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PWI
Apr 1, 2013 16:55:32 GMT -5
Post by Halloween King on Apr 1, 2013 16:55:32 GMT -5
Recently I walked into a Meijer and walked down the magazine isle. I was looking at some of the magazines when I noticed a boxing magazine. I dont really follow boxing so the magazine itself did not interest me. What did blow my mind was the font. The Font on the cover of the magazine was just like the old Wrestling magazines I remember from years ago.
I remember I loved walking into Woolworths and looking at wrestling magazines. Usually the magazines would have pictures and articles of wrestlers who werent in the wwf so it made those magazines that much cooler to me. Not that I hated the wwf, I just loved seeing new worlds of wrestling in those pages.
Im never going to forget the first time I saw the cover of one of those Magazines had a bloody wrestler on the cover. I opened it and went straight to the pages with that match and it was soo bloody it made me sick. As a kid I remember thinking, it's good wwf has referees so they stop guys from stabbing each other. And then as I got older I started paying attention to those adds in some of the magazines. The ones with apartment wrestling( You know the ones, the ones before wwe diva wrestling)
So as I stared at that Boxing magazine I looked to see if any non wwe/non kids wrestling magazines were on the stands. Sadly there was not. It really made me wish they would reprint all those great magazines. Then again there arent many bookstores left, and the internet prop kill all chances for those magazines to exist again.
I know some magazines still exist. But It's not the same, wrestling isnt the same so the magazines wont.
Who else shares those memories with me.
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PWI
Apr 1, 2013 17:25:51 GMT -5
Post by Grumpyoldman on Apr 1, 2013 17:25:51 GMT -5
I remember the apartment wrestling ads! I think Nancy Sullivan/Benoit was one of the "foxy contestants". I used to have subscriptions to both The Wrestler & Inside Wrestling and I used to read them religiously. When I got older, I realized the interviews, questions & editorial staff were all made up.
Anyone remember the evil reporter Eddie Ellner?
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PWI
Apr 1, 2013 17:42:30 GMT -5
Post by Halloween King on Apr 1, 2013 17:42:30 GMT -5
I remember the apartment wrestling ads! I think Nancy Sullivan/Benoit was one of the "foxy contestants". I used to have subscriptions to both The Wrestler & Inside Wrestling and I used to read them religiously. When I got older, I realized the interviews, questions & editorial staff were all made up. Anyone remember the evil reporter Eddie Ellner? Oh wow, faked? How are you sure they were faked? I dont doubt it, it just surprises me to think them capable of that.
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PWI
Apr 1, 2013 17:55:34 GMT -5
Post by Grumpyoldman on Apr 1, 2013 17:55:34 GMT -5
The one "inside correspondent" was named Emile O'Tourry (please excuse my spelling). That was the name of a TV character who was on a really bad cable access-type show here in NJ. It was little things like that I would notice. Plus the bad interviews by Liz Hunter that just seemed made up. Her interview with the Steiner Brothers and another with Scott "Flapjack" Norton seemed like it was written by a creative writing class in middle school. She said in the interview that Rick Steiner showed up to her NY office with 4 of his dogs, and they pooped on her rug. And in the interview with Norton, she said she traveled to a small lumberjack lodge in Canada to meet him for the interview, only to find him eating 200 pancakes, and belching.
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PWI
Apr 1, 2013 18:11:16 GMT -5
Post by done on Apr 1, 2013 18:11:16 GMT -5
Lol...the title.
SWF
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morenomark
Mid-Carder
Joined on: Aug 5, 2008 15:34:19 GMT -5
Posts: 446
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PWI
Apr 2, 2013 7:19:43 GMT -5
Post by morenomark on Apr 2, 2013 7:19:43 GMT -5
I became a fan of wrestling back in 1980. I lived in Pennsylvania, in the heart of WWF country. Larry Zbyszko slamming Bruno with the chair hooked me; I had never seen anything like it. A few weeks later, I moved the newspaper on the breakfast table and, low and behold, underneath there was a wrestling magazine. It was the March 1981 issue of The Wrestler with a caption I will always remember:
Larry Zbyszko: "I've Destroyed Another of Bruno's Paid Assassins"
The Paid Assassin was Pedro Morales. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to look at the magazine, so I kept sneaking peeks when my dad walked in and out of the room. Eventually, he caught me and laughed and explained that he had bought the magazine for me.
After that my major goal in life became somehow managing to gather the $1.25 so I could take home that month's issue of The Wrestler, another $1.25 for Inside Wrestling, and (this one was really tough) the $1.50 for each exciting issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated. That's sixteen quarters per month!
Unfortunately for me, no local stores carried Sports Review Wrestling. We would have to go to the shopping centers in Richland for me to snag that one, along with my two favorites, The Ring Wrestling Magazine and The Wrestling News, both of which covered ALL the wrestling territories, including Japan and Germany. Those were the days.
Eventually, the Hogan era came along and I lost interest in wrestling. A few years later, the military sent me to Iceland, then to Korea. Re-discovering the Apter mags at the Exchange magazine rack brought a much-needed touch of home. By my second year in Korea, I discovered Pro Wrestling Torch and the Observer. I continued collecting them all until the early 2000's.
In the last year, I have turned to the Bay and am slowly collecting all of the pre-Hogan magazines that I missed. The saddest thing is going through the ratings and ticking off the wrestlers who are no longer with us. The cool thing is the pictures, where those same wrestlers will be young forever. Wrestling may not be the same, but those old magazines still bring back some very good memories.
Back to the post-Kayfabe era.
Liz Hunter and the "grizzled veteran" Matt Brock were fictional "staff columnists". The real writers took turns "playing" them.
Heel columnist Dan Shocket and his replacement, Eddie Ellner, were real; Shocket died of cancer; Ellner took the heel role after Shocket's death. (A guy I used to work with actually found Ellner's number in a New York / New Jersey phone book and called him. They discussed the then-current state of wrestling for half an hour.)
The Pro Wrestling Illustrated year end awards were (and probably still are) 100% fake; the issue with the ballots was published AFTER pictures had already been taken of the "award winners".
Those Apartment Wrestling matches: 100% real. Women in bikinis wrestling in secret locations for extremely lucrative paydays? No way that was fake. Now, here is the actual lineup for the Hasbro Orange Card series:
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PWI
Apr 6, 2013 11:34:34 GMT -5
Post by Zigzag on Apr 6, 2013 11:34:34 GMT -5
I remember being about 7 or 8 years old. Begging and pleading for these 'non-WWE' wrestling magazines in the supermarket. My mom told me those kind were "for adults."
Ironically, about 10-11 years later, I'd be on the staff for WOW Magazine. The one blamed for helping kill off kayfabe.
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Johnny Lawrence - Cobra Kai
Main Eventer
Promotional consideration paid for by the following
Joined on: Jul 25, 2005 17:12:49 GMT -5
Posts: 3,209
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PWI
Apr 6, 2013 14:21:59 GMT -5
Post by Johnny Lawrence - Cobra Kai on Apr 6, 2013 14:21:59 GMT -5
Back to the post-Kayfabe era. Liz Hunter and the "grizzled veteran" Matt Brock were fictional "staff columnists". The real writers took turns "playing" them. Heel columnist Dan Shocket and his replacement, Eddie Ellner, were real; Shocket died of cancer; Ellner took the heel role after Shocket's death. (A guy I used to work with actually found Ellner's number in a New York / New Jersey phone book and called him. They discussed the then-current state of wrestling for half an hour.) The Pro Wrestling Illustrated year end awards were (and probably still are) 100% fake; the issue with the ballots was published AFTER pictures had already been taken of the "award winners". Those Apartment Wrestling matches: 100% real. Women in bikinis wrestling in secret locations for extremely lucrative paydays? No way that was fake. Now, here is the actual lineup for the Hasbro Orange Card series: I worked with two of the former "Apter Mag" writers shortly after they left that gig, and one of them once told me all about it. What you wrote here mostly lines up with what he told me. One small difference is Eddie Ellner. I was told he was one of the real writers (and was even told what he actually went on to do, career-wise, but that part escapes me). But apparently Ellner left the magazines long before his farewell column, and there was a period of time where they gave Ellner the Matt Brock/Liz Hunter treatment (with his full blessing I'm sure), with the staff taking turns writing in his "voice" until they finally wrote him off. I have a sentimental fondness for those magazines, and to an extent, the WOW/H&S Media mags too. The first time I ever got published with a byline was in one of the Apter mags in the 80s, and the first paid writing gig I ever had was for H&S Media when they were running WOW and ECW Magazines. I credit the Apter Mags for not only helping keep me interested in wrestling, but in writing/editing, which I eventually turned into a career. Regarding the year-end ballots being published after the awards photo shoots, it wouldn't surprise me if that were the case. But at the very least, the "Unofficial Official Awards" and the predictions for the next year were somewhat legit, because I mailed some in and got them published a few times.
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PWI
Apr 7, 2013 15:25:42 GMT -5
Post by Suckasays on Apr 7, 2013 15:25:42 GMT -5
Any of you guys ever fill out one of those things where you make up a wrestler, pick his moves, send money etc? They were always in those Magazines. I filled them out often but never sent them in. Always wondered how the hell that worked.
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PWI
Apr 7, 2013 15:53:51 GMT -5
Post by Halloween King on Apr 7, 2013 15:53:51 GMT -5
Any of you guys ever fill out one of those things where you make up a wrestler, pick his moves, send money etc? They were always in those Magazines. I filled them out often but never sent them in. Always wondered how the hell that worked. I saw those as well and would always fantasize about sending it in, but like you I never sent it in because I didnt know how it worked. I think it was all just a scam to take kids money. They would have gotten my money had I just known how it worked or saw some kind of sheet with results printed in the magazine.
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Deleted
Joined on: May 17, 2024 17:38:53 GMT -5
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2013 15:56:24 GMT -5
Loved all the old magazines. I used to have a ton of WCW, WWF, and WOW magazines.
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Deleted
Joined on: May 17, 2024 17:38:53 GMT -5
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PWI
Apr 8, 2013 10:49:18 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2013 10:49:18 GMT -5
I have a crap ton of the Apter mags at my parents house. From 1986 to the mid 2000s. This was the first wrestling magazine I ever bought: This one is my all time favorite cover:
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