First mag, first video, first figure. GO!

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Simple thread, I'm sure we can all get involved in. Here we go:

 

First WWF magazine was this one. A bit of a late starter to the magazines. I remember getting this from Martin's in the Bridges. It was stunning to read about Michaels beating Davey Boy Smith, since I hadn't seen it yet. They also had a big story on a eight man tag featuring (I believe) the Nasty Boyz and Money Inc vs the Natural Disasters and High Energy. There was also a poster for the Royal Rumble 93 with the Ultimate Warrior on it, leading to me saying "Warrior will be next out" every few minutes during the pay-per-view. The merch catalog was brilliant as well.

 

My brother bought me this. What a video as well. Unlike a lot of WWF compilations, this had some big names on it. Andre vs Savage, Brutus vs Ron Bass, Ted DiBiase vs the Blue Blazer and of course, the big cage match between Hogan and Boss Man. It was littered with video packages of the feuds leading up to the matches as well, which was great. I've still got it. I wont chuck it out either. I cant bring myself to do it. Still watch that Hogan and Boss Man cage as well.

 

This is sort of a lie, because I had a knockoff Hogan and Savage that I got for 2 quid at Flamingo Land, but this was my first Hasbro. Got it from Woolworths. I really hope WWE fans of 2013 have the same brain scrambling feeling of seeing this on the shelf as I did back then. Seeing him hanging on the rack was mind blowing. I didn't even know you could get these, so seeing this little shiny orange version Hogan saying "alright, lad, you fucking buying me or what?" was unreal. This was before I watched a video where I found out his penis is actually bigger than the Hasbro itself, so he was still from another world to me. Needless to say, the knockoff version of Hulk took a good kicking for stealing his intellectual property until my pocket money came in again and I got Ted DiBiase in his green uniform.

[EdgarTheSlouch]

Superb idea Ian.

 

 

My wrestling fixation came from my cousin in 92 - he lent me a BUNCH of mags but primarily I remember

 

 

Video is depandant on how offical you you wanna be. I got leant dodgy copies of Rumble 92 and W8 - officaly tho it was

 

 

I have no idea why - but when I got y first figure from Derby Co-Op in 1993 - it was

 

[The Reverend]

First mag was this one. My mum worked in a newsagents and I was blown away when she bought it home (I wonder if she paid for it) great issue which I remember mainly for having a Survivor Series score card

 

[url="http://www.actiontoys.com/Merchan

 

 

First video was this one:

 

 

I got some money from a relative just before Christmas so picked this one up from Woolworths. It was a choice between this and Wrestlemania 2 that the Co-op was selling. I based my purchase solely on the running time of the video plus it came with a free doublesided poster. I think I watched it 4 times back to back over the weekend.

 

First figure - this beauty:

 

 

Andre The Giant!

[Statto]

Absolutely magic idea for a thread, Ian. I remember all these so vividly, and I'm sure many others do too.

 

I should begin by saying that my first exposure to wrestling came in either late 1989 or early 1990, when my older brother started bringing home tapes his mates from school (the wealthy ones who could afford that new-fangled satellite television) were making for him. Wrestlemania VI is the first event I really remember, but I know it wasn't the very first WWF I saw, as I remember cutting the advert for it out of The Sun (we were a working-class family, as above) and sticking it on my bedroom wall, probably making it my first wrestling "poster".

 

For my brother it was only ever a passing interest (although as a nearly 40-year-old father of two with a reasonably senior role within HM Treasury procurement, I bet he could at least tell you that it was Wrestlemania on Sunday, and has skim-read the results on the train), but for me it developed into an obsession, resulting in the acquisition of such things as:

 

 

I think it was probably the video that came first. Almost certainly from a Woolworths store. A Hogan training montage set to Jake The Snake's awesome theme (which confused me a little, but...) and matches against Nikolai Volkoff, Ted DiBiase, KING Haku (complete with crown) and Andre the Giant in a steel cage, from (to quote Mean Gene's link) "Wrestlefest, on a hot August night."

 

Lord knows how many times those matches got watched. I still think my Mum could call the next spot in any one of them if she were asked to, such were the number of times she was forced to sit through them. I also remember DiBiase taking a big bump over the top in the early going of the match, and getting into a heated debate with my brother about tactics for a normal match compared to tactics in the Royal Rumble - this coming off DiBiase's marathon stint in the 1990 Royal Rumble (which I had obviously seen by that point, be it before or after WMVI), I couldn't fathom how a man could be so easy to throw over the ropes on one night, and so difficult to get out of the ring on another.

 

Next, I think, came:

 

 

This went everywhere with me - until the next month's edition came out, of course - and I mean EVERYWHERE. I remember taking it to school (it was probably my "Show & Tell" at least once), I remember taking it to visit relatives, and I very vividly remember taking it to my friend Ben's (at whose wedding I will be best man in about 6 weeks time) sister's birthday party. It utterly captivated me, one thing in particular being the advert for wrestling action figures! Oh, if only I could get my hand on such things as wrestling action figures...

 

 

Boss Man was my first. I fucking loved the Big Boss Man. When he came out to Hogan's aid on the Brother Love show, I cried fucking tears of joy. THAT was what a man was supposed to be. He came from Langley's, an independent toy shop in the centre of Norwich which, I'm pleased to say in this modern world, is still there. (It's been tied up in that "Toymaster" thing for many years now so it's probably not truly independent anymore, but it's better than a Toys 'r' Multinational or something).

 

He was my first by only minutes though - as much as I loved Boss Man, I think I probably wanted Hogan first, but there weren't any in there. Minutes later, we found a Hulkster (probably in Woolies) and the logic that, as wrestling requires a minimum of two competitors one figure wasn't really sufficient struck a chord with my Mum, and Hogan joined him. Allies though they were on TV, they engaged in many friendly battles in a ring constructed from a fruit box of some kind until the roster grew to 3, then 4 & 5 with the additions of Jake, DiBiase & Savage - although I forget in which order.

 

One last anecdote before I head to bed (underneath which, I'm strangely proud to say, reside 2 of the 3 "firsts" I've talked about above) - you'll remember I'm sure the little cartoons of the other figures available in the series on the back of the Hasbro cards? Well, until I got more than Boss Man & Hogan, I cut those out, stuck them on a stick of some kind, and acted out matches with the rudimentary puppets I had created. Yeah.

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

First mag was definitely a WWE one though I can't remember the month or year of it

 

First video was a Hulk Hogan one

 

First figures were Hogan and Warrior

[PowerButchi]

My first Magazine was one of those WWF Wrestling Spotlight poster ones I got from Co-Op Leo's (showing some age there. Mentioned that place today twice in two different places for the first time since probably 1994) supermarket in about 1990. Can't remember much else.

 

First tape however I do remember, it was The British Bulldogs, and I watched it so many times it fucked the video.

 

First wrestlers where the galoob Sting and Ric Flair, and I used to put them on the heater over night so I could change the poses when I wasn't putting them in my mouth and eating them. You could do that with the galoob ones. Heat, and eat.

[Arch Stanton]

 

 

 

Still got all three. Pretty sure I got my Hogan from Woolies too. He was a lonely figure until Christmas that year, when a bunch of others arrived. I seem to recall getting the video from Boots (can that be right? They did used to sell videos and games, right?). My favourite memory of it is watching it one day when my Grandad was sat in the living room. He nearly jumped out of seat at the sight of Davey Boy pulling off a dropkick "Jesus, do you see the size of that fella getting his feet up in the air like that?" He couldn't believe it. My mum says he used to love the old World of Sport stuff, but I guess he hadn't seen many steroid muscleheads flying about like Bulldog could.

 

I remember cutting loads of pictures out of the magazine and sticking them on things around my bedroom, so while I still actually have it somewhere, it's a mess.

[SpiritOfTheForest]

I've no idea what my first figue or magazine was but my first video was:

 

 

I watched the shit out of this tape and it immediately got me hooked on wrestling.

[truthofsin]

First magazine:

 

First video (i watched this so many times it kinda died on me lol):

 

First figure (i got this double pack AND the awesome WCW ring!):

[dopper]

First magazine

 

We got Sky in July 1991 and I remember watching WWF Superstars that weekend. The first match I saw was a Big Boss Man squash and it was the episode in which Macho Man proposed to Miss Elizabeth. I was immediately hooked so got the above magazine soon after.

 

First video

(Could only find one photo of the proper video cover, and the file size was gigantic)

 

Much like my first magazine, I watched a couple of weeks of WWF Superstars & WWF Challenge and I was hooked. I immediately wanted to get my hands on anything with WWF on it. Started collecting the trading cards and sticker albums, and on a weekly big shop to ASDA I perused the video aisle. There was a huge gap between the events taking place and being released on videos in those days, so this 1988 ppv was the only one they had. Obviously, that awaesome 10-man tag which was the first match on the video only made me hungry for more.

 

First figure(s)

 

Did anyone else have any of these?

 

I never knew until I just googled it that there were quite a few of these released. I got Junkyard Dog & Roddy Piper. They were bendy rubber so there were plenty more things you could do when playing with them than the solid one-move-wonder Hasbros, but I never saw anymore of these and started collecting the Hasbro's.

[2Xtreme_lives]

Bit Later but First Magazine

 

First Video

 

First Figure

 

and still my favourite in my collection

[DannRead]

Great topic idea!

 

I thought my first magazine was a PWI in 1991 however I've searched the covers online and can't find it. I can only therefore assume it was one of the other Apter mags such as Inside Wrestling or The Wrestler etc. I'm pretty sure my first company official magazine was this one, though:

 

 

First video was this beauty, I remember after watching it looking forward to the release of WrestleMania V! Going into the VHS section of woolworths was always a highlight. I still remember the day WrestleMania VI was released and seeing it on the shelves....Although I wasn't much of a Hogan or Warrior fan, the idea of those two against each other was so cool!

 

 

First figure, this:

 

 

I remember thinking as I opened the packet "Why doesn't it move? That's a bit rubbish but don't say anything about it being rubbish out loud or they may not buy you the others".

[King of Hamptons]

My First WWF magazine would have been around 2000 could have also been there Raw Magazine... I have no idea what it was A Quick google search has thrown up a few covers I remember.

 

 

 

First VHS was this beauty

 

I had heard that the WWF was on Channel 4 and a friend at college had told me to watch The Royal Rumble I hadn't seen wrestling since i was about 10.. I completely forgot to watch it and had to borrow a tape from him that he recorded of it... After watching it I was hooked again.

I didn't have access to sky, so the only way to watch WWF at the time was Channel 4 or buying the tapes... I waited a long time to see No Way Out, and wasted many a hour at collage on the Dial-up internet downloading clips of WWF.

 

My First Figure

 

I bought it because i wanted to get something signed by Mick at FWA Universal Uproar. He signed it Cactus Jack..

[Alex Wright Mark]

I shall post the images later. This iPod won't allow me to for some reason.

 

First Magazine

It was the August 1997 edition of WWF Magazine. I had just started to get into the wacky world of pro-wrestling, and at the time I was an avid Match magazine collector, I wanted a change. So I asked the shopkeeper in my newsagent if they had any wrestling mags. "What, like WWF? Yeah sure", she said bluntly. She then walked over to the magazines isle, and reached for the top shelf where the likes of Shaven Muff Weekly and 40+ Readers Wives were, and hidden in the stack of bongo mags was WWF Magazine. God knows why that was there.

 

The issue had a look back of the last decade of SummerSlam, which got me real pumped for for the 1997 show that was just around the corner. And a look back at A Cold Day In Hell. That's all I remember from it.

 

First Video

A month after that, I bought my first video in a second hand shop. Royal Rumble 91. A bargain of

[CTXRussomark]

Great topic!

 

June 1992 WCW Magazine - This is definitely the earliest edition I know for sure I had back at the time though I've a sneaking suspicion I may have had the March 1992 issue too as I recognise the Dustin Rhodes poster that came with it. Although I started getting the WWF Magazine around the same time I always preferred the WCW ones as that's the only access I had to weekly wrestling (no Sky!) so I felt more connected to the characters. I had no real concept of time at that age so as soon as I'd read the new issue I would immediately start checking the paper shop every day for the next one and it would feel like an eternity before the next one appeared.

 

This was the first official wrestling video I actually owned myself but I had spent the previous year renting as many videos as I could as often as I could. I still have Wrestlemania 5 in a Ritz Video rental box as when Blockbuster took them over we never took it back. I actually remember getting my parents to register at two smaller video shops purely because they had a slightly different selection of wrestling videos. I must have gone through all of the Colliseum Video compilations ten times over.

 

Closely followed by Hasbro Hogan. Bizarrely enough when my collection started getting bigger I never mixed my WWF and WCW figures when playing with them. I guess in my head they were two separate things and it was just wrong to have WWF and WCW guys against each other. I had my WWF figures and would play with them in their blue Hasbro ring, and my WCW figures in their Galoob ring. The closest they ever got to mixing was using the WCW cage with the Hasbro ring!