From the Four Horsemen to the n.W.o to Bullet Club, a lot of my favorite periods of wrestling heavily involve a faction.
That assemblage gathered for a common purpose, whether to collect all the titles, make life miserable for the faces, or just to sell T-shirts. Show me any period with a dominant faction and you’ll have a promotion that’s highly entertaining.
Over the course of their license, Jakks was able to cover a decent amount of factions. With access to some characters Jakks was never able to sign, Mattel has the potential to finish what they’ve started with a lot of factions.
We’ve got the Four Horsemen, Degeneration X (to a degree), and the majority of The Heenan Family, but I wanted to start with one of my all-time favorite factions — The Dangerous Alliance — and cover all the characters Mattel needs so they can Finish My Faction.
Officially assembled for the first time in late November 1991, the Dangerous Alliance was pretty much the traveling brand name for the stable of wrestlers associated with Paul E. Dangerously (Heyman to you newcomers).
The WCW version of the Alliance was the high point of the faction. I always considered the Alliance the precursor to Evolution as it also represented wrestling’s past, present and future.
“Ravishing” Rick Rude was the centerpiece as the long-reigning US Champion. Alongside him were alpha level tag-team experts Arn Anderson and “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton as the tag champs. “Stunning” — not yet Stone Cold — Steve Austin was the future standout and dominant TV champion. Larry Zbysko rounded out the wrestling portion of the group and brought a wily veteran edge to the team. Joining Paul E. as the manager/valet was former woman’s champ Madusa, who wasn’t above getting involved in the action. And, of course, there’s Paul E. himself, leading his charges with his ever trusty brick sized old school cell phone.
With seven members, getting the Dangerous Alliance finished isn’t as daunting a task as the Heenan Family or impossible like the ’97 Hart Foundation. And Mattel is already off to a great start. Let’s recap what we’ve got so far.
Rick Rude:
The Legends 2 Rude has the Dangerous Alliance-appropriate haircut, but the Summerslam ’90 match-specific tights don’t necessarily make it the best option. You’ll get that easily enough by swapping the Legends head on the WWE Elite 40 Rude body, though, so we’re all covered there.
Arn Anderson:
During his stint in the Dangerous Alliance, Anderson wore some combination of red, white, and black tights. While we’re covered with either the single Matty Collector release with the black tights, my preference is the split red and white tights.
That’s where we are from an official version, but there’s some good news thanks to existing Mattel contracts.
Steve Austin:
Austin is clearly the biggest guy on the Mattel WWE roster, and with an Austin figure replacing the shelved Hollywood Hogan figure, we know Austin is still under contract. The trick is finally getting a Flashback Stunning Steve. I’m more optimistic since Mattel released the “blue-chipper” Rocky Maivia figure, which was a far departure from his suave, cool days as The Rock. Not that Austin had any reason to be embarrassed about Stunning Steve. That was a great gimmick and he was exceptional even then. Give him the ponytail version and a robe and I’ll be one happy collector.
Paul E. Dangerously:
Mattel has already produced a number of Paul Heyman figures, but we’ve yet to get that flashback version with a fuller head of hair and that epic cell phone. Considering Heyman’s name value and current visibility on the main roster, he could probably be sold as a standalone Flashback in a Heritage Basic line.
Here’s where it starts to get less certain.
Madusa: After being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in her WWE guise as Aluyndra Blaze, it’s safe to say the relationship with Madusa and WWE is better. As the women’s standard bearer in the mid-’90s, a Hall of Fame Blaze figure isn’t out of the question and that may be our best method of getting a Madusa figure. The Jakks Victoria actually makes for a decent stand-in for now, but I’d prefer the real thing.
Bobby Eaton: I’m not sure where Eaton’s contract is with Mattel and even if he was signed, you can bet his likely sole figure would be based on his Midnight Express days. That’s not a terrible thing, though, since Bobby didn’t change his look that much during his Dangerous Alliance run, save a haircut and somewhat more generic tights.
Larry Zbyszko: This is another one who seems like a longshot, but might get worked in thanks to his induction into the Hall of Fame. I was able to cobble together a pretty decent Zbyszko figure using a Trent Baretta head and I’m afraid that may be as close as I get to a real Zbyszko figure.
On the bright side, thanks to Mattel exploring new release options with the Elite two-packs and Hall of Fame box sets, there’s a better chance of finishing the Dangerous Alliance now.
Of all the options, I’d see another Hall of Fame box set featuring Austin, Madusa, Zbyszko, and Eaton as the easiest to complete the team and then Dangerously packed in a Flashback Battle Pack with Rude.
It wouldn’t be that hard for Mattel to finish, and with the ability to work in one of the most popular wrestlers of all-time as a centerpiece for a new box set, Mattel has a perfect opportunity to make complete the Dangerous Alliance. What do you think?
Worse case, we can just keep trying to get Paul Heyman’s help.
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