In episode 210 of the Shut Up and Wrestle podcast, host Brian R. Solomon interviewed Richard Land to discuss the preservation and availability of professional wrestling history. Land is recognized for his work with The History of WWE website, an archival resource originally created by Graham Cawthon. The conversation addressed the current state of wrestling archives, the transition from physical media to streaming services, and the management of WWE’s “WWE Vault” YouTube channel.
Management of the WWE Vault YouTube Channel
Solomon provided insights into the leadership of the “WWE Vault” YouTube channel, noting his personal communication with the individual overseeing the platform’s content selection. He clarified that the channel is managed by someone with a genuine interest in the industry’s history.
“I am acquainted with and communicate with the person who is directly in charge of managing the vault. We have been in contact, and the guy is a fan. I want people to know that he is interested in wrestling history; he is a buff. He has people that he has to answer to and things like that. I have mentioned certain dream requests to him, and he knows what I’m talking about. He’s not just some newbie; he’s aware of it. He’s aware that there are certain things that people want. He’s dealing with a corporate structure, obviously, but I just wanted to let people know that there’s a good guy in charge of all this, and I think we’re seeing the results of that labor, so maybe we’ll see more.”
Recent Successes in Unearthing Rare Footage
The discussion highlighted the specific types of footage appearing on the Vault channel, including rare matches from the Florida territory and house shows from Montreal. Solomon praised the inclusion of material that had previously been difficult for historians to access in high quality.
“They’ve done some incredible things on the vault, but again, it’s piecemeal. It’s bit by bit. I’m going to give them the credit. There has been stuff that popped up on the vault that’s never been seen anywhere else, like some of those Omni cards from the early 80s that people have been wondering about for years. They just did this today or yesterday, because I think it was the anniversary of the Florida title unification match between Harley Race and Superstar Billy Graham from 1978. They posted all the material about it: the press conferences and the interviews.”
Challenges in Digitizing the Territory Era
Solomon explained the logistical and financial hurdles that often prevent the release of older, niche territory footage on major streaming platforms like Peacock. He noted that corporate priorities often favor more recent content with higher viewership potential.
“The sad discovery that they made, and I know this from people who have been there on the inside and have worked on the digitizing, is kind of what we all suspected: the level of interest is just not high enough to justify all the work, the man-hours, and the money resources. That’s the problem. There’s really not much you can do. They figured out the lion’s share of people want to see the current stuff, and that’s why they’re getting it and tuning in. If there is historical stuff they want, it’s mostly going to be the Attitude Era or maybe now Ruthless Aggression, because it’s within everybody’s memory of recent fandom. When it came to the old territory stuff, it was just sort of like the red-headed stepchild. I know for a lot of people like me, that’s what we want to see the most of, but they just treated it like a complete afterthought.”
New Archival Finds from Private Collections
Land shared a recent experience regarding the acquisition of rare footage from a private collection in Germany. The collection included over 500 tapes containing material from the early 1980s that had not been widely circulated online.
“I ended up buying that collection of tapes. I got a friend in Germany to pick them all up and mail them to me in England in several huge boxes. It wasn’t just German stuff; this was a guy who’d been trading back in the 80s, getting stuff from America of WWF house shows and TV. I’ve got a YouTube channel where I’m uploading all the old localized promos they used to do for all the house shows. This guy had loaded random New York and Philly stuff from as far back as 82 and 83 which I’ve never seen online before. Getting stuff like that in 2024, 40 years later, it’s kind of crazy that this stuff has never been put online before or traded around and still can be found today.”
The Madison Square Garden “Four Decades” Record
A significant portion of the discussion focused on the historical significance of Madison Square Garden. Solomon detailed research he conducted using Land’s database to identify eight individuals who have competed in the venue across four different decades.
“One of the statistics that I discovered is I made a list of eight people who have wrestled at Madison Square Garden in four different decades. I did need to use the book for the earlier stuff, and it’s painstaking. It’s eight individuals. The first one is Cola Kwariani, who was a real old-time wrestler from the 20s who wrestled all the way into the 50s. The next one’s Ray Stevens, who was a combination of the old building and the new building. Then Arnold Skaaland, same thing with him. And Bob Backlund, who just squeaked in because he was in the 2000 role. And so you got Backlund, and then after that, it’s Hogan, Roddy Piper, Haku, and then the most recent one was Edge, who did the 90s, 2000s, 2010s, and wrestled in the 2020s.”
Click below to listen to the entire podcast (highly recommended).
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