Congratulations, Mr. President, on beginning your second term in office today.

Now, to wrestling.

A little bit of wrestling history died this past week.

Inside Wrestling and The Wrestler will cease publication after this month's issue.

For most of us, they were the first place we ever got "news" about wrestling. Mind you, this was "news" handed to them by the promotions they were writing about. Most of the time, the news was fictionalized accounts loosely based on wrestling storylines ala soap opera magazines. But generations of parents saw their children begging them for one of these wrestling magazines every time they went to the supermarket, the drug store, or the newstand. Children would stare at the pictures for hours and hours, while reading the "stories".

These magazines, along with Pro Wrestling Illustrated, were what is known by most people as the “Apter-mags,” even though actually founded by Stanley Weston in 1966. Their symbolic namesake, Bill Apter, now with 1wrestling.com, has been a universally identifiable face around wrestling arenas for nearly 40 years as writer and photographer. When a new magazine that at least suggested a rivalry to the Weston magazines, WOW Magazine, was founded; Apter jumped, and was told he "could never come back". Amusingly enough, the website for Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazine has totally sanitized their history of any mention of Apter...and continues to do so this day.

Ownership has changed over the years, from Stanley Weston to Oscar De La Hoya to the current owners, Kappa Publishing.

With the era of newsletters such as the Wrestling Observer and the Pro Wrestling Torch that reported legitimate news in real time...then the explosion of the Internet, wrestling magazines whose press dates meant their "news" was months old didn't exactly have much appeal.

Even outside the US, wrestling magazines have been on the decline, with Weekly Pro Wrestling the only remaining major wrestling magazine in Japan, after years with many reporting legitimately on their wrestling scene. In Mexico, Box Y Lucha is still going strong. In the UK, the Fighting Spitor magazine exists.

Technology may have rendered these magazines largely obsolete, but it's still sad to see them go. It's a part of our history as fans.

To conclude, since it's the fashion to do Kickstarter campaigns, and since I've asked for many of you to attend shows where you donate to various causes, and even to Toys for Tots campaigns in Philadelphia and your local area...thought I'd ask you to do one thing, that won't cost you a penny...but will take just a second of your time.

He's a face known for years and years in Philadelphia and even central Pennsylvania wrestling - Chuck Williams, aka The Rockin Rebel. He was one of the original wrestlers (and I mean original faces) of ECW. he was intrusmental in helping various independents run shows in the eastern half of Pennsylvania throughout the last 10-15 years.

Now he'd like his chance to get a moment in the sun on TNA's Gut Check...

Can you take a minute and help him out?

Click the link here and give him a chance by casting a vote. Click the picture to the left of the TNA Gut Check logo.

Until next time....

If you have comments or questions, or if you'd like to add the AS I SEE IT column to your website, I can be reached by e-mail at the address above.

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Cube ads are available for $200 for one year, which would be placed on the main newsboard page.

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