Here are scans of the M.U.S.C.L.E. toys lineup as featured in the 1986 Mattel Toy Catalog. Intended for retailers, Mattel’s dealer catalogs showcased all the latest and greatest releases, along with existing products within its various current (at the time) toy lines. These are great photos of some of my favorites toys from the past. Hope you enjoy them as well!
Being a big wrestling fan growing up, I bought all of the “Apter mags” I could get me hands on. They were great for the news, which was already 3 months old by the time you read it, and the stories about my favorite wrestlers. What I didn’t discover they were great for at the time was the advertisements found within. Sure, I would see something advertised and drool over it, but I never gained the appreciation for all those ads until much later in life.
I was flipping through an issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated the other day, and it was filled with cool ads that I thought I would share with you. So here they are, a collection of pro wrestling ads from 1987.
Pro wrestling VHS tapes were the holy grail for a young wrestling fan like myself. I wanted both of these tapes back in the day, but could never swing the ridiculous price to own them at the time. Fortunately, I did get an uncut, satelite feed copy of Starrcade ’86 a few years ago.
And speaking of video tapes, here is a real gem! For just $45.20 ($98.60 in 2018 dollars) I could have owned this awesome tape. If you don’t know what this match is, it is the legendary, riot inducing, hair vs. hair steel cage match in Memphis TN. between Jerry “The King” Lawler and Austin Idol. If you’ve not seen it, check it out here on YouTube, and be sure to watch for the surprise ending that caused the riot. Continue reading “A Collection of Pro Wrestling Advertisements from 1987”
WrestleMania is just days away, and as always, hopes are high that it is a blow away show. Through the years, the “sports” biggest event has left lasting memories on millions of fans world-wide, and I’m no different. So with that in mind, here are five of my favorite memories from Wrestlemania’s gone by.
#5: WWF vs NFL Battle Royal, WrestleMania 2, 1986
As a kid who was a huge wrestling fan, battle royals always held a special intrigue with me. Maybe it was having so many guys in the ring, or the possibility that any of them could win, I’m not sure. But what I do know, is that to an 8-year-old, when you put some of the biggest and best wrestling stars and some of the biggest and best football players from the NFL in the same ring, anything can happen!
I was so pumped to see this affair heading into the event, that it was really the only match that I talked about at school. While all of my wrestling friends wanted to see Hulk Hogan get his revenge against King Kong Bundy in a cage, I wanted to see if Superbowl Champion William “The Refrigerator” Perry could be the last man standing in the big battle royal.
With an impressive lineup of WWF talent including Andre the Giant, Big John Studd, Bruno Sammartino, The Hart Foundation, The Killer Bees, Pedro Morales, the Iron Sheik, King Tonga and NFL stars like Jimbo Covert, Bill Fralic, Russ Francis, Harvey Martin, and William Perry, the ring was filled with star power. And if that wasn’t enough, NFL legends Dick Butkis and Ed “Too Tall” Jones patrolled the ringside area as referees for the match.
The most interesting part of the match was when Big John Studd and William Perry got to square off. Perry held his own until Studd tricked him into running into his big elbow. He then simply beeled Perry over the top rope to eliminate him. But once on the floor, Perry wanted to shake Studd’s hand and congratulate him. When Studd reached down to shake his hand, Perry gave a big tug and pulled John Studd over the top rope to eliminate him too!
Andre the Giant went on to win the match, last eliminating both members of the Hart Foundation. Andre was always referred to as the king of Battle Royals, so it was fitting that he took home the top honor in this mammoth match.
Continue reading “My Favorite Memories of Wrestlemania”
In the mid – late 80’s, professional wrestling, and the WWF in particular, was big business. A lot of the WWF superstars were becoming household names thanks to Vince McMahon and his traveling circus. Two of the better known superstars were “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Jesse “The Body” Ventura. Piper had spent years as the biggest bad guy wrestler on the roster, while Ventura was well known as one of the voices of the shows as color commentator. Each broke out of the WWF world to become moderate successes in Hollywood. Piper had starring roles in B – Movies like Body Slam, Hell Comes to Frogtown, and They Live. Meanwhile, Jesse was becoming a solid back up man in action flicks with Running Man and Predator.
In 1991, they teamed up on the small screen in the pilot episode of Tag Team. The shows premise was simple. These two wrestlers couldn’t wrestle for a living anymore, so they decide to become cops. That decision was made after they used their wrestling moves to stop a robbery at a grocery store. It was a simple idea, but one that a television series could conceivably be based around.
As the air date for the pilot episode drew closer, Vince McMahon was hyping the debut of the show on his wrestling shows, and as a 13 year old wrestling fan, I was salivating. I marked the date and time on my calendar so I wouldn’t miss it. Here was another chance to inject more wrestling into my world, and I wasn’t going to miss it. Although I can’t recall what night of the week that this premiered on, I DO remember getting everything set up in my room for it. My chair was at the right angle, I had a frosty beverage at my side, and some sort of snack at the ready. I was pumped.
As I remember it, the episode was pretty good, and I thought it was really cool that these two wrestlers were going to be in a television show every week. Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of just how exactly television worked at that time, and was quite disappointed when the show never aired again. The series wasn’t picked up, and the show was thrown into the huge pile of “could’ve beens” with hundreds of other series that were never picked up.
I listened to a podcast featuring Ventura and Piper a while back, and Ventura explained why the series wasn’t picked up. The two companies who were producing the show together, Disney and Corelco, got into a lawsuit with each other over something not even remotely related to the Tag Team series, and while in litigation, the show was left in limbo since neither side was doing business with each other at the time. When the lawsuit dust settled, too much time had passed and the Tag Team series was abandoned.
It’s a real shame, because the two had great chemistry together in the pilot, the premise was solid for an action/comedy show, and would have probably drawn decent enough ratings to keep the 13 – episode first season on the air. Whether it would have been picked up beyond that is anyone’s guess, but I know one 13 year old who would have watched religiously.
Check out the pilot and see what YOU think.
The Chrononaut Chronicles
NWA Clash of the Champions II: Miami Mayhem – Wednesday, June 8, 1988
– It’s Mayhem in Miami as the Four Horsemen run wild at the second Clash of the Champions! Ric Flair and Lex Luger sign a contract for an NWA World Title bout at the 1988 Great American Bash, Sting & Dusty Rhodes challenge Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard for the NWA World Tag Team Title, Barry Windham defends the NWA US Title against Brad Armstrong, and much more!
– LIVE from Miami, Florida! Jim Ross is stationed outside the James L. Knight Center as limousines arrive to the building eight years before the nWo made it their gimmick. JR claims that a host of celebrities and dignitaries will be in attendance, and the disappointment is immediate as the first limo contains Lyle Alzado, Frances Crockett, and a dude who has some affiliation with the ownership of the Chicago Blackhawks. The star power doesn’t stop there, though, as the next limo opens up and out come NWA promoters Gary Juster and Elliot Murnick. Somehow, this qualifies as a pretty big deal.
Man, they’re really pulling out the big guns tonight!
– Tony Schiavone and Bob Caudle are on commentary. No offense to Bob, but is there some reason he can’t be standing around the parking garage while JR handles the play-by-play?
On January 24, 1988, the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) presented their first ever Royal Rumble match. The event was held in Hamilton, Ontario Canada and kicked off what has now become a yearly tradition. On Sunday January 28, 2018, WWE will present the 30th annual Royal Rumble on the WWE Network.
The Royal Rumble match itself is a unique wrestling match concept. It is a battle royal type match, where wrestlers are eliminated from the contest when they are thrown over the top rope, and their feet hit the floor. To add intrigue to the contest, the match starts with only two wrestlers in the ring. Then, every two minutes, another superstar joins the match. The match continues on in this way until all 30 competitors have entered. A wrestler can be eliminated at any time.
With the nature of the match itself, and with 29 years of history behind it, it’s obviously going to have some interesting historical statistics associated with it. So here today, we’re going to take a look at some of the more interesting statistics from this great event!
The very first Royal Rumble match only featured 20 competitors, and “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan was the 13th entrant to the match. He became the first man to win a Royal Rumble match when he eliminated the One Man Gang.
Hulk Hogan won the event in 1990 and 1991, Shawn Michaels was the victor in 1995 and 1996, Triple H claimed the top honor in 2002 and 2016, John Cena won in 2008 and 2013, Batista claimed victories in 2005 and 2014, Randy Orton claimed the top spot in 2009 and 2017, but “Stone Cold” Steve Austin is the only man to have won three Royal Rumble matches with victories in 1997, 1998, and 2001.
Continue reading “30 Years of Royal Rumble Statistics”
The WWE Hall of Fame will be welcoming in one of wrestling’s greatest tag teams this year when it inducts Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson, collectively known as the Rock & Roll Express.
The Rock & Roll Express started teaming together in 1983 in the Memphis area battling duos such as The Galaxians, Koko Ware and Norvell Austin, and the team of Randy Savage and his brother Lanny Poffo. From there the duo headed to Louisiana and Bill Watt’s Mid-South Wrestling. There they matched up for the first time with the team who would go on to be their biggest rivals in the mat wars, The Midnight Express with their manager Jim Cornette.
After time spent there, Ricky and Robert took another step up in the wrestling game as they moved to Jim Crockett’s Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, and instantly became mega stars, defeating Ivan and Nikita Koloff to win the NWA World Tag Team titles their first night in the promotion in 1985!
The team’s popularity continued to skyrocket, and in 1986 they were greeted and treated like rock stars at every arena in the south. Rock & Roll Express merchandise was everywhere, look alike contests were held in many places, you could join their fan club, and Ricky Morton even recorded and released a song. Their popularity was unrivaled for a while. Check out the video below to get a feel of just how popular they were.
Continue reading “The Rock & Roll Express to Be Inducted into WWE Hall of Fame”
