Whose rep was particularly boosted by the Apter mags?

[Johnny Guitar]

I read PWI in 91/92 around the time Flair was in WWF. There was no internet. There were no adults around who knew anything about pro wrestling beyond the obligatory mention of "Big Daddy". Even though I'd watched wrestling since 89/90 sort of time and had tapes going back to 85, it was all WWF, who never mentioned or acknowledged any other promotions or any wrestler's pasts.

 

So PWI basically taught me history. I had no clue about Flair's history before I read about it there. And it was around that time I stumbled on WCW TV showing at 1 a.m. With literally no other resources, the mags filled in so many blanks. Just picking up on comments made about certain guys here and there, I learned about a lot of things. WCW TV was a lot better at talking about history, so I got to know quickly, for example, that Arn Anderson was a legend in the tag ranks. When Flair came back to WCW in 93, I was watching and the mags had given me enough context to understand what a big deal he was.

 

Kids from my school who didn't read the mags and only watched WWF, even to this DAY, only know Flair from that run in 92.

 

Couple of years later, I somehow found this VHS tape in a car boot sale looking at the history of Starrcade. It was presented by Tony Schiavone and has a bit when he's in an empty studio next to a ring talking to Flair. That video was so invaluable to me at the time. I think it's easy to forget what things were like pre-internet. In terms of info, I was completely on an island. I still don't quite understand why the corner store in my town stocked PWI and other such mags, but I'm so grateful that they did.

 

 

That is very similar to me.

 

PWI was great for filling out wrestlings history. I picked up my first copy of PWI in 1988. Looking at the rankings page, that there were all these different companies blew my mind.

 

You're mention of finding WCW on late night ITV is one of my favorite childhood memories. After a year of reading about WCW, the first episode i saw was an edition of WCW Main Event that recapped GAB 1989. They showed the Flair/Funk post match, which was draw dropping in contrast to the WWF and UK wrestling that i was used to.

[The Chief]

Misawa was basically treated as a god by PWI

[Johnny Sorrow]

PWI taught me that you could run a magazine with fake writers. Liz Hunter almost getting a story from Nikita and Matt Brock being the original kayfabe memories old pain in the ass.

[BigBadMick]

I read PWI in 91/92 around the time Flair was in WWF. There was no internet. There were no adults around who knew anything about pro wrestling beyond the obligatory mention of "Big Daddy". Even though I'd watched wrestling since 89/90 sort of time and had tapes going back to 85, it was all WWF, who never mentioned or acknowledged any other promotions or any wrestler's pasts.

 

So PWI basically taught me history. I had no clue about Flair's history before I read about it there. And it was around that time I stumbled on WCW TV showing at 1 a.m. With literally no other resources, the mags filled in so many blanks. Just picking up on comments made about certain guys here and there, I learned about a lot of things. WCW TV was a lot better at talking about history, so I got to know quickly, for example, that Arn Anderson was a legend in the tag ranks. When Flair came back to WCW in 93, I was watching and the mags had given me enough context to understand what a big deal he was.

 

Kids from my school who didn't read the mags and only watched WWF, even to this DAY, only know Flair from that run in 92.

 

Couple of years later, I somehow found this VHS tape in a car boot sale looking at the history of Starrcade. It was presented by Tony Schiavone and has a bit when he's in an empty studio next to a ring talking to Flair. That video was so invaluable to me at the time. I think it's easy to forget what things were like pre-internet. In terms of info, I was completely on an island. I still don't quite understand why the corner store in my town stocked PWI and other such mags, but I'm so grateful that they did.

I was in the same island-onto-myself boat. PWI was useful, but Power Slam's predecessor Superstars of Wrestling was my key to getting a foundation.

[artDDP]

I love this thread topic. I grew up on the Apter mags, going back to the late 80s.

 

There was an older kid on my street who was into both the WWF and the NWA so he helped expose me to the product back then. He also read the Apter mags and I, having been reading the WWF publications for years prior thought the Apter mags were pretty cheap since they had so much black & white.

 

As I got older and my tastes matured a bit I enjoyed grabbing as many copies of PWI, The Wrestler, and Inside Wrestling as I could.

 

I would definitely say Sabu was made by those magazines. I thought his signing with WCW in 1995 was one of the biggest stories of the year. I didn't get to actually see ECW TV until a local station picked it up a few weeks after Nitro debuted.

 

Growing up I remember the Road Warriors, Steiners, and Sting being treated as wrestling gods. There also seemed to be a handful of indy guys who got regular press in the magazines. I think I read somewhere that you could get press if you paid for it and supplied your own photos. Maybe that was just to get a ranking in the basement of the PWI 500?

[victory]

Luger, Road Warriors and Von Erichs were the first guys that come to mind. If they weren't on the cover of a PWI then it was one of the sister publications, in what seemed like every other month.

 

Brody and Abby were more likely to be on the cover of the Napolitano mags or have a bloody color pinup in one of those types of publications.

 

Man I miss the days when I would go to the store and they would have a dozen or so wrestling mags. Every week would be different since the 80's had around 25 publications.

[gingears]

The first thing that came to mind was the ECWA Super 8 tournament. I have never really heard about it in any other context than PWI. Even in shoot interviews with former participants where the hosts have to really reach for topics to discuss, it never comes up, but the magazines always treated it as wrestling's most prestigious tournament.

[Migs]

The Rockers got a nice boost from PWI - because otherwise there was no way I would have learned of the phantom title change.

[(BP)]

Liz Hunter wasn't real?! Some things I just don't want to be smartened up about.

[goodhelmet]

Misawa was basically treated as a god by PWI

 

Well, he is a god.

[ZakkSabbath]

I'm probably outing myself as being a little younger than a lot of people here, but I definitely would not know the following names if not for PWI:

 

• Mike Quackenbush
• Reckless Youth
• PG-13
• Kevin Northcutt

The first time I ever found out of ECW's existence was actually through one of the Apter mags-- I think it was a holiday issue with Sunny on the cover.

 

Also agree 100% with gingears above on the ECWA Super 8 tournament point.

[Ricky Jackson]

The Rockers got a nice boost from PWI - because otherwise there was no way I would have learned of the phantom title change.

 

And as the Midnight Rockers in the AWA they were heavily pimped by the mags. Conversely, Rose and Somers were treated as jokes and always ranked below the Rockers in the tag team top ten even though they were the champs IIRC

[Tim Evans]

I started reading Apter mags in the late 90's when I think Apter was gone. I used to think Mr. Ooh La La, Cheetah Master, Scoot Andrews and JJ the Ring Card guy were the biggest indie wrestlers out there. I remember seeing a picture of a bloody Tommy Dreamer and thinking ECW was real. I think this was around early 97 before Barely Legal.

[goc]

I'm probably outing myself as being a little younger than a lot of people here, but I definitely would not know the following names if not for PWI:

 

• Mike Quackenbush
• Reckless Youth

I kind of was lucky enough to grow up near Richmond, Va where Tim Noel was doing his Wrestling Power show on cable access so I got to see footage of OMEGA shows, SMW stuff, and Mike Quackenbush & Reckless Youth. I was ALL IN on Quack and Youth in the late 90s man. The first time I saw a Falcon Arrow was quite the experience for me.

[goodhelmet]

goc, I am watching that footage now and I like young Quack. I can see why he stood out during the 1998-1999 time period.

[goc]

Oh man. I hadn't even thought about those guys being on the yearbook. I'll have to check out the listings for 1998 right now and 1999 when that hits and see if I remember any of that stuff. I think Quackenbush & Reckless Youth deserved the hype at the time. I don't really know how much credit they deserve for that next line of indy guys that came after them like AJ Styles, Low Ki & Bryan Danielson but it certainly feels like they kind of helped usher in a style that a new group of guys got the popularity and credit for.

[jdw]

Lex Luger got quite a few covers and was pretty heavily promoted by the Apter mags. He was the first guy who came to mind.

 

That's the first one that comes to mind. He was pushed heavy by the Apter mags when he was in Florida as the next big thing.

[jdw]

Abdullah and Mascaras are also good choices. They made Mascaras sound like the perfect wrestler and Abby sound like he would kill someone without even thinking about it.

 

We should also remember the evolution of the Apter mags while we're at it. The 70's and pre-84 stuff was a lot different than the mags that came after Hogan got the belt, both in tone and style of writing. After 1984, the opinions of the editors in their columns became much less fiction-oriented, and then you started to see more of a bias in who was good and who wasn't in their opinion. That happened rarely before 1984.

 

1984ish wasn't just a change of Hogan getting the belt and the WWF going national. It also was a change of Vince freezing out the magazines from their old ring side access and the office cooperating with the mags. Vince was launching his own mag/mags, wanting not only to make money with them, but control storyline treatment and also eliminate coverage of others promotions. A true house organ, as opposed to the old mags being a house organ for everyone.

 

So you saw companies like London stuck in a tough spot:

 

* crap access from the WWF

* the WWF competing with them and taking market share

* WWF wrestlers (specifically Hogan) still selling tons of mags

 

The WWF very literally became their enemy, with Vince perfect happy if London died off just like the AWA so he could take their business. But WWF wrestlers also drove buyers for London's mags.

 

So you had this strange dichotomy where they pushed the non-WWF rather hard while also having to use the WWF to sell mags. Flair was pushed as #1, topping their rankings for ages of months (or weeks if you got all the mags and actively tracked it). JCP was pushed hard. Lex was pushed as the Next Big Thing, with London trying to position themselves with a hit either way: if he went to JCP as a savior or went to Vince and got over huge. But they also had to put Hogan on the cover a ton, cover all his stuff, and give every reason for a potential Hogan Fan to buy the mag. They'd even cover Hogan's minor feuds like Hogan vs Adonis.

 

It's the period where I read the London mags. I was 20+ at the time, and could pretty much read all that into it at the time. It was really trippy, but kind of fun. And yeah... it was quite different from the vibe I got from reading pre-1984 London mags. You could get in the 1984-88 stuff that they didn't really like the WWF. I can't think of any promotion prior to that which had the same vibe in coverage.

[Al]

I'm probably outing myself as being a little younger than a lot of people here, but I definitely would not know the following names if not for PWI:

 

• Mike Quackenbush
• Reckless Youth
• PG-13
• Kevin Northcutt

The first time I ever found out of ECW's existence was actually through one of the Apter mags-- I think it was a holiday issue with Sunny on the cover.

 

Also agree 100% with gingears above on the ECWA Super 8 tournament point.

On this vein, Ian Rotten as well since his IWA style death matches were in driving range of PWI's offices (South NJ).

[Loss]

I'm surprised jdw didn't answer the question in the thread title by simply saying "Bill Apter".

 

Anyway, Sabu is another good choice. He was heavily featured in the 1990s. I remember a fan Q&A with Paul E. complaining about it, saying Apter wasn't out to give exposure to ECW, he was just a mark for Sabu.

[Blazer]

 

Abdullah and Mascaras are also good choices. They made Mascaras sound like the perfect wrestler and Abby sound like he would kill someone without even thinking about it.

 

We should also remember the evolution of the Apter mags while we're at it. The 70's and pre-84 stuff was a lot different than the mags that came after Hogan got the belt, both in tone and style of writing. After 1984, the opinions of the editors in their columns became much less fiction-oriented, and then you started to see more of a bias in who was good and who wasn't in their opinion. That happened rarely before 1984.

 

1984ish wasn't just a change of Hogan getting the belt and the WWF going national. It also was a change of Vince freezing out the magazines from their old ring side access and the office cooperating with the mags. Vince was launching his own mag/mags, wanting not only to make money with them, but control storyline treatment and also eliminate coverage of others promotions. A true house organ, as opposed to the old mags being a house organ for everyone.

 

So you saw companies like London stuck in a tough spot:

 

* crap access from the WWF

* the WWF competing with them and taking market share

* WWF wrestlers (specifically Hogan) still selling tons of mags

 

The WWF very literally became their enemy, with Vince perfect happy if London died off just like the AWA so he could take their business. But WWF wrestlers also drove buyers for London's mags.

 

So you had this strange dichotomy where they pushed the non-WWF rather hard while also having to use the WWF to sell mags. Flair was pushed as #1, topping their rankings for ages of months (or weeks if you got all the mags and actively tracked it). JCP was pushed hard. Lex was pushed as the Next Big Thing, with London trying to position themselves with a hit either way: if he went to JCP as a savior or went to Vince and got over huge. But they also had to put Hogan on the cover a ton, cover all his stuff, and give every reason for a potential Hogan Fan to buy the mag. They'd even cover Hogan's minor feuds like Hogan vs Adonis.

 

It's the period where I read the London mags. I was 20+ at the time, and could pretty much read all that into it at the time. It was really trippy, but kind of fun. And yeah... it was quite different from the vibe I got from reading pre-1984 London mags. You could get in the 1984-88 stuff that they didn't really like the WWF. I can't think of any promotion prior to that which had the same vibe in coverage.

 

 

I'm a bit younger than you, but my period of reading PWI was from '84 to about '90 (between 6th grade and going off to college). Once I got to college and discovered RSPW in '91 and then the Observer and the Torch, I was well past the need for PWI. That's where we differ from quite a few people here, who seemed to have been just getting into PWI as we were getting out of it.

 

During that 80s period, I noticed PWI pushed Florida and Portland fairly hard. Luger, along with Jesse Barr, Rick Rude, Jack Hart (Horowitz), Percy and the like were pushed to the moon. Billy Jack Haynes was pushed to the moon also.

 

It was a fun time indeed. I do remember going on a weekly basis to the small pharmacy/five-and-dime shop in town and buying wrestling mags and baseball cards. Those were the two things that kept me going. And indeed, there would be a dozen wrestling mags at any given time. What a wonderful time and great memories.

[goc]

Portland was boosted by the Apter mags by how much coverage they got relative to the size of the promotion. They gave a lot of coverage to Portland right up until the end.

[Matt D]

As a kid, I had no idea why PNW was in the back with its own rankings since I'd never heard of anyone there. ICW too.

[artDDP]

And yeah... it was quite different from the vibe I got from reading pre-1984 London mags. You could get in the 1984-88 stuff that they didn't really like the WWF. I can't think of any promotion prior to that which had the same vibe in coverage.

 

There was also a year or two around 1984, I think, where they ceased calling the WWF title a world championship because they said it was pretty much a regional title at that point.