wildojinx
Wade Wilson
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Post by wildojinx on May 8, 2022 14:38:45 GMT -5
Of course, we all know about the Apter mags, WWF/E Magazine, and, for more recent examples, FSM and Powerslam, but does anyone have any memories of the wrestling mags put out by smaller companies? You had the Napolitano magazines which were published by the same company who made Starlog (sadly, they didnt have the same production quality as that mag), Wrestling World (which started as far back as the 50s and lasted into the 2000s, making it the longest lasting wrestling mag around), Wrestlings Main Event, and then there were the really cheap mags like Gold Belt Wrestling, Wrestling Life, Wrestling Fury, Wrestling Eye (which kind of toed the line between kayfabe and shoot) and New Wave Wrestling (same here, but by the end it was pretty much a complete shoot mag, they even had wrestlers real names). They also seemed to do a lot of interviews and features on indy guys (cheaper to get I suppose). Of course, a lot of these, especially the cheaper ones, were also full of ads for "topless wrestling" and "Foxy boxing" videos, which made the magazines just seem sleazy.
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Post by jason1980s on May 8, 2022 14:59:29 GMT -5
I was thinking of these last night. There were so many of them, I know a few names were purported to be made up in the Apter mags but he had to have had a big staff to do as much as he did.
I first saw New Wave in early 1994 and even though I don't remember too many of them coming out, these were my favorites. They had real interviews, told us the real names, had pictures and stuff for sale. They also had a non sport, pop culture magazine in 1997 or 1998. I don't think it lasted long. The only thing I remember is an article about Green Hornet and some guy with a goofy curl in his hair with the last name "O'Brian" or "O'Brien." I've wondered about that guy for years until this past month when he came up somewhere and just like that I've forgotten his first name (it was a character name).
The days of the newsstand magazine were so special. It's great getting our news ASAP and 24/7 online but nothing beats thumbing through those magazines. And years later, as an adult getting to meet Bill Apter and George Napolitano was just as awesome as meeting any of the in ring performers.
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MiLB Fan
Fry's dog Seymour
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Post by MiLB Fan on May 8, 2022 15:22:21 GMT -5
The days of the newsstand magazine were so special. It's great getting our news ASAP and 24/7 online but nothing beats thumbing through those magazines. No kidding. When my mom went grocery shopping, she would leave me by the magazine stand and I would immerse myself in the plethora of wrestling magazines available. Now, the only one I can find is Pro Wrestling Illustrated at Barnes & Noble. Wrestling’s Main Event was the first example I thought of when I saw the thread title, because it was the first wrestling magazine I read. Here’s the cover: I remember a publication called WOW (World of Wrestling) that came out in the late-90s. While the content was primarily wrestling, it had music reviews too.
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Post by jason1980s on May 8, 2022 15:26:35 GMT -5
I remember a publication called WOW (World of Wrestling) that came out in the late-90s. While the content was primarily wrestling, it had music reviews too. I remember WOW as well. It was much thicker and different looking than other magazines, also full color. It was like a high tech version. It was a Bill Apter magazine as well. I'm not sure how long it lasted but I feel like not too long. I stopped almost everything wrestling collecting in the early 2000s but I feel like I didn't see more than just a few issues. It probably cost a lot more to produce.
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fg
Unicron
Gaming
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Post by fg on May 8, 2022 17:32:47 GMT -5
The days of the newsstand magazine were so special. It's great getting our news ASAP and 24/7 online but nothing beats thumbing through those magazines. No kidding. When my mom went grocery shopping, she would leave me by the magazine stand and I would immerse myself in the plethora of wrestling magazines available. Now, the only one I can find is Pro Wrestling Illustrated at Barnes & Noble. Wrestling’s Main Event was the first example I thought of when I saw the thread title, because it was the first wrestling magazine I read. Here’s the cover: I remember a publication called WOW (World of Wrestling) that came out in the late-90s. While the content was primarily wrestling, it had music reviews too. I loved going to My Kmart store in the early 90s on a Friday night and getting the Apter mags. One of them had results of every WWE house show for the summer of 1993 spread over two pages. I thought that was cool. It was like historyofwwe.com before historyofwwe.com. I also liked how they mentioned stories of what went on behind the scenes while keeping kayfabe. I also liked how they mentioned how WWE wouldn’t do certain things like having two good guys face each other amongst other things while keeping kayfabe. Ahhh, the days b4 the Internet.
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Post by Big BosskMan on May 8, 2022 17:40:15 GMT -5
The one thing I remember about The Wrestling Eye is that it had sometimes color, sometimes black and white ads in the back of it for those apartment wrestling tapes where the competitors wore close to nothing.
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on May 9, 2022 2:34:55 GMT -5
I also read WOW when it was running. This is how I found out that there were still indies after WWF and Mick Foley's autobiography gave me the impression every single territory died in the 90s
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Post by Andee9001 on May 9, 2022 3:52:18 GMT -5
If there was ever a time i was travelling to the UK or Australia i'd always keep an eye out for Power Slam or Fighting Spirit. Both were pretty good mags. I know with Fighting Spirit they had guys like Lance Storm, Jim Cornette, Bryan Alvarez and Bill Apter among other contributors over the years it ran.
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fg
Unicron
Gaming
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Post by fg on May 9, 2022 6:38:43 GMT -5
The one thing I remember about The Wrestling Eye is that it had sometimes color, sometimes black and white ads in the back of it for those apartment wrestling tapes where the competitors wore close to nothing. I remember ads advertising things like a 47 channel converter box that I know for me would have been useless because my old cable system at the time had more than 47 channels. They also advertised a gun. Yes, I’m serious. The ad said that you have to defend yourself.
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Post by CeilingFan on May 9, 2022 9:05:32 GMT -5
I remember Wrestling Revue as a good magazine.
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Post by XaviersSS2015hair on May 9, 2022 10:50:19 GMT -5
I spent almost 45 minutes writing a long thoughtful post about wrestling magazines and what they've meant to my fandom over the last 32 years. When I pressed "create post" the site crashed and the whole thing was lost. Thanks Fan. 🤬
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tafkaga
Samurai Cop
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Post by tafkaga on May 9, 2022 11:03:35 GMT -5
When I was about 8, my aunt Shannon gave me a giant pile of Apter mags and that started my collection.
Then when I was 14 or so, I found a huge pile of WWF magazines at a flea market and I was in heaven.
I also remember spending my time in the magazine aisle at Wal-Mart, while mom did grocery shopping, perusing PWI in the mid-late 90's during the height of the Monday night wars. Good times.
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Post by James Fabiano on May 9, 2022 11:16:24 GMT -5
Good thread. My memories of "other" mags...
Wrestling's Main Event also teased adding "smark" elements from time to time. I remember them being more open about WCW's financial woes in 1993, as well as their creative decisions. Al McGinness, the "heel" writer, was more like, well, a smark writer as while he usually bashed the babyfaces, he'd give credit to ones who could wrestle (Bret Hart) and bash heels who couldn't (Adam Bomb was one of his victims). I know they had Ox Baker and Jonathan Boyd writing another heel columm in the magazine.
Favorite McGinness insults: Chump Hogan, Stink, Flex Loser, the Sheepwhackers.
Wrestling Eye: I liked the color action shots, and wasn't that the one where Hubie Marx was? (the editor in chief, who wrote under his real name, but changed it when he started managing for I forget which company) As someone said, they did some smarky stuff as well, mostly with the true identities of certain wrestlers. Here is where I learned the story of the two Demolition Smashes, for instance. And what about the adventures of the two superfans, Pinky and Punky?
So that's why there were always ads for Fangoria and Starlog in the Napolitano mags (Superstar Wrestlers, and others)! I think that was where I always saw what I mentioned elsewhere, the ad for perhaps the first replica belt I knew of, the "International Wrestling Organization" world title belts. There was also of course his specials with collections of posters and centerfolds.
New Wave Wrestling was as full-blown insider as you could get without being a newsletter. That's where I found out why Undertaker disappeared after Royal Rumble '94. As mentioned above, they gave away real names (with some hiccups...calling Haku "Lenny Hurst" and DDP "David Bacon"). I actually got a letter published in an issue where I explained all of Kevin Nash's gimmicks. Would love it if someone found that.
NWW also was like a pre-Internet eBay, as there were often ads for collectibles and VHS collections of different TV series and B-movies.
Was Wrestling World the one that Stately Wayne Manor wrote for?
WCW Magazine probably doesn't count as it was Apter too. How about the NWA/WCW Wrestling Wrap-Up?
Besides the apartment/bikini wrestling, the non-Apters would have the pen pal pages ("[X] wants to hear from fans of [Y], [Z], etc.!") And all the unofficial fan clubs.
I think the Charles Atlas ad still ran in some of them too.
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06vwgti
Hank Scorpio
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Post by 06vwgti on May 9, 2022 11:21:11 GMT -5
Is there an actual list on what fell under the Apter magazine brands? It seemed like a huge list, crazy to see there were many different wrestling magazines available in the 90s. Curious on how big the subscriber base was. Seems like everytime I've checked ebay for magazines I find out there was another magazine out there that I never heard of
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tafkaga
Samurai Cop
the Dogfather
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Post by tafkaga on May 9, 2022 11:21:36 GMT -5
Remember all the female cat-fighting ads in the Apter mags?
Then on the next page is an ad for Champions of the Galaxy sci-fi wrestling card game.
Thankfully my very religious parents just assumed that rasslin was kids programming and never opened my magazines.
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Post by James Fabiano on May 9, 2022 11:25:24 GMT -5
Remember all the female cat-fighting ads in the Apter mags? Then on the next page is an ad for Champions of the Galaxy sci-fi wrestling card game. Thankfully my very religious parents just assumed that rasslin was kids programming and never opened my magazines. Oh yeah! And they had a version of the same game for JCP too. Maybe WCCW? Shoot, I think Sports Review Wrestling had ARTICLES about catfights, not just the ads. This was like in the 70s. Since we're going back towards Apter, how about the VHS ads? The Bash '85/Lords of the Ring, but I think both were done in house by Apter. Then you had the ones for Japanese wrestling for awhile, one of which was called "Slant-Eyed Slaughter" (don't look at me, that is what it was called!) And of course the LJN figure selection seen on many Apter mags' back covers. "Haku does not come with crown as illustrated." Wasn't it a mix between LJN and some Nintendo games too?
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Post by CeilingFan on May 9, 2022 11:32:39 GMT -5
Is there an actual list on what fell under the Apter magazine brands? It seemed like a huge list, crazy to see there were many different wrestling magazines available in the 90s. Curious on how big the subscriber base was. Seems like everytime I've checked ebay for magazines I find out there was another magazine out there that I never heard of Apter Mags that I remember : Monthly - Pro Wrestling Illustrated, The Wrestler, Inside Wrestling, and Sports Review Wrestling. Quarterly : Wrestling Superstars, Wrestling 83 to 90, and Wrestling USA.
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Post by James Fabiano on May 9, 2022 11:40:20 GMT -5
Is there an actual list on what fell under the Apter magazine brands? It seemed like a huge list, crazy to see there were many different wrestling magazines available in the 90s. Curious on how big the subscriber base was. Seems like everytime I've checked ebay for magazines I find out there was another magazine out there that I never heard of Let's see....help me along here... Pro Wrestling Illustrated was their crown jewel of course. The Wrestler Inside Wrestling (these are the Big Three in the Apterverse...) Wrestling 'XX Sports Review Wrestling (home of the Kamala with Hogan's head on a spear cover) Wrestling Superstars (home of the Superstar Dream Match columns) Wrestling Bad Guys (spun off from the W'XX title) Wrestle America (which came out in the 90s and seemed more territorial. WWF, WCW, USWA and Global each got a section of the mag I think. Maybe one for other companies. Complete with their own rankings with comparisons month by month and blurbs about the wrestler) WCW Magazine (was it so until the end?) WOW Magazine (late 90s/2000s mag) Was ECW Magazine an Apter too?
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SmashTV
Dennis Stamp
Big Money, Big Prizes, I Love It!
The Excellence of Allocation
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Post by SmashTV on May 9, 2022 11:45:16 GMT -5
I loved Wrestling’s Main Event, as it spoke about backstage issues as well as reporting things in kayfabe. I had no idea what a ‘smark’ was - or even a mark, come to think of it - but it just had a different approach to the Apter mags which was always intriguing.
I once had an edition of Gold Belt wrestling too, circa 1989. I only saw this one edition though here in England, and even then wasn’t too keen on it.
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Post by Cyno on May 9, 2022 11:53:07 GMT -5
I really liked WOW back in the day. It was the first magazine I read that was more oriented to smarks instead of trying to uphold kayfabe like the first party and stuff like PWI.
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