I thought Jakks were wretched until the Ruthless Aggression ones started years ago. That and the Classic Superstars line were really the highpoints. They did tons of figures, and like 90% of what Jakks did overall was pretty weak (a lot of it was downright awful), but the RA and Classic lines more than made up for everything else, in my opinion.
3 Count Promotions has a dealer table at every one of our NWS shows. Nobody buys the new Mattel figures, everybody still wants the Jakks ones (which could just as well be because they'll soon be harder to find). The wrestlers themselves, the few that I've talked to about it, have said the Mattels are "too small" and "feel more flimsy", so take that for what you will. (Before anyone snarkily asks why wrestlers would play with action figures, remember that a lot of them do in fact have children.) Then again, none of them have a Mattel figure of themselves yet, so maybe it's sour grapes.
I have no cash left to start collecting an entire new line, so I'll probably skip the Mattels and focus on getting the Classic Superstars I'm missing. They don't need my money anyway, the line should be a big success. At least it didn't take them like 8 years to get halfway decent like Jakks did. If not for the San Franciso Toymakers WCW line in 1997, the original Jakks would by far be the worst looking wrestling figures I think I've ever seen.
And yet, SFT's ECW line in 1999 wasn't half bad. Funny how life is.