Magazine Memories: The SuperStar Grapevine (1977)

The SuperStar Grapevine column in "Wrestling Superstars" was always one of our favorite sections of that newsstand magazine.

And of course we believed every word of it. Who were we to question the journalistic standards of Stanley Weston and his fine group of editors?

So hear are a few classic entries worth hanging onto that appeared in that literary tome in late 1977. The titles are ours.

Nobody Does it Better
Ric Flair claims the song "Nobody Does It Better" was not inspired by James Bond, but by him. "The songwriter, Carol Sager, obviously has seen me wrestle. Who can blame the woman for becoming overcome by my brilliance?" Don't you wish you had Flair's imagination?

Move Over Mother Teresa
Wahoo McDaniel doesn't want any publicity for his many charitable works, but someone should publicly congratulate him. Wahoo is a tireless worker for the downtrodden and helpless. We're lucky to have Wahoo living in our world.

A Dish Best Served Cold
Terry Funk, back on the road to success, declares, "Harley Race cheated when he took my title. That doesn't bother me anymore. I don't want revenge. I just want to break him in two for the fun of hearing him scream."

Two Legs A Week
Feeling no remorse whatsoever for breaking Wahoo McDaniel's leg, Greg Valentine has gone on to break the leg of young rookie "Irish" Pat McKillan. "I hope to break at least two legs a week," says Valentine. "Maybe four, if I get lucky."

Originally published in May 2018 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

The NWA Champions Remembered in Japan

The Japanese magazines still do an excellent job of remembering the old NWA champs. These are images from a special section of a magazine in Japan that looked back at the history of the NWA World title and presented a special interview with Harley Race.

Originally published April 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Magazine Memories: Paul Jones vs. Terry Funk

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

This was always one of my favorite photos in the old Weston magazines, it ran in many issues over the years in stories or mentions about Paul Jones and/or Terry Funk.

What I like is the way Funk is selling. It was a familiar look for him when selling during the 70s and early 80s.

Jones is working over Funk's leg, perhaps setting him up for his trademark Indian deathlock. Funk has his arms wrapped around his head - - his right over his eyes, his left over his ear. I used to joke this was the "see no evil" method of selling. If I can't see you and and I can't hear you, then you can't hurt me.

One of the best matches on tape to see Funk sell in this way is the famous Toronto match in 1977 where he loses the NWA title to Harley Race.

It's a small thing, really, but it always stood out to me, and it did in this great photo as well.

Originally published May 2018 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway. Republished 5/30/2020, 4/14/2022.

NWA Champion Harley Race and Sylvester Stallone (1978)

This is one of or favorite images from the late 1970s in the Stanley Weston ("Apter") magazines. NWA World Heavyweight champion Harley Race stands with "Rocky" franchise star Sylvester Stallone. Sly looks like he's ready to take on the champ right then. He knows a good lookin' championship trophy when he sees one.

There are certain photos from the old wrestling magazines that have always stuck out in my mind. This is one of them.

The photo is thought to have been taken in Houston, TX in 1978.


(Originally posted in Feb. 2018 on our sister-website The Domed Globe.)

Magazine Memories: Paul Jones fights Terry Funk

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

This was always one of my favorite photos in the old Weston magazines, it ran in many issues over the years in stories or mentions about Paul Jones and/or Terry Funk.

What I like is the way Funk is selling. It was a familiar look for him when selling during the 70s and early 80s.

Jones is working over Funk's leg, perhaps setting him up for his trademark Indian deathlock. Funk has his arms wrapped around his head - - his right over his eyes, his left over his ear. I used to joke this was the "see no evil" method of selling. If I can't see you and and I can't hear you, then you can't hurt me.

One of the best matches on tape to see Funk sell in this way is the famous Toronto match in 1977 where he loses the NWA title to Harley Race.

It's a small thing, really, but it always stood out to me, and it did in this great photo as well.

 Originally published May 30, 2018 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Back in the Family: Terry Funk Brings the NWA Belt Back Home

NWA Champion Harley Race and Sylvester Stallone (1978)

This is one of or favorite images from the late 1970s in the Stanley Weston ("Apter") magazines. NWA World Heavyweight champion Harley Race stands with "Rocky" franchise star Sylvester Stallone. Sly looks like he's ready to take on the champ right then. He knows a good lookin' championship trophy when he sees one.

There are certain photos from the old wrestling magazines that have always stuck out in my mind. This is one of them.

The photo is thought to have been taken in Houston, TX in 1978.


(Originally posted in Feb. 2018 on our sister-website The Domed Globe.)

Magazine Memories: Official Ratings (1977)

RATINGS ANALYSIS
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

The Ratings section was always one of my favorite sections in the newsstand magazines. As a young teenager, I would study these closely, always happy to see my Mid-Atlantic favorites show up on these pages. I also liked breaking down the top contenders for the NWA title, and especially if the former champions were still in contention.

Look at those top four contenders to the NWA title: two former NWA World champions, Jack Brisco and Terry Funk, and two future champions, Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes. Plus former champ Dory Funk, Jr. also makes this Top 10 list at #7, as does former WWWF titleholder Pedro Morales at #10.

Dusty Rhodes is all over these ratings making four seperate appearances. He is the #1 contender for Superstar Billy Graham's WWWF Heavyweight title while also being the #4 contender for Harley Race's NWA World title, the #7 ranked tag team (with partner Dick Slater in Georgia) and the #1 most popular wrestler in the country. 

The Anderson Brothers are all over these ratings, too. Ole and Gene Anderson are the #1 ranked tag team as reigning NWA World Tag Team champions. But Lars Anderson also represents the family well as the #9 ranked contender for the NWA World title and the #5 most hated wrestler in the country.

Anderson cousin Ric Flair also makes three appearances, as the #3 contender to the NWA World title, the #5 ranked tag team (with partner Greg Valentine in the Mid-Atlantic area), and the #3 most hated wrestler in the country.

Mid-Atlantic tag teams are especially well represented in the tag team rankings holding 3 of the top 5 slots. The Anderson Brothers, wrestling in both the Georgia and the Mid-Atlantic territories, are the top ranked team. Mid-Atlantic Tag Team champs Paul Jones and Ricky Steamboat are #4, while Greg Valentine and Ric Flair fell in at #5.

Former NWA World Champion Jack Brisco also makes three appearances, ranked as #1 contender for the NWA World championship, #9 ranked tag team (with brother Jerry Brisco in Florida), and the #5 most popular wrestler in the country.

Other Mid-Atlantic stalwarts appearing in these national ratings include Paul Jones (#5 contender for the NWA title, #5 tag team with Ricky Steamboat), Wahoo McDaniel (#4 most popular wrestler), Dino Bravo (#10 most popular wrestler), Greg Valentine (#5 tag team with Ric Flair, #8 most hated wrestler), and Blackjack Mulligan (#10 most hated wrestler.)

More great "Magazine Memories" to come.

Magazine Memories: Paul Jones Battles Terry Funk

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

This was always one of my favorite photos in the old Weston magazines, it ran in many issues over the years in stories or mentions about Paul Jones and/or Terry Funk.

What I like is the way Funk is selling. It was a familiar look for him when selling during the 70s and early 80s.

Jones is working over Funk's leg, perhaps setting him up for his trademark Indian deathlock. Funk has his arms wrapped around his head - - his right over his eyes, his left over his ear. I used to joke this was the "see no evil" method of selling. If I can't see you and and I can't hear you, then you can't hurt me.

One of the best matches on tape to see Funk sell in this way is the famous Toronto match in 1977 where he loses the NWA title to Harley Race.

It's a small thing, really, but it always stood out to me, and it did in this great photo as well.

Republished on 5/30/2020

The SuperStar Grapevine

The SuperStar Grapevine column in "Wrestling Superstars" was always one of our favorite sections of that newsstand magazine.

And of course we believed every word of it. Who were we to question the journalistic standards of Stanley Weston and his fine group of editors?

So hear are a few classic entries worth hanging onto that appeared in that literary tome in late 1977. The titles are ours.

Nobody Does it Better
Ric Flair claims the song "Nobody Does It Better" was not inspired by James Bond, but by him. "The songwriter, Carol Sager, obviously has seen me wrestle. Who can blame the woman for becoming overcome by my brilliance?" Don't you wish you had Flair's imagination?

Move Over Mother Teresa
Wahoo McDaniel doesn't want any publicity for his many charitable works, but someone should publicly congratulate him. Wahoo is a tireless worker for the downtrodden and helpless. We're lucky to have Wahoo living in our world.

A Dish Best Served Cold
Terry Funk, back on the road to success, declares, "Harley Race cheated when he took my title. That doesn't bother me anymore. I don't want revenge. I just want to break him in two for the fun of hearing him scream."

Breaking Legs
Feeling no remorse whatsoever for breaking Wahoo McDaniel's leg, Greg Valentine has gone on to break the leg of young rookie "Irish" Pat McKillan. "I hope to break at least two legs a week," says Valentine. "Maybe four, if I get lucky."

Republished in May 2022 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Magazine Memories: Starrcade '85

What a great photo taken in Atlanta's Omni at Starrcade '85. It features the Atlanta crowd watching Greensboro's closed circuit broadcast featuring the legendary Johnny Weaver with the old Greensboro Coliseum logo behind him. Great memories. 32 years ago. (More on STARRCADE '85)

We also should point out one of the photographers listed for the photos that would follow in the article from Greensboro was Mid-Atlantic Gateway contributor Eddie Cheslock.

Magazine Memories: The Von Erichs model the PWI T-Shirt

Magazine Memories: U.S. Champion Roddy Piper (1983)

A few weeks back we started posting some pages from old wrestling magazines in a series we call "Magazine Memories."  This time, it's "Rowdy" Roddy Piper being featured, proudly holding above his head the United States Heavyweight Championship he won from Greg Valentine on 4/16/83 in Greensboro, NC. The photograph was taken by Eddie Cheslock, who was a regular photographer for the "Apter" wrestling magazines of that era. He shot in Richmond, Norfolk, and Greensboro, as well as many other smaller towns in between. (See another Piper photo by Cheslock, battling Ric Flair, in an earlier post in the Magazine Memories series.)

Note: Only the first page of the story is posted. You have to use your imagination to finish it out! More "Magazine Memories to come."

CLICK HERE FORALL OF OUR "MAGAZINE MEMORIES" POSTS

Magazine Memories: The Russian Bear & The Russian Nightmare

 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE MAGAZINE MEMORIES

Ric Flair and JJ Dillon Back on Top after Starrcade '87

Magazine Memories: Roddy Piper and Ric Flair

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

From time to time we will pick out a favorite single page or clipping from one of the old newsstand wrestling magazines and post it here to the Mid-Atlantic Gateway. I think most of us (old folks, anyway) remember a time when we couldn't wait for the new wrestling magazines to arrive at our local newsstand or magazine shop. For me it was a convenience store called the Garden Basket in Kingsport, TN, which I believe at one time in the late 1970s must have carried every single wrestling magazine that that was published - seemingly dozens of them!

These pages are intended, as most everything here on the Gateway is intended, to evoke memories of great times and great wrestlers in the past.

This time we feature a full-page photo taken by our friend (and Mid-Atlantic Gateway contributor) Eddie Cheslock. It features what appears to be Roddy Piper about to get thrown into a ring post by then arch-rival Ric Flair. The two battled over the U.S. title for most of 1981, until Flair won the NWA world title, and then then they fought over it as well. I loved the kayfabed stories and headlines in these magazines.

Eddie Cheslock was a regular photographer for the "Apter mags" in the early-to-mid 1980s. His posed work (wrestlers shot against the bricks backstage of the Richmond Coliseum) is very familiar to any wrestling fan who ever attend the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Legends Fanfests in Charlotte as his photos were staples on the photo tables that promoter Greg Price made available for autographs. But many don't realize the great work Eddie did taking action shots during some of the greatest bouts in Mid-Atlantic Wrestling history. These appeared in all the Weston (Apter) magazines of that era including "Inside Wrestling", "The Wrestler", "Pro Wrestling Illustrated" and many others. Some were credited (as you see above), and some were not. All of them were great shots.

Eddie primarily shot in Richmond, Hampton, Norfolk and other towns in eastern Virginia, but also occasionally shot in Greensboro, Charlotte, and other major Crockett towns. His work has also been featured prominently in my books including "Four Horsemen", "Ten Pounds of Gold", "Big Gold", and "Jim Crockett Promotions' United States Championship." That U.S. title book chronicles all the battles for Crockett's U.S. title over the years including the wild feud featured in this memorable photo by Eddie that was featured in "Inside Wrestling" magazine.

More Magazine Memories to come!