Travicity
11-16-2010, 09:42 PM
Fightin’ Words
By Mike Greenblatt
The last issue of Wrestling World magazine was the October 2001 issue. I had done all I could to prevent the publication’s collapse. After issues of “Gore Galore,” “Special Blood Issue,” “The Top 20 Heavyweight Champions Of All-Time,” “Wild Women Of Wrestling” and “Special `Double-The-Action’ Tag Team Issue,” there was nothing left to go but to go all in with a “Special Babes & Blood Issue.” To that end, I somehow got permission to run a centerfold of Jessica Darlin that was both topless and bottomless with only her hands covering her parts. Full-page color pin-ups included Jessica Darlin (again), G.I. Ho and Tai (two Asian girls in bikinis all over each other), Diversity 5 (formerly The Nitro Girls), Brittney (looking ready to be beat up in a neck brace, skimpy top and panties), Lizzy Borden and Veronica Caine. Only Diversity 5 granted us an interview.
“The Blood” portion of the magazine included pin-ups of Homeless Jimmy and Supreme with disgusting pictorials of California’s XPW, Pennsylvania’s CZW, New York’s USA Pro, River City Hardcore out of San Antonio Texas, NWA Mid-South plus Canadian and Puerto Rican indies. (By now, we had been vacationing in sunny San Juan for a few years in a row and got familiar with the two federations there.)
Amazingly enough, Triple H agreed to give us an exclusive interview. He wasn’t even mentioned on the cover.
Dr. Mike Lano wrote an obituary of the recently deceased WCW. The rest of the mag had articles on K1, Puerto Rican heel Lobo by first-time writer Cary Silkin, and columns by the former WCW magazine journalist Petty Therre and my ad rep Dov Teta. I also published for the first time a wrestling cartoonist. My “Editor’s Page” had pictures of myself with Miguel Perez, Jr., the aforementioned first-time journalist Silkin and the late Victor Quinones, head of the IWA in Puerto Rico.
We had paid advertising for The Wrestling Observer, Cubic Zirconia Jewelry, Magnetic Earrings, the “Fantasy Wrestling Alliance,” Metal Maniacs magazine (which I was also the editor of), Asian Catfight Videos, “Positive Energy” Crystal Bracelets, a “Santa Claus Dollar Bill,” “Female Fight Directory,” phone sex companies and more catfight video companies. (I also stuck in a Public Service announcement for The National Arbor Day Foundation to save trees.)
When sales figures trickled in, I knew it was the end.
The next time we were in Puerto Rico, Silkin and I discussed the possibility of doing our own magazine on the island. Would the publisher of the now-defunct Wrestling World bankroll a grapplin’ mag in Spanish to service the thousands of rabid wrestling fans who flocked nightly to shows in such exotic locales as Ponce, Carolina, Aguas Buenas and other sleepy little hamlets nestled in the foothills of the Caribbean rain forest? I didn’t know but I certainly was going to find out.
As we flew home from yet another fantastic boys-club of a vacation filled with adventures in the violent Atlantic Ocean, snorkeling in the calm seas further out, gambling, dancing with the senoritas to the hot salsa bands in the lobbies of the various hotels we cruised, hiking in old San Juan down the ancient cobblestoned streets, porking up on local delights like rice’n’beans, we envisioned a wrestling magazine suited to island fans only. Hell, we had the circulation route, the know-how, the hunger and the contacts. I scheduled a meeting with my publisher within minutes of returning to work at Metal Maniacs.
ROH
By Mike Greenblatt
The last issue of Wrestling World magazine was the October 2001 issue. I had done all I could to prevent the publication’s collapse. After issues of “Gore Galore,” “Special Blood Issue,” “The Top 20 Heavyweight Champions Of All-Time,” “Wild Women Of Wrestling” and “Special `Double-The-Action’ Tag Team Issue,” there was nothing left to go but to go all in with a “Special Babes & Blood Issue.” To that end, I somehow got permission to run a centerfold of Jessica Darlin that was both topless and bottomless with only her hands covering her parts. Full-page color pin-ups included Jessica Darlin (again), G.I. Ho and Tai (two Asian girls in bikinis all over each other), Diversity 5 (formerly The Nitro Girls), Brittney (looking ready to be beat up in a neck brace, skimpy top and panties), Lizzy Borden and Veronica Caine. Only Diversity 5 granted us an interview.
“The Blood” portion of the magazine included pin-ups of Homeless Jimmy and Supreme with disgusting pictorials of California’s XPW, Pennsylvania’s CZW, New York’s USA Pro, River City Hardcore out of San Antonio Texas, NWA Mid-South plus Canadian and Puerto Rican indies. (By now, we had been vacationing in sunny San Juan for a few years in a row and got familiar with the two federations there.)
Amazingly enough, Triple H agreed to give us an exclusive interview. He wasn’t even mentioned on the cover.
Dr. Mike Lano wrote an obituary of the recently deceased WCW. The rest of the mag had articles on K1, Puerto Rican heel Lobo by first-time writer Cary Silkin, and columns by the former WCW magazine journalist Petty Therre and my ad rep Dov Teta. I also published for the first time a wrestling cartoonist. My “Editor’s Page” had pictures of myself with Miguel Perez, Jr., the aforementioned first-time journalist Silkin and the late Victor Quinones, head of the IWA in Puerto Rico.
We had paid advertising for The Wrestling Observer, Cubic Zirconia Jewelry, Magnetic Earrings, the “Fantasy Wrestling Alliance,” Metal Maniacs magazine (which I was also the editor of), Asian Catfight Videos, “Positive Energy” Crystal Bracelets, a “Santa Claus Dollar Bill,” “Female Fight Directory,” phone sex companies and more catfight video companies. (I also stuck in a Public Service announcement for The National Arbor Day Foundation to save trees.)
When sales figures trickled in, I knew it was the end.
The next time we were in Puerto Rico, Silkin and I discussed the possibility of doing our own magazine on the island. Would the publisher of the now-defunct Wrestling World bankroll a grapplin’ mag in Spanish to service the thousands of rabid wrestling fans who flocked nightly to shows in such exotic locales as Ponce, Carolina, Aguas Buenas and other sleepy little hamlets nestled in the foothills of the Caribbean rain forest? I didn’t know but I certainly was going to find out.
As we flew home from yet another fantastic boys-club of a vacation filled with adventures in the violent Atlantic Ocean, snorkeling in the calm seas further out, gambling, dancing with the senoritas to the hot salsa bands in the lobbies of the various hotels we cruised, hiking in old San Juan down the ancient cobblestoned streets, porking up on local delights like rice’n’beans, we envisioned a wrestling magazine suited to island fans only. Hell, we had the circulation route, the know-how, the hunger and the contacts. I scheduled a meeting with my publisher within minutes of returning to work at Metal Maniacs.
ROH