Favorite Apter mag/PWI stories

[cwoy2j]

Who else used to read the Apter mags as a kid (or still do)? What were your favorite stories or ones that stood out to you? I used to love how they fleshed out the backstories to some characters. For instance, I remember a story where it was explained how Ted DiBiase became the Million Dollar Man. He got a huge inheritance and got arrogant.

 

The one story that stood out to me for its sheer ridiculousness (and awesomeness) was the one about how The Horsemen hatched their plot to have Windham impersonate Sting at Halloween Havoc 90 so that Sid could easily win the title. They created this incredible narrative about how Sting's tailor was in debt so he was easily bribed to make a pair of Sting's tights for Windham, Flair got one of his many girlfriend's to recreate Sting's face paint for Windham and about how Windham was miffed b/c the other Horsemen told him he needed to get into the gym and lose some weight to look as defined as Sting. Now that's some investigative reporting.

 

I also remember how each federation had their own "expert". WWF's expert was Tom Pilliard (probably misspelled that).

 

And Eddie Ellner apparently is a real person.

[MADCAP]

^{My favorite story was back in the 80's about a match between Bob Backlund and Magnificent Muraco.  I forget the headline, but the gist of the story was that Muraco battled Backlund to a broadway, and he called shenanigans about the actual time.  He said he had it all timed out by looking at the clock in the arena, and his plan to beat Backlund was all to take place in the last 7 minutes, but Backlund and Skaaland conspired to once again save the title.}

[Dog]

Eddie Ellner was real? My favorite "columnist," but I thought for sure he was someone's creation.

[cwoy2j]

Eddie Ellner was real? My favorite "columnist," but I thought for sure he was someone's creation.

 

Yep and get this, he's a yoga teacher now

 

http://www.layogamagazine.com/issue43/departments/eddie_ellner.htm

[PuroresuFan]

A piece they did on "Crusher" Jerry  Blackwell trying to make him more sympathetic. They wrote about how difficult his life was as a heel because people in his town would do things like refuse to fix his car or that he used 3 bars of soap in the shower because he was so large.

 

I also remember the article when Dan Shockett passed away and how I had mixed emotions as a kid because he always wrote articles favoring the rulebreakers.

 

Every time someone mentions these mags I regret not having saved any issues. I used to love walking down to the corner newsstand to pick up the new months issues.

[Hooks]

I have a ton still saved in storage somewhere. 

 

I totally remember being bummed that Dan Shocket died, even though he made a young Hooks angry with his heel loving ways.  

 

And to this day I'm still curious which columnists were real and weren't, and who was writing under more than one name, etc. 

 

Like, Matt Brock was clearly a character, but someone like Stu Saks didn't really seem colorful enough to be a "character" rather than some real guy. 

 

I remember one article, and honestly I don't remember exactly what the story was, but it was about The Road Warriors, and it was an almost like a fly on the wall thing while they were in the locker room.  And one of them supposedly got mad and threw his boot across the dressing room, shattering a mirror.  By the end of the story he had calmed down and picked up a broken piece of the mirror and was using it to look in to apply his face-paint.  I just LOVED little details like that.  It made me feel like I was reading something so in depth. 

[PuroresuFan]

I believe the actual real people were:

 

Bill Apter
Stu Saks
Chris Bernucca
Eddie Ellner
Brandi Mankiewicz
Andy Rodriguez
Dave Rosenbaum
Bob Smith
Dan Shocket

 

Matt Brock and Liz Hunter were actually Bill Apter. I remember being disappointed finding out there was never a Matt Brock almost as much as realizing wrestling was fake after seeing a match live where the job guy threw the absolute worst punches.

[Dank]

 

I also remember how each federation had their own "expert". WWF's expert was Tom Pilliard (probably misspelled that).

 

WCW's expert was "Donald Wayne".

They always consulted "Dr. Sidney M. Basil" for psychological input.

 

I believe the actual real people were:

 

Bill Apter

Stu Saks

Chris Bernucca

Eddie Ellner

Brandi Mankiewicz

Andy Rodriguez

Dave Rosenbaum

Bob Smith

Dan Shocket

 

Add Craig Peters to the list.

[MADCAP]

A piece they did on "Crusher" Jerry  Blackwell trying to make him more sympathetic. They wrote about how difficult his life was as a heel because people in his town would do things like refuse to fix his car or that he used 3 bars of soap in the shower because he was so large.

 

 

I remember that!  They had a picture of him walking down the street in a real "lonely man" scenario.   "The Lonely World of Crusher Blackwell" was I think the title of the story.

[Hooks]

 

Matt Brock and Liz Hunter were actually Bill Apter. I remember being disappointed finding out there was never a Matt Brock almost as much as realizing wrestling was fake after seeing a match live where the job guy threw the absolute worst punches.

 

Apter was pretty good at writing as a neurotic female wrestling fan. 

[PuroresuFan]

I tried to do a search on Google for it but I can't find the Dan Shocket pic from the article. I remember it was a picture of him rollerskating on the streets of New York wearing a t-shirt from Hustler because he wrote for them as well. He was tall, skinny with curly hair, beard and glasses if IIRC.

[Technico Support]

It may have been from one of the competing magazines like Wrestling Eye or the Main Event, but I remember a story about how Honky Tonk Man made a deal with the evil spirits of the Mississippi Delta in order to become so dominant in the WWF.  I guess the best explanation for such a chump holding the IC title so long was that supernatural forces had to be involved.

[Matt D]

Hey, did you guys know that Backlund was afraid of things?

[cwoy2j]

 

WCW's expert was "Donald Wayne".

They always consulted "Dr. Sidney M. Basil" for psychological input.

 

Yes! I was racking my brain trying to remember who the psychologist was. I remembered Basil something but thought it was the first name.

[cwoy2j]

Also, after Sid won the title at SurSer 96, Stu Saks wrote an article about Sid calling him to a meeting in a bar a few days before the card. Sid handed him an envelope and told him to only open it if he lost the match. Well Sid won and Saks, true to his word, burned the envelope without looking in it. However, they did some investigating and got one of Sid's confidants to speculate that Sid had signed an agreement to retire had he lost the match and that this was Sid's way of motivating himself to win the world title at any cost (i.e. smashing Lothario with the camera and hitting HBK with it).

 

Now that I think about it, that would be a great post-turn explanation for someone. The face had secretly agreed to retire had he lost so that's why he turned heel and won the match at all costs. Would've been a good explanation for Austin at WM17.

[Dank]

The story where they bugged the Horsemen's dressing room has to be up there with the all time greats.

 

Also what really sucked was after WWE took away their ringside credentials, all WWE photos were either old as hell or taken from the 3rd level.

[RIPPA]

I still remember being fucking stunned when Kostya Kennedy started writing for Sports Illustrated

 

So add him to the "real" list

[odessasteps]

My favorite story might be one about they went to Thief River Falls to interview friends and teachers about why Barry Darsow turned his back on America.

[sydneybrown]

He kinda came after the glory days, but add Joey Styles to the list of PWI reporters.  He wrote for them around 92-93.

 

PWI used to republish older stories in a magazine called Wrestling Classics and the two that stick out in my mind from those are Pampero Firpo threatening to beat the shit out of Bill Apter (with photos to back to it up) and an insane story where a female reporter (not Liz Hunter) was assigned to interview a masked wrestler named The Convict (an early Stan Frazier gimmick). She ended up following him as he switched taxis multiple times and then took a car to the middle of nowhere to some abandoned home.  She ended up ignoring all common sense and went to his home and after being startled by her presence, he allowed her to interview him rather than murder her. 

[Pete]

No love for the secret wrestling institute where they performed tests on moves and everyone had to wear masks for security purposes?

 

The Matt Brock story with disguised Lord Humongous as a honky-tonk pianist still gives me the giggles.

[cwoy2j]

I used to buy Wrestling Superstars which would always have some kind of special story (top 20 wrestlers with scores for their power, speed, ability to absorb punishment, etc, top 10 wrestlers who will rule the 90's) and a dream match where they'd take two top guys or teams (usually one from NWA/WCW and the other from WWF) and write a story about them wrestling. They did one where they did a kind of Olympic games dream match b/t WCW and WWF. They'd pair the wrestlers off in different competitions. The NWA team captained by The Road Warriors won the tug of war. There was also Jimmy Snuka leading the WWF team to victory in swimming, the Warriors winning the shot put for NWA, the West Texas State guys (Tito, Dusty, DiBiase) leading WWF to victory in flag football and the final competition was Flair beating Hogan in an obstacle course to win the whole thing for the NWA.

[odessasteps]

So ... Apartment wrestling ...

[Hagan]

Liz Hunter had a great column about how Ric Flair was a real man after he battled Fujinama. 

 

I remember when Wrestling Superstars had the All-time WWF champion tournament and the all-time NWA champion tournament and it ended up being Ric Flair vs Terry Funk in the final. Wonderful writing. 

[cwoy2j]

I think this is the one that had the WWF vs. NWA guys

 

[Mistah Na1m4rk]

One story that I remember very distinctly was an early-80s expose revealing that in the opinion of the reporter, and after extensive video analysis and pointed interviews with a select group of wrestlers, it could be revealed that Mr. Wrestling II was actually Bob Backlund working under a mask.