wrestling with GI Joes

[bradu]

I made a thread several months ago about how people played with their GI Joes, and was somewhat surprised that a couple other people said they used theirs for their own little wrestling league. I was curious to see how many others played wrestling with their Joes? That's what I did, in an era before actual wrestling action figures hadn't really hit the market yet (and strangely enough, to my knowledge, still never showed up in the scale of GI Joes....hmmm...)

Anyway, that was my favorite way to play with Joes. The Dreadnoks had a pretty good team, a 6 man tag of Torch, Ripper, and Buzzer starting things off. Later others like Monkeywrench and Thrasher joined the clan. I had 2 Road Pigs, one of which I painted to have different hair colors and called Road Hog...they made a tag team similar to the Road Warriors, and were probably my favorites. Croc Master was pretty good as a masked wrestler, as was Darklon. That dude with "Survival" on his white tee was pretty tough, as was the bald guy with mma type gloves that I can't think of his name right now. Strangely, I never had Sgt Slaughter, or the Fridge, both of whom would have been awesome. Taurus played Jim the Anvil Neidhardt, but his teammates Mercer and Red Dog were pretty much jobbers. Gung Ho was one of the toughest guys early, but sorta turned jobber after lots of new cool figures started coming out.

I was really specific about only choosing guys who seemed to look like wrestlers and/or be dressed for the part. A t-shirt was ok, but I didn't often use guys with hats or tons of weapons on their person or whatever. I did use some non-GI Joe guys too, the best of which was probably the Rancor Keeper, who was my version of Dusty Rhodes after losing a hair match, lol.

I wish I would have had a ring!

As an adult, I recently started collecting again, and have made the guys who were my wrestlers the focus, as well as any others I think would have been wrestlers. I especially like some of the Street Fighter figures, even though I never was into Street Fighter. Other than that, the old classics are my favorite. Wish I could afford a Rowdy Roddy Piper (or find a cheap, well played with one)

[michaelkyne]

I definitely played with Joes this way. It was one of my favorite things to do and I kept a consistent storyline for years. I was always on the look out for a new cool looking figure so he could come in and make an impactful debut, and, perhaps, compete for my custom painted title (a title from Remco's AWA line of larger scale figures). I used Rancor Keeper as a monster heel in the likes of Big Van Vader or Yokozuna. I used a lot of generic knock off figures, too. My multi-time champion who could overcome all odds (think Hogan, Cena) was Slugger from Remco's American Defense line. He and the Rancor Keeper figure feuded often. Remco did make a line of 3 3/4" Joe-sized wrestling figures, though I never actually had any of them.. The line was called AAWF (All American Wrestling Federation). They certainly would have made for good additions to my roster.

I made a thread several months ago about how people played with their GI Joes, and was somewhat surprised that a couple other people said they used theirs for their own little wrestling league. I was curious to see how many others played wrestling with their Joes? That's what I did, in an era before actual wrestling action figures hadn't really hit the market yet (and strangely enough, to my knowledge, still never showed up in the scale of GI Joes....hmmm...)

Anyway, that was my favorite way to play with Joes. The Dreadnoks had a pretty good team, a 6 man tag of Torch, Ripper, and Buzzer starting things off. Later others like Monkeywrench and Thrasher joined the clan. I had 2 Road Pigs, one of which I painted to have different hair colors and called Road Hog...they made a tag team similar to the Road Warriors, and were probably my favorites. Croc Master was pretty good as a masked wrestler, as was Darklon. That dude with "Survival" on his white tee was pretty tough, as was the bald guy with mma type gloves that I can't think of his name right now. Strangely, I never had Sgt Slaughter, or the Fridge, both of whom would have been awesome. Taurus played Jim the Anvil Neidhardt, but his teammates Mercer and Red Dog were pretty much jobbers. Gung Ho was one of the toughest guys early, but sorta turned jobber after lots of new cool figures started coming out.

I was really specific about only choosing guys who seemed to look like wrestlers and/or be dressed for the part. A t-shirt was ok, but I didn't often use guys with hats or tons of weapons on their person or whatever. I did use some non-GI Joe guys too, the best of which was probably the Rancor Keeper, who was my version of Dusty Rhodes after losing a hair match, lol.

I wish I would have had a ring!

As an adult, I recently started collecting again, and have made the guys who were my wrestlers the focus, as well as any others I think would have been wrestlers. I especially like some of the Street Fighter figures, even though I never was into Street Fighter. Other than that, the old classics are my favorite. Wish I could afford a Rowdy Roddy Piper (or find a cheap, well played with one)