Category Archives: AJ Styles

Toy Crazy: Mattel’s WWE Elite Series 61

I’m a self-confessed vintage toy nerd. I collect vintage wrestling action figures from the 80’s & 90’s. I started purchasing some vintage toys out of nostalgia. Well, WWE and Mattel sucked me into their new stuff. I now buy a few figures a month. You can view photos of my collection on my Instagram account.

The lineup for WWE Elite series 61 feels a little ho-hum since there are so many recent repeats. I guess the bar was set high after so many great sets to start 2018. This is a set that gets Mattel ready for the Holiday season, since it’s important to get popular guys on the shelves this Fall.

The WWE Superstars included in Elite 61 are AJ Styles, Fashion Police (Fandango & Tyler Breeze, Shane McMahon, Big E and Kevin Owens.

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Toy Crazy: Mattel’s WWE Elite Series 56

The lineup for WWE Elite series 56 has been known for awhile (and I actually own a few of these figures right now). I fell behind on some of my toy reviews during football season. My betting picks and other gambling-related topics took over the site, so I didn’t have time to write up a couple posts about a hobby I enjoy.

Elite 56 has a couple first-ever elites and includes a couple top stars like AJ Styles and Roman Reigns. It’s a solid set, especially since we finally have The Club elites.

The WWE Superstars included in Elite 56 are AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, Jack Gallagher, Roman Reigns & Samoa Joe.

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Daniel Bryan Betting Odds Skyrocket to Win Royal Rumble

Daniel Bryan hasn’t been an active wrestler in the WWE since early 2015. He has been on the shelf since WWE’s doctor (Dr. Joseph Maroon) has medically disqualified him due to concussions. He has fought back with dozens of other doctors clearing him to wrestle, but WWE fears an NFL-level concussion lawsuit, is being cautious when dealing with concussions.

Bryan has been a character on WWE television the last 18 months or so, but he’s just a power figure as the Smackdown Live! General Manager. He is just marking time until his contract ends this September, since he has no guarantee he will wrestle for them again.

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Top 10 Pro Wrestling Matches of 2017

A couple weeks ago I started to put together a list of the best pro wrestling matches of 2017. I realized that the WWE didn’t have many spot on the list, so I compiled a list of best WWE matches of 2017.

Since I got that post out of the way for American mainstream wrestling fans, I finished my original list that is unsurprisingly heavy on New Japan matches.

Kazuchika Okada, Kenny Omega and Tetsuya Naito are the three-best wrestlers in the world and had impressive matches in New Japan this year. They take up a good portion of the list.

Which Okada/Omega match tops our list?

Here are our top ten pro wrestling matches of 2017 (and a few honorable mentions).

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Top 10 WWE Matches of 2017

I started to compile a list of the ten best wrestling matches of 2017. The list of contenders was loaded with New Japan matches, a couple from Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and not many from WWE.

This year has just been an insane year for great matches all over the world. I decided to save that list for later this month and just focus on WWE with this post.

I was surprised there weren’t many top matches with women wrestlers in WWE. The top ten matches in WWE the last two years had plenty of contenders from the women’s division. I think when you have a belt on Alexa Bliss for most of the year (on Smackdown and RAW), and every brand PPV usually only has one women’s match (usually just the title match), you’re cutting down the opportunities for women to have great matches.

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Review: WWE Survivor Series 2017

I don’t always review WWE pay-per-views, but I usually do them for the ‘Big Four’ events. ‘Survivor Series’ would need to be a great show to surpass the previous night’s ‘NXT Takeover: War Games’ event that was insanely good.

I didn’t have high hopes for ‘Survivor Series’, but there were some matches that intrigued me. Brock Lesnar vs. AJ Styles was the match I was most looking forward to watching. I guess there were also certain match-ups in the main event that we’ve never seen before like Braun Strowman & Shinsuke Nakamura and Triple H & Bobby Roode that occurred, which were pretty cool.

Was the 2017 ‘Survivor Series’ worth all the hype?

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Toy Crazy: 2017 Ringside Fest’s WWE Mattel Announcements [PHOTOS]

There are only a few times a year when Mattel announces and debuts upcoming WWE action figures. San Diego Comic-Con and Ringside Fest are the two of the biggest events with the most upcoming WWE action figure reveals. This year’s Ringside Fest in NYCC did not disappoint.

We already saw some of the figures at San Diego Comic-Con, so I’ll skip most of those in this post. I want to focus on the figures we didn’t know anything about or figures we haven’t seen in prototype form.

We already know that Target has NXT basics and elites and Hall of Fame elite exclusives, Walmart has the ‘THEN NOW FOREVER’ elites and basics, as well as an occasional Build-A-Figure line and Toys R Us has a multiple exclusives per year. It looks like WWE Shop will also get in on the Elite exclusive fun this upcoming year.

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Review: WWE SummerSlam 2017

After last night’s NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III, the WWE main roster had to put on a PPV to follow up that amazing show. I wouldn’t say they failed to do so, but the show was too damn long.

If you count the pre-show and the main card, it was SIX HOURS LONG! You could watch two NFL football games, or roughly four football matches (I didn’t want to exclude my International readers). It wasn’t as long as Wrestlemania and thank God.

SummerSlam had five title changes, which could be a record. I know Michael Cole mentioned that this show has the most title matches in one night in the history of WWE. It may or may not be correct since WWE announcers have spewed bullshit records in the past (I’m looking at you Matt Striker).

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Toy Crazy: Mattel’s WWE Elite Series 51

The lineup in Elite 51 is above average. Any set after Elite 50 was going to be a little underwhelming. That set was fabulous.

The WWE Superstars included in Elite 51 are A.J. Styles, Mankind, Scott Hall, Roman Reigns, Berzerker and Sami Zayn.

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Toy Crazy: May 2017 WWE Funko Releases

We haven’t covered any Funko releases on this site, but it’s about time we do.

We have reviewed a lot of Mattel’s WWE Elite figures, but Funko has also released some pretty solid figures in the past. I’m a big collector and you can see some of my collection on my Instagram, @vintagetoybob.

I’ve plugged another site in my previous Mattel posts, but if you’re looking to order Funko figures, I’d trust intheringcollectibles.com. I’ve bought a ton of stuff from them and they always pack shipments very well. You can use code ‘paulyp‘ for a discount.

Here are some pictures of Funko’s May 2017 WWE POP! vinyl releases.

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Wrestlemania 33: A Marathon of Mediocrity

Wrestlemania is the biggest wrestling event in the world. Every year, tens of thousands of wrestling fans cram into a huge stadium or dome and watch as the WWE trots out what they believe is the best overall wrestling card of the year.

This year’s 33rd installment of Wrestlemania occurred on Sunday in Orlando at the Citrus Bowl. Stars like John Cena, The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar were put in matches with weeks-long build ups.

It should have been a home run, right?

Well, unfortunately, the 7 1/2 hour show fell flat time and time again.

I thought about writing an in-depth match-by-match review of Wrestlemania 33, but I really doubt it would have been very entertaining. Many matches lacked quality wrestling and focused more on ‘entertainment’. I will instead just mention a few thoughts about each match and give my opinion of the overall state of ‘wrestling’ in the WWE.

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10 Ways to Instantly Improve the WWE

The WWE have lost nearly half of their audience on RAW over the last few years and WWE Network subscribers have hit a plateau, even after giving away free programming month after month.

The WWE is a public company and even if they want to live in a kayfabe world of record profits, it’s not what is really happening. The brand split increased the ratings for Smackdown Live, but Smackdown house show attendance is almost at record lows. The roster is so thin right now that it is really hard to keep booking interesting matches.

Here are ten ways the WWE could improve their product right now.

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