Professional Wrestling

Growing up, I had an entire mess of wrestling action figures that I'd slam around in a toy ring designed for that very purpose, creating elaborate tournaments of molded plastic heroes. As such, this installment of "The Toys That Made Us" was destined to hit a nostalgic sweet spot for me.

What I really like about this show in general, however, is how it combines that obvious nostalgia with actual relevant/interesting information. I mean, it is clear that this little episodic mini-series exists to capitalize on pop culture nostalgia for toys of our youth. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever, but the potential would exist for a lot of hollow content. Instead, the producers here really dive into the background of each toy, speaking to its original creators (if applicable) and probing for funny/unique stories. In the case of this episodes, the execs of the pro wrestling figure-making companies have great input, as well as some wrestlers themselves!

Basically, in addition to its light-hearted and sometimes comical nature (befitting the subject matter at hand), the episodes of this series I've watched (the toys I most vividly used/remembered) have all left me with some interesting tidbits to add to the nostalgic glow. This pro-wrestling centric episode is no different, and thus gets the highest marks from this 80s/90s wrestling fanatic!

Growing up in the 80's I caught on to the fad of loving pro wrestling as it was introduced on cable and became a giant on "USA" Network and "Turner" as the "WWF" and "NWA" became loved by kids as entertainment with colorful characters. Enter the marketing of Vince and the toys company deals and the story is told in depth on this episode of the "Toys that Made Us" called "Wrestling" shows the struggle and backroom deals made to put figures in the ring.

Telling is how "LJN" double crossed and won Vince's love over "Remco" by making big figures and they were rubber and big sellers due to popularity and the line however after many years of dominating lawsuits and the video game industry would put it under! However during those years rival "Remco" made a line of "AWA" figures which were smaller and they simply didn't hold in sales due to less popularity than the "WWF".

Over the years as wrestling ratings would drop and mass production and independent toy lines got into the wrestling market the sales and demand died down, as it was an ever on going battle inside the ring and outside between toy companies and the "WWF", "WCW" and "WWE". Really a good doc that's informative which brought back memories of my childhood of good old days of playing and enjoying wrestling figures as these days are long gone still the memories of playing with guys in the wrestling ring will last forever.