If you’ve known me long enough, you know that I’m fascinated by the history of wrestling, and I think it’s interesting to see how the whole presentation and culture behind it has evolved over time, as well as what’s worth taking inspiration from today. One area of wrestling history I find especially fascinating is the so-called Apter mags - and what I like so much about the concept of LAW Magazine is how it gives us the opportunity to bring some of this chapter in wrestling lore to LAW.
For those unfamiliar with the Apter mags, the term refers to the various wrestling magazines published by London Publishing House, of which Bill Apter was a frequent contributor (I highly recommend his book, Is Wrestling Fixed? I Didn’t Know It Was Broken! for those who are interested in this sort of thing). He was never involved with the magazines in any executive capacity - that was his boss, Stanley Weston - but he was the public face of the business, and he’s the person everyone associates with them. Some of these, like Pro Wrestling Illustrated, are still going strong today, but they reached the peak of their popularity in the 70s and 80s, and tend to be remembered from that era.
What made the Apter mags unique is that they were written in kayfabe - that is, they treated wrestling as a real sport, reported on angles as though they were real news stories, and acted as though wrestlers’ gimmicks were how they actually acted. In a way, they were an extension of wrestling storylines, and often added depth to what was going on in the ring. That being said, much of this was done independently from the bookers. The Apter mags often times made up their own storylines, including reporting on matches that never happened, making up trivia about wrestlers, and inventing fictional reporters, and sometimes these ran contrary to what the promotions wanted. All in all, I find them to be a fascinating capsule of pro wrestling history, and I think there’s something we can learn from them for LAW Magazine. Luckily, a fair amount of Apter mags have been preserved in various scans and on archive.org, and they’re definitely worth a look.
I do think LAW Magazine offers a good way to flesh out the world of LAW and build on storylines, and I would be happy to see it get more content. I believe the Apter mags offer a good jumping off point to some ideas we could bring in. To that end, I’ve gone through all the scans I could find to compile a list of recurring features in these magazines, and how I feel like they could work for LAW Magazine.
I’d like to note, while I would love to see LAW Magazine use some of these articles, I can’t possibly do it alone. If any of these concepts strike your fancy, please don’t hesitate to take it up. Especially for some of the recurring columns, it would work best if a user or a small group of users committed to managing the column and updating it on a more or less regular basis, working with the users behind whichever characters they’d like to use in order to get their input. Anyone interested in writing an article inspired by these is welcome to - consider this a free grab bag of ideas!
- Match Reviews: Probably the bread and butter of the Apter magazines was reporting on matches from different promotions around the world, and there were a number of different columns that focused on this (for example, “On The Road” was a feature that covered house shows). What was a major factor in the popularity of the Apter mags was that during the territory era (when wrestling was largely local, and most people only had ready access to their area's promotion), this was the easiest way for fans to know what was going on in other promotions, and many readers recount being introduced to outside wrestlers before they made appearances in their territory this way. While this could be used to recap LAW matches or storylines, it could also be used to write out matches that took place in in-universe promotions outside of LAW in order to flesh out a character’s career.
- Pictorials: Another major feature of the different magazines was their photographs of matches, wrestlers, and relevant other subject material. For LAW, this may be a little trickier because so much of the action takes place in written form, but a pictorial feature could be used as a way to show off commissions, or existing art of your characters’ faceclaims, like how many users already use LAW Twitter. An easy way to do this would be to have some theme for an article where plenty of suitable art would exist (eg. swimsuits, workout/gym gear, lives of wrestlers outside the ring), make an announcement to gather interest, and have interested users submit applicable pictures for their characters to be featured. Alternatively, one could roleplay out a photoshoot, as I’ve done with the Ladies of LAW calendar.
- Interviews: With wrestlers and other people in the business - it could be just a general look into their thoughts, or in the leadup to an important match or story beat. Pretty straightforward, although sometimes they had fun with it (in one instance, they - supposedly - scheduled an interview with Mankind, only for Dude Love to show up instead). Not too much different from how we already have them in LAW Magazine.
- Editorials: Like LAW Magazine, the Apter mags had several recurring reporters, not all of whom really existed. Many had regular columns where they would present their own opinions and observations on wrestling news. As these writers wrote with very different personalities, it was fun to see the different outlooks they brought to their writing and their opinions.
- Fan Mail: Pretty standard for all magazines, this would see readers writing in questions or comments on previous articles or subject material, which the editors of the magazine would then answer. On LAW, fan mail could come from in-universe fans, or from existing characters writing into the magazine. I’ve already made a thread for this here, where users are welcome to write in their own letters and their responses, or leave letters for other users to answer.
- Spotlight: Retrospectives on a specific wrestler, going over their past and some of their notable achievements. Sometimes they would ask wrestlers a number of questions, such as their favorite match, favorite move, greatest opponent, and most hated opponent.
- You Asked Us: Here, the readers would write in a different question every month for a panel of wrestlers to each answer (ex. “Should judges be employed to decide the winner of matches reaching the time limit?”). In the Apter mags, this would usually be done through the editors making up responses and attributing them to the wrestlers, but in LAW, it would be best to have the owners of each character write out their response. I can see this working if one was to set up an inbox of sorts for readers to send in questions, have people sign up characters they were interested in featuring, pick a question and the characters to answer it, and then reach out to the owner of each character being questioned to get the answers.
- Point-Counterpoint: Similar to the above, this feature would pose a question and have two wrestlers each write their thoughts on it, with one (“Point”) presenting one side of the argument, and the other (“Counterpoint”) responding to the “Point” with the opposite opinion.
- We Accuse: An opinion column that would call out a wrestler or wrestlers for behaviors that supposedly went against the code of wrestling or threatened the sport’s integrity. This was often directed against heels, but could also apply to wrestlers breaking with traditions. And there can of course be overlap between these ideas. These didn’t have to be specific events in matches; one such article focused on the use of weapons in wrestling, for instance.
- Apartment House Wrestling: One of the most iconic, and influential, features of the Apter mags, these were articles featuring photos of models in bikinis putting each other in wrestling holds on a carpeted apartment floor, framed as though recapping a match in the “erotic sport” of “apartment wrestling,” in which millionaire playboy Dave Moll would hold private wrestling matches between bikini-clad women in his or others’ apartments. Occasionally, this ran into long-running storylines with recurring characters and angles similar to what you’d see in a televised match. This was, of course, entirely made up and pretty much just an excuse to include bikini photoshoots in a wrestling magazine, but it was very popular and introduced many to the womens’ wrestling fetish community, and multiple content creators have produced art, stories, and videos inspired by these articles. I previously wrote an article to work these stories into the LAW universe, and have adapted one of their recurring characters, Cynara, to LAW. While several people, including myself, have played out apartment-style matches on LAW, it’s probably best to write these out as regular match threads in the Other Areas forum.
- Dream Match Analysis: The Apter mags would often posit dream matches between two wrestlers who hadn’t actually had a match at this point in time, analyzing who would win and why. Sometimes, they would have several editors give their opinions (which weren’t always in agreement). In LAW, I could even see this being used as a jumping off point to a match or feud if one of the wrestlers in question was unhappy with the analysis.
- X-Ray: There were actually (at least) two recurring features to bear this title. The more famous one featured a panel of veteran wrestlers giving their thoughts on an up-and-coming rookie wrestler, which I’ve already written several similar features for LAW Magazine here. But before this, the term was used for a series of articles in which a wrestler was given a chance to respond to how the magazine had written about them. I could see something like this working for LAW Magazine as well, obviously with a different name.
- Scouting Report: An article that would list short profiles of a few given wrestlers, listing what the magazine believed to be their strengths and weaknesses, any other applicable comments, and what the editors' predictions were for their future careers.
- Matt Brock’s Looking Back: A type of match review in which one of the magazines’ fictional reporters, veteran journalist Matt Brock, would recap a classic match from the past, usually with a lot of complaining about how wrestling isn’t as good as it used to be. I’ve adapted this to LAW Magazine as “Looking Back with Eiji Matsumoto” - yes, he wasn’t always a Cornette parody, but it’s hard to write an old man complaining about modern wrestling without a lot of overlap.
- Matt Brock’s Plain Speaking: Another Matt Brock column, this was mainly focused on Brock driving around to different cities while covering wrestling and giving his thoughts on each. Mostly, this consisted of him complaining about different towns, but he also detailed important events from shows that took place at each.
- Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down: A feature that would list a number of “Thumbs Ups” (notable good deeds or achievements by wrestlers or staff, usually but not always faces) and a number of “Thumbs Downs” (notable bad deeds or disappointments by wrestlers or staff, usually but not always heels).
- Names Makin’ News: A column running down new developments with a number of wrestlers or other figures in the business. Could be a way to post little details of a character’s story in the same way many users use LAW Twitter.
- One on One: This column would purport to be an unedited transcript of a recorded telephone conversation between two wrestlers, usually when they were in the middle of a feud (and thus leading to them making threats, talking each other down, and cursing each other out). This would probably be one of the easiest to replicate for LAW Magazine, as all you would need would be for the two RPers to write out the dialogue.
- Introducing…: An article spotlighting an up-and-coming wrestler or a new signee, explaining their past, their accomplishments, and usually their careers in the indies. This could be a good way to introduce new characters, as well as to help develop their backstories.
- The Inquiring Reporter: A variation on the fan mail feature, this article would pose a question that could create controversy and generate different responses, and asked fans to write in with their answers, which would then be printed in the next issue. For LAW, I could see this being done easily through posting a question and having people DM the person writing the article their answers. Some of these could even be given in-character from wrestlers or other established LAW characters.
- What They Are Saying: An article in which a number of wrestlers would each provide a paragraph giving their thoughts on anything in particular in the business - thoughts on an upcoming match or feud, goals for the future, reflections on the past, or thoughts on the wrestling lifestyle. This could probably be done in a similar feature to X-Ray, with users submitting their characters to be featured and providing the person writing the article with a quote from each. It'd probably be simpler, as they wouldn't need to research any other character.
- Know your Holds: A column in which a wrestler would describe one of their own signature or finishing moves, explaining how they do it, how it’s effective, and how it plays into their strategy.
- The Year in Wrestling: An annual article listing off some of the most important developments in the wrestling world that happened in the past year. For LAW, this could be used to recap some of the site's bigger storylines.
- Predictions: Usually a year-end feature, this would have fans write in their predictions for what would happen in wrestling in the next year.
This has been something that has been proposed for LAW at various times, but the consensus has been that bringing it to the site would not be a good idea, as on a site with multiple contributors it risks becoming a popularity contest among users, or would be difficult to keep consistent while still allowing people to run the RPs they wanted to run. I merely bring it up because someone is bound to mention it.
