Today I Learned (Wrestling Edition)

[JoeManco7]

11 hours ago, boshealecta said:

Did people use other toy lines as those characters in their federation or pretended they were WWF wrestlers?  I was the latter. So my Batman figure was Ted Dibiase because it was like he was in an all black suit. My Ghostbuster Ray figure gave me a look of Owen Hart. And Raphael was round and in red so he was Yoko. 
 

Obviously Marge Simpson was Miss Elizabeth 

Of course, when Yokozuna first showed up in the WWF, the Ghostbusters Stay Puft Marshmallow Man figure was soon tried out as the big sumo heel against the Hasbros, but it's limitations didn't lead to much variation in matches so it didn't have a lengthy run. Although when my Marty Jannetty figure from the Rockers WWF Hasbro tag team set was on one of his single babyface runs, that did lead to a classic against the big Puft.

The first set of action figures I had as a child besides the A-Team were from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and they were sometimes brought in against the WWF Hasbros either as wrestlers from Japanese or Mexican promotions. Although the He-Man figure was attempted to be worked as what I thought Paul Orndoff would be like against Hulk Hogan in matches that I hadn't seen yet and only knew about from match listings and photos on VHS tapes that I looked at in shops or magazines. When I got to watch Orndoff wrestle for the first time though, it was as Mr Wonderful in WCW on ITV and by then he wasn't the big white meat young pro-wrestler I thought he was. Still ripped and an obvious tough guy, but no longer suitable to be played by a He-Man figure.

The B.A Baracus figure (which I never called by the A-Team character name and was always Mr. T) against He-Man figure in a WWF Hasbro wrestling ring was always my Wrestlemania 3 level main event.

[The Reverend]

In the day and age of kids being able to head down to Smyths and kit themselves out with a who Fed in one go (well if they have ultra rich parents) it's mad to think we all had to scrabble around to pad out our roster until they got round to releasing new figs. In the summer of 1990, way before even Hasbros were released over here, a mate of mine used Thundercats to make his own promotion. IIRC he had Liono as Hulk Hogan, a big snow monster character as Andre and I think some Asian character was part of the Orient Express. 

I had a fed made up of G.I.Joes (good articulation for moves), Marvel Secret Wars, Visionaries (remember them?), Star Wars (articulation was a bit crap) and a load of other 4 inch figs including a Cylon from Battlestar Galactica. Good times.   

[boshealecta]

This guy was way too tall for my Hasbros so never interacted. Then Giant Gonzales came along so he was the perfect height and it looked vaguely like his spray on suit in my 9 year old head 

[Merzbow]

Is that a lad from Visionaries? I think I had one of the good guys from it but didn't really give a shit about the cartoon.

[Bellenda Carlisle]

3 hours ago, Merzbow said:

Is that a lad from Visionaries? I 

SuperNaturals 

Edit: I did the literal opposite of everyone else, I wasn't into wrestling as a little kid but I had the IRS hasbro figure and just used him as a normal guy in my games with other toys.

Edited September 19, 2025 by Bellenda Carlisle

[davertfnewman]

G.I. Joe/Action Force was my wrestling group of choice because you had far more articulation for them. I had a long fruit and veg crate that was just the right size to be a War Games cage for them.

[Version1.0]

LA Knight is older than Chris Masters.

[Carbomb]

TIL that Alicia Atout-Friedmann, MJF's missus, is of Palestinian heritage.

Something quite nice to read about that.

[The King Of Swing]

That a young Jim Cornette managed Adrian Street. 

 

[DavidB6937]

Today Miseria Cantare popped up randomly on Spotify so for whatever reason I decided to look up the lyrics and realised I actually had 90% of the song wrong.

Who cares. It's been like 20 years. I'm not changing it now.

[The Reverend]

This may be something others knew, but I only discovered it this weekend. Jimi Jamison who sang the classic Big Boss Man theme (If you ever take a trip down to Cobb County Georgia.....) also sang the Baywatch theme 'I'm always here'. 

[WyattSheepMask]

52 minutes ago, The Reverend said:

This may be something others knew, but I only discovered it this weekend. Jimi Jamison who sang the classic Big Boss Man theme (If you ever take a trip down to Cobb County Georgia.....) also sang the Baywatch theme 'I'm always here'. 

TIL that Jimi Jamison sang The Big Boss Man’s theme

[Rossman]

On 10/25/2025 at 11:49 AM, The King Of Swing said:

That a young Jim Cornette managed Adrian Street. 

 

Corney pretty much managed every heel in Memphis in 1983. It was his rookie year as a manager/performer and he was the heel manager to come out with the heel wrestlers on the spot shows.

I learned that at the end of 1983, it was Bill Watts who paired Eaton, Condrey & Cornette together. Mid South were short on wrestlers & Memphis had too many. Bill Watts came to watch some shows and cherry picked who he wanted and who Memphis thought were disposable. And that's how the new Midnight Express were formed.

Edited November 25, 2025 by Rossman

[Devon Malcolm]

@Rossman Wasn't Cornette's gimmick / storyline that he was a rich kid who was trying out different wrestlers each week or so to see which one was good enough to take his family's money or something? I know he's told the story on his podcasts but I can't remember the exact details.

[Chili]

4 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

@Rossman Wasn't Cornette's gimmick / storyline that he was a rich kid who was trying out different wrestlers each week or so to see which one was good enough to take his family's money or something? I know he's told the story on his podcasts but I can't remember the exact details.

That and I think he bought into Jimmy Hart's First Family. A stable that made the Don Callis Family look petit.