The Best Of The Rest 12.24.08: Volume 70 – What To Get A Wrestling Fan This Holiday Season

Hello all and welcome back to “The Best Of The Rest!” Hope all is well with everyone. Christmas is here!!! I love this time of the year; it’s always a good chance to get some wrestling swag. With that being said I’m devoting this week’s edition of the BOTR to the great gifts out there for wrestling fans. Hope you all get what you’re hoping to receive this holiday season and if you have a little left over cash when it’s all said and done you might look into purchasing some of the following. Well… LET’S GET DOWN TO IT!!!

T-Shirts
Every fan has to have a t-shirt. Whether it’s to wear it to an event to let people know which side you’re on, or just to wear it out. I don’t know if any of you are like me but I personally don’t like wearing a shirt that screams PRO WRESTLING FAN!!! RIGHT HERE!!! That’s why I like to go for the discrete ones that only true fans to pick out in a crowd. Hence my love for my AJ Styles baseball jersey, my John Morrison shirt, and all of my Chris Hero shirts. Designers have gotten better about making wrestling t-shirts discrete and very good looking. While I’m not a big fan of the E’s new “Authentic” label they still have some cool t-shirts. TNA tries too hard to make their stuff Affliction-like but they still have some good stuff. And you can find all kinds of rad shirts on the indy’s. There plenty of good stuff out there but here are my picks for some of the best on the market…

DVD’s
The staple of any fans collection is his DVD selection. I have more DVD’s from the wrestling world than I need but still desire more. Around the holiday season many have a set list of what they are asking for, but it’s never a bad idea to throw them a curveball. For example: a couple of years ago I got the Bret Hart DVD set I had been asking for and was very pleased with that, but years before that I was thrown something new in the form of CZW’s “Best Of The Best 4” a DVD that really opened up a new world of wrestling and wrestlers to me. So the “let’s see if he likes this” gift can always be greatly beneficial. So if you get that E DVD you really wanted then enjoy it, but don’t fear the unknown because some of the greatest wrestling DVD’s in the world could be the ones you’ve never heard of. Alex Mattis’ top recommendations of the holiday season…



^I know it’s an oldie but it’s still one of the best DVD’s the E has ever put together^

Video Games
Every fan of wrestling loves to act out what they watch on TV and what is an easier, more enjoyable way to do that than to live it out on video games. Throughout the years professional wrestling has given us many great video games to enjoy. The all time best, undoubtedly, being WWF No Mercy. But today the SmackDown franchise has kind of made the state of wrestling games stale. Don’t get me wrong, they look great and have some cool match types, but it’s just the same stuff over and over again. I grew tired of it and was looking for something new that’s when I stumbled across the true gem that is Fire Pro Wrestling Returns. Incredibly simplistic game, but is still the best wrestling game I’ve played since No Mercy. I know many wrestling fans will be anticipating the potential of getting SmackDown Vs. Raw 2009 for X-Mas, but for those who are interested in something new and different I would highly recommend…

Etc.
Every hardcore wrestling fan has a collection of wrestling merch. Be it posters, books, magazines, or my personal favorite action figures. When I was a kid of course I had my wrestling figures that I played with but today I tend to just collect ’em. I’m that nerd that doesn’t take them out of the package I just collect them. My favorite, and the best for life-long fans, would be the “Classic Superstars” series and I really think the “Unmatched Fury” series is great for collectors:


Just cool lookin’ figures for fans to display. But if posters or others things are your route, there is a world of wrestling merch to be had. In my experience many wrestling fans have a particular thing they like to collect; but most will just straight up collect anything that has to do with professional wrestling so for most it’s hard to go wrong during the holiday seasons.

Well that’s all for me this week.

Everyone have a Happy Festivus and I’ll see you back here next week for the 2008 Year End Awards.

*This Week’s YouTube Sendoff*

Take Care.

-Alex