Stone Cold Steve Austin WWE Icon Statue from McFarlane Toys

    Sharon and I just watched the Monday Night Wars episode about Stone Cold and there is no doubt in my mind, he was the greatest superstar in WWE history.  He was the epitome of the anti-hero, someone you could look up to when you hated your job, hated your car, hated whatever else it was you hated.  And you wish you could have reacted the way he did, just flipping your troubles the bird before solving them all with violence.  It's the stuff you dream about doing.  Real life is of course not like wrestling, because of laws and police and life imprisonment and blah, blah, blah.  But you gotta pay tribute to the guy who every Monday Night, made you think that you could just as badass as he was.  

    McFarlane Toys has released this as the latest in their line of WWE Icon Statues.  I don't know if it smells like cheap beer or not, but I know it's limited to only 500 pieces and each one comes with a piece of the ring skirt from Wrestlemania 17 when he fought The Rock.  Not only would this look great under your Christmas tree, but it would also be a good replacement as the focal point of your living room when your tree starts to turn brown. Surrounding it with lit candles and offerings of beef jerky seems appropriate.  Step up your decorating game at http://www.mcfarlanetoysstore.com/.  

WWE.COM Exclusive Pop! Vinyls from Funko

    This week Sharon and I have been engrossed in the WWE Network watching all the Monday Night War episodes about the WWE vs. WCW feud in the 90's.  That was probably the best time ever to be a wrestling fan, because you had these two companies that hated each other so much they would do almost anything to get you to watch.  Competition breeds creativity and there's nothing more entertaining than watching people fall off of ladders and through tables.  I still watch wrestling, though I did take a long break from it, and I still enjoy it, even if the results can at times be a little predictable.  There's something about it that just sucks you in.  And seeing it live is like nothing else in the world.  The crowd is made up of people from every walk of life and seeing the kids there decked out in their favorite wrestler's merch and holding their signs reminds me of when I used to go when I was little.  I was always mesmerized that these characters I watched on tv every week were in the same place as I was and other people all over the world were at home watching what I was seeing unfold in person.  There aren't too many of my favorite tv shows that I can just go and watch as they film an episode, let alone feel a part of.  

    I got a little sidetracked there, but here's the meat of the issue.  You like toys?  Yup.  You like wrestling?  Yup.  Then get yourself some wrestling toys sucker.  Of course, we being grown ups (I hope you're a grown up or else your parents need stricter controls on what they let you read online) we need things that are more collectible than what we used to play with outside.  That's what I dig about Pop! Vinyls from Funko.  They have this fun feel to them, but they also feel a little more grown up, like you could fill your desk with them at the office and not everyone will think you're completely weird.  No guarantees though.  And www.wwe.com have these John Cena and AJ Lee figures available right now to add to your collection.  You could make em hold hands and make CM Punk jealous, then you could start your own fantasy matches that I can assure you your coworkers will find strange.  Best to keep those to yourself.     

WWE Sofubi Figures from Medicom

    How come nobody told me about these?  You know I love my wrasslin', and you know I love Japanese toys, so I'm kinda disappointed I wasn't bombarded with emails.  It's ok, I forgive you all.  Everything I have attempted to find out about these has been in a language other than English, which is unfortunate, cause it's the only one I know.  I did take French for a few years in high school but I only did that because I figured all of the cute girls would be there.  I always was too self conscious to really get do the accent or to talk to any of the girls, so the classes were a total bust.  The idea behind taking French was sound though, and I stand behind it.  

   What I've been able to gather is that both of these are officially licensed by WWE, made by Medicom, and available now for about $80 each in America money.  If you want to order one, and your Japanese is as none existent as mine, check out this link here, as it allows you to translate the page into English.  These ship in December of this year.  

WWE Series 2 Pop! Vinyls from Funko

    You know what I miss in modern professional wrestling?  Those sick interviews where they would yell about how badly they were going to beat up the other guy.  They get so worked up until their faces turned red and they were short of breath and it looked like someone trying to do a dramatic interpretation of a stroke.  Let me present to you the all time king, Mr. Dusty Rhodes:

    Are you not inspired to go out there and conquer your enemies?  This is how I wish we could all handle our problems in real life.  You got a problem with some idiot at work?  You get a man in a suit with a microphone and camera, and you tell him about the beating you're about to lay on your foes.  In a perfect world this would lead to a sick match in a ring that all businesses would be required to have to settle hr disputes, but since we live in a world of mommas boys and lawyers, we have to work out our problems like "civilized" folk, whatever that means.  There's no issue between two adults that can't be solved with a choke slam through a table and that's fact bubba! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

    Look at these new WWE Pop! Vinyl from those good people at Funko. I'm gonna march my way down to the store, pick up one of each from the shelves, march em right to the checkout counter, Ric Flair chop the cashier, apologize thoroughly for getting carried away, pay for em with good old American cash money, then put them in a place of prominence in my house while I watch the WWE Network for a week straight.  But I gotta wait until this fall when they're released.  Poop.  

    

You Think You Love Toys? Check Out Zack Ryder's Wrestling Collection

    WWE just posted an article up with a ton of photos of superstar Zack Ryder's wrestling toy collection.  Check out all the stuff you wish you had by visiting http://www.wwe.com/classics/classic-lists/zack-ryders-top-10-wrestling-toys.  

R.I.P. The Ultimate Warrior

    I've always loved professional wrestling.  Though there have been times when my interest fluctuated, I've always come back to this unique form of entertainment.  My grandfather got me into it and we spent a lot of time in front of the television, predicting who would win and arguing with the screen when things didn't go the way we thought they should.  Of course we knew it was scripted, but it felt so easy to suspend disbelief for those few hours a week.  My grandfather passed away last October and shortly after my wife and I started watching the WWE again with more interest.  It felt like being a kid again and sitting in his living room.  He took me to my first ever live event when I was five and I can remember being ringside and being awestruck at these larger than life characters who were more famous to me than anyone else in the world could possibly be.  

   One of my favorite wrestlers of all time was The Ultimate Warrior.  I spent a large part of my youth reading about him in magazines and glued to the television anytime WWE was aired.  He was something beyond human, like an evolution of man that had somehow skipped the rest of us.  Just a few days ago he made his return to television as part of Wrestlemania and later on RAW after being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.  And then he was gone.  The timing of his death is probably more shocking than his actual passing, as the years of punishing one's body usually doesn't usually lead to a healthy retirement.  But he got to thank everyone that grew up watching him, and we in turn got to thank him through the emotional responses he received this week.  If it had been a movie no one would have ever believed it could have ended that perfectly.  But real life will always be much stranger than anything we could ever conjure in our imaginations.  And another piece of my childhood, of many of our childhoods, is gone now forever.  

Macho Man Randy Savage Resin Statue from McFarlane Toys

     You know you like wrestling.  It's totally ok, cause I like it too.  Sure, I lived in denial for a few years, neglecting to follow it or even know who many of the people involved were.  But one night I looked at my wife and asked "how come we don't watch wrestling anymore"?  Neither one of us had a real good reason.  So we started up again and instantly got sucked back into the spectacle of it.  We even drove up to our blighted state capital to see it live this past Sunday and had the fortune of sitting next to the best commentators I have ever heard in the form of an elderly couple.  Most of it consisted of the woman asking what was going on and the man doing his best to explain it, but there were some gems too.  When John Cena was fighting Randy Orton in a cage for the title (this was non televised, so no belts were going to change hands mind you)

Woman:  How come John Cena didn't drop down when he was outside the cage? (note: if both feet hit the floor you win)

Man:  Cena don't want the title, it's too much responsibility.

    Not that it was scripted to happen the way that it did, but that the responsibility of being the world champion was just too much and may infringe on his free time.  Coming from someone in their 80's it was adorable.  The WWE needs to hire them right away.

Back to business:

    OOOOOOOOOOOOOH YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!  The Macho Man Randy Savage is getting his own resin statue courtesy of McFarlane Toys.  This sucker is commemorating his appearance at Wrestlemania 5, stands over 17 inches tall, and comes on a rotating base so you can spin him all around and realize his awesomeness.  Put it on your mantle and surround it with offerings of Slim Jims so that the wrestling gods will smile favorably upon you.  Preorder this sucker right now wherever you like to buy toys.