If you do move ahead and register it, check a domain's backlinks to insure not a bunch of spam in final years of usage, install with wordpress use the 404 to 301 plug in to log in and determine which pages existed before when they are hit by bots or users. Then attempt to find them on archive by entering this with the domain name and page url text: "myexpireddomain.com/this-is-the-old-expired-webpage-here-research"
Sometimes you can find the old content if it was crawled, sometimes not- it's hit and miss and you need to search throughout the entire timeline. I have had limited success which depends on a number of factors, but it gives you some ideas at least that only costs your time.