Barbershop Window: Wrestling Apparel

Photo courtesy of www.barbershopwindow.com

Photo courtesy of www.barbershopwindow.com

We have heard about Barbershop Window (we'll call them BShop for short) through various channels (most notable on the Art of Wrestling podcast and as seen on TMZ) and have wanted to place an order for a while. These guys do great tee shirt designs, great looking, clever, funny and stylish. Well last month, BShop ran an anniversary sale where if you purchased one tee, you would receive a free BShop logo tee. We can't resist a good sale.

BShop has a nice selection of tees with great designs. From current wrestlers, featured Indies and references from the past, BShop covers a wide range of designs. We were tempted with a Mr. Perfect shirt, a Miami Dolphins inspired BShop shirt (got to check it out here), & Rick Rude shirt. However, we went with a Shirt featuring an Indiana Jones like character press slamming another wrestler with the phrase Indy Wrestling scrolled across the top.

The packages came, perfect condition, the right sizes, and correct designs. The order took about 3-4 weeks. Now this seems long but the site explicitly states their turn around time, so it was not a surprise to us. The length of time sort of adds to their small business, semi-underground club feel. Has the are of something that is not mass produced off an assembly line. One think we would like to see is the ability to choose a shirt type. We love our tees just as BShop, so we know of the wide range of physical shirts out there.

Support these guys so they can keep doing great work. We love the shirts we got and hope to order more in the future. Visit their site, www.barbershopwindow.com.

WrestleMania 29: Here We Come!

We...are...going...to WrestleMania! Our calendars are marked for the weekend of April 5, 2013. Individual tickets have not gone on sale yet, so we went with a travel package. The weekend is going to packed with wrestling related activities. There are different level of travel packages. Check them out at WWE.com.

We opted for the Silver, three night hotel stay (sorry Raw, we need to get home). If we were loaded, would love to have a tour of WWE Headquarters. But very happy with our package which includes two sessions to Axxess, Hall of Fame Ceremony tickets and 100 level seating for WrestleMania. For the hotel, it will be 1 of 4 hotels (which we find out later which hotels those will be) and public transportation to the events.

Travel packages are only available through October 31, 2012, so get on it.

Topps WWE 2012 - Part 2

Alright, so we couldn't resist, wanted to search out another autograph. We saw two options on eBay. One auction guaranteed an SP Auto in one pack and a Relic/Diva Kiss in the other. By the way, from our experience, whenever a hot pack gives options with what you can get, it is most likely you will get the low end of what is advertised. the second auction guaranteed a HOF Auto in one pack and a Relic/Diva Kiss in the other. HOF was tempting but went to bid on the SP. The SP list has multiple Mick Foley changes, Triple H and Booker T so took a chance. As you can see we came up with Hunico. I think we may be done with 2012 and be happy with out Miz printing plate because we have not done that great. R-Truth relic is nice but nothing special.

Check out Amazon for buying options.

Topps WWE 2012

Yes, we like collecting wrestling stuff and yes we still like cards. So when WWE 2012 by Topps came out we had to try our luck and buy some product. Hobby boxes were boasting two guaranteed hits, 1 Shirt Relic and Wrestlemania Mat Relic or Autograph so we were hoping for some nice hits.

What We Bought?

• 2 Hobby Boxes pre-ordered from Dave and Adam's Card World
• 3 Jumbo Hot packs from eBay
• 1 Jumbo Hot pack, case hit guaranteed

How Did We Do?

• Between the two hobby boxes we got two base sets complete. This should be a given with a hobby box but is not always the case.
• Hobby box one yielded the expected Shirt Relic hit (Big Show) and Wrestlemania Mat Relic (Chris Jericho).
• Hobby box one also had an extra hit, 1/1 Printing Plate (The Miz)!
• Hobby box two yielded a Shirt Relic (Mark Henry) and an Autograph...of Alicia Fox. Autograph is cool, but was hoping for a bigger name (sorry Divas).
• So after the two hobby boxes, we were still jonesin for more hits and took to eBay. Found a user selling three Jumbo hot packs and won all three auctions
• Jumbo hot pack one gave us a Shirt Relic of...the Big Show, doh! Yes, same card we already had.
• Jumbo hot pack contained a Shirt Relic of Albert Del Rio. Not bad, we sort of like him.
• Jumbo hot pack three produced another Chris Jericho Wrestlemania Mat relic, what!? But wait, this one is different. It is a parallel with a black boarder. No complaints here.
• Still not satisfied, back to eBay we went. This time we bought a Jumbo pack with a guaranteed case hit. Opening it up, we were hoping for a Triple H auto or a Diva Kiss. Got neither, ended up with a black boarder Sheamus parallel. At least it was a bigger name and not a Curt Hawkins. We actually like Curt but won't bring in the money a Sheamus would.

Overall we are pretty happy but were hoping for a bigger auto card. Who knows, we may take a dive back into the well if we get the itch again.

Check out Amazon for buying options.

Daniel Bryan: Hugs

Bryan Danielson, or should we say Daniel Bryan (@WWEDanielBryan), was involved in hugs (or lack there of) well prior to his current Kane/Anger Management bit with the WWE. These pre-match antics with El Generico (@ElGenerico) are pretty great. Gives you a true feel for the ROH fan base.

WWF Wrestling Buddies

Remember WWF Wrestling Buddies? With the release of WWE's new Brawlin' Buddies, it brought back memories of our childhood when we had Wrestling Buddies. Tonka came out with the four original Buddies in 1990, Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage, & Ted DiBiasi. The Ultimate Warrior was our favorite at the time. Hey, when you are a kid it is all about the entrance and the gimmick, right?

Merchandise was great in the 90's and the Wrestling Buddies were really cool. Everyone had one and we used to beat the crap out of them and each other using them as weapons. The good old days.

Later on some other wrestlers were sold, Big Boss Man, Jake Roberts, & Legion of Doom. So wanted the Legion of Doom ones when they came out. And if you are like us and did not get everything you wanted as a kid, luckily we have eBay to satisfy our inner kid.

Now the WWE is trying to bring back the success of the originals and have released Brawlin' Buddies through Mattel. The four wrestlers in this series are Jon Cena, Randy Orton, Sheamus, & Rey Mysterio. This seems pretty weak compared to the four original Tonkas. Now, we know wrestling is different, it is a different time, but these Buddies have nothing that really standouts besides Mysterio and his mask and green color. Hopefully these do well and there will be a Zack Ryder, Kane, or Brodus Clay Buddy released to bring some personality back to the toys.

Check out Amazon for buying options.

ECWA: 45th Anniversary

Photo courtesy of ECWA

This post won't be about results, good guys beating bad guys (or vice versa), but rather about the independent experience. It is that small arena, intimate setting, where you hope to see guys give it their all to entertain the crowd experience we are looking for. Just like walking into a minor league baseball stadium, you hope to catch a glimpse of a star of tomorrow. Take in a memory where you can look back and say, "I knew him back when..."

ECWA recently had their 45th anniversary show, September 15, 2012. The organization is the oldest independent professional wrestling company in the United States. We had a great time at the show. So at a minor league baseball game, they have some crowd participation activities. ECWA brought that to the wrestling arena. First was a giveaway to date a wrestler. Pretty cool idea in which the lucky lady gets a free meal and transportation on her night out with an ECWA wrestler. The next event in which the audience got involved was a lumberjack match where random fans were chosen as the lumberjacks. This concept is really great to get fans in on the action. There were 12 (maybe 11 as one seemed to be a plant) chosen to surround the ring, got involved with tossing wrestlers back in the ring and even carried a heel to the ring from the back. Overall the show provided everything a wrestling fan needs, heels, babyfaces, comedy, crowd work and even a storyline reveal.

Now the actual wrestling. Besides the lumberjack match which was the comic relief, there was some great displays of wrestling put on. As wrestling historians, we loved seeing Tony Mamaluke (@newyorkwrestler). If you remember Tony was part of the FBI from the ECW days, which brought back some good memories. Tag team championship match, Fusion DS (@STBDamianDragon & @SaigonXspecial) vs The Sons of Blackheart, aka The Midnight Sensations (@TMSShields & @RockwellCPR), was a good length, some good spots and had an intriguing story line twist which we mentioned earlier with the unmasking of The Sons of Blackhearts to reveal they were really The Midnight Sensations. Don't get us wrong, other great performances were put on throughout the night but want to move onto the main event.

Greek God Papadon (@greekgodpapadon), who is the top guy in the ECWA, gives you the feeling that this guy will get called up to the majors at some point. He has skills on the mic, works aggressively in the ring and has a great persona. As a performer, he is cocky, arrogant and oozes a disdain for the fans. But before the show he was out front, selling his shirts (pretty nice looking, yeah we picked one up), interacting with fans and seems to be a pretty nice guy. Papadon was ranked 223 by PWI which seems way too low. We are hoping we can look back and take some pride in knowing we saw Papdon wrestle before he was huge. Papadon ended the night losing his championship belt to Chris Wylde (@TheChrisWylde) who held his own to make for an entertaining match.

We enjoyed our night at ECWA and they are doing independent wrestling right. It was a great, fan friendly atmosphere where families can share a night out together. Make sure you support independent wrestling.