A Comic by Brian Myers, Matt Cardona, and Michael Kingston

I’ve been a fan of The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast, hosted by Mark Sterling, Brian Myers, and Matt Cardona, for about a year now. I’m honestly not a huge toy collector, but the show is equal parts insightful and entertaining. Listening to their passion and humor as they bicker and try to one-up each other talking about toy collecting is pretty great sometimes. I know that Matt Cardona (Zack Ryder for WWE fans) is a huge Disney guy, so seeing this homage to Toy Story as told through the eyes of wrestling figures was pretty fun, and very much on brand for the guys.

“”Fig Story” co-written by Matt Cardona and Brian Myers! Billy’s brand new Brian Boulder action figure has stumbled into some trouble. Can the boys from S.T.O.M.P in Paradise help the rest of Billy’s fig collection save the day? Art by Doug Hills and Jenny Gorman with letters by Jacob Bascle and a Toy Story inspired cover by Michel Mulipola.”

As with all of these “Tales from the Road” comics, which are usually a pack-in with every Pro Wrestling Crate as of late, the comic itself is fairly short. The story is partly written by a wrestler that has been chosen to collaborate, and range from fantasy stories such as this, to biographical ones. This one was a cool way to have Brian and Matt’s retro action figure alter-egos, S.T.O.M.P. In Paradise, star in a comic. S.T.O.M.P. was an old line of WWF action figures that turned wrestlers into GI Joe knockoffs with military gimmicks. I’m guessing the trademark lapsed or something because the MWFP have used the motif of a tropical themed version of this on a lot of merch lately. If you want to see this gimmick in action check out Impact Wrestling’s Throwback Throwdown II which stars the duo with water guns and tropical cammo shorts, ready for action.

The comic itself represents the age-old problem facing every toy collector – whether to keep your figures in box or “let them breathe”. This comic happens to have heightened stakes that a figure is actually a sentient being that would love to breathe, but could be trapped on a high up shelf forever. S.T.O.M.P. In Paradise try to ensure that sad fate never happens! It’s a fun story that made me smile, nothing Harvey award winning by any means, but a great little quick read. Podcast fans will get all of the little inside nods, but any comic fan could enjoy this on it’s own. Honestly, this is probably the best one in the series so far!