Down Under With Outback Jack

Like any genre, wrestling is full of hits and misses. Sometimes what appear to be great ideas on paper just don't translate well in person or on-screen. Such is the case with the character known as Outback Jack. Many fans don't even remember Outback very well, as it seems that if you weren't on those early pay-per-views your run can be largely forgotten. Nevertheless, other fans do remember him and it's surprising to learn that he lasted as long in the company as he did. Most notably is that he inspired quite a bit of memorabilia for a character who had a short shelf life.

The year was 1986 and the film Crocodile Dundee was banking coin and bringing laughs at the box office. It told the story of an Australian bushman finding himself in America lost in the culture of New York City. What better story for a new WWF character? The company found a man named Peter Stilsbury to portray the character and thus began the adventure of Outback Jack. As said above, it isn't a bad idea on paper. As chronicled by the vignettes shown on WWF television to introduce the character, the Australian bushmen are tough. I'm sure that many fans were eagerly awaiting Jack battling and defeating the biggest and baddest that the WWF had to offer such as King Kong Bundy and Kamala.

For whatever reason, Outback Jack didn't turn out the way that the company expected. He wasn't the greatest in the ring, but this was an era where that didn't matter as much as character and charisma. Perhaps he needed more of a rub such as the one that Hillbilly Jim received from Hulk Hogan. Maybe he needed a mouthpiece, though babyface managers were few and far between at this point. In my opinion the character may have worked had they turned him heel quickly similar to how The Honky Tonk Man was introduced, but that transition was happening at the same time.

Needless to say, Outback Jack was a failed experiment. To the surprise of many fans today, Jack lasted about a year and a half, seeing his last WWF matches in mid-1988. In a bit of trivia he even teamed with a young Steve Blackman in one of those matches, the same "Lethal Weapon" who would make a bit of a name with the company a decade later.

What is also surprising to some fans is the amount of merchandise that was released for the character. Outback Jack had several cards in the much remembered 1987 Topps WWF card set, even getting a "face" card that only the top superstars received. He also had a rarely seen set of promotional photos that showed Jack in and around Australia in some of the same situations shown in the introduction vignettes. There was an Outback Jack t-shirt sold through the merchandise catalog and at events, but most famous is his figure in the beloved Wrestling Superstars line by LJN. To date this remains the only figure of Jack, and it even has a removable slouch hat.

The WWF didn't give up on the idea of friendly wrestlers from "Down Under" after the Outback Jack failure. Just a few months later The Bushwhackers from New Zealand would debut and last in the company for almost a decade. Maybe their out-of-control zaniness is more of what Jack needed to win over the fans. Personally, I feel that he physically looked more like a heel and may have thrived a decade earlier as a bloodthirsty Australian roughneck. Regardless, even without any pay-per-view appearances and even few matches featured on WWE Network thus far, Outback Jack will live on thanks to the merchandising...the aspect of any wrestling career that we've been celebrating on this blog for ten years.

"That Guy Actually Had A Figure?"

Hogan. Austin. Cena. The Rock. The Undertaker. All-time greats. All-time favorite action figures to many collectors young and old. If you walked into any toy store during the primes of the aforementioned stars, you would be sure to find several different versions of each clogging the shelves.

Of course these figures are going to dominate the rest of your collection, but just like in the real-life world of wrestling, it takes other guys to make the stars. Which figures are going to look up at your bedroom lights while Dusty dances and Flair struts?

It's the lesser stars that have always intrigued me the most both in-ring and in the world of memorabilia. Some fans just don't realize that a lot of collectors want figures of nearly anyone who's ever appeared in a wrestling ring. When those fans see a particularly "quirky" figure either in a collection or on a store shelf, the familiar sentence always rings out...

"That guy actually had a figure?"

This entry is my own personal list of the five figures most likely to produce such a reaction. These five are based on my own opinion and reactions I've personally seen to some of them. Prepare to be SHOCKed...

The Shockmaster

He came. He saw. He fell. Tugboat in a glitter-filled Stormtrooper helmet. One of WCW's best ideas? No. But certainly a character that would make one wonder how it got onto television, much less got an action figure.

The truth is that the action figure is part of the Jakks WWE Classic Superstars line and was produced for two reasons. The first reason is because the character, due to the various mishaps surrounding it, WAS memorable. The second is because Jakks already had the rights to create the various faces of Fred Ottman into action figures. While Tugboat still remains unmade as an action figure (aside from being one of the goalie figures in the 1991 Remco WWF Table Hockey), we will always have Typhoon and the one and only Shockmaster to relive our memories of "Uncle Fred."

Dick Woehrle

Figures of the wrestlers themselves are great, but who can put on a show without managers, announcers, and referees? While Remco produced a few different referee figures for their AWA line, their Dick Woehrle figure may be the best referee figure of any line. While the other referees in the AWA line featured repainted heads from other Remco action figure lines, the Dick Woehrle head sculpt is amazingly lifelike. While the figure does include the famous "ripped" body type used on many of the AWA figures, it does not take away from the only figure of the man who seemingly wore the stripes in every wrestling territory. While other referees were released later on, perhaps the only figure to come close was the Jakks release of Earl Hebner nearly two decades later.

Ted Arcidi

This is the figure that not only posed the question above, but made kids ask "Who IS this guy?" The truth of the matter is that Ted Arcidi had a very brief run in the WWF. Aside from an appearance in the WrestleMania 2 Battle Royal, Arcidi had very few other memorable moments. This, coupled with the long time it took for figures to be produced in that era, meant that most children didn't have a clue who Ted Arcidi was by the time that the LJN figure was available in stores. The red singlet and somewhat goofy facial expression ensured that this figure would become the "jobber" in WWF household action nationwide. Arcidi has since become an actor appearing in such films as "The Town" and "The Fighter," but his biggest claim to immortality will probably always be as the least known LJN WWF figure in the line.

Zeus

Tiny Lister is a very nice guy and a good actor. If you've seen anything from "The Dark Knight" to "Friday" to episodes of "Matlock" and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," you've seen Tiny Lister. He just wasn't a very good wrestler. His stint as Zeus was rather unremarkable despite the hype, and we can all be thankful that a rumored Hogan-Zeus main event at WrestleMania VI ultimately did not happen.

Similarly to The Shockmaster, Zeus was immortalized in the WWE Classic Superstars line for nostalgia purposes. Had the run of Zeus not taken place just as the WWF was switching from LJN to Hasbro for their toy license, we may very well have seen a vintage Zeus figure released as well.

Tiny Lister continues to have a steady career as a menacing character actor. Former WWF star Robert "Kurrgan" Maillet seems to be following in the same footsteps by becoming Hollywood's go-to brute. Will we ever see Zeus and Kurrgan do battle on the big screen? I know I'm not the only one who'd love to see it.

Outback Jack

Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport! Yes, it's Outback Jack. He had videos hyping his debut. He had magazine articles. He had trading cards. And yes, he had an LJN figure. He simply didn't have much ability in the ring. He did help us understand the lingo on the menu at "The Outback" and satisfied any fantasies anyone may have had about Crocodile Dundee crossing over into the world of wrestling. Honestly, we were better off sticking with Bill Dundee.

Did I leave anyone out? A figure that you cannot believe was produced? Maybe it's one that you've seen in a previous entry. Let us know here or on the Facebook Fanpage!