I remember those old wrestling pillow/dolls the WWF made to look like Hulk Hogan or The Ultimate Warrior. They were soft, but you still couldn’t get any sleep because if you put your head down they would always kick out.
@@aretnap3653 I had one with purple hair and heman trunks.. he was jeff Hardy for so long... 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 then got a Hardy boyz pack for Christmas... the way the legs were done.. Jeff's ass split open.. legs fell off... Good old super glue tho hahaha
I started attending shows in the 1970s in WWWF. All they had for merch was those programs with a printed copy of the night's wrestling card stuck in them and 8x10 black & white glossy photos of the wrestlers. From the mid-'70s to about 1983 their programs were printed by Wrestling Revue and they sold at shows for a buck apiece. Starting in 1983 they began making T-shirts and posters of certain wrestlers like Backlund and Snuka.
I live in Oklahoma. In 1985, I saw a JYD action figure in Walmart. I heard it all the time on MidSouth from Bill Watts how Butch Reed ran JYD out of MidSouth. I thought to myself, I wish Butch Reed would run me off like that.
I would go to the swap meet and find these Mexican luchadores in the same pose, but the only difference was the paint. Lol The only guy that was accurate was Santo because he was all silver. Haha But yeah, I had a bunch of those little guys and they were some of the first to make rings too.
As to who owns the name. That would be the current Rey Mysterio, Oscar Gutierrez. WWE owns the trademark for "Dominik Mysterio". But the mask designs vary between three luchadores. Rey Misterio, Sr Rey Misterio, Jr. (Rey Mysterio) (Misterio, Sr's nephew) El Hijo de Rey Misterio (Misterio, Sr's son)
I always think Jim’s ad spots are absolutely hilarious. But I wonder if the companies themselves ever actually listen to what he’s saying, and get angry?
I had a Mr. Wonderful LJN rubber figure for years he had chunks missing marker smudges and everything else a 8 year old can do flinging those toys around.
Ol' Corney got Brian with the deaf therapist, lol. Why wouldnt there be a one who uses ASL, that might be deaf also, for other deaf people. Brian cant never be to careful tho when Corney gets going on one of his ad read rants, lol. Love it, A+ shit in my book fellas!
Honestly? Most territory merch was awful. Boring T-shirts, low quality T-shirts, and even some homemade merch like the Rock n Roll Express’ headbands lol Say what you want about Vince, but he knew that kids were interested in shiny merch, and he knew that parents are pushovers who will give in to their children’s demands
that is one thing the wwe has always good at ,from the 80s to today they have been the masters of merchandising, they must have the best in that company, i often go to wwe shows here in the uk and people always go wild for shirts, plastic mitb cases i know its an international market and they must sell more than on the average house show domestically but it is still crazy money, i can only imagine how merch sales were at the turn of the century when the wwf was red hot.
Merchandise outside of programs did exist in the territory days, but they were few and far between. In the 1940's, Lafeyette Rittgers made ceramic figures of Wrestlers. In 1952, Gorgeous George had his own ceramic figure made by Rittgers, along with a puppet. Japan, however, took merchandising to a whole new level. In late 60's, the Japanese Wrestling Alliance (JWA); created the first soft vinyl Wrestling figures of stars such as Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki. In the 70's, All Japan released bendable figures of Baba and Jumbo Tsuruta. Before the start of Hulkamania, Hogan had his first figures made in Japan going back to 1980. Around this time, the first handheld LCD Wrestling games were being produced, too. In terms of merchandising, Japan was always ahead of the curve.
My local territory beside the programs only had color and black and white 8x10 , same in postcard size and buttons, in mid 80's they got a a few VHS tapes as well
I had a pink Rock N Roll Express t shirt in middle school,and yes, I can attest to the amount of merch teenage girls would have been willing to buy, then AND now! 🤣
It is a wonder no tailor ever thought "Gorgeous George Dresses" and "Destroyer Masks". Destroyer probably wouldn't have gone for it, but there isn't even a story of him turning it down.
Didn’t Superstar Billy Graham make his own shirts when he was champ cuz he was so over but Vince Sr wouldn’t let him sell them since he was technically heel, even though he was way over.
Guys didn't see the value of ppl wandering round town with t shirts with their face on it and paying for honour? Best thing Vince did was killing the Carney shit in wrestling
@@Lord_Bibulous Aw, that's whack. But I know all about uniforms. When I attended elementary in the LA school district, uniforms were blue slacks or shorts and white button up shirts. Felt good getting to junior high and wearing what we wanted (with limitations, obviously).
@@joseortega7815 They tried, but they lost. The only shirts that were banned were any that had profanity or sexual innuendo. So no DX shirts that said "Suck It!".
Im surprised Jim Crockett Promotions never had any action figures commissioned considering they had a lot of kid friendly acts like the Road Warriors, Sting and the Rock n Roll Express.
And the thing is that LJN never developed a game, because by that time, they were just a brand name owned by Acclaim. I wonder how many Angry Video Game Cuck fans would be shocked to learn that most LJN published games were actually made by Rare.
The Rock n Rolls were a fucking religion in that area. To the point where, when Vice did the documentary on the Progressive Liberal wrestler, one of the folks they talked to had a massive picture of Ricky and Robert on their wall.
