MWFD Collection of WWF '87-'00 (Updated 8/8/2020)

1) Your collection is AMAZING.

2) What's that cloth Dibiase jacket from?

Still one of my favorite collections/setups to look at.

Right on. It's just that you usually hear about people getting into the WWF in '98, as opposed to the opposite.

Just added another update and I wanted to answer some of the recent comments...



Thanks for the compliment! DiBiase jacket is from the Entrance Great figure. Actually, I just swapped the head from the HOF DiBiase onto the EG DiBiase and vise versa.



Yes, it is certainly not traditional. I really think WWE hit its creative peak in 1997. 1991 and 1997 are by far my favorite years in pro-wrestling. I still watched the WWF as often as ever during the Attitude Era (I was part of their target demo at 15 years old in 1998), but when I look back at it, I really enjoyed '97 and the years prior much more. I'm certain the nostalgia of me being a kid at the time has a lot to do with it too. Also, I think the company lost alot when Bret Hart left...

Though I hated him in 1997 (the mark of a true professional and in my opinion the greatest of all time with HBK at 1A or a close second in part because of Shawn's lack of professionalism at times), Bret Hart really was the conscience of the WWF and in my opinion the most BELIEVABLE wrestler ever. You'd never ever watch anything Bret was involved in and think he was portraying a character or "playing wrestler". Too often, he gets unfairly crapped on for "taking himself too seriously" but I tell you what, if more talent took themselves as seriously as Bret Hart, the company would be much more entertaining today. Not to mention, there's another guy named Mark Calaway that's also been known to take himself rather seriously, but he's revered for it. Surely, the difference has nothing to do with the fact that Bret Hart successfully negotiated the greatest contract in WWF history over the infallible businessman and creative genius Vince McMahon, a man that had a history of reneging on big contracts and breaking his word the last time one of his top stars successfully negotiated a deal that would see them treated as more than just cattle performing for a traveling circus (see Jim Hellwig aka The Ultimate Warrior in 1991). I'm also pretty sure Triple H is pretty serious about his character, but again, the spotlight of WWE shines brightly on Paul McMahon-Levesque but vilifies The Hitman for the same behavior (only Bret was 1000x better). But I digress...

Back to my thoughts about the Attitude Era, the company obviously took an upswing after Bret left so the unenlightened might argue against my claim that Bret was a vital part of the WWF's change in fortunes. But that type of turnaround takes time and doesn't happen overnight. In my opinion, Bret never gets the credit he truly deserves for turning the WWF around. An argument can be made that he near single-handedly turned Stone Cold Steve Austin into a made man and his contributions in 1997 alone helped the company reach unforeseen heights in 1998 and beyond. Austin and DX gets all the credit since they were still there working for Vince McMahon, but the reality is that Bret had as much, if not more, to do with the company's turnaround than anyone else not name Mike Tyson.

To make it even more unfair and upsetting is that Bret Hart truly wanted to stay with the WWF forever. Unlike what WWE's revisionist history would have you believe, Bret never wanted to work for anyone other than Vince McMahon and the WWF. Bret turned down an offer from WCW that was over 6x as lucrative as the one he signed with Vince in 1996 because he was LOYAL to the WWF. If you were offered a job that paid you $9 million dollars over 3 years vs. $8 million dollas over 20 years, which would you take? To his detriment, Bret took the former because he was LOYAL to VKM. We all know how Bret was rewarded for this loyalty.

No, Vince likes to lump Bret in with the Hogans, Nashes, Halls, and even Savages of the wrestling world that left the WWF to sign with the rival-WCW. In reality, Bret was the ONLY one who had the opportunity to do so - with a REAL contract in his hand - and threw it away to sign with Vince. Why this man is not held in the highest regard throughout all of WWE is INEXCUSABLE to me. Bret-hates would bring up Montreal and like to act as if Hart didn't give Vince a million other ways in which he would drop the title, and considering Bret had successfully negotiated creative control in his final 30 days, had absolutely no reason to do that but did so anyway because of the respect he had for the company and for Vince. Even though I didn't come to share this strong of opinion about Bret until my adult days (read: more mature with a fully developed brain), in fact I actually sided with Michaels and Vince when Montreal initially happened as I was a full-time drinker of all flavors of WWF Kool Aid, my fondness of WWF kinda dwindled after 1997...

Man, I really went on a rant there, but hopefully some of you found my take interesting. Thanks for reading.

Always a pleasure to see your collection! So cool.

For the record, I'm also with you with regards to your favourite years. By far my most enjoyable years of wrestling.

I cut the Hulk Rules shirt into, for lack of a better term, a belly tee and that allowed me room to strap the belt on. Prior to this (before I cut the shirt), I put 2 small pieces of velcro on the back of the shirt and the corresponding velcro strips on the back of the belt and while that kept for a while, eventually the glue from the velcro faded and so I went the route of cutting the shirt so I could strap the belt properly.

Well tip of the hat for creativity.
Bummer the straps wasn't longer to begin with.

Listen, if I had to choose between a woman and that collection...

:3

Not searching for them, just didn't think they fit in. Orndorff left WWF in early '88 with his last major appearance coming at Survivor Series '87. While I know I have Macho from WMIII, I consider my collection to be from mid-'88 to mid '98.

As for the Sheik, same deal. I know he wrestled on TV very sparingly in '88, but his WWF career was pretty much over when he got arrested with Duggan in '87. Colonel Mustafa, however, now there's a figure I'd purchase.

I have thought about buying both figures in the past but just didn't think they fit. It's the same reason I turned my WMIII Heenan into a later Heenan and why I turned DM Hogan from '87 into a Hulk Rules version. Don't ask me why I have WMIII Savage, probably because it's Mach and his awesomeness breaks all rules.