Every Cactus Jack vs. Big Van Vader Match I Could Find

Rather than time-warp back to rematch month to catch up on EXTRA BIG EGG features, I’m going to start with a claim I made in my essay about Vader vs. Cactus Jack from Halloween Havoc 1993, specifically that their stuff on WCW TV was ultimately better than their famous PPV encounter. I think it’s true, but it’s been years since I rewatched everything in one rip, so why not revisit the classics? Hell, why not revisit everything we’ve got on tape? Here’s what’s on tap:

• Thundercage: Cactus Jack, Dustin Rhodes, & Sting vs. Barry Windham, Vader, & Paul Orndorff (WCW 1/13/93)
• Cactus Jack & The Barbarian vs. Vader & Paul Orndorff (WCW 1/17/93)
• WCW Championship: Cactus Jack vs. Vader (WCW 3/7/93)
• Cactus Jack vs. Vader (WCW 3/13/93)
• WCW Championship: Cactus Jack vs. Vader (WCW 4/17/93)
• WCW Championship: Cactus Jack vs. Vader (WCW 4/24/93)
• Cactus Jack vs. Vader (3/16/94)
• Texas Death: Cactus Jack vs. Vader (4/30/94)

I’m skipping Battlebowl and the scant instances where it seemed like Vader and Mankind were going to come to blows in the WWF because they’re kind of meaningless. There’s probably more out there, somewhere — in 1998 Foley finally got his wish and got to wrestle Vader in the WWF, but that was on house shows. There’s a triple threat match between Mankind, Vader, and Ken Shamrock at MSG — Vader’s last match in the WWF — that’s probably languishing on a VHS tape in a storage unit in New York City somewhere.

It’d be great to see, but none of it will bring closure to this feud, which is one of the strangest of the 90s in the sense that its most infamous moment happened after its televised peak, on a house show in Germany, which would have meant nothing in the grand scheme of things without Mick Foley turning his severed ear into an indelible part of his gimmick. Like most of Mick Foley’s WCW rivalries, we should have gotten something more out of this one, something consequential. What we do have is worth celebrating, so here we go.