Your memories of the Apter magazines:

[fg]

I used to buy some of them in the 1990s although my magazine of choice was WWE. Mist of these I got in the early 90s. I did find these Apter magazines to be cool. They would be more likely to tell insider information than WWE obviously lije they showed a pic of sn article from 1993 that said “Hogan to leave WWF” (predating the Internet by a few years.) I remember them saying that Vader and Bam Bam Bigelow used to team up in Japan. Another time they said that WWE wouldn’t allow fan favorites to face each other. One time they had an article on who can beat then-champ Yokozuna (a list that included rule breakers).

Another thing is when Luger became a baby face patriot, they said that he is going to replace Hogan on top of the cards. One magazine had a letter written by a fan who lost faith in Lex because he allowed Yoko to get counted out. Wow! He basically said what all of us are saying about that ending. It was DUMB that they booked that. On the same page of that article they showed a pic of Vince with the caption saying he has been calling Lex an American hero week after week. Wow!

However, they did ksyfabe articles like Yokozuna having nightmares about being locked in a casket.

Another one had an article that covered results of every WWE house show cards for the summer of 1993. It was like the historyofwwe.com before historyofwwe.com (although they didn’t cover TV tapings.)

[buckethead]

Oct 9, 2022 16:13:08 GMT -5 fg said:

Another one had an article that covered results of every WWE house show cards for the summer of 1993. It was like the historyofwwe.com before historyofwwe.com (although they didn’t cover TV tapings.)

The 80s issues had this feature as well. My cousins and I would drool reading the results of matches we'd never get to see.

Unfortunately it didn't take long to detect the pattern in the NWA results..most of the matches were never clean wins...either DQ, countout, or draw.


I'd love to have one final look at all those magazines before I die. I had so many issues of the various mags from 85 to 89.

[jason1980s]

I bought them from around 1993 to late 1990s. As a kid I probably looked at the pictures and didn't read the stories but if I get one now I'll read the stories more.

As a kid my favorite thing was looking at the late 80s, early 90s with ads for Wrestling Ring and the LJN toys. I would have seen them around 1993-1994. Wrestling Ring, the company in Millford Mill is about 15 minutes from me. I'm not sure why I never asked my family to take me there though it was probably out of business by then.

[XIII]

I wish that I still had them, I remember that they would always do a profile of a rising star. With a write up about them and some facts and they would be cool to read now.
I remember a Terra Ryzing one for sure.

Also fun to look back at the results from all over that people would send in. I remember thinking that Sexton Hardcastle was the coolest name ever. lol. Him Christian Cage and Rhino were all over the Canadian results.

The Japan roundup was one of my first introductions to Puro and I remember reading things about how Mr. Onita stabbed the Sheik and set him on fire. lol

[MiLB Fan]

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. This was my first issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated:



I remember the PWI Almanac—when the Internet was in its infancy, this little paperback book was a great resource for PPV results and other historical information.

If you read PWI’s Year in Review issue, you’re probably familiar with the fan-submitted Unofficial Awards. Well, the magazine published some that I sent in! Seeing my name in a magazine I had been reading for years was a nice ego boost.

[thegatewaydrug]

[buckethead]

This was my all time favorite wrestling magazine cover. I'll never forget the excitement when I saw it on the stands at 7/11...







Edit


Just found my second favorite issue...

[buckethead]

I'm pretty sure this was the last wrestling magazine I ever bought....








Edit

Funny how when you do something for the last time, you have no idea at the time that you'll never do it again.

I bought that at Save Mart after school. I had time to kill, went there to read some magazines and buy ice cream, read a couple and then grabbed this one to take home.

[buckethead]

I was scrolling through various PWI magazine covers and saw this oldie but a goodie...






How did this issue not become some sort of holy grail and have an insane value decades later?

It's not just the picture...it's the headline.

Chris taking the Von Erichs into the 21st century...yet within 8 years everyone on the cover except Kevin is dead.

I'm pretty sure this is also the final issue with all the Von Erichs on the cover.

[James Fabiano]

Harry Simon getting letters published where he proclaimed Adam Bomb and Typhoon as the best wrestlers at the time.

The article that explained how the Horsemen were able to get Barry Windham across as a fake Sting.

The column that explained Terry Taylor's nervous breakdown being the Red Rooster, including telling McDonald's customers to leave mommy and daddy alone.

The PWI Year In Review issues. Especially Unofficial Official Awards and later the Top 10s (THE BARBARIAN, A WORLD TITLE CONTENDER?)

[nickcave]

I liked that they were all in kayfabe, it would help add dimensions to angles

[MiLB Fan]

Oct 11, 2022 13:03:02 GMT -5 nickcave said:

I liked that they were all in kayfabe, it would help add dimensions to angles

For the most part yes, but not always. During the Monday Night War, PWI started a section called The Business Page, where it published ratings and some happenings outside the ring. In its scathing review of Uncensored ‘95, Wrestling’s Bad Guys revealed that the King of the Road match had been pretaped and edited. With the Internet just starting to become available then, I think it’s safe to say that most fans didn’t know that unless a newsletter published it.

[eudypfohl]

I was a big Mr. Perfect fan and after he vanished from the WWF landscape again after his WM X ref gig where he screwed over Luger (supposed to lead to a feud) I remember buying one that teased an interview with him. Seem to recall him saying that he was training his brother Jesse Hennig but I don't remember much after that. Believe all those interviews were faked anyway

[Jindrak Mark]

I remember getting World of Wrestling magazine sometime around 2000/2001 and loving it. I was a kid at the time and not up to date on behind the scenes stuff so it opened up a whole new world for me seeing these out of character interviews and stuff, which I think was different from Apter's earlier stuff which mostly stuck to kayfabe.

[Terry McConkey]

I have a whole stack of classic 80s wrestling magazines in storage. I have to take pictures of them soon and upload. I also read a ton of Apter magazines in the 90s but most of them were thrown away or recycled. I did keep some that I thought would be worth something but not sure if I finally tossed them or not. Mainly WOW and a few PWI 500 issues.

[GodzillaIsMyMonster]

I'm actually subscribed to the Digital version of PWI. I still enjoy reading them

[Squirrel Master]

I bought them for $1.75 in the NYC subway newstands.

I had all of the issues seen in this thread.

[SmashTV]

I got this monthly from early 1990 to mid 1997, with some of the other titles like The Wrestler or Inside Wrestling. I always felt like I was getting insider knowledge that my friends wouldn’t have, and looked forward to the analysis, match results, profiles and opinions.

I still remember the disappointment I felt when, years after I’d stopped reading, I found out that Matt Brock wasn’t real.

[Viking Hall]

I was obsessed with WOW Magazine in the late nineties/early noughties. Especially in the UK at the time it was hard to find information on what was going on outside of WWF and WCW and these mags introduced me to Indie wrestling, the latest happenings in ECW and the fact that there was a British wrestling scene outside of knock off seafront WWF shows.

They did also make me think that XPW was a bigger deal than it was and that Homeless Jimmy was going to be the new Mick Foley, so you know... not all good.

[Citizen Snips Has Left]

Going into 7-11 or CVS and seeing the new issue was a definite childhood highlight.