The Ball's Rollin'

As a kid I would save what money I would get (usually a few bucks) or "find" to buy two magazines. I was obsessed with both MAD Magazine and Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI). I was all about MAD because of the East Coast "old style" of comedy and of course the art. There would be hours on the weekends that I would not pop my head out of my room because I was drawing and recreating the pages of MAD; I really liked Mort Drucker and Don Martin's work!

PWI on the other hand was a different world to me because I got the chance to read about fighters that I did not get to see on television. Remember, these were the territory days of the early 1980s and there was really no Cable TV. Locally in Los Angeles, we got the stuff from the Olympic and mostly early WWF programming. But, with PWI, I was able to imagine the craziness of Memphis, the blood and guts of Carlos Colon and Puerto Rican Wrestling and the huge crowds of Japan. PWI also covered the NWA pretty heavily then too. I was totally sucked into the "who is better Harley Race or Bob Backlund", "The WWF or NWA?"

It's sad to say that the mighty pro wrestling publishing groups do not really exist and it is hard to find PWI. But, last night I was at a newsstand and found an issue and started to thumb. It's really fun for me to cruise PWI today because I know close to 60% of the talent they cover, so its a real good feeling to see your friends being spotlighted.

Well for the first time in my career I have been looked upon as worth in the grand old publication. Last month I (along with Bob Trobich) was asked to participate in an interview and talk about what we are doing post TNA. Let me tell you what kind of a rush I got when Stu Staks (the publisher) called me and made the request. It took everything in me not to bust!

So for those of you interested in our storied organization please pick up the June 2008 issue and check out the story. Its 6 pages FULL COLOR! I appreciate what PWI did for us, they really did us a good service.

www.pwi-online.com