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VIP EXCLUSIVE - From PWTorch Newsletter #1000...

BBL editorial
Headline: #1000
By Wade Keller, Torch editor
Originally Published: December 1, 2007
PWTorch Newsletter #1000

As a 16 year old who rented a P.O. Box for about $12, borrowed my grandma's ancient sticky-keyed typewriter, and negotiated with a local Insty Prints on a price break for printing up 20 copies of this new newsletter, I would have never imagined I'd be standing here today writing about Pro Wrestling Torch lasting 20 years, reaching a 1,000 issue mark, selling millions of copies, and being my primary full-time occupation starting in college and lasting well into my 30s. But here I stand, just over 20 years later, making room for a fourth digit in our dateline above and trying to make sure there won't be any Y2K bugs on our subscription database by going from three to four digits in our expiration field. (Changing that field-type from “text” to “numeral” seems to have done the trick, by the way.)

Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter #1 (October 1987)

It's been quite a ride. Obviously, pro wrestling (and the world) has changed dramatically since October 1987, when WrestleMania was less than three years old, World Championship Wrestling was the name of a Saturday TV show rather than a wrestling company, you could still watch pay-per-views on closed-circuit TV at a theater near you, VCRs cost $500 and weighed more than a bowling ball, margarine was still considered more healthy than butter, Iraq was an obscure country you thought about once a year in geography class, you were considered a card-carrying environmentalist if you avoided using aerosol hair spray cans, Internet, iPod, Email, and Wii weren't words yet, Verne Gagne was still promoting the AWA (a long-running member of a Big Three along with the NWA and WWF), Shane McMahon was a senior in high school and Stephanie in junior high, Randy Orton and John Cena were in grade school, Windows were things you looked through, Mac meant Macalester College (my alma mater, so I had to slip that in there), and Ric Flair and Sting were in national cable TV main events (well, some things never change).

One amazing facet of this 1,000 issue journey is how distribution of wrestling information and communication among fans has evolved along with technology.

When Pro Wrestling Torch launched, it was one of dozens of newsletter, bulletins, and fanzines, as they were called, from various regions of the country, most often focusing on happenings in their region of the country. This newsletter's first news coverage niches were the AWA and the local indy group the PWA (starring “Lightning Kid” Sean Waltman, Jerry Lynn, and the late Larry Cameron, who's heart attack death may be the true first Domino to fall in the series of tragedies that have followed over 20 years from steroid abuse damaging and destroying people's hearts).

Early on, PWTorch also hung its hat on “The Hot News,” a precursor to “The Onion,” a weekly cover story which spoofed or parodied something ridiculous about the pro wrestling industry. Early (easy) targets included the Von Erichs, Verne Gagne, Dusty Rhodes, Jack Tunney, David McLane (of POWW and GLOW), and Hulk Hogan. Because I didn't have enough sources to break much news myself in those early months, and because I wanted PWTorch to be fun to read and more than a dry recap of news that could be found anywhere, “The Hot News” was born.

Another niche for PWTorch early on was the color snapshot (3x5 inches) of a wrestler from my photo collection taped to the cover of every issue of the newsletter. I can't remember how many photo developing shops I used over the years, but they went from costing about 30 cents each when I was having a dozen or two dozen printed in the early weeks to less than 10 cents each when nearly 1,000 issues were being printed each week a year or so later. Eventually, the Torch outgrew the photo gimmick, but to this day, longtime subscribers still come up to me say, “I go way back to when you used to tape the color photo to the cover of the newsletters.” That is an exclusive club this many years later, but some current subscribers were around back then.

The Torch began as a eight-page bi-weekly, then changed to a six-page weekly, then expanded back to eight pages, then 12, and now is usually 16. It was typed first (a lot of white-out was used in those days). Eventually, I cut and pasted strips of dot-matrix computer printouts of text onto larger sheets of paper in multiple rows which were then reduced at the printers by about 40 percent so more text fit on each shrunken page. Space was a premium - and still is, for that matter, as we're busting at the seams with 16 pages each week these days.

My first Macintosh, with its black and white screen the same size as a sheet of paper (which was relatively-speaking a monster-size screen back then, and allowed me to see a full page of layout as I worked on the Torch rather than scrolling up and down constantly), a floppy disk drive, and 8 RAM of memory was a huge step up from the IBM-clone I used and never really understood how to use (this was before Windows, even). I wish I still had that disk drive, though, as a lot of text from early issues would be retrievable today.

Seven Mac's later and four monitors later, with I don't know how much more memory and disk space, Pro Wrestling Torch continues to be distributed to a wide audience spread across the globe in literally dozens of countries. It's printed by the same local company that printed them back in the early-'90s (with a long stretch in between with another, now out-of-business printer). They've grown more than us in that time, growing from a print shop the size of a typical Starbucks to a printing facility bigger than an Office Depot.

TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES

In the early days, wrestling news spread exclusively through long-distance telephone conversations and postal mail. Each day, dozens of envelopes arrived at our P.O Box with checks and money orders for renewals, hand-written or typed match reports, and clippings from local newspapers. I'd compile the info gathered from mail and phone calls, and several days later the reports would arrive in mailboxes everywhere. To find out what happened on PPV, most people had to wait about four days. Without mainstream newspapers covering pro wrestling events, there was no way to find out other than newsletters or word of mouth.

A few years later, 900 numbers changed that. The PWTorch 900 line experienced several busy years, providing updates about 10-20 minutes in length, each and every day. Our biggest call count came after the Raw where Shawn Michaels collapsed in mid-ring on live TV. People needed to know immediately whether it was a “work or a shoot.” My 900 line report cleared that up quickly, with an added dose of insider info and analysis on what was going on. Another time the 900 line medium worked superbly was spreading news each day from my in-court coverage of the Vince McMahon trial in 1994. The Torch 900 line was literally the only way people across the country, including those in the industry not at the trial, were able to get detailed reports on daily testimony.

Eventually the 900 business faded as the Internet took off. In fact, as pro wrestling websites sprung up, they fed (or perhaps leeched) off of the 900 line reports. Website reporters would call 900 lines every day, repeat the news (often virtually word-for-word, item-for-item), not credit it, and bask in the fraudulent reputation as an insider. Some of them are still around today, finding new ways to b.s. their way through online “insider” reports.

After a few years of utilizing the new email technology, which sped up the receiving of match reports, news, and letters, PWTorch.com launched on Nov. 30, 1999. Life would never be the same for me. The job, in essence, doubled. Besides putting together a weekly newsletter, the “beast had to be fed,” as Bruce Mitchell would often say. PWTorch.com visitors got - and continue to get - a dose of about a dozen updates, editorials, and TV reports each day. PPV reporting became instant, with “virtual time” reports updated every few minutes throughout the events.

SPREADING THE WORD

The ways people have found out about the newsletter has changed dramatically over the years. At first, word of mouth, plugs on various radio shows across the country that'd have me on as a guest wrestling analyst, plugs in other wrestling newsletters and magazines, and free handouts at live events was the key. Then I embarked on paid advertising in newstand magazines, which was considered by some to be “going too far” in spreading wrestling's secrets to fans who “couldn't handle the truth” or “didn't deserve such precious info” or some other lame rationalization. Many of you are reading this because of those very ads or those I also placed in Sporting News, USA Today, and other newspapers over the years.

There were also mass mailings to various mailing lists I've obtained over the years, including twice absorbing the readership of two wrestling newsletters that folded up shop and wanted to pass its readers onto PWTorch (one was Slam Wrestling, unrelated to the Canada-based website, and the other more recently was the Wrestling Tribune). Now, growth is primarily through the Internet, as people find PWTorch.com via Google or other search engines, and then want to step up from the free content online and get all of the exclusive newsletter features - or just like the convenience in their busy lives of having a 16 page megadose of wrestling content delivered to them that they can carry around with them.

There was also stint working at KFAN radio with my own weekly radio show ('92-'94) where I had the chance to reach a whole different mainstream sports audience on a 50,000 major league sports station. It was an exciting time during my years in college to work on my public speaking skills and learn from many seasoned pros who were generous with their advice. We had some pretty big interviews on that show, including two WCW vice presidents - Kip Frey and Bill Watts - along with Paul Heyman, Jim Cornette, Jim Ross, Superstar Graham, Nick Bockwinkel, Mick Foley, and many others.

TORCH TALKS

Another PWTorch niche, perhaps to this day its top niche, is the “Torch Talk” interview series. Back in the second year of publishing, I decided to try something nobody else to that point had done - conduct insider interviews on a regular basis with wrestlers and promoters who would “break kayfabe” and talk openly about the inner workings of the industry. Now, with wrestlers writing and publishing insider books and with podcasts interviewing wrestlers at every turn, it sounds quaint to talk about how novel it was to get any wrestler to talk on record and not stay in character. But that was the world of the late-1980s.

Verne Gagne was, shall I say, tricked into interviewing with me. Dale Gagner, a current indy promoter who recently used the AWA banner and went by the name Dale Gagne, was then a public relations worker in the AWA (having previously worked as an assistant event promoter for Eddie Sharkey's PWA). He talked Verne into doing an interview with “a local young reporter.” That was true, so it wasn't really a trick, but Verne didn't really know what he was in for, and a few insider questions into the interview, he said, “Who did you say you are again? Who do you write for?” Then he said the quote that put “Torch Talks” on the map. He said Bruiser Brody, murdered a year earlier, “got what he asked for.” It made news everywhere in wrestling.

From there, Eddie Gilbert, Jim Cornette, Paul E. Dangerously, Mick Foley, and Chris Cruise gave early, insider, in-depth interviews that made Pro Wrestling Torch the go-to place for something never before seen - wrestlers talking shop on record, discussing booking and match finishes, airing their gripes with management, and talking about behind the scenes controversies. To this day, the longest insider interviews ever done with many of the biggest names of the last 25 years have been “Torch Talks,” including Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Jesse Ventura, Eric Bischoff, Paul Heyman, Bill Goldberg, Jerry Lawler, Jerry Jarrett, Vince Russo, Jim Ross, and more. None were paid, which I get asked about from time to time (although a couple had a book to promote).

”Torch Talks” expanded to DVD in the early 2000s with “The Ultimate Insiders” series featuring extended length (as in four-to-six hours) “Torch Talk” style interviews I conducted in Los Angeles with Matt & Jeff Hardy and Vince Russo & Ed Ferrara. (They were distributed nationally at Best Buy, FYI, and other retail outlets. You can still rent these via Netflix and Blockbuster online or buy a copy via the Internet or at various retail outlets.)

COLUMNISTS

PWTorch has also been known for its variety of opinions. Early on, the late Ray Whebbe (who, as he often reminded me, gave me my first phone numbers of wrestlers to begin news gathering), Mick Karch (the first humor columnist for PWTorch with his “Submission” column who was generous with his plugs for the Torch on his local TV wrestling block), and Bill Kunkel (who combined his signature art with his strong point-of-view writing to give the Torch its first of several “personality-driven” columns) highlighted our early team of columnists.

Then in September 1990 came Bruce Mitchell, the longest running wrestling columnist in Torch history by far, and to this day regarded widely as the best in the biz. He submitted an unsolicited guest column, and I invited him to become a monthly columnist thereafter. His library of columns, if published as a collection in a book, would be among the top five books ever on pro wrestling and a must-read for anyone wanting to truly see a layer deeper than almost any other writer or author ever will provide on this complex, fascinating industry.

Shortly thereafter came Mark Madden, who wrote the monthly “You May Not Like It...” column before he moved on to co-host WCW Nitro. Others have come and go over the years, including Chris Zavisa's long-running Japanese wrestling column. Jason Powell, now columnist emeritus (currently associate editor for the hugely popular Fanball.com empire) spent five years during the Monday Night War boom period as a full-time assistant editor contributing not just columns, but also excellent reporting to the Torch Newswire during some of the biggest stories of the Torch years, including the unmatched coverage of the collapse of WCW and the WWF buyout, and the rise and fall of ECW.

The current crew, consisting of Pat McNeill, James Caldwell, Sean Radican, and of course Mitchell, remains a staple of PWTorch's identity, featuring a variety of informed points of view in any given issue. I truly believe PWTorch over the years at any given time has featured the best writing crew covering pro wrestling. I believe that's more true today than ever.

You can read tons of columns, interviews, cover stories, newswires, and arena reports from over the years by visiting www.pwtorch.com/members. If you don't have a password, email us to ask how to get yours - it comes with your subscription. We have posted nearly 500 back issues from our history. We will also be putting paper copy back issue sets on sale again in the near future from what we have left in our storage, so keep an eye out for that offer in these pages soon.

THE FUTURE

This is one of those columns that, as soon as it's published, I'll think of a subject I completely forgot to write about, a person who deserved to be mentioned by name that I missed, or an anecdote that would have been perfect for this space.

I do have to thank my mom and my late grandmother for their contributions over the years. My mom, Nancy, has worked full time for PWTorch since the early 1990s (and she worked part time on nights and weekends from the start) processing subscriptions. My grandma helped with most of the mail day duties until her death from cancer nearly five years ago. To have been able to turn this into a family business and work with them over the years has been another gift of this job.

So, will there be an issue 2,000? I couldn't tell you that for sure, but if there is, it's hard to fathom that the wrestling industry and the way wrestling news is distributed could undergo as dramatic a series of changes as it has over the last 1,000 issues. But it probably will. Publishing PWTorch Newsletter (and PWTorch.com) has been a tremendously fun, intellectually stimulating, at times exhausting and exhilarating ride. Our goal has always been to have a high level of integrity to our reporting, hold wrestling promoters to reasonable standards of decency in how they treat fans and wrestlers, and weed out and expose that which hurts an industry which, at its best, provides an unmatched form of athletic theater that's been a valued part of all our lives.

I can't thank everyone enough who has been part of Pro Wrestling Torch's first 1,000 issue, be it through contributions or subscriptions. I appreciate each of you and thank you for sticking around this long or, perhaps, just joining us recently. In any case, I look forward to more years of sharing crazy experiences that this industry inevitably provides us. Hopefully the experience gained through publishing the first 1,000 issues has prepared us to cover the industry unlike anyone else as the years progress.

Keep spreading the word and keep providing us feedback, and we'll do our best to continue to deliver a unique, smart, entertaining, and fair but hard-hitting look at each week in the pro wrestling industry.

Wade Keller's BBL editorial is typically available exclusively to PWTorch VIP Members as part of the PWTorch Newsletter. The 16-page print newsletter is also published online at PWTorch.com's member's website each week featuring the VIP-exclusive Newswire, Wade Keller's cover story, Torch Talk interviews, other exclusive staff columns, Keller's VIP-exclusive PPV and TV reports with match star ratings, Wade Keller's End Notes, and more. VIP membership also includes:

-The Daily Keller Hotline and over 30 other VIP Audio Shows per month.

-Eight complete PWTorch Newsletter back issues from "Five Years Ago This Week" and "Ten Years Ago This Week" posted online for the first time ever, joining hundreds of other previously posted PWTorch Newsletter back issues dating back to the early 1990s through the early 2000s.

-Access to the PWTorch VIP Forum with daily interaction with the PWTorch staff and other well-informed PWTorch VIP members.

-Access to the PWTorch Appendix with a wide variety of reference articles and collections.

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-An ad-free version of the PWTorch.com Main Listing.

-VIP Email Express reports PPVs and TV shows by Wade Keller and VIP-exclusive Roundtables reviews PPVs and TV shows, plus occasional "Breaking News" emails for the biggest stories during the year.

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