Pro Wrestling Illustrated Scouting Reports on WTBS "Best of Championship Wrestling" (1985-1986)

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

In September of 1985, six months after Jim Crockett Promotions had taken over the wrestling slots on Superstation WTBS, they began airing taped segments during Sunday's "Best of Championship Wrestling" program called "Pro Wrestling Illustrated Scouting Report." The segments were in conjunction with Weston Publishing's "Pro Wrestling Illustrated" (PWI) magazine and were hosted by Senior Editor of PWI Bill Apter.

Bill Apter and Magnum T.A. on the set of
"Pro Wrestling Illustrated Scouting Report"

Initially the segments were all co-hosted by NWA World Champion Ric Flair. It became a running gag in those early weeks of the show that Flair would tell Apter that he (Ric) was actually the host of the segments and that Apter served as co-host at Flair's pleasure. By late October, other JCP wrestlers began co-hosting the segments (Magnum T.A., Tully Blanchard, Dusty Rhodes, and many others) and even some wrestlers outside of the promotions such as Jerry Lawler and Ted DiBiase. Apter now referred to them as his guests. Flair was would continue to be the guest most featured throughout the segment's entire run.

"Scouting Report" had been a segment on other territory wrestling TV shows at various times in the past, sometimes co-hosted by Craig Peters in addition to Apter, but this was the first time a promotion had hosted a series of segments than ran for this long of a period of time. There were 44 weekly segments in all, stretching though late August of 1986. The show ended in advance of the end of the "Best of" show which became "World Championship Wrestling Sunday Edition" in September of 1986, a live-to-tape show that would no longer feature the pre-taped "Scouting Report" segments.

"Scouting Report" usually lasted two complete show segments, with a WTBS commercial break in the middle. Apter would select 2-3 wrestlers to "scout" and his guest would provide analysis. When Flair was the guest, they usually reviewed his top contenders for the NWA title, not only in Crockett Promotions but in other territories as well. Sometimes tapes were shown of the wrestlers being "scouted", other times just photos or slides that occasionally included stats on the scouted wrestler.

Jim Crockett Promotions created a special set for the show, with "Superstars" and "The Superstation" featured in the background as well as a chroma-key screen for showing video clips. Apter would always be seated on the left, while the co-host would be seated on the right. A coffee-table would be between them, usually with an issue or two of the magazine on display, as well as occasionally the title belt held by the wrestler featured as guest or co-host.

The set was located at the Crockett Promotions main office on Briarbend Drive in Charlotte, NC. They would tape three to four episodes at a time to air over the next several weeks on "Best of Championship Wrestling." The shows were taped on the same day that they taped the local promotional inserts for the syndicated shows (Mid-Atlantic and Wide World Wrestling) at Briarbend Drive.

Listed below are all 44 installments of "Pro Wrestling Illustrated Scouting Report." There was one episode that aired on Saturday's "World Championship Wrestling", and there were a handful of episodes hosted by someone other than Bill Apter. They are notated within the list.

The list is maintained as part of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway Almanac and is permanently located at this link.

 Complete List of all Pro Wrestling Illustrated Scouting Reports
(Superstation WTBS 1985 - 1986)

as featured on the "Best of World Championship Wrestling"

Hosted by Bill Apter

	DATE	GUEST	SCOUTING REPORT / TOPICS
1	09/15/85	Ric Flair	Nikita Koloff, Carlos Colon (UWC), Magnum T.A.
2	09/22/85	Ric Flair	Billy Jack Haynes (Florida), Kerry Von Erich (World Class), Nikita Koloff
3	9/29/85	Ric Flair	Magnum T.A., Jerry Lawler (Memphis), Butch Reed (Mid-South)
4	10/06/85	Ric Flair	Bob Armstrong (Southeast/Continental), Wahoo McDaniel (Florida), Road Warrior Animal
5	10/13/85	Ric Flair	Jim Duggan (Mid-South), Terry Taylor, Dusty Rhodes
6	10/20/85	Ric Flair	Dick Murdoch, Ron Garvin, Dusty Rhodes (featured live hook-up with Rhodes)
7	10/27/85	Jerry Lawler	Bill Dundee (Memphis), Arn Anderson, Dusty Rhodes
8	11/03/85	Ivan & Nikita Koloff	Road Warriors (AWA), Wahoo McDaniel and Billy Jack Haynes (Florida), Rock & Roll Express, Don Kernodle.
9	11/10/85	Tully Blanchard	Terry Taylor, Ronnie Garvin, Magnum T.A.
10	11/17/85	Ric Flair	Ole and Arn Anderson
11	11/24/85	Ric Flair	Arn Anderson, Dusty Rhodes
12	12/01/85	Bill Apter (solo from the Omni)	NWA TV Title Tournament, Bunkhouse Stampede (Fireside), Starrcade '85 Highlights
13	12/08/85	Paul Ellering & The Road Warriors	Ivan & Nikita Koloff
14	12/15/85	Ric Flair	NWA TV Title Tournament, Starrcade match with Dusty Rhodes, Mike Ditka & The Bears, Ted Turner, Buddy Landel, Magnum T.A.
15	12/22/85	Dusty Rhodes	NWA TV Title Tournament, Ric Flair, Starrcade '85
16	12/29/85	PWI Year End Awards	Jim Cornette, Road Warriors, Ric Flair (all present to accept awards)
17	01/05/86	Magnum T.A.	Tully Blanchard, Buddy Landel, Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair
18	01/11/86 (Sat.)	Magnum T.A.	NWA TV Tournament Highlights, Arn Anderson, Bobby Jaggers (Pacific Northwest), Ted DiBiase (Mid-South), Nikita Koloff Q&A: Ronnie Garvin
19	01/19/86	Ron Garvin	Ric Flair, Q&A: Ricky & Robert
20	01/26/86	Ric Flair	Dusty Rhodes, Ole Anderson, Magnum T.A., Ron Garvin, Q&A: Magnum T.A.
21	02/02/86	Ricky & Robert (Rock & Roll Express)	Midnight Express, Q&A: Ric Flair
22	02/09/86	Baby Doll (No Bill Apter)	Dusty Rhodes, Tully Blanchard
23	02/16/86	Jim Cornette	Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup, Dusty Rhodes and Magnum T.A (America's Team), Sam Houston & Nelson Royal, Q&A: Dusty Rhodes
24	03/09/86	Ted DiBiase (originally pre-empted by Braves Baseball on 2/23/86)	Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Dr. Death Steve Williams (Mid-South), Wahoo McDaniel & Mark Youngblood, The Koloffs, Rock & Roll Express, Q&A: Jim Cornette, Stan Hansen & Bruiser Brody, Road Warriors, Ric Flair
25	03/02/86	Dusty Rhodes	Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Terry Funk history, Four Horsemen: Ole Anderson, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Ric Flair, Carlos Colon & Invader (UWC), Q&A: Ted DiBiase (Mid-South), Magnum T.A.
26	03/16/86	Bill Watts	Crockett Promotions Co-Ventures, Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup, Mid-South Wrestling, Q&A: Bill Watts
27	03/23/86	James J. Dillon	Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup, Baby Doll, Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson, Ric Flair, Q&A: J.J. Dillon
28	3/30/86	Paul Boesch	Houston Wrestling History Johnny Valentine, Wild Bill Curry
29	04/06/86	Paul Boesch	History of Team Wrestling, Jim Crockett Sr., George "Two Ton" Harris, Q&A: Bill Apter
30	04/13/86	Bob Taylor (No Bill Apter)	Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Brackets
31	4/27/86	Paul Boesch	Houston Wrestling in the 1950s
32	05/04/86	Paul Boesch	The Graham Brothers, Buddy Rogers, Killer Kowalski
33	05/11/86	Paul Boesch	Killer Kowalski
34	05/18/86	Gloria Allen (Magnum's Mom)	Wrestling News by Bill Apter: Stan Hansen (AWA), The Fabulous Ones Stan Lane and Steve Keirn (Florida), Garvin vs. Blanchard, Freebirds Sign with the UWF, plus clips of Ron Garvin, Tully Blanchard, Ric Flair, Ricky Morton, Midnight Express, and Baby Doll
35	05/25/86	Baby Doll	Magnum T.A., Tully Blanchard, Midnight Express, Q&A: Baby Doll
36	06/01/86	Ricky & Robert (Rock & Roll Express) Guest host: Bob Taylor	Ric Flair
37	06/08/86	Ricky & Robert (Rock & Roll Express) Guest host: Bob Taylor	Rock & Roll Express Super Summer Sizzler Tour The Russians, Ric Flair
38	06/15/86	Ricky & Robert (Rock & Roll Express), Ric Flair Guest host: Bob Taylor	Rock & Roll Express Super Summer Sizzler Tour Great American Bash Tour
39	06/22/86	Magnum T.A.	Nikita Koloff,  Phone Call with Bob Geigel
40	06/29/86	Ricky & Robert (Rock & Roll Express)	Rock & Roll Express Super Summer Sizzler Tour Q&A: Ricky & Robert
"Best of Championship Wrestling" on Sundays preempted the entire month of July for the Goodwill Games and Braves Baseball
41	08/03/86	Paul Jones (Joined in Progress)	Jimmy Valiant
42	08/10/86	Ron Garvin	Tully Blanchard
43	08/17/86	Ric Flair	Dusty Rhodes, Four Horsemen, Kansas City & St. Louis, 4th NWA World Title Victory
44	08/24/86	Dick Murdoch	Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes