Post by PWSPHIL on Feb 5, 2011 14:41:12 GMT -5
After years of having wrestling matches with super hero action figures (Hasbro WWF are not very playable to me), I was shocked as a child to see NEW wrestling figures! WWF Superstars was the name of the series and Jakks Pacific was the new company to bring them to retail. In Bradlees that day i got my first Undertaker & Diesel figures.
I was 13 years old at the time (1997) and to finally have wrestling figures that ALL could move arms legs & waist was awesome! No more weird guys that could only guerrilla press or other gimmicks.These are just wrestlers and its time to wrestle!
I had a few LJN figures, i collected what Hasbros i could find, but they were not that fun to play with in my opinion so i never really had my own wrestling federation. Batman & X-Men were the figures that ended up doing the most wrestling before this point!
So as the weeks went on i got more of these new wrestling figures and i upgraded from a dollar store generic ring to Jakks Monster ring, i knew it was time time to have a proper wrestling federation."What do i call it?" i asked myself, and the answer was just as easy as the question. I liked th e WWF, my fed had WWF wrestlers, but I'M the boss. Its Philip Kelly meets the World Wrestling Federation so its Philips Wrestling Federation, the PWF!
PWF:1997-1999
The PWF era was dominated by my 2 favorite wrestlers of all time Bret Hitman Hart & Stone Cold Steve Austin. I wish i would have kept written record at the time but i remember this much- It was like 60s-70s WWF. Bret Hart was always Champion until a huge changing of the guard when Austin came in. The match Hart & Austin had in real life (WM13) was amazing and is still my favorite match of all time.In the PWF I was so protective of Hart that after the Championship loss to Austin, I removed Hart from PWF rather than have him lose anymore matches! As time went on and i understood the wrestling business better i would try to make the matches & presentation in the PWF better. I used pieces from other playsets (Ninja Turtles,Batman) for entrance ways, i closley examined what moves wreslters used in real life so my matches would be more realistic. I dug out the Hasbro WWF championship and it became the first version of the PWF Championship. I even got my own CD player so i could play entrance music instead of having the matches in my parents kitchen using their stereo.
As PWF got better wrestling figures got better. WCW finally got away from vibrating LJN style figures and was working with Toy Biz who handled the X-Men line. ECW hooked up with WCWs ex San Fransisco Toy Makers who figured out that vibrating statues had scared away WCW so they started making more modern figures but still with a action feature. Jakks was still king with the newest WWF figures- Titan Tron Live. The gimmick was that a resistor hidden in the figures feet would activate their theme song in the TTL arena (no one cared about that). Gimmicks aside the figures were great with 10 points of articulation, later 12 points when they added elbows. The PWF was on fire with all of the top wrestlers of the era in figure form. Austin,Rock,HHH,nWo,DX,Jeff Jarrett and more were top stars in PWF. So now this was so much more than Phils Wrestling Federation. It was time to raise the bar, be an even more realistic federation with a more realistic name.
PWE:1999-2002
What do you call a company were the worlds top wrestlers can come and go to wrestle each other for championships? How do you not change the name of your company too much? Vince McMahon coined the term "Sport Entertainment" way back when so i used that as inspiration. What did i want my company to be known for? I was a freshman in high school sitting in computer class when it hit me-Pro Wrestling + Sports Entertainment. Drop the "Sports" and you have Pro Wrestling Entertainment, PWE. The PWE was ruled by the stars of the Attitude era. Austin,Rock,HHH,Kevin Nash,Jeff Jarrett, & Tommy Dreamer were all PWE champion at some point along with under used talents like Billy Gunn & Edge. Even Bret Hart made a 1 night return to win the title from Triple H who had said Hart didnt have what it takes to compete anymore. I like to use the strategies of the big 3 companies. Like ECW i used the misfits along with the top stars, like WCW (at times) i focused on alot of in ring action, like WWF my wrestlers had character, and mostly what stories i did where variations & twist on WWF story lines mixed in with my own. I also started doing custom work like painting figures & making PWE labeled Championship belts.The most important belt i made was the PWS Championship. It was made from punched out brass pieces on fake leather.It has had many paint jobs over the years but the physical belt is still used as the Championship to this day.This was my most busy era. I had PWE shows every day. My imagination was on fire, and so was PWE. I was absorbing Pro Wrestling like a sponge, and started giving deserving superstars a push. Edge was the most prominent
inserting himself in a feud between Stone Cold & Triple H that keeps him on top of the company even today. The Superstars at the top of the card were not the only thing changing as 2002 rolled around...
PWS:2002-Present Day
A junior in high school i'm a figure fed legend. In the PWE (yes i had a figure of myself) i've personally retired Hulk Hogan & created the sole company to see the top wrestlers compete against each other. I even created an original name for it. For 5 seconds 1 day in May my world is rocked. While listening to Opie & Anthony on the radio the local stations entertainment news plays."The wrestling company WWF is no more..." the announcer said as i was walking out of my room at that moment and i stopped dead in my tracks. My mind raced in the brief moment between words, "How could this be? Vince had bought ECW & WCW so they didnt put him out business..." then the announcer continued "they lost the rights to the WWF name and will be known as WWE:World Wrestling Entertainment!". I laughed, while i was mad at the Wildlife Fund for the dumb lawsuit i was shocked that all these years later WWF copied my companies name. As a high school kid honored at the fact that a name i came up with was as good as a name Vince would use for his own company. So once again it was time for a name change. The TTL WWF had now become the dominant figures the company used so the roster was a almost completely WWE roster. In real life WWE had debuted the draft and it found its way to the PWE. So that was the time to change the name, but to what? I still had a healthy mix of all wrestling stars which was the focus of the company so i got the E out. Pro Wrestling Entertainment became PWS: Pro Wrestling Superstars.
In real life my friends & i had started doing back yard wrestling and even we adopted the PWS name. In the action figure PWS the Draft had split the roster into PWS Raw & PWS Smackdown.Not that original i know but it made sense and i was more concerned with original matches & stories than show names.
Booker T and The Rock had a no contest at Summerslam '02 which caused the creation of brand Championships. Instead of the PWS Champion Raw & Smackdown would have their own Champions. Edge was the first Raw Champion & Hogan was the first Smackdown Champion (he quickly lost the title and re-retired by Brock Lesnar). For those wondering about the Hogan hate, i attended a autograph signing in 2002 for Hogan at Golds Gym a few days before he defended against Undertaker at Judgement Day 2002. After waiting 4 hours (2 hours in the rain/snow) when it was my turn i didnt get my hand drawn picture signed, Hogan talked to someone from the gym behind him while i was in front of him and one of his helpers pushed the 8x10 picture to me. So i waited 4 hours for Hulk Hogan to ignore me. He never even looked at me. What a horrible way to treat your fans. I will never forgive Hogan for the way i was treated. A 2 second "Hows it giong Brtother!" would have made everything OK but this guy didnt look at me or talk to me. So why did i show up? Sorry for the rant, bad memories. Speaking of bad memories after the PWS Draft and Title split my family got evicted form our duplex (2 family home) and i was scared. Were we going to be homeless? I was so worried about my family i stopped PWS. From October 2002 until March 2003 PWS was on hold. Looking back now it gave my brain a rest. Getting evicted & being close to finishing high school were heavy on my mind so while i still played with my figures my passion PWS was frozen in time.
Once we were all moved in at our new apartment i had a huge return show. Jakks had released R3 Tech figures in the last year in an attempt to make realistic looking figures. In typical Jakks fashion some figures were a perfect replica of the Superstar while other were pile of shit. No joke on of the torsos they used had a weird bend in the spine that was disturbing. How that mold got approved by anybody is a shock to me to this day. Jakks quickly moved on from this style to the beloved Ruthless Aggression style of figure. I was excited for these figures at first, but when i picked up series one at Walmart in 2003 i was disappointed. While the upper body was a evolution with ball joint neck and a 360 degree joint above the bicep, the lower legs were too close together and only went back and forth. For a company that had released figures with way more articulation (final count/finishing moves) this was a slap in the face. The TTL style legs were more playable than this. But this was the new style and if wanted the latest Wrestlers i had to grin & bear it.
Good news was that these new figures had names that worked great for PWS. So PWS Raw & Smackdown became PWS Ruthless Aggression & Adrenaline. I really went all out creating custom Championships from Sculpey & fake leather for both brands. Edge, Triple H, & Kane dominated RA while Undetaker,Kurt Angle, & Chris Jericho dominated Adrenaline.Under pushed in real life, i gave guys like Christian,RVD, & Test a run with the Adrenaline championship.One of PWS longest traditions the King of Pain event & championship invented at this time. A concept of a main event level Hardcore title was something not really done i was inspired by Undertaker & RVDs WWE Vengance 2001 match.
In 2005 Jakks opened their eyes and created Deluxe Aggression.With around 30 point of articulation i thought these would finally be the perfect wrestling figures. Disappointment again as the arms were so oversized that the hands couldnt touch. It was a small gripe as i now replaced each RA with a DA finally able to pull off so many submission moves forgotten in the RA era. John Cena & Batista had risen to the top of the WWE and now it was time for them to rise in PWS.
Rock & Austin had retired each other in a Wrestlemania Double retirement match and now Cena & Batista were winning world titles. Cena first at PWS WM6 and Batista a year Later at WM7.
Edge & Triple H now took top supporting roles in the company.
In 2007 i joined Wrestling Figs Forum, a whole site devoted to collecting action figures. Obviously wrestling figures was the main theme but they had boards for all collectors to enjoy. This further sparked my imagination. When Jakks released the Money in the Bank set i had the idea to connect the parts to make an entrance stage. This once again raised the presentation of PWS. With custom entrance ways, original Big Event names, & Deluxe figures i was in my element.
At the end of 2007 i found myself in a weird spot. Working a full time job left me very tired at the end of the day and PWS was getting further and further behind. I had already expanded the PWS to 3 brands. PWS Fury was created to show case Toy Biz TNA figures and a 4th brand PWS Pain was supposed to be a all hardcore violence brand. But i was so burnt out from life that Pain never came to be, and i eventually went the other way and for the first time in 5 years the draft split was ended. A 1 time Big Event called "Beginning The End" was supposed to be the end of my playing days. The tag belts were nullified. Many stars were fired.The Main Event was the first ever PWS Elimination Chamber match. All of Pro Wrestlings World Champions
from the top U.S. promotions for the Undisputed PWS Championship. Batista (PWS RA & WWE World) vs Randy Orton (WWE Champ) vs Undertaker (PWS Adrenaline) vs CM Punk (ECW) vs Rey Mysterio (PWS Fury) vs Kurt Angle (TNA). It was a great match with Randy Orton coming out on top. The PWS was only supposed to go on until Wrestle Mania then i was done. But i couldnt do it. I didnt want to stop, work was forcing me to. So i pulled a Ric Flair ("I'M NEVER GOING TO RETIRE!!!") and took a reduced schedule at work. PWS was back at full strength!
In 2009 there was still times i fell behind on PWS but never gave up on it. Jakks had entered their 13 year as WWE action figure maker and the single greatest wrestling figure collection ever. While every figure was not perfect few figures were truly bad. It was the longest run of a single wrestling company with a single toy brand. Almost any wrestler you could think of was produced from the late 70s to 2009. But at New York Toy Fair Jakks announced it was losing the WWE brand to Mattel...in 2010!
Could the Barbie people really make great wrestling figures? In the year we saw a sad turn as Jakks put less & less quality into the WWE line. Going out with a whimper instead of a bang. In the PWS Orton,Cena, & Batista had a firm hold on the PWS Championship. The PWS now had state of the art video screens and entrance videos i made myself. This was stuff i only dreamed of as a kid.
2010 came and Mattel figures were revealed. Best wrestling figures of all time. Mattel did everything Jakks did only better.
PWS slowly filled with Mattel figures full of accurate detail & in scale. Finally realistic figures for my realistic company!
Also 2010 marked 10 years of PWS. From the restart in 2000 as PWE to PWS Wrestle Mania 10. Thats where a new journey starts. As i bring PWS online as a figure fed,a You Tube page, an Online store, and a Ebay store. PWS Wrestle Mania 10 is the start point for PWS Online figure fed where Randy Orton will defend the PWS Championship in a triple threat against Chris Jericho & Rey Mysterio...and in 2011 i will bring myself & PWS to even greater hights.Thanks for reading.
PWSPhil
I was 13 years old at the time (1997) and to finally have wrestling figures that ALL could move arms legs & waist was awesome! No more weird guys that could only guerrilla press or other gimmicks.These are just wrestlers and its time to wrestle!
I had a few LJN figures, i collected what Hasbros i could find, but they were not that fun to play with in my opinion so i never really had my own wrestling federation. Batman & X-Men were the figures that ended up doing the most wrestling before this point!
So as the weeks went on i got more of these new wrestling figures and i upgraded from a dollar store generic ring to Jakks Monster ring, i knew it was time time to have a proper wrestling federation."What do i call it?" i asked myself, and the answer was just as easy as the question. I liked th e WWF, my fed had WWF wrestlers, but I'M the boss. Its Philip Kelly meets the World Wrestling Federation so its Philips Wrestling Federation, the PWF!
PWF:1997-1999
The PWF era was dominated by my 2 favorite wrestlers of all time Bret Hitman Hart & Stone Cold Steve Austin. I wish i would have kept written record at the time but i remember this much- It was like 60s-70s WWF. Bret Hart was always Champion until a huge changing of the guard when Austin came in. The match Hart & Austin had in real life (WM13) was amazing and is still my favorite match of all time.In the PWF I was so protective of Hart that after the Championship loss to Austin, I removed Hart from PWF rather than have him lose anymore matches! As time went on and i understood the wrestling business better i would try to make the matches & presentation in the PWF better. I used pieces from other playsets (Ninja Turtles,Batman) for entrance ways, i closley examined what moves wreslters used in real life so my matches would be more realistic. I dug out the Hasbro WWF championship and it became the first version of the PWF Championship. I even got my own CD player so i could play entrance music instead of having the matches in my parents kitchen using their stereo.
As PWF got better wrestling figures got better. WCW finally got away from vibrating LJN style figures and was working with Toy Biz who handled the X-Men line. ECW hooked up with WCWs ex San Fransisco Toy Makers who figured out that vibrating statues had scared away WCW so they started making more modern figures but still with a action feature. Jakks was still king with the newest WWF figures- Titan Tron Live. The gimmick was that a resistor hidden in the figures feet would activate their theme song in the TTL arena (no one cared about that). Gimmicks aside the figures were great with 10 points of articulation, later 12 points when they added elbows. The PWF was on fire with all of the top wrestlers of the era in figure form. Austin,Rock,HHH,nWo,DX,Jeff Jarrett and more were top stars in PWF. So now this was so much more than Phils Wrestling Federation. It was time to raise the bar, be an even more realistic federation with a more realistic name.
PWE:1999-2002
What do you call a company were the worlds top wrestlers can come and go to wrestle each other for championships? How do you not change the name of your company too much? Vince McMahon coined the term "Sport Entertainment" way back when so i used that as inspiration. What did i want my company to be known for? I was a freshman in high school sitting in computer class when it hit me-Pro Wrestling + Sports Entertainment. Drop the "Sports" and you have Pro Wrestling Entertainment, PWE. The PWE was ruled by the stars of the Attitude era. Austin,Rock,HHH,Kevin Nash,Jeff Jarrett, & Tommy Dreamer were all PWE champion at some point along with under used talents like Billy Gunn & Edge. Even Bret Hart made a 1 night return to win the title from Triple H who had said Hart didnt have what it takes to compete anymore. I like to use the strategies of the big 3 companies. Like ECW i used the misfits along with the top stars, like WCW (at times) i focused on alot of in ring action, like WWF my wrestlers had character, and mostly what stories i did where variations & twist on WWF story lines mixed in with my own. I also started doing custom work like painting figures & making PWE labeled Championship belts.The most important belt i made was the PWS Championship. It was made from punched out brass pieces on fake leather.It has had many paint jobs over the years but the physical belt is still used as the Championship to this day.This was my most busy era. I had PWE shows every day. My imagination was on fire, and so was PWE. I was absorbing Pro Wrestling like a sponge, and started giving deserving superstars a push. Edge was the most prominent
inserting himself in a feud between Stone Cold & Triple H that keeps him on top of the company even today. The Superstars at the top of the card were not the only thing changing as 2002 rolled around...
PWS:2002-Present Day
A junior in high school i'm a figure fed legend. In the PWE (yes i had a figure of myself) i've personally retired Hulk Hogan & created the sole company to see the top wrestlers compete against each other. I even created an original name for it. For 5 seconds 1 day in May my world is rocked. While listening to Opie & Anthony on the radio the local stations entertainment news plays."The wrestling company WWF is no more..." the announcer said as i was walking out of my room at that moment and i stopped dead in my tracks. My mind raced in the brief moment between words, "How could this be? Vince had bought ECW & WCW so they didnt put him out business..." then the announcer continued "they lost the rights to the WWF name and will be known as WWE:World Wrestling Entertainment!". I laughed, while i was mad at the Wildlife Fund for the dumb lawsuit i was shocked that all these years later WWF copied my companies name. As a high school kid honored at the fact that a name i came up with was as good as a name Vince would use for his own company. So once again it was time for a name change. The TTL WW
In real life my friends & i had started doing back yard wrestling and even we adopted the PWS name. In the action figure PWS the Draft had split the roster into PWS Raw & PWS Smackdown.Not that original i know but it made sense and i was more concerned with original matches & stories than show names.
Booker T and The Rock had a no contest at Summerslam '02 which caused the creation of brand Championships. Instead of the PWS Champion Raw & Smackdown would have their own Champions. Edge was the first Raw Champion & Hogan was the first Smackdown Champion (he quickly lost the title and re-retired by Brock Lesnar). For those wondering about the Hogan hate, i attended a autograph signing in 2002 for Hogan at Golds Gym a few days before he defended against Undertaker at Judgement Day 2002. After waiting 4 hours (2 hours in the rain/snow) when it was my turn i didnt get my hand drawn picture signed, Hogan talked to someone from the gym behind him while i was in front of him and one of his helpers pushed the 8x10 picture to me. So i waited 4 hours for Hulk Hogan to ignore me. He never even looked at me. What a horrible way to treat your fans. I will never forgive Hogan for the way i was treated. A 2 second "Hows it giong Brtother!" would have made everything OK but this guy didnt look at me or talk to me. So why did i show up? Sorry for the rant, bad memories. Speaking of bad memories after the PWS Draft and Title split my family got evicted form our duplex (2 family home) and i was scared. Were we going to be homeless? I was so worried about my family i stopped PWS. From October 2002 until March 2003 PWS was on hold. Looking back now it gave my brain a rest. Getting evicted & being close to finishing high school were heavy on my mind so while i still played with my figures my passion PWS was frozen in time.
Once we were all moved in at our new apartment i had a huge return show. Jakks had released R3 Tech figures in the last year in an attempt to make realistic looking figures. In typical Jakks fashion some figures were a perfect replica of the Superstar while other were pile of shit. No joke on of the torsos they used had a weird bend in the spine that was disturbing. How that mold got approved by anybody is a shock to me to this day. Jakks quickly moved on from this style to the beloved Ruthless Aggression style of figure. I was excited for these figures at first, but when i picked up series one at Walmart in 2003 i was disappointed. While the upper body was a evolution with ball joint neck and a 360 degree joint above the bicep, the lower legs were too close together and only went back and forth. For a company that had released figures with way more articulation (final count/finishing moves) this was a slap in the face. The TTL style legs were more playable than this. But this was the new style and if wanted the latest Wrestlers i had to grin & bear it.
Good news was that these new figures had names that worked great for PWS. So PWS Raw & Smackdown became PWS Ruthless Aggression & Adrenaline. I really went all out creating custom Championships from Sculpey & fake leather for both brands. Edge, Triple H, & Kane dominated RA while Undetaker,Kurt Angle, & Chris Jericho dominated Adrenaline.Under pushed in real life, i gave guys like Christian,RVD, & Test a run with the Adrenaline championship.One of PWS longest traditions the King of Pain event & championship invented at this time. A concept of a main event level Hardcore title was something not really done i was inspired by Undertaker & RVDs WWE Vengance 2001 match.
In 2005 Jakks opened their eyes and created Deluxe Aggression.With around 30 point of articulation i thought these would finally be the perfect wrestling figures. Disappointment again as the arms were so oversized that the hands couldnt touch. It was a small gripe as i now replaced each RA with a DA finally able to pull off so many submission moves forgotten in the RA era. John Cena & Batista had risen to the top of the WWE and now it was time for them to rise in PWS.
Rock & Austin had retired each other in a Wrestlemania Double retirement match and now Cena & Batista were winning world titles. Cena first at PWS WM6 and Batista a year Later at WM7.
Edge & Triple H now took top supporting roles in the company.
In 2007 i joined Wrestling Figs Forum, a whole site devoted to collecting action figures. Obviously wrestling figures was the main theme but they had boards for all collectors to enjoy. This further sparked my imagination. When Jakks released the Money in the Bank set i had the idea to connect the parts to make an entrance stage. This once again raised the presentation of PWS. With custom entrance ways, original Big Event names, & Deluxe figures i was in my element.
At the end of 2007 i found myself in a weird spot. Working a full time job left me very tired at the end of the day and PWS was getting further and further behind. I had already expanded the PWS to 3 brands. PWS Fury was created to show case Toy Biz TNA figures and a 4th brand PWS Pain was supposed to be a all hardcore violence brand. But i was so burnt out from life that Pain never came to be, and i eventually went the other way and for the first time in 5 years the draft split was ended. A 1 time Big Event called "Beginning The End" was supposed to be the end of my playing days. The tag belts were nullified. Many stars were fired.The Main Event was the first ever PWS Elimination Chamber match. All of Pro Wrestlings World Champions
from the top U.S. promotions for the Undisputed PWS Championship. Batista (PWS RA & WWE World) vs Randy Orton (WWE Champ) vs Undertaker (PWS Adrenaline) vs CM Punk (ECW) vs Rey Mysterio (PWS Fury) vs Kurt Angle (TNA). It was a great match with Randy Orton coming out on top. The PWS was only supposed to go on until Wrestle Mania then i was done. But i couldnt do it. I didnt want to stop, work was forcing me to. So i pulled a Ric Flair ("I'M NEVER GOING TO RETIRE!!!") and took a reduced schedule at work. PWS was back at full strength!
In 2009 there was still times i fell behind on PWS but never gave up on it. Jakks had entered their 13 year as WWE action figure maker and the single greatest wrestling figure collection ever. While every figure was not perfect few figures were truly bad. It was the longest run of a single wrestling company with a single toy brand. Almost any wrestler you could think of was produced from the late 70s to 2009. But at New York Toy Fair Jakks announced it was losing the WWE brand to Mattel...in 2010!
Could the Barbie people really make great wrestling figures? In the year we saw a sad turn as Jakks put less & less quality into the WWE line. Going out with a whimper instead of a bang. In the PWS Orton,Cena, & Batista had a firm hold on the PWS Championship. The PWS now had state of the art video screens and entrance videos i made myself. This was stuff i only dreamed of as a kid.
2010 came and Mattel figures were revealed. Best wrestling figures of all time. Mattel did everything Jakks did only better.
PWS slowly filled with Mattel figures full of accurate detail & in scale. Finally realistic figures for my realistic company!
Also 2010 marked 10 years of PWS. From the restart in 2000 as PWE to PWS Wrestle Mania 10. Thats where a new journey starts. As i bring PWS online as a figure fed,a You Tube page, an Online store, and a Ebay store. PWS Wrestle Mania 10 is the start point for PWS Online figure fed where Randy Orton will defend the PWS Championship in a triple threat against Chris Jericho & Rey Mysterio...and in 2011 i will bring myself & PWS to even greater hights.Thanks for reading.
PWSPhil
