Em" but you could never find this anywhere so a teenager in the 90s with no access to the internet or anything had no hope.

Then in '96 Michaels was in a world title ladder match with Goldust at some big house show. It was featured in one of the magazines with pictures at the time but it wasn't recorded. Actually, Michaels was also in some house show match with Owen Hart around '96 where he got juice and apparently had a match with Bret later that night with a massive bandage on his head. No sign of a video of that though.

In 1997 WWF had their first triple threat match in Toronto with Sid, Michaels and Bret. Don't think a video ever surfaced of this.

Triple H said that he and Austin had loads and loads of house show matches in '98 that rivaled their later matches. There's the Mayhem in Manchester tape which might be the only commercially available tape of (what was essentially) a house show.


I know my suggestions are mainly HBK-centric but I always wondered how come them matches were never filmed and released aside from the first ladder match there. There must be 100s of other matches especially from the 80s and other companies that were never recorded. Are many matches from the likes of the WWE lost or forgotten about now that so much is recorded ? And I know that there's a fan video of the Goldust ladder match and the Hart/HBK match is now on DVD but pre-internet unless you were trading tapes you'd have never seen these.

I think the simple reason would be that it costs money to set up the equipment to record a show, and to store the show once it was recorded and up until now, there was little thought of an internet\WWE Online\24/7 where you could watch the matches. It's like the early Dr. Whos, which were taped over because the tape they were on was more valuable than the show itself. Now the reverse is true, but people back in the 90s or 80s had no idea.

Added to that, TV was designed to push the houseshows up until the 90s. It was a new thought that you could show people the houseshows and charge them for it on video. Also, do you record every show? The shows with Sid Vs. Vader, or UT vs. Nash?