Flair Forever's 11+ Year Anniversary Post [LOTS OF PHOTOS]
May 4, 2024 21:56:35 GMT -5
cableV, Grenouille, and 17 more like this
Post by Flair Forever on May 4, 2024 21:56:35 GMT -5
Well, Last year I noticed that I'd been on WrestlingFigs for exactly 10 years. I wanted to do a "10th Anniversary Post".... to feature a bit of my collection, but as I started gathering material for the post, I realized that it was like picking my favorite child.... there's simply too much stuff for me to pick "my favorites."
So I kept gathering photos, trying to take better ones, and generally trying to put all my WrestlingFig fandom into one post just wasn't easy..... so I kept putting it off. Recently, I realized that yet ANOTHER year has gone by!
Well buckle in folks, this ain't gonna be short.... but I thought I'd introduce myself, my collection, and a few of my favorite things!
I started watching the WWF approximately 1989, around the time the Mega Powers were exploding..... and I guess I started enjoying live pro wrestling in High School.... my brothers and I realized how cool it was to go to indy shows & actually meet the wrestlers! Here is one of the first "meet & greets" I ever went to, with King Kong Bundy!
Rarely, my Dad would take us to a WWE show in Hershey, PA.... gosh I always tried to take photos from the crowd and most of them came out really bad. Here's one of my really early attempts to take a pic of The Macho Man at a WWE show. Had to be early 90's.
Once I got a little older, I was able to buy my own tickets and drive my friends to WWE RAW shows (still in Hershey).... here's one of my early attempts at RAW:
I even was able to attend 1 episode of WCW Monday Nitro! Our seats were bad so there wasn't much opportunity for me to take photos.....
But I still tried.
We had pretty cool seats for Unforgiven 2003.... I snapped this pic of Goldberg defeating Triple H for the World Title.....
One time, I actually scored FRONT ROW seats for Monday Night Raw, opposite of the hard cam. How exciting! I told my parents & relatives that they had to watch because we'd surely be seen on camera that night! We wore Hershey Kiss hats so everyone could be sure to spot us on TV!
And the hot main event that night was....... Edge & Lita's Live Sex show. My parents were NOT thrilled. But, you definitely CAN see me and my group looking all awkward during that segment, which apparently brought in huge ratings at the time.
And, yes, I tried to take some photos of Edge & Lita's Live Sex..... here it is from my front-row seat:
I'm not a "prude" and didn't exactly have a problem with the segment.... but, when you wait YEARS to score FRONT ROW tickets to RAW.... and tell all your family & friends to tune in to watch for you on camera.... and THIS is what they saw? Most people said "that was trash, I don't know how you like that garbage." I guess I felt a little let-down?
I mean, I was hoping to see something historic, and I guess we did.... but "Live Sex" was just a little too far out there. I don't know how it came across on TV - but it was genuinely uncomfortable to watch live. There were kids in the crowd and a lot of confused parents who didn't know how to react to this. I'll admit I was disappointed that this is what WWE presented that night.
So I kind of scaled back my "fandom" for a little while.... and simply focused on other things. I still liked wrestling, but it was hard to be a proud, card-carrying wrestling fan after that. If that makes any sense? At least, among my inner circle....
Then life happened.... got married... had kids..... eased back on the wrestling stuff for a while & focused on career.... with life, comes problems.... I developed a substance-abuse issue along the way.
I recovered, with the support of my friends & family & a lot of hard work. However, when I took a look at my life - I realized that I needed a hobby. Something to keep myself out of trouble. So I jumped back into the indy-wrestling stuff, and collecting photos, figures, & autographs. I was definitely less-interested in WWE but still wanted to enjoy the wrestling business. So I focused on the independent promotions.
Near the beginning of this new journey, I had the opportunity to go to a special Philly viewing of "The Resurrection of Jake The Snake".... it was especially inspirational to me, and I had the rare opportunity to speak to Jake, Scott Hall, and DDP about my recovery following the film!
This pic with my two favorite wrestlers, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, hangs proudly in my den. I've often said that if this place ever burns - and I get the kids/pets out safely - I'm going back in for THIS:
Yeah, I went to a lot of signings.... here's another favorite:
So that was fun, and I also started taking my camera to indy shows & taking photos from the crowd...... well one thing led to another, and one night the promoter's wife tapped me on the shoulder. "Uhh... the photographer tonight didn't show up, Frank. Would you like to shoot for us at ringside tonight?"
Of course I did! So I did the best I could.... A young pre-WWE Johnny Gargano was wrestling on the card that night!
apparently I did a good job, because I quickly became the new permanent ringside photographer for an indy promotion in the Pennsylvania area.... which then led to me shooting some shows in the Delaware area.... and New Jersey.... then eventually settling in shooting for a few promotions.
Which then led to getting some really cool opportunities. Eventually I had a few pics in magazines, and even had a pic used in one of the Vice TV documentaries!
Over the years, I've had some amazing opportunities to stand ringside & photograph matches of Legends. A true dream come true. Never thought I'd get to stand at ringside & shoot matches with guys like Jerry "The King" Lawler, Rob Van Dam, Matt Hardy, Ken Shamrock, The Rock & Roll Express, Matt Riddle, Matt Cardona, Brian Kendrick, The Dudley Boyz, Tommy Dreamer, Onita, Tajiri, 2 Cold Scorpio, The Powers of Pain, and so, so many more!
So next the promoters asked me if I knew how to do Promotional photos. "Nope" I replied.... "but I will figure it out."
Well, my first attempts at promo photos were real bad.... but I kept at it, and maybe on the third show where I tried to do these, I was starting to figure it out.... I got to practice on this young man. You may know him as MJF?
Also on that same show, was a really young Austin Theory!
As time went by, I got better at it LOL. And since then I've had the chance to do promo photos with some really cool people!
So as if all that wasn't enough.... THEN the promoters started asking me if I'd mind picking up talent at the airport on the way to the indy shows. Over the last few years, I've had great road adventures with The Godfather.... Billy Gunn..... Teddy Long.....Melina... The Brooklyn Brawler.... Tessa Blanchard.... The Headbangers..... Kelly Kelly.....The Rock & Roll Express.... and many more!
Alright, I know you all didn't come here for my life story. But I wanted to give a little back-story on myself before we get to the good-stuff.
I guess, my point with all this is - - - I have a lot of signed stuff. I love getting these things signed. I don't even have pics of all of it because it's stored away but one day I'll hopefully have enough room to display it all!
I have a lot of JAKKS Classics stuff....
And a lot of Mattel stuff signed too....
Of course, my collection is very heavy on Ric Flair.... who is my all-time favorite!
I do think I have ALMOST every Ric Flair figure ever-made. Much of it is in bins, as I just can't display it all!
My other big favorite is The Hulkster!
For a long time, this TNA Jakks Hogan was my favorite Hogan!
After JAKKS lost the license, I was going to quit collecting these figures. But it was THIS Macho Man figure that finally got me on-board with Mattel, and it's been full-on ever since!
Of course, Mattel brought us many more great Macho Man figures since!
I also have a pretty extensive Sting collection!
And of course, I am also - NWO 4 Life!
Aside from my core favorites (Flair, Hogan, Macho Man, Sting, and the NWO).... here are some more of my favorite personalites/figures from my collection!
My favorite Million Dollar Man figure unfortunately isn't made by Mattel - - - for my money, THIS JAKKS Dibiase is the BEST Dibiase to-date! C'mon, Mattel.... JAKKS beat you on this one!
The recent Paul Heyman is absolutely one of the best figures Mattel has ever done. Incredible.
My FAVORITE Undertaker figure!
ToyBiz made an OUTSTANDING Michael Buffer. This is one of my favorite pieces in my collection:
And you will often see the ToyBiz Gene Okerlund pop up in my pics. THIS might be my favorite figure in my collection. Gene Okerlund was probably THE nicest wrestling personality I've ever met, and I don't think any company has ever captured his likeness quite like ToyBiz:
I'm also particularly fond of the BAF Okerlund. It's an amazing figure!
Well, if you made it this far.... Thank you. Thank you WrestlingFigs for being a daily part of my life for over 10 years! It's a wonderful diversion from a crappy day to pop in here and see everyone chatting.... joking.... bickering.... and discussing something that brings me joy in life - wrestling and wrestling figures.
Thank you Wrestlingfigs.com!
So I kept gathering photos, trying to take better ones, and generally trying to put all my WrestlingFig fandom into one post just wasn't easy..... so I kept putting it off. Recently, I realized that yet ANOTHER year has gone by!
Well buckle in folks, this ain't gonna be short.... but I thought I'd introduce myself, my collection, and a few of my favorite things!
I started watching the WWF approximately 1989, around the time the Mega Powers were exploding..... and I guess I started enjoying live pro wrestling in High School.... my brothers and I realized how cool it was to go to indy shows & actually meet the wrestlers! Here is one of the first "meet & greets" I ever went to, with King Kong Bundy!
Rarely, my Dad would take us to a WWE show in Hershey, PA.... gosh I always tried to take photos from the crowd and most of them came out really bad. Here's one of my really early attempts to take a pic of The Macho Man at a WWE show. Had to be early 90's.
Once I got a little older, I was able to buy my own tickets and drive my friends to WWE RAW shows (still in Hershey).... here's one of my early attempts at RAW:
I even was able to attend 1 episode of WCW Monday Nitro! Our seats were bad so there wasn't much opportunity for me to take photos.....
But I still tried.
We had pretty cool seats for Unforgiven 2003.... I snapped this pic of Goldberg defeating Triple H for the World Title.....
One time, I actually scored FRONT ROW seats for Monday Night Raw, opposite of the hard cam. How exciting! I told my parents & relatives that they had to watch because we'd surely be seen on camera that night! We wore Hershey Kiss hats so everyone could be sure to spot us on TV!
And the hot main event that night was....... Edge & Lita's Live Sex show. My parents were NOT thrilled. But, you definitely CAN see me and my group looking all awkward during that segment, which apparently brought in huge ratings at the time.
And, yes, I tried to take some photos of Edge & Lita's Live Sex..... here it is from my front-row seat:
I'm not a "prude" and didn't exactly have a problem with the segment.... but, when you wait YEARS to score FRONT ROW tickets to RAW.... and tell all your family & friends to tune in to watch for you on camera.... and THIS is what they saw? Most people said "that was trash, I don't know how you like that garbage." I guess I felt a little let-down?
I mean, I was hoping to see something historic, and I guess we did.... but "Live Sex" was just a little too far out there. I don't know how it came across on TV - but it was genuinely uncomfortable to watch live. There were kids in the crowd and a lot of confused parents who didn't know how to react to this. I'll admit I was disappointed that this is what WWE presented that night.
So I kind of scaled back my "fandom" for a little while.... and simply focused on other things. I still liked wrestling, but it was hard to be a proud, card-carrying wrestling fan after that. If that makes any sense? At least, among my inner circle....
Then life happened.... got married... had kids..... eased back on the wrestling stuff for a while & focused on career.... with life, comes problems.... I developed a substance-abuse issue along the way.
I recovered, with the support of my friends & family & a lot of hard work. However, when I took a look at my life - I realized that I needed a hobby. Something to keep myself out of trouble. So I jumped back into the indy-wrestling stuff, and collecting photos, figures, & autographs. I was definitely less-interested in WWE but still wanted to enjoy the wrestling business. So I focused on the independent promotions.
Near the beginning of this new journey, I had the opportunity to go to a special Philly viewing of "The Resurrection of Jake The Snake".... it was especially inspirational to me, and I had the rare opportunity to speak to Jake, Scott Hall, and DDP about my recovery following the film!
This pic with my two favorite wrestlers, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, hangs proudly in my den. I've often said that if this place ever burns - and I get the kids/pets out safely - I'm going back in for THIS:
Yeah, I went to a lot of signings.... here's another favorite:
So that was fun, and I also started taking my camera to indy shows & taking photos from the crowd...... well one thing led to another, and one night the promoter's wife tapped me on the shoulder. "Uhh... the photographer tonight didn't show up, Frank. Would you like to shoot for us at ringside tonight?"
Of course I did! So I did the best I could.... A young pre-WWE Johnny Gargano was wrestling on the card that night!
apparently I did a good job, because I quickly became the new permanent ringside photographer for an indy promotion in the Pennsylvania area.... which then led to me shooting some shows in the Delaware area.... and New Jersey.... then eventually settling in shooting for a few promotions.
Which then led to getting some really cool opportunities. Eventually I had a few pics in magazines, and even had a pic used in one of the Vice TV documentaries!
Over the years, I've had some amazing opportunities to stand ringside & photograph matches of Legends. A true dream come true. Never thought I'd get to stand at ringside & shoot matches with guys like Jerry "The King" Lawler, Rob Van Dam, Matt Hardy, Ken Shamrock, The Rock & Roll Express, Matt Riddle, Matt Cardona, Brian Kendrick, The Dudley Boyz, Tommy Dreamer, Onita, Tajiri, 2 Cold Scorpio, The Powers of Pain, and so, so many more!
So next the promoters asked me if I knew how to do Promotional photos. "Nope" I replied.... "but I will figure it out."
Well, my first attempts at promo photos were real bad.... but I kept at it, and maybe on the third show where I tried to do these, I was starting to figure it out.... I got to practice on this young man. You may know him as MJF?
Also on that same show, was a really young Austin Theory!
As time went by, I got better at it LOL. And since then I've had the chance to do promo photos with some really cool people!
So as if all that wasn't enough.... THEN the promoters started asking me if I'd mind picking up talent at the airport on the way to the indy shows. Over the last few years, I've had great road adventures with The Godfather.... Billy Gunn..... Teddy Long.....Melina... The Brooklyn Brawler.... Tessa Blanchard.... The Headbangers..... Kelly Kelly.....The Rock & Roll Express.... and many more!
Alright, I know you all didn't come here for my life story. But I wanted to give a little back-story on myself before we get to the good-stuff.
I guess, my point with all this is - - - I have a lot of signed stuff. I love getting these things signed. I don't even have pics of all of it because it's stored away but one day I'll hopefully have enough room to display it all!
I have a lot of JAKKS Classics stuff....
And a lot of Mattel stuff signed too....
Of course, my collection is very heavy on Ric Flair.... who is my all-time favorite!
I do think I have ALMOST every Ric Flair figure ever-made. Much of it is in bins, as I just can't display it all!
My other big favorite is The Hulkster!
For a long time, this TNA Jakks Hogan was my favorite Hogan!
After JAKKS lost the license, I was going to quit collecting these figures. But it was THIS Macho Man figure that finally got me on-board with Mattel, and it's been full-on ever since!
Of course, Mattel brought us many more great Macho Man figures since!
I also have a pretty extensive Sting collection!
And of course, I am also - NWO 4 Life!
Aside from my core favorites (Flair, Hogan, Macho Man, Sting, and the NWO).... here are some more of my favorite personalites/figures from my collection!
My favorite Million Dollar Man figure unfortunately isn't made by Mattel - - - for my money, THIS JAKKS Dibiase is the BEST Dibiase to-date! C'mon, Mattel.... JAKKS beat you on this one!
The recent Paul Heyman is absolutely one of the best figures Mattel has ever done. Incredible.
My FAVORITE Undertaker figure!
ToyBiz made an OUTSTANDING Michael Buffer. This is one of my favorite pieces in my collection:
And you will often see the ToyBiz Gene Okerlund pop up in my pics. THIS might be my favorite figure in my collection. Gene Okerlund was probably THE nicest wrestling personality I've ever met, and I don't think any company has ever captured his likeness quite like ToyBiz:
I'm also particularly fond of the BAF Okerlund. It's an amazing figure!
Well, if you made it this far.... Thank you. Thank you WrestlingFigs for being a daily part of my life for over 10 years! It's a wonderful diversion from a crappy day to pop in here and see everyone chatting.... joking.... bickering.... and discussing something that brings me joy in life - wrestling and wrestling figures.
Thank you Wrestlingfigs.com!
