How far back does WWE's Tape Library go?

[spman 0]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone even have a clue how far back the WWE's tape collection go? I know their own stuff must go back at least to the days of Capitol Wrestling on the Dumont Network in the 50's. but I've also heard that a lot of the stuff pre-1970's has been lost, including many important title changes like the Stasiak win, and both times Sammartino won the belt. How about the Jim Crockett Promotions stuff? or the AWA stuff? Might those very well go even further back, into the 40's or the 50's?

[Bruce Blank 0]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone even have a clue how far back the WWE's tape collection go? I know their own stuff must go back at least to the days of Capitol Wrestling on the Dumont Network in the 50's. but I've also heard that a lot of the stuff pre-1970's has been lost, including many important title changes like the Stasiak win, and both times Sammartino won the belt. How about the Jim Crockett Promotions stuff? or the AWA stuff? Might those very well go even further back, into the 40's or the 50's?

Tape qualifty from back then probably wasn't that great so I doubt they'd have much 50s-60s footage around from either the NWA or the AWA that's actually viewable. I've never seen any that's for sure but that doesn't mean that they don't have it stored in some dark vault in the basement

[JJMc 0]

Back in the early days of video tape, it was common to record over previous footage to save money. I have heard this being the case in regards to WWF before.

[Masked Man of Mystery 0]

On the Best of Confidential DVD, they show footage of Orton's grandfather from way back when. It wasn't great, but it was watchable

[cawthon777 0]

The oldest title match I've seen footage of was the Bruno / Steele cage match from Phili. I think the year was 1970 or 69.

[The Buzz 0]

I think I saw a dvd selling footage from an old Thez title match on 8mm.

[cawthon777 0]

I think I saw a dvd selling footage from an old Thez title match on 8mm.

 

Was Vince selling it?

[The Buzz 0]

No, but it was NWA footage and Vince now owns almost all of the NWA footage.

[Quasar 0]

No, but it was NWA footage and Vince now owns almost all of the NWA footage.

 

Vince doesn't own that though, unless you got lucky and got one of Thesz's matches in Florida (REAL lucky on this one) or the Carolinas. Thesz was most active in St. Louis and Vince doesn't own the Central States library yet.

[JJMc 0]

I think I saw a dvd selling footage from an old Thez title match on 8mm.

 

Well that's film. Video tape (i.e. television brodcasts) didn't come in until the late 40s and wasn't widely used until at least the the 50s. And as I said, early video tape was expensive and wasn't very durable at all. I was just distinguishing between film and tape, I don't know if the original question was meant to.

[The Buzz 0]

alright, sorry I guess lol

[JJMc 0]

alright, sorry I guess lol

 

Yeah, that's right, ASSHOLE! haha!

[JHawk 0]

Anything prior to the mid-7os is going to be hit or miss as far as whether Vince has it or not, simply because they used to record over the tapes to save money.

 

There's some footage from the 50s and 60s available that's still in pretty good quality, but most teritories didn't bother keeping it. Not to mention what fires and natural disasters have done to some of the film that was kept.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I remember hearing about one of the NWA territories that simply threw away all their tapes when they closed down. Not sure which one, but it's believable, I guess.