'Pawn Stars' crew buys WWE superstar's trunks from guests — and then gives back to him
From action figures to boots worn by WWE superstars, wrestling memorabilia has a thriving market on “Pawn Stars,” where professional wrestlers themselves arrive to verify items. Rick Harrison's castmate on the show, Chumlee, has an eye for items related to wrestling icons, and once he helped close a pretty good deal for trunks worn by WWE star Titus O'Neil. The couple who brought them to Harrison and Chumlee wanted $1,800 for it, and after negotiations, the pawn shop duo got it for $1,000. While Harrison said he'll go look at things he understands, Chumlee carefully stored the trunks in a black bag.
Later on the show, Chumlee told Harrison that he had invited a surprise guest, and it turned out to be none other than Titus O'Neil himself. The wrestler confirmed that the trunks belonged to him and was delighted to finally get his hands on them. Harrison said that he'd be happy to hand them to O'Neil if he could just pay $1,000 or buy him dinner. The WWE star promised a whole meal to the "Pawn Stars" cast for finding him his treasured trunks.
While Chumlee's eye for wrestling memorabilia helped close a good deal for the pawn shop team, it has also saved them from a bad one. That happened on an episode of the show in which a guest was looking to sell a vintage WWE action figure for $7,500. The figure was of former wrestler Kamala, portrayed by James Harris. Chumlee called it one of the holy grails of wrestling, but then noticed something off with the packaging, as per a Collider report.
“I mean, the condition of the box is, I don’t want to say beat up, but it’s got like some issues with the glue, kind of like it started to separate,” he said. Chumlee admitted that the figure looked authentic and could sell for a lot of money, but he wasn’t sure about it entirely. So, he decided to call in an expert, who saved him from splurging on an inauthentic item.
Kamala always used to come out with body paint on and had a moon drawn on his belly. However, the mass-produced action figures of him had a star. So this one was a prototype that was in the works but not approved by all parties.
The expert revealed that the wrestler hadn’t signed off on this, so the company went ahead and produced action figures with a star instead of the moon without his approval. That made this a rare piece and could be worth a lot of money. The only problem was that this wasn’t the authentic piece. The expert took note of the inconsistencies with the glue, as Chumlee had noticed earlier, and also saw that the box had traces of a price sticker that was removed.
The expert then brought out a small flashlight to check the paint on the figure. It should have had a smooth texture throughout if it were authentic. However, it turned out that the texture was crude in certain parts of the action figure.
“So, you’re saying that someone might have painted over this?” Chumlee asked. The guest looked dejected at this point as the expert revealed that what he had was a fake. “It is that holy grail piece, but unfortunately, man, I’m sorry, but you got a fake,” he said. The inconsistencies with the glue, the sticker residue, and the crude texture gave it away. The guest had no idea about it as he had purchased it in an estate sale.
Chumlee was never going to make a deal to buy a fake item, but he hoped the customer would not pay too much for it when he got it. Ultimately, his eye for detail saved the store from incurring a potential loss worth thousands of dollars.
