As I was unaware of the Kinnikuman storyline when I was a kid, I made my own backstories, names, gimmicks, tag teams, and feuds to play with the figures. Here are a few of the memorable ones, feel free to share yours if you were in the same situation.
Muscle Man (#234): He was the #1 babyface on the roster, and a multiple champion, but beatable after I built up monster heels. His finisher was a super Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff piledriver.
Terri-Bull (#235): The original rival of Muscle Man, he eventually turned good and teamed with his babyface "brother" (#211), who I had dubbed The Modern Day Warrior, in homage to Kerry Von Erich. Terri-Bull was always a mainstay on the roster. I preferred to call him Taurus instead of Terri-Bull.
Sunshine (#3): Virtually invincible, he was like Big Van Vader on steroids, and demolished Muscle Man to take the title. He defended the belt for a long time, and rarely lost. I didn't use his other figures which came in weird shapes. Probably ranked #1 all time in my league. I called him Brickhouse.
Neptune Man (#16): Had two different colors, so they became The Thrashers tag team (as in Thrasher #1 and #2), pretty much based on The Road Warriors, but not as powerful. They were a mainstay as tag team champions. I never realized he was a Hulk Hogan clone.
Kinniku Daiou (#20): Of course I called him "Mayumi". His height, old age, and lack of open arms made him a jobber, but I knew he Muscle Man's senior, so he had a few angles with him.
Skull Bozu (#33): Called him Sukaru obviously. Due to his small size, he was a jobber as well. Had two different colors, so they were the de facto scrubs. Ironically, I used a Future Strength figure as Skull Murphy.
Beauty Rhodes (#41): Had no idea this was one of my favorite wrestlers Dusty Rhodes. I saw him as Igor from Castlevania, so he was part of a successful Frankenstein and Igor tag team. Outside of tagging, he was a lower carder/jobber due to his small size and beer belly.
Neptune King (#56): I modeled him after Piston Honda from Mike Tyson's Punch-Out and later E.Honda from Street Fighter. Also called him Sumo. He was one of the top big baddies and leader of the other traditional Japanese wrestlers.
Ashuraman No Sensei (#77): Part of a tag team with Ashuraman with the broken arm (#174) and pretty successful, like Big Bossman and Akeem.
Mapman (#102): I called him Dr. Mystery, and he was an exciting mid-card luchador based on Starman from NES Pro Wrestling.
Buka B (#104): He received a huge push from me, which is why I was surprised he was a background disposable character in a movie. He was called Mr. Hyde, and I modeled him after Sid Vicious- a master of the powerbomb, and the future franchise player. Turned on Muscle Man during a tag match to set up a huge feud.
Rikishiman (#108): Named his Rai, and he was the master of the STF, and patterned after Masahiro Chono. Started off a bodyguard for Neptune King [aka Sumo], but Sumo abused him and was jealous of him. He set the rest of the gang to beat him up, so Rai was feuding with them forever.
Terryman (#140): Ironically I didn't see Terry Funk, but Bob Backlund instead. So I named him Bob Backlion, and he was a great tactician in the ring (he could go an hour), mostly in the Intercontinental title mix, but never the main title.
Shyaneruman (#155): Well, I knew it was Muscle Man in disguise, but he was too good a figure to ignore. So I made him The Midnight Rider at first after Muscle Man was injured. But he eventually became his own character, and was rivaling the original Muscle Man in popularity, so they tagged and eventually fought each other, which Marvel copied me years later by making the Scarlett Spider :-).
Black Rain (#167): Looked too good to ignore, especially since I had the green version. I dubbed him Lazer Tron from the NWA wrestler and he was the cruiserweight champion for a while, and had high flying moves. He had high quality matches, but a so-so winning record.
Black Satan (#178): I based him on the obscure villain Basilisk from Marvel Comics. In my league, he used his mind blasts to actually claim the title from Sunshine [aka Brickhouse] and he defeated Muscle Man as well, making him the #1 villain for a while. After his push ended as he didn't go over well with the crowd, he was banished to the mid-card.
King the Tons (#185): One of the top older villains, I just called him "t" since it was written on his chest. He was dangerous, and I used him like a cross between King Kong Bundy and Big Van Vader, but he was always second to Sunshine.
Robin Mask (#197): Generally he was second to Muscle Man as the top babyface. He eventually turned on him and became "Dark Knight" and won the championship. He turned back and forth, but was always a main eventer, and had great battles with everyone including Brickhouse and t.
New Black Hole (#224): He was Frankenstein to me, thus he was my Undertaker stand in, but was more successful as a tag team with Beauty Rhodes (Igor). However his singles run was not bad, and he had the belt briefly, especially with his chokeslam and tombstone piledriver.
Kinnikuman Super Phoenix (#229): I knew he was related to Muscle Man somehow, and thought he was glowing like Super Mario after he touched a star. I made him like The Ultimate Warrior with his short bursts of energy, thus he was a main event star.
He does look like that.
