Wrestling MarketWatch: Goin’ South!

We’re goin’ south! A little trip back to the southern wrestling territories and promotions, that is. It’s truly fascinating how something like professional wrestling could have different flavors wherever you went in the country or even the world. The presentation, the in-ring style and even the fans themselves could be as different as night and day from region to region. Even more interesting, and perhaps worthy of some sort of study, is how many wrestlers were able to adapt going from area to area. Even still, why did some flounder upon moving? Regardless, in this latest edition of MarketWatch we’re going to look at a few items from the southern wrestling territories. Grab your Diet Cheerwine and a drumstick from Bojangles, we’re headed for Dixie!

*While traces of the territorial system still exist and certainly independent promotions in some areas will differ from others, the wrestling landscape is largely a different animal nowadays. The last true territory in the eyes of many people was Jim Cornette’s Smoky Mountain Wrestling. From 1991 to 1995 the promotion used a mix of established stars and up-and-comers to reflect Cornette’s vision of what wrestling should be. To this day the shows and matches from SMW thrill fans, but there just wasn’t enough support at the time to keep it afloat. Not only does Corny need to make a return to public appearances, but why not give SMW another shot? I think we need another dose of quality southern wrestling. The very first SMW Ringside Report recently sold for $38.

*Another man who had his hand in not only the on-air portion of the product but also the behind-the-scenes aspect of southern wrestling was “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes. You know that Dusty is one of the G.O.A.T.’s around this blog, so I won’t go into all of his accomplishments yet again. You also know of the beloved Mello Yello ad-campaign that Dusty helmed in a deal with Jim Crockett Promotions thanks to several blog entries and the great commercials on YouTube. The Mello Yello cans featuring the mugs of various NWA stars are highly collected to this day and not always the easiest to find. The aluminum masterpiece featuring The Dream himself recently sold for $60. I really miss Mello Yello Zero. Just sayin’.

*It’s sort of a trend that we’re featuring stars who were as prominent behind the scenes as they were on camera. Ole Anderson is another that fits the bill. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it a million times more: for as much as it’s written that Ole is grumpy this and opinionated that, he was always great to me. Always willing to sign autographs, take photos and, especially, talk. The word is that his health has plummeted in recent years and I wish nothing but the best for him. Talk about real promos and a real wrestling style. Ole wrote the book on both. He also had the book for Georgia Championship Wrestling. The July 1980 Georgia Ringsider program, featuring a shot of an irate Ole being interviewed by Gordon Solie, recently sold for $27.

*If you’re talking the south, southern wrestling and southern boys you have to be talking Michael P.S. Hayes. Wrestling’s original bad boy and the leader of The Fabulous Freebirds. (What’s your excuse?) He was wrestling’s equivalent to a southern rocker, lived the life and even lived to tell about it. He also cut a record that has been prominently featured here on the blog many times over the years. When I see a photo that appeared here in the blog show up elsewhere, it’s usually because no one else has ever written much about a particular item. Well, my original shot of the “Off The Streets” album has appeared everywhere around the globe. Accompanying this paragraph is a new one, now complete with signatures, just ready to be shared and shared and shared. A sealed copy of this infamous album recently sold for $450.

*No discussion that includes southern wrestling and music is complete without “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart. The former member of The Gentry’s broke into wrestling largely because of his musical fame and found a way to bring all of his talents together. It’s hard to believe that in just a few months we’ll be celebrating the 80^th birthday of The Mouth! Even more amazing is that he’s still the hardest working man in wrestling. If you’re a fan of meeting wrestling legends and you still haven’t met Jimmy Hart, you just aren’t trying. This time we’re not looking at any of his records but rather a classic Memphis “Action Ringside” program featuring The Mouth looking very much in pain…in his Superman attire. A copy of this program recently sold for $40.

As always with our MarketWatch blog entries the prices shown are for unsigned examples despite the photos displaying otherwise. The old southern territories had a certain energy that lives on through great memorabilia like this. Like many of you in just a few days I plan on going south for the love of classic professional wrestling. It’s simply a different world and I love every second. A great southern wrestling fan, the late Peggy Lathan, once said to me, “Josh, you’re southern at heart.” I treasure those words even more than the items that you see here.

Another Shot At Greatness…

What did I promise you in the first blog entry of 2023? Like you remember. Well, maybe this will ring a bell – The King is back! No, not Elvis. Our gravel voiced monarch of the WWF in the late ‘80s, King Harley Race. As was announced in a surprising move, Race is back “available” for Mattel to produce as a figure. This was after their original rights to the legend resulted in exactly one figure being produced. Poor distribution, to put it mildly, caused that figure to become one of the most desired in the entire Mattel WWE run. He’s back, albeit with a few changes, and it’s time to bow and kneel before The King.

As he is part of the Greatest Hits series the packaging is fairly standard to how most of the Elite figures come boxed now. As I’ve said before, the packaging is good though I don’t care for it as much as I did the rectangular boxes of a few years ago in which the original Harley release came. In my order I did manage to get two examples in great shape, but the cardboard in this latest generation of boxes just seems flimsier than ever to me. It’s harder than ever to be shipped or find a truly nice box. Two images of The King adorn the box with a standard short bio.

As with the original you receive the rubber cape and crown. The crown may be a tad softer in material but the cape felt very much the same. It’s the look that made me fall in love with this figure long before it was released even the first time. It remains my favorite Mattel WWE release. As the entire line has stepped it up since that figure, we now get a pair of interchangeable fists, as well. For a guy like Harley one of my few complaints about the original release was that neither of his hands were a fist. This is a guy who could bust you open “the hard way” using a perfectly positioned knuckle yet…no fist. It’s fixed here.

That’s not the only upgrade. The face seems to have the “True FX” detail application which many collectors are hit-or-miss on. It seems to have changed the look of his eyes a bit. It isn’t too noticeable unless you’re closely comparing the two. Aside from the fists the other very pleasing upgrades are the additions of double-jointed elbows. Now Harley can REALLY drive that fist in deep! While the feature has been on many figures over the past several years, it didn’t really strike out to me as a huge deal until this one. Likely because I’ve spent so much time on the original figure.

The Greatest Hits series have had an interesting run so far. Figuring that they would stick around, at least for a bit like most modern figures, I didn’t jump on any at first. They’ve actually proven to be very in-demand. The lone figure that I wanted from the first lineup (Rikishi) barely made it past the pre-order stage at online retailers. I ended up finding it at a toy show for a perfectly acceptable price and I have seen pictures of it showing up at retail, but either the figures are truly “hot” or Mattel is playing distribution games again. This second series, especially Race, is proving to follow suit. The pre-orders are gone and retailers aren’t showing any signs of restock. This, like the original one years ago, needs to be grabbed when seen.

It’s also been confirmed that the Greatest Hits line will continue and a separate Greatest Hits line exclusively featuring legends is to come about. The latter, featuring names like Bruno Sammartino and Terry Funk, should be fairly hot. Sammartino and Race both indicate to me that Mattel is working extra hard to secure the legendary names that were said to be unavailable to them for years. My guess would be because PowerTown has shown what a powerhouse that they aim to be. While Mattel says that they cannot negotiate for names on their own, it wouldn’t surprise me to hear that they are now pushing WWE just a bit more to obtain rights to certain names. After all, Race was initially mentioned by PowerTown as a name available to them.

I would have liked to have seen what PowerTown could’ve done with Race. We could’ve gotten any number of versions from early in his career. Now that he’s back with Mattel, I can’t help but think that we’ll see him in the LJN-inspired Coliseum Collection. That release would no doubt include a soft goods cape. A fun addition would be the cape-jacket hybrid that was sculpted onto the original LJN. Hopefully Mattel realizes the want for pre-WWF versions of Race and gives us some figures in that realm, too. I’m not holding my breath, but it wouldn’t exactly surprise me, either.

As a collector who owns the original version of this figure, and even one of the few autographed examples known to exist, I have no dismay about this remake. I’ve long championed the idea that everyone should be able to acquire these toys at the standard price for a reasonable amount of time. That was not the case with the original. There won’t be any signed versions of this one, sadly, nor does it include the Commissioner Shawn Michaels “Build-A-Figure” arms that the original did. Heck, as I said I bought two of these new ones myself. In fact, it’s time to update the meme that I made some time ago. It swept the Internet, or at least a few hundred people who passed it along. Here it is, in its original form, before I added two more for the girls to gossip about…

PowerTown Arrives: Magnum T.A. & Kerry Von Erich

The young lions of the 1980’s are back. Two of the most promising names in the wrestling industry, both cut tragically short in their paths due to entirely different reasons. Still, both carry on with their legacies and the lasting influence of their work. Magnum T.A. and Kerry Von Erich, two grapplers tremendously underrepresented in action figure form, are back in our collections thanks to PowerTown. Have either been captured in such form and detail before? Let’s take a look.

As with all six of the PowerTown Ultra Series 1 figures, the packaging is impressive. The magnetic flap, the detailed bios and amazing graphics. You see exactly what you get, yet, it doesn’t feel as if things are floating. There isn’t any wasted space which is a problem with a lot of action figure packaging these days. With the recent crackdown in “wasting resources” for toy packaging, you would think that other companies would adopt a striking yet compact design like this. Due to a manufacturing/shipping snafu of unknown origin, Von Erich shipped a tad later than the other five figures in the set. He was worth the wait.

Both figures include removable jackets, alternate hands, removable knee pads and, most importantly, championship belts. For the first time ever we have figure-sized replicas of both the NWA United States and WCCW Heavyweight championship belts. For longtime collectors and figure photographers these, like the other titles in the series, are game changers. To have officially released accessories of these trophies is unthinkable. Both are perfectly replicated and, while the early renders had collectors excited, came out even better than the previews had promised. Due to the length of the straps on each you may have to work a bit to use them with figures from other companies (unlike the AWA Championship included with Verne Gagne), but it can be done.

This is only Magnum’s second released figure. I gushed over the Mattel release right in this very blog. It was mind-blowing to finally have a figure of the ‘80s legend and that’s still a worthwhile item to own. Times change as does figure manufacturing. The PowerTown version does eclipse it. The stance and body type are just that much more realistic. The belt puts it over the top and you can practically hear Magnum talking to David Crockett and Tony Schiavone on a TBS Saturday morning. The red tights also make the figure stand out. The Mattel version was originally designed to be in red but was switched to black.

The jacket, while rubber goods and as with most accessories of the type can be difficult to get on and off, really sells the Magnum image. The Mattel version included a vest and you could honestly view both as different eras of Terry Allen. The prototype of this figure was slated and shown to have wrist tape. It was omitted from the final product, likely by accident. It doesn’t bother me and can easily be remedied by applying some small strips of tape. That fix also enables you to remove it if need be. The boots, as with all PowerTown figures, are removable for easy application of the knee pads.

While Kerry Von Erich has had a few more figures than Magnum, ultimately this is only his fourth. Kerry’s face was as chiseled as his body which likely makes getting a good facial likeness relatively easy. The past three figures (Hasbro and Mattel, respectively) have all resembled Kerry in his later years. Our PowerTown offering is definitely a younger, softer likeness and still hits all the marks. Considering that most if not all of the family members are said to be signed for the line, there’s no better place to start than with “The Modern Day Warrior.” Personally, I’d take every Von Erich including Lance. No, I highly doubt he’s included.

It wouldn’t be a Von Erich figure without an “Iron Claw” hand which is removable. The body sculpt is well done and the colors are new for any figure of Kerry. We now have him in a multitude of colors, different with each figure. Kudos to PowerTown for paying attention and giving us previously unreleased looks for those wrestlers who’ve already had past figures. That being said, I think everyone would want these even if the looks remained the same. They simply feel different in your hand or on display than most other figures. If PowerTown wanted to start a wrestling figure revolution, I do believe they’ve done it and have silenced the naysayers at the same time.

Another amazing couple of figures from the new guys on the block. We’ve only got one more to go in our ongoing series of reviews of the first batch from PowerTown, but I can’t wait until the next legends arrive. For those of you wanting to know how you can get your hands on Series 1, there is a bit of news. Via their Facebook page, PowerTown states that some additional figures MAY be made available once pre-orders have been fulfilled. If you skipped the initial pre-order it would be wise to keep an eye on their official social media accounts and strike while the iron is hot. That being said, I do believe that all six of the men represented in this first series would warrant alternate releases in the future. All six are headliners and have different looks that could be explored. 

Yet two more examples that prove that “Where Wrestling Lives On” isn’t just a slogan…

I’ll Be Your Hero 30 Years On: Three Decades Of The Lex Express

The Total Package was the past. The Narcissist was a mild success at best. The All-American was here. But was he here to stay? In the summer of 1993 I think most certainly thought so. It was another WWF attempt to create a new Hulk Hogan. You could argue that The Ultimate Warrior was first, but to me that was a different direction entirely. I would classify Sid Justice as the first true inkling of an attempt of a new Hulkster. Did "Made In The USA" Lex Luger fare better? Thirty years later, let's reflect.

No one could've been expecting this. The Narcissist was just unveiled at the Royal Rumble in January and embroiled in a feud with Mr. Perfect. An attack on Bret "The Hitman" Hart during WrestleMania weekend went nowhere. WWF Championship matches between Hogan and Luger definitely could've drawn, but the forgotten and weak '93 Hulkamania title reign ended any chances of that.

Who answered the Bodyslam Challenge on July 4th 1993 with a mission of body slamming Yokozuna? Lex Luger. Any mention of "The Narcissist" was long gone. This man was now an American hero. In fact, he would now be your hero. He'd be meeting you while crossing the country in his Lex Express bus. He may give you a tour button or even an autographed photo or poster. It was the "Call To Action Campaign" and it was coming to your town!

I will admit that even then I noticed it getting a bit more publicity than the normal post-Hulkamania WWF did. I was at the perfect age to notice when wrestling was hot and when it wasn't. It certainly wasn't in 1993, but it did have some people talking. The WWF marketing machine caused a lot of it. Luger certainly had charisma, but it wasn't Hogan level. It was more of a heelish charisma and while he switched to babyface well, I'm not sure that he had anyone completely convinced.

The press materials for the campaign are a fascinating look into how full steam ahead the WWF was going with it. Even the Lex Express itself had an official promotional photo! The press kit that I own actually has an extra photo. A certain former WCW announcer who I acquired it from told that me that the additional photo actually came from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette newspaper archives. It's a shot of Luger riding a go-kart at Pittsburgh's Sandcastle waterpark where the Lex Express had made a stop. You know there's some sort of buzz if the mainstream press is picking up on it.

You can tell that rumors of an originally planned SummerSlam main event of Hogan vs Hart were undeniably true. The promo photos of Luger, and even his shot on the cover of the SummerSlam 1993 program, are from The Narcissist era. Even still, why could both have not happened? You can easily point out two main events for the 1992 and 1994 editions of the show. Why not have Luger vs Yoko, too, and have Luger go over clean? In this scenario the belt doesn't even come into play if they didn't want it on him just yet.

I, personally, would've put the belt on Luger even if for a short time. Nothing too much was working at the moment anywhere in the world of wrestling. While diehards such as myself were still eating it up, you didn't have the mainstream casuals that fill arenas to capacity. I don't think high school gym were even being filled to capacity at this point. There are a lot of fond memories for the time period, but the attention just wasn't there.

Be that as it may, "All American" Lex Luger is looked back at fondly by many. We're still getting new merch for the character to this day and even finally received the Hasbro style figure this year. It's always been alleged to have been part of the fabled unproduced "orange card" series. Many collectors have been suggesting that Mattel's WWE Ultimate Edition figure series include Luger in his "All American" look, complete with the USA street gear he wore during the tour. I'd be all for it.

Was this WWF run for Luger a complete flop? I'm not so sure. We're still talking about it. We're still buying the merch. You're still hearing the "I'll Be Your Hero" song in your head. To me, that's memorable. Me? I still have the "Lex Express Tour" weekly recap production music in my head. Now that's an earworm!

From The Musty Yellowed Pages—NWA Wrestling Magazine Vol. 1 No. 1

After nearly fifteen years of maintaining this blog, at times I forget everything that I have, or haven’t, covered. I felt for certain that we’d taken a voyage through the debut, and only, issue of the NWA Wrestling Magazine. Aside from some mentions here and there, as well as plenty on its sister publications, I don’t think that it’s been done. Wait no longer, NWA fans, the time to revisit an era when the territories were king, Terry Funk was champion and Jesse Ventura was “The Great” instead of “The Body” has finally arrived.

Yes, this publication had just the one issue. Could you think of a better cover for just one issue of the NWA Wrestling publication? I can’t. If it reminds you of the WWWF Wrestling Action and Mid-Atlantic Wrestling magazines it probably should. It was done by the same artist, Cal Byers, and wrestling renaissance man Les Thatcher was at the helm of all of them. Wrestling, broadcasting, training, promoting and publishing. He did it all and has the stories to tell about it. I’ve had input from him while covering the aforementioned publications here on the blog and I still remember how surprised he was to see a copy of this one when he signed it awhile back.

More familiar names come about when looking at the list of contributors from then-NWA President Eddie Graham to Gordon Solie, Freddie Miller, Paul Boesch, Larry Matysik, Jeff Walton and Gene Gordon. The magazine covered all of the NWA wrestling hotbeds of the era and seemed to want to devote adequate press to all of the big territories. Even NWA members in other countries were not to be excluded. After all, this was the only publication to be “sanctioned” by the National Wrestling Alliance!

Though he was still relatively new to the game that he would eventually become the dirtiest player of, it’s telling that Ric Flair is the topic of one of the first features of the issue. The Crockett’s knew what they had and that’s why he was proudly displayed as the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion. You’ll note the famed Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling logo adorns the article here. As noted with all of the Thatcher publications, the art direction was second-to-none. There are logos for most, if not all, of the NWA territories featured within. In the late ‘70s this isn’t something that I would expect in a wrestling magazine at all, but here it is.

More familiar names pop up with looks at Georgia Championship Wrestling and Gulas Wrestling Enterprises Inc, the latter of which being the fabled Memphis wrestling territory. We have great color photos of Dick Slater, Mr. Wrestling II and Jerry “The King” Lawler. We also get a printing of one of my favorite Memphis photos displaying Jackie Fargo, Jerry Jarrett, Tojo Yamamoto and…George Gulas. Ok, so three out of four isn’t bad as far as levels of greatness. Still, I’ve always liked that photo ever since I saw it grace the cover of an “NWA East” edition of “The Wrestling News,” probably around the same time.

A very different Terry Funk than the version many are familiar with today graces the centerfold of the first and only NWA issue. This isn’t the “middle aged and crazy” Funker that’s so beloved today, but rather a tad more serious NWA World Champion who was continuing on the family’s championship legacy. I often talk about how much I admire wrestlers who are able to successfully reinvent themselves during the course of their careers. Terry Funk may own everyone else when it comes to that. I could picture the later Funker taking a flaming branding iron to the attire he’s wearing here. From champion to legend, that’s for sure.

One of my favorite pages in the issue has always been the feature on Chavo Guerrero. Talking about his famous exploits in the rings of California, it gives you an idea that Chavo may be one of the more underrated stars of the decade. I feel that his popularity was of the type that you really had to be around for to experience. I also think that, through no fault of his own, the popularity of brother Eddy may have overshadowed Chavo’s legacy. Still, ask most any wrestler who was around at that point and they’ll tell you what a huge star Chavo was in the business. A family photo here really tickles me as we get to see young Chavito, who we all got to know better many years later. Pepe was not invited to participate in the photo.

“The Great Ventura?” What? Yes, before he was “The Body,” Jesse was just “The Great.” I think we can all agree that “The Body” fit and rolled off the tongue much better. He has a short blurb in the magazine right alongside the likes of Dusty Rhodes and Jimmy Snuka. It’s amazing to think how many bonafide all-time greats came from wrestling in the ‘70s. I truly believe that the territorial system helped in that regard and would’ve been beneficial to many wrestlers in the past twenty years who seemed destined for greatness. In the old system you could try different things, work plenty of different opponents and move along when things got stale. Sadly, many of the newer generation stars had virtually “one and done” shots thus robbing us of quite a few talents who could’ve made it to superstardom.

Speaking of “one and done,” those are just some highlights of this, the only issue of NWA Wrestling Magazine. There are more photos and articles to peruse and you can see several of them on our Instagram account right here! Despite their age and rarity, copies of this magazine do show up available but almost always at a price. You never know, some shrewd searching may yield one for your collection. It’s certainly worthy as a collection centerpiece for any fan of the NWA, Terry Funk or just the last great wild west era of wrestling – the ‘70s!

Intelligent American Know Iran Numbah Wun!

No matter who we’re mourning in pro wrestling, it’s almost always a true character. But what a character The Iron Sheik was! He took what could have been a one-dimensional foreign heel and made it into one of the most memorable characters of his era. He also found a way, for better or for worse, to reinvent himself decades later. It certainly kept him in the spotlight, so for him it was certainly for the better.

Before his passing this month, The Iron Sheik had been rather stagnant as far as appearances for several years. His handlers took to Twitter for him and there was the very occasional signing appearance, but it wasn’t what it once was. You had the feeling that “Sheiky Baby” was winding down. Even still, with all that he admittedly put his body through both in and out of the ring he lived what could be called a truly long life. As we all know, most of his contemporaries didn’t make it close to 81 years of age.

The Iron Sheik was also one of the ones with the dual talents, especially earlier in his career. All that zaniness in front of the microphone could easily be backed up in the ring. I still remember  a late-bloomer fan telling me that he’d often dismissed Sheiky as simply a crazy ‘80s character. When the fan actually paid attention to Sheik’s matches he realized the talent that the man had. He was well-schooled and could obviously take care of himself. This is obvious if he was going to break Hulk Hogan’s leg for “Mistah Verna Ganya.”

Admittedly, I was not a huge fan of the “crazy” Iron Sheik revival of the last few decades. Don’t get me wrong, it worked. It got him mainstream attention that he hadn’t had since the Rock n’ Wrestling era. And I thought that his WWE Hall of Fame speech was hilarious. I just think that it was over done and at times went too far. Also, I don’t care what any one or any show tells you, he could and would turn it on and off at the drop of a hat. Once in a hotel lobby around fifteen years ago he came limping in, guns blazin’, in full Sheiky mode. In fact, this would have been the night before the attached photo. The hotel happened to be hosting a large wedding that night which was starting to break up. An elderly woman from the wedding recognized him and he immediately curbed “Sheiky” and became a perfect gentleman.

As far as iconic memorabilia, is there any more recognizable LJN figure than Sheik? Every kid seemed to have him. He still seems to show up in every resale shop and probably a lot of flea markets and garage sales, too. When the boys in those early LJN series tell me about the astronomical checks that they received from those figures I always believe them. They were omnipresent in ‘80s kids toy boxes.

Mr. Khosrow Vaziri has left the building. He has filled his duties in life. Somehow, I don’t think that we’ll ever stop hearing his voice…

CAMERA MAN – ZOOM!

The Iron Sheik

1942-2023

PowerTown Arrives: Lou Thesz & Verne Gagne

For as many great legends figures as we’ve received over the years, the true early television era of wrestling has largely been ignored. While no one ever expected figures of a Hans Schmidt or a Wilbur Snyder (although…), fans have clamored for representations of the champions and megastars of the day. In PowerTown’s Ultra Series 1 we’re finally treated to certainly two of the biggest names of that era and the championships that defined them. Put away the signs, cellphones and t-shirts. Put on your Sunday suit, slick back your hair and, as much as I detest it, light up your unfiltered ciggies: we’re going back in time!

For some collectors the entry of Lou Thesz and Verne Gagne into the first PowerTown set was disappointing. They aren’t as recent as the other four men in the lineup. You cannot count myself, nor you, among those people. Not only did we want them as figures but I think that they actually may be the sleeper hits of the set. Didn’t think that action figures of wrestling stars of seventy years ago could be exciting? Think again! My one and only qualm was that we weren’t getting the older version of Verne that many of us grew up knowing. I’ve long wanted a figure of the Minnesota legend from that era and I still feel that he is a glaring omission from the Remco AWA line. I have a feeling that PowerTown will take care of all of that in the future, but that’s just my own speculation. In the meantime I’ve truly come to love the figure that we did get.

As shown in our Stan Hansen review, the packaging is very nice and unique in design. I don’t know that I’ll ever find the strength to purge these boxes even considering how big they are. Even without the figures inside they truly feel like part of the product rather than just a disposable means of delivering the figure to collectors. It should be noted that the NWA Championship included with Thesz is labeled as such but the AWA Championship with Gagne is just called the “Police Gazette” (named after the Police Gazette presenting the belt to Gagne as Wrestler of the Year) belt. Ultimately it doesn’t matter when it pertains to the figures and the accessories.

Each figure comes with their respective championship belt, towel and a changeable fist for their right hand. Thesz has a robe while Gagne has a ring jacket proudly proclaiming “VERNE” on the back. These pre-match gear items are both soft plastic as we’ve seen in virtually every wrestling figure line of the past few years. They can be a bit difficult to remove and replace, but they do look spectacular when on. The colors are perfectly muted for the era and really help to make these figures look as if they stepped right out of a black and white photo.

Speaking of photos, the longtime fan can easily pinpoint the promotional photos that were used to design each of these figures. That’s because, again, they look just like the photos. Some companies would have tried to get away with generic faces here, but PowerTown did not go that route. They brought the respect that these guys deserved. Each has an expression that is easily recognized with these golden age champions. The lower legs/boots are removable just like on the other PowerTown figures even though there aren’t kneepads with these two. Kneepads? Who in the ‘40s and ‘50s needed kneepads? As mentioned above the hands are removable, too, which greatly helps when utilizing the robe and jacket.

One thing that was big in the era was the “wrestling stance.” That look where a wrestler looks as if he’s about to go for a takedown. The poseability here is perfect just for that. Want these two to go an hour Broadway? You can do it. LJN may have said “twist ‘em! turn ‘em!” four decades ago, but that’s what these two grappling greats will be doing. Only now it looks insanely real! No flippity floppity thigh slapping good times here, this is real wrestling. No sociopolitical agendas being promoted with keyboard warrior fans complaining about missed spots. Real men who were unafraid to act as real, respectable people.

With Stan Hansen I didn’t dive too much into the belt, especially since we’ll be looking at that belt again, but I will go that route here. If you had asked me to make a list of wrestling world championships that we would have in figure form one day I never would’ve guessed these. This AWA Championship was indeed the one that Gagne wore back then, but you may remember it from its revival in the late ‘80s with Jerry Lawler and Larry Zbyszko. Some of the PowerTown championships have very large straps but this one is absolutely perfect compatibility wise. I’ve already tried it on a figure of Lawler and let’s just say that The King is on top again! This version of the NWA Championship is best remembered with Thesz, but in a cool move he actually presented it to Adrian Adonis upon the latter winning the Southwest Championship Wrestling tournament. Lou took it back, of course, but that’s one of my first recollections of seeing it on tape.

As I believe will be the standard for PowerTown, I feel that two huge gaps in the wrestling figure world have finally been filled. If you already have these or have them coming to you, congratulations! I knew that these would be a worthwhile pre-order and it’s nice to see my prediction come true. If you didn’t partake in the pre-order I sadly don’t have any further info for you. What I can tell you is not to sleep on Series 2 when it’s finally announced. There has been a long standing rumor that yet a third legend from this era will be coming shortly from PowerTown. It would fill another gap, to be sure.

Get your Georgie pins ready…