WALTER Begins His TakeOver Of The Figure World

If I haven't already gone into it on these pages, I will now. I have a unique way of taking in the current product. While I appreciate so much of the talent that is out there, I really can't take the presentation in any way, shape or form. The one show that I did enjoy, NWA Powerrr, sadly seems to be all but done. Instead of wasting my time with the other weekly shows that are made up of either filler or the same formulaic patterns of the past two decades, I simply wait to hear about a particular star or match that I feel is worth going out of my way for. Then, via either WWE Network or other means of viewing, I pull up whatever I want, whenever I want. One of the stars who I became a fan of this way is WALTER. He's a true throwback yet has a dash of modern flavor. The best of both worlds.

I know that I wasn't the only one who found it peculiar that a WALTER figure wasn't announced at the various product unveilings this year. There seemed to be a bevy of NXT female talents getting figures who I had barely, if ever, heard about, yet no WALTER. A man who has made waves, captured a championship, and even has his own faction. Low and behold, WALTER was suddenly announced as the latest Ringside Collectibles exclusive. Any collector with half a brain will tell you that in 2020 a Ringside exclusive is a sigh of relief over any brick-and-mortar retail exclusive.

Shipping just in time for the holidays, WALTER's first figure is not only an exclusive but a very detailed Elite. The first thing to note is the seemingly new trend in exclusive packaging. The boxes truly are boxes. No J-hooks here and I don't think that's a bad thing at all. If the figures aren't going to be at retail, why bother? There are plenty of shelving options out there if display is your worry. The box reflects WALTER's WWE UK Champioship win at NXT TakeOver: New York and, just like the man himself, is a darkly toned package as far as hues and colors. As dark as it is, it still stands out and is one of the better efforts of the year.

WALTER is packed with plenty of accessories including the WWE UK Championship, an alternate set of "open" hands, and most importantly his si-gnature "Ring General" robe. The aforementioned logo appears on both the back of the robe and the trunks of the figure. I've seen some criticism that the belt is the "WWE" UK Championship and not the "NXT" UK Championship as it is now, but this figure is clearly reflecting when he won the title. 

The figure is big and somewhat bulky just like the man himself. WALTER is no muscle guy, he's just big. The way an imposing wrestler should be. I think a big part of his appeal to me is that I could truly see this guy tearing AWA rings up were he a star in the '70s. WALTER vs Billy Robinson would've been a Helluva battle, if you ask me. 

The likeness is spot on. The parts used to make the body are reused I'm fairly sure, but they work. That's all we can ask for. The robe is soft goods and looks great on the figure, though it is packaged to the side. Seeing as that it's soft goods it enables a variety of poses that the stiff rubber accessories do not. There is a time and a place for both, but the wise choice was made here.

I'm certain that we'll see more figures of WALTER down the line, but often there is a time clause when exclusives are involved. I could see him popping up in a Basic line before anything else. Why wait? In a year of a lot of nice figures this is certain a worthy modern-day entry into the running for Figure of the Year just as I thought it would be as soon as I saw it. Plus, no worries about finding it. Unlike Target and Wal Mart, Ringside has you covered. As diverse as wrestling is once again getting, it's still refreshing to see someone who isn't a jacked-up monster becoming a star. WALTER is that and more. So is his rookie figure entry.

Ohhhhh Babyyyy...Mae Young's Back In Action (Figure Form)

It's hard enough to get figures of legends produced, much less female legends, but "ohhhh baby" here's another one for the Mattel roster. Joining Sherri, Alundra, and Wendi is The Great Mae Young. I'll refrain from bashing the Social Justice Warriors who caused The Fabulous Moolah not to be part of this lineup, but catch me on Twitter where the mood is always ugly and I'd be glad to rant with you. We're here to celebrate Mae's second entry into the figure world, and what a representation it is!

Mae is the "Collector's Edition" release to be shipped with Mattel's WWE Elite 81 series. It's the first series in awhile where I refrained from pre-ordering the entire set. Aside from Stunning Steve Austin (a pre-order for me solely for the WCW Tag Team Championship Belt), the rest of the series felt very passable. Starting with this wave there's a new feature on the packaging. The WWE hologram is circled by a logo signifying that the figure is "Certified Authentic." Ummm...what else would it be? It's not an AEW figure as they fly off of the shelves. Heck, maybe it's to quell the shock of actually finding a decent WWE figure in a store? Who knows. Once again, we're here to celebrate Mae and not for bitterness.

I love Mae. She was a great character in the world of wrestling and was always fun at appearances, too. Seeing as that I was the proud recipient of a Mae Young smooch, I would be biased even if this figure was awful. But it isn't. It's great. It's also lovingly packaged with the Mae Young Classic tournament trophy. Seeing as that Mae was small, the inclusion of the trophy makes sure that the figure doesn't "float" in the package. After Mae's prototype was unveiled, I was wondering if the upcoming Dusty Rhodes figure was going to include his tournament trophy. It doesn't seem to be the case but is certainly an avenue to be explored in the future.

Included with Mae along with the trophy are an "open" set of hands, ring jacket, and crown. Yes, Queen Mae Young reigned in the 1960's and I recall her wearing the crown occasionally in her later years as well. Mattel teased us with a "Queen Mae" doll prototype some years ago, but rumor suggests that it wasn't ever planned for release. The Jakks version of Mae was great and I'm certainly thrilled to have gotten one signed by the lady herself, but it seems sort of barebones now that we have this release. The jacket is soft goods and allows for various poses. The crown is unique to this figure and fits perfectly on her head.

Mattel really nailed Mae's unique posture as well. The molds for the legs certainly look like their new for this figure alone, but I haven't had the opportunity to check. The expression on her face is perfect and conveys the joy that she always seemed to be having in the wrestling business. An extra cool detail is that Mattel even included the tattoos on her left forearm. This is the quintessential Mae. Years ago no one would've predicted that the Mattel-WWE relationship would yield us several legendary women, but here we are with definitive versions. While it's obvious that Mae and Wendi were made due to the popularity of eras in which they were involved, it's still nice to know that the door is open for such releases.

While this is a "Collector's Edition," I don't see the demand for it being as high as some of the others. Superstar Billy Graham ended up hanging around in stores. If the shipments are the same for this figure, you may just end up running into her. Since I can't really see them ever producing Mae again, you may not want to risk it. The trophy could cause some additional interest from modern-only collectors. Ultimately this is a figure that makes you sit back and forget about the bitterness caused by SJW's "cancelling" Moolah and Mattel cancelling the fun of collecting due to some of their practices.

Ohhhhh baby!

The Last of the Territorial Wrestlers...Tracy Smothers

Until I added the label of his name to this entry, I truly thought that this may have been the first time that Tracy Smothers was mentioned in the decade plus of this blog's existance. It isn't, but if it were it certainly wouldn't have been due to my lack of fandom for the man. As just about anyone would tell you, Tracy Smothers was the man. It seems generic, but there's no other way to put it. His passing last month was sadly not a surprise due to his health issues, but still very much a shock due to the unbreakable spirit that the man had.

I've always felt that Tracy Smothers was the last true territorial wrestler, especially seeing as that he was reportedly still wrestling as of a year ago. He began in 1982, the year that I was born, and wrestled virtually everywhere. He may not have had huge runs everywhere he went, but I honestly don't think that mattered to him. If you recall Randy The Ram's line of "I just wanna wrestle," in the film The Wrestler, I think that summed up Smothers fairly well.

And despite runs in WWF, WCW, ECW, and various other territories, I would bet money that Smothers had some of his best times working the indy circuit in the 2000's. We in the Pittsburgh area were lucky enough to have Tracy prioritize our local independent group, IWC, as one of his top spots. Often with "Southern Comfort" partner Chris Hamrick, when Tracy was on the card you were guaranteed a great, hard-hitting match mixed with a bit of Southern-style entertainment as only Tracy could provide. During this run Tracy was also usually the veteran of the locker room. I know for a fact that many then up-and-coming wrestlers were more than honored to sit under his learning tree and even more thrilled if they were listed on the booking sheet opposite "the wild-eyed Southern boy."

One thing that Tracy did not have a lot of was merchandising. His other appearance here on the blog was actually one of a few posts documenting the top wrestling stars who never had an action figure. He made it into several trading card sets and sold a lot of self-produced merch at his ubiquitous gimmick table. If his rights can be obtained he would be an amazing fit into the Figures Toy Company Legends of Professional Wrestling Line. For a company that loves producing variants, he's a gold mine.

It's actually his table that reminds me of my favorite Smothers story. There was a time when WWE was heavily cracking down on individuals selling the footage that they owned. Conventions were frequently raided, albeit silently, due to unauthorized DVD's being sold. Once at an event I purchased two NWA shows on DVD from Tracy. They were very bootlegged, but in the days before WWE Network it was how a fan obtained this old footage. Tracy, for whatever reason, signed both of the actual discs for me. Think about that. I don't think that I even realized it at the time. All I can say is that it was a very Tracy Smothers thing to do, and that's a great thing. He seemed very care-free.

It was probably that way of thinking that guided him through his health issues. It probably also allowed him to enjoy a lot more of life than most in his fifty-eight years. He was a wrestler's wrestler, loved the business, loved entertaining the fans, and loved the fans. We loved him, too. 

Tracy Smothers

1962-2020

The Soul Man Returns

By and large a wrestling star from prior to the '80s has to have some sort of reason to be produced into an action figure. For most collectors a person simply has had to have stepped into the ring for us to want a figure of them. Unfortunately the manufacturers don't feel the same. It's the reason why the '70s are grossly underrepresented in the figure world. Sure we have iconic legends such as Bruno Sammartino, Superstar Billy Graham, and Andre the Giant, but what about the other guys? One of those stars just happened to be the father of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. I'm not saying that Rocky Johnson only has a figure in the Mattel line because of that, but he just isn't a name that pops up on too many lists.

This isn't Rocky Johnson's first foray into the figure world. "The Soul Man" lived to see two different figures in the Jakks WWE Classic Superstars line and a total of three releases. While they were nice looking figures, they regrettably came later in the line when Jakks decided to use cheaper plastic thus making the figures notoriously breakable with just a few simple poses. I'm sure that Mattel was hoping to improve on those prior releases in every way as any good company should. As Johnson is the "Collector's Edition" release accompanying Mattel's WWE Elite Series 80, they have the opportunity to do just that.

I'm still not a fan of the "Collector's Edition" releases, but I've gone over that ad nauseam. As long as they remain relatively easy to obtain I'll continue to keep my complaining to a minimum. The figure looks good in the packaging and the robe is set off to the side likely to show off Rocky's physique. It's hard to say if the robes should be on the figure in the package or not. Some figures seem to end up "stained" when the robes are on for the long haul. While I don't think that would've happened here, I guess it's just another reason to open your toys. Also included are an open pair of hands to alternate with fists. 

As far as the design of the figure itself goes, there's a whole lot to like. The figure differs greatly from the prototype. The biggest difference is one that put collectors into an uproar when prototype pictures first surfaced. Originally Johnson's familiar bird pectoral tattoos were missing. Soon after the uproar began it was said that this would not be changed. Obviously the squeaky wheel got the grease. It also seems to me that the head sculpt was tweaked somewhat. I was not seeing Rocky Johnson in the photos as much as I do here. The body of the figure is reused but they couldn't have gone with a better choice going by what they have at their disposal.

I won't say that I was a huge fan of the man in or out of the ring but figures of the '70s stars are few and far between. He's integral to anyone collecting wrestlers of the past and it's important to show Mattel that "obscure legends" (their words, not mine) will sell better than the endless Seth Rollins figures clogging shelves nationwide. If you're interested in the figure I would pick it up when available as this is definitely one that I can't see getting a re-release. If we've only had one Bruno figure in the entire Mattel run, I just can't see another Rocky Johnson. Certainly, though, I've been proven wrong with similar predictions in the past.

Nonetheless, long live disco, harvest gold appliances, and '70s wrestling.

The WrestleMania Toys We All Wanted 30 Years Ago Are Finally Here...

Thirty years is a long time to wait for a toy. It's even longer when you consider that those of us who've been waiting are far from being children anymore. Well, by number anyway. If you're reading this you're most likely a kid at heart just like yours truly. You were also probably just as mesmerized as I was by the spectacles that were the third and sixth WrestleManias. To be honest, there was a lot to be impressed by at those events. Something that stuck out at those two shows were the carts that carried the wrestlers to the ring. Over the years many have likened them to chariots bringing warriors into battle. They certainly were impressive and everyone seemed to love them. If you were like me, you wanted toy replicas for your figures. Mattel has answered your wish.

Gone are the days when so many of us fashioned our own ring carts out of cardboard, old ring corner posts, string, maybe even fragments from other toys. I remember using pieces from a Batman Batcave set for my little creations. Mattel has finally released the coveted accessories in a new WrestleMania series. There are two carts in the series, one including Andre the Giant and the other featuring Randy "Macho Man" Savage. The packaging is very visually impressive and brings me back to the "Slim Jim" Savage figure produced last year. I so liked these boxes that I was tempted to keep them "as is," but how could I not play with a toy that I've truly been waiting three decades for?

The carts themselves are nicely done. They very much resemble their on-screen counterparts, albeit a tad smaller. They're a light but sturdy plastic complete with wheels on the underside. You can fit two figures in each cart. On screen I don't recall more than three people in one at any given time, though I would imagine The Hart Foundation and Danny Davis all crammed into one during intermission. There are two omissions which don't bother me but need pointed out. Neither of the narrow ends "open" to allow wrestlers to enter and exit. The ropes are all one piece. Also, there are obviously no cart drivers. Although the excellent WWF camera work largely omitted them, the carts were driven to and from the ring by personnel. For toy and display purposes they weren't needed at all.

The figures included are the Mattel "Basic" style and I have no problem with that. Seeing as that these are mostly going to be displayed, does anyone really need the extra movement? Both heads are new designs and look very good. The photos make Savage's eyeballs look blank, but they're there. His attire is directly from WrestleMania III as some were unhappy with the "Defining Moments" release and the colors chosen. We've had better Andre figures (take the singlet from multiple releases and put it on the "Giant Machine" Andre for the perfect Boss) but this one is more than acceptable. I'd have preferred some better attention to his hands. If not the amazing "giant paw" hands used for both he and The Big Show, why not do one hand with his two fingers in the air? I can actually foresee some folks trying to sell the figures off. The carts are the draw here, make no mistake about it.

You'll have fun recreating those classic entrances. Going back between the two events you can even notice how the company took them from merely a way to avoid an extremely long entrance and turned them into a dramatic element all in itself. At III the carts virtually flew to the ring. The wrestlers whisked down that long Silverdome aisle while doing their best to ham it up. At VI each wrestler gets a nice bit of time to do their thing, we get to hear a large portion of their theme songs, and in the case of The Macho King and Sensational Queen, a true royal treatment is to be had.

The decades of waiting have paid off. You may very well be happy keeping them in the boxes as the visuals certainly lend themselves to it. Although there really wouldn't be the need for another series featuring these, I would personally like to see one released with a character who is alive thus bringing autograph potential to the line. My pick? How about post-match Hulk Hogan from III? Throw in the '87 belt accessory which has already been produced and give The Hulkster a pointing finger. And while no longer with us, how about a basic King Harley Race for the other? Like these, it doesn't have to have the accessories (buy Retrofest Duggan and the crown is right there) but would be a simple solution for those who didn't feel like shelling out a fortune for that Flashback set as I did.

Now, let's bring those carts back for one more Mania. I always figure a certain "big match" superstar famous for his WrestleMania entrances may do it one year. His match participation days seem to be ticking away. Why not go out in (cart) style?

A Figure Where No Gimmicks Are Needed...But Some Are Thrown In Anyway

It's purely accidental that I have the two ECW Chris Candido figures autographed. The former Bodydonna just happened to be working several shows for my local independent promotion and both of his releases in the Toymakers figure line happened to still be hanging around on clearance at Toys "R" Us. It worked out great and they aren't two figures that you often see signed. Up until now they were the only figures of Candido. His run in the WWF was during a relatively dark time for toys as licenses were changing. He would've been a fun inclusion in the WWE Classic Superstars line, but I don't even recall chatter about it. Now, thanks to Figures Toy Company, we get to see what it may have looked like.

The latest release in the FTC Legends of Professional Wrestling is the late New Jersey native himself. For some reason the company has decided to release an "Early Bird Variant" limited to 100. Aside from a sticker on the front of the clamshell case proclaiming it as such, according to the company the later release will not include the three accessories present here. Seeing as that there was a new FTC release in the only other figure genre that I collect (1966 Batman TV series), I decided to put Candido into my cart as well.

You may remember the last figure in this series that I picked up, The Blue Meanie. As long awaited as he was, the quality of the figure proved to be a disappointment. While the company was using the same tooling as the Jakks "Ruthless Aggression" style figures, the materials used were just not the same. In fact, as shown right on this blog, Meanie was literally beside himself in the package as his head was detached upon arrival. I have since picked up a few figures in the sister lines put out by the company, those being Rising Stars of Wrestling and Ring of Honor, respectively. I reviewed one of those figures, Tama Tonga, last year. While there were improvements, the material quality by and large still wasn't there.

Before we go further, I will say that my feelings and findings as far as quality have not changed. There is great effort here but I'm still not seeing what we should be getting for the price point. The joints are tight, but I don't have the confidence that I could give this to a child and that it would remain in good condition for long. The trade-off is that we're getting characters we won't be seeing elsewhere. Mattel has little to no interest in ECW stars, so Figures Toy Company does seem to be filling that void. I would like to see more true old school legends, but they don't seem to be going that route at the moment.

Candido's head wasn't off in the package, but the towel was oddly nearly covering his face. I'm not sure why as the figure has a good likeness. It's probably exactly what we would've seen from Jakks. It isn't perfect, but it's much more him than the ECW figures were. There are some odd scars on his face, or what look to be scars anyway. This may just have been intended as shading on the face, but it's hard to tell. In any case, it doesn't show up in all lighting and I'm fairly sure it won't translate to the pictures here. The body is your standard "Ruthless Aggression" style which, again, is what we would've gotten had this been a "Classic Superstars" release. It's not exactly Candido but it certainly works.

The accessories included are a chair, a towel, and a pallet. I really like the pallet. It's plastic but it certainly has a wooden look. As much as pallets have been used in wrestling over the past two decades, I don't recall one being included with a figure before. The towel is the "Val Venis" towel from the Jakks days or similar to it. The chair has been the standard Figures Toy Company folding chair for many years. It reminds me very much of a folding chair at an indy show. Like maybe in a bingo hall. The one accessory that I'm sure will be included in the "regular" release is his elbow pad. It's cloth in a great nod to the Remco AWA line, even if it isn't intentional.

I don't know that we're quite looking at a $40 figure here, but it's Candido. He's probably not getting any more figures and who's to say that the regular release will ever happen? If it does, it will only be around $10 less. And since I opened one and I have seen at least one other opened example, you're down to 98 "early bird" versions left in the package. Speaking of the package, here's hoping that Francine, Scott Norton, and Alex Wright see the light of day sooner than later. They may all look like creepy composite sketches on that card back, but they're three more names I'd be willing to drop $30 each for.

The Territory Photo Albums--AWA 1974

Who doesn't love looking through the old territory photo albums? Even non-collecting wrestling fans get a kick out of them. They're a time capsule of a particular promotion and are usually from a golden era. If business was down and the stars weren't exactly top notch the promoters probably weren't going to spend a lot of money to advertise that fact. As I said in the first installment of this feature many years ago, you didn't have the Internet where you could fly to any promotion's website or app and instantly view the current roster, alumni, Hall of Fame, etc. So what did you do? You spent a couple bucks and bought a photo album if your area was lucky enough to have one.

Being one of the premiere wrestling promotions in the country, the American Wrestling Association had many photo albums. In this case, way back in 1974, it's a yearbook. I've long wanted this particular publication and the price is usually fairly high when it comes up. I've not only been on an AWA "kick" as of late, but I happened upon a small but amazing collection chock full of items from both this promotion and "nearby" Central States. I'm sure we'll be seeing much more from that lot both here on the blog and on the associated social media pages. I must say that I'm particularly thrilled over the inclusion of a side of a popcorn box that was used for collecting autographs. It really isn't even the autographs that are as exciting to me as it being an actual piece of a popcorn box from a nearly fifty-year-old wrestling show. If you wouldn't be feeling the same, get off of this blog now.

Kidding, of course! We've got 1974 to go back to here. If you've already browsed through the photos or own this book yourself, you may notice the resemblance to the 1976 World Wide Wrestling Federation Championship Wrestling Yearbook. That yearbook was also published by the team of Gary Halvorson and Gary Juster and is very similar in feel and format. Juster, of course, is best remembered for his involvement in World Championship Wrestling in the early '90s and was still around the wrestling business within the last few years. Seeing as that the WWWF version was listed as being published in St. Paul, Minnesota, one has to wonder if Vince McMahon or another WWWF promoter saw this AWA work and decided that they wanted to commission one for themselves.

The table of contents for this AWA yearbook lists Verne Gagne, The Crusher, Billy Robinson, Billy "Superstar" Graham, Nick Bockwinkel, Ray Stevens, Bobby Heenan, Larry "The Axe" Hennig, Ivan Putski, Baron Von Raschke and Horst Hoffman, Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell, Dick The Bruiser, Buddy Wolff, Geoff Portz, Chris Taylor, Andre The Giant, and Nikolai Volkoff among the top wrestlers. Of course there are also a few pages with additional wrestlers as well as other dignitaries. In showing how everyone wanted to stay "fresh" in those days, several of the stars featured would end up in the WWWF version two years later. 

It's no surprise our cover boy is Verne Gagne himself. I've said it many times, but I still can't believe that we didn't get a Remco Verne figure. Nonetheless, here he is demonstrating his pure wrestling prowess on Billy Robinson and featuring in the first, and biggest, bio. Son Greg is on the inside cover. I don't agree with the hate that Greg gets, but it's just simply telling that he's right there. While you might've guessed Robinson as the second bio, you would be wrong. He came in third right behind The Crusher. Even as he was getting up in age, I'm sure that Reggie "Crusher" Lisowski was still a top drawing card in the region, especially in Milwaukee. Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!

We get a look at Billy Graham (when "Superstar" got middle billing) and then arrive upon the man that I, personally, connect most closely with the AWA, the one and only Nick Bockwinkel. He may have been the classiest champion that there ever was, but you could also argue that he was the classiest heel, too. While I'm sure that Nick Aldis in our modern era is mostly trying to emulate Ric Flair, he actually comes across much more in the style of Bockwinkel as far as promos and presentation. Nevertheless, both in and out of the ring Bockwinkel is unmatched. 

While they don't have the bios that the "home based" AWA talent gets, Andre the Giant and Nikolai Volkoff share a featured page that obviously points out their importance. With Andre it was no secret. Looking through AWA results of the era you can see the many tours that Andre did throughout the Midwest, often competing in a battle royal or helping dispose of the most dastardly AWA heels. Volkoff was likely coming in from the WWWF, as he's pictured with a nice head of hair and "Classy" Freddie Blassie who would not have made the trip, being a WWWF lifer at that point.

There are two full pages of smaller pictures displaying "More Wrestling Stars." It's sort of surprising to see Dusty Rhodes here instead of getting a full profile, though this would be right when he was becoming "The American Dream" in Florida. We do get to see a photo that I have never seen before of young "Rick Flair," probably not too far removed from the days when he yearned to be known as "Rambling" Ricky Rhodes. We also get to see Rene Goulet, Red Bastien, Larry Heiniemi (Lars Anderson), Khosrow Ali Vaziri (The Iron Sheik), and a young, slim, dark haired grappler named Paul Perschman who would later be immortalized in plastic by the AWA as "Playboy" Buddy Rose. Interestingly we also get a photo of "Odd Job," labeled as such. This is obviously actor Harold Sakata who played the famous James Bond villain, but I wasn't aware that he actually wrestled under the character name. Rather I recall him being billed in the ring as Tosh Togo.

After the wrestlers we get a full page dedicated to promoter Wally Karbo (who Bobby Heenan had a million stories about) and a subsequent page with other AWA officials. Stanley Blackburn, Bob Luce, Al DeRusha, Lord James"Tally Ho" Blears and Ed Francis are a few of the more familiar names. We end the publication with a profile on longtime AWA broadcaster Marty O'Neill and two unsurprising ads. The first is for the publications produced by "The Wrestling News." Although the ordering address is in New York, these publications were largely produced out of the AWA territory and always seemed to have a large focus on that area. Last but not least is an ad for the film "The Wrestler." This is, of course, the 1974 version which co-starred Verne Gagne and Billy Robinson. It's worth going out of your way to see, is widely available, and the bar fight featuring The Texas Outlaws (Rhodes and Dick Murdoch) is a real highlight. And there's Harold Sakata again looking a lot like Odd Job.

Did I say how much I love these old books? I know that I'm not the only one. I can't cram all of the pictures into one blog entry, but I do try to feature enough to convey the look and feel. If you want to see more, give us a follow over on Instagram (@jws_wrestling_memorabilia) where I just recently posted a brief tour of this yearbook with photos you did not see here including Wahoo McDaniel, Vivian Vachon, Ken Patera, Wilbur Snyder, and one of my off-beat favorites from the era, Bull Bullinski. If there was ever a wrestler of the '70s, it's Bull.

While Ron Trongard wasn't in this particular AWA publication, can't you just hear him? "From coast to coast, continent to continent, border to border, it's the A-DOUBLE-YEW-A!"