Most auto mechanic shops have a variety of collections when it comes to car parts, but there are very few that have shelves of collectable wrestling figures.
Pate’s Tire & Service Center in Indianola has just that, thanks to Dalton Downs.
The Indianola Academy sixth grader, who is the grandson of Pate’s owners Billy and Ann Pate, has been collecting wrestling memorabilia for about six years, he said, and he chose the lobby of Pate’s to show them off to the world.
“I spend most of my time here during the summer, so I need things to do while I’m up here,” Downs told The Enterprise-Tocsin during a recent interview.
Downs, the son of Ashley Steadman and Jay Downs, has been following the wrestling world since he was about 4 years old, he said.
“I started watching it, and I liked it, so I started collecting,” he said.
When Downs got into wrestling, he embraced every bit of the culture surrounding it.
“A casual fan doesn’t do what I do,” he said.
The shelves at Pate’s are full of hundreds of figures, titles, accessories and rings.
Downs has spent hours on wrestling setups, posing the model wrestlers into fighting positions.
Downs has been to matches in Memphis, Jackson and Little Rock, and he said that it is the atmosphere surrounding wrestling that makes him so passionate about the genre.
“It’s the storylines and how they make it look real,” he said.
Downs said that he adds to the collection often.
“Every chance I get,” he said, noting that he’ll pick up figures at Walmart, Target or at online stores.
His oldest figure is an Elite 2 Batista, he said, a collectible dating back to 2010.
Downs said that he has his eyes on the new Ultimate Edition Logan Paul collectible.
He hopes that will be part of the collection in the near future.
For anyone waiting on vehicle maintenance in the lobby at Pate’s, they may get a taste of the typical repair shop drama, and they may also have a ringside seat to some wrestling storylines, thanks to Dalton Downs.
