WWE- Memorable Moments Series 1

Hello Everyone.

This is my first foray into the world of Retro Blogging. 

First, a little about me. I work for an IT consulting company near Charleston, South Carolina and many years ago I was approached by a nearby private island community where many of my clients live to write articles about tech and tech-related matters. Over the 15 years of working in this field, I have developed a passion for teaching others about using tech to improve their daily lives. Teaching an older generation that didn’t grow up with this stuff always comes with its challenges, but helping people understand and become more confident in keeping up with technology is a very rewarding job for me. 

I’ve been married for almost 13 years, and just earlier this year became a father to an awesome little girl named Bonnie. So far, the task of “Dad” to a newborn has had its usual ups and downs, but nothing has been more rewarding as parenthood in my 38th year on this Earth. 

My retro mind is mainly focused in the 90s, but I have a affinity for the 80s as well, even though my clearest memory of that decade happened near the end of it in September of 1989 when Hurricane Hugo hit our area. Luckily our home avoided any major damage, and still to this day that storm will always be remembered by the residents of the Lowcountry.

Let me start this post by saying- I love Old School Wrestling! Today’s wrestling….ehhhhhh.  Not so much.  Has wrestling changed over the years? Certainly. But I don’t blame the product entirely. Because I too changed over that time. And today’s wrestling just doesn’t do it for me. Any wrestling I consume today (Podcasts, Wrestling Documentaries, or going down the YouTube rabbit hole) is always related to the wrestling of the late 80’s and 90’s era (The Best Era). As I entered my college years in the 2000s, the product started to change, but I was more focused on settling down and starting my career. The old stars of the previous era were beginning to go away, and the new stars just didn’t connect with me in the late 2000’s.

Recently, I thought about collecting (or recollecting) some wrestling action figures, without trying to obtain every figure of every series ever made. The recent surge in popularity of #FigCollecting has figurines going for insane prices, and I don’t have the cash to do what some of these major collectors do. It’s cool and all, but what figures would I want to begin to collect? Mainly those stars of the 80s and 90s, so my plan at the moment is to check out the department stores and try to catch these figurines on sale or clearance, but only collect the ones that bring me the most nostalgic feelings. Isn’t that the idea anyway?

Now, I’m not a huge figurehead, but just recently I was watching YouTube videos of top moments in WWE/WWF/WCW history.  I’m a fanatic about any kind of top 10 list or ranking when it comes to sports, music, or in this case- wrestling. I watch many videos that rank the iconic wrestling moments, vignettes, storylines, and memories and it got me wondering if there were action figures that depicted these moments. 

When I researched and saw a figure that WWE created of the time the Undertaker dressed up as Kane and revealed himself I thought of other- maybe not as memorable to the average wrestling fan- but iconic moments for us old-school fans- that would be awesome if WWE created. If someone at Titan would put me in charge of this task, here’s what I’d do. I would release them in batches once or maybe twice a year.  I’d call the figurine line “Memorable Moments – Series 1”. Series 1 would feature 4 different figures depicting moments that would get us nostalgia-holics all in our feels! (Disclaimer: If any figure fanatics read this, maybe you know that some of these figurines did get produced in years past- if so, I’d love to hear about them in the comments below)

Series 1: Lex Luger on the USS Intrepid

My Personal Memory: One of my first memories of wrestling growing up was being on Summer vacation in 1993 and seeing all these wrestlers try to pick up this behemoth of a man known as Yokozuna (what an iconic heel to 10-year-old me back then)! The visual was so cool- July 4th- outside on an aircraft carrier, and crowds of people gathered around the ring- and here comes a man arriving in a helicopter. You don’t know who it is, but certainly, it’s someone important. Out of the commotion comes Lex Luger walking forcefully to the ring. He struggles for a few minutes, but suddenly picks up the big man and slams him to the mat.  This moment instantly catapulted Lex as this All-American hero headed into SummerSlam of that year. At this moment in time, you probably would have bet that Luger would be the guy to fill Hulk Hogan’s shoes as the face of the business. As we would find out, Luger just didn’t have the charisma as the Hulkster did, and soon WWF would look to Bret Hart to carry the torch into the mid-90s. 

Figure Details: The Luger figure MUST be complete with the Stonewashed Jeans (a staple of that timeframe), and Luger’s USA-inspired polo, just as you see him coming out of the helicopter.

No other accessory is needed for the figurine – BUT- the card backing needs a photo of the “Lex Express” in the background. Who doesn’t remember that tour bus?

You would probably want to buy two of these figures- one to keep in the box, and one to display on a shelf. Any wrestling fan of the 90s would immediately recognize this iconic moment and be transported back to that summer. For 10-year-old me back in ‘93, what a memory. This is one of those wrestling moments that is etched in my brain for life. 

Next time, I’ll reveal Figure 2 of this fictitious Wrestling Action Figure Lineup. 

Thanks for listening!

PS- A&E just released a long-awaited Lex Luger documentary that details this moment and the entire career of the “Total Package”. It’s a good watch!