Eric’s Show And Tell With His Wrestling Magazine Collection

If you know anything at all about my personality, you know that I have three loves...My family, country music, and wrestling (honorable mentions going to UK sports, karaoke, and Tennessee Titans football).  Today, I'd like to focus on the centerpiece of my vast ammount of wrestling knowledge and passion: my collection of wrestling magazines and other memorabilia.

I could go through much of my attic and find great pieces of my childhood including great toys from the bygone days of wrestling.  Heck, I did that just two short years ago while mourning the passing of wrestling great, Randy 'Macho Man' Savage.

But for this special 'Show and Tell,' I decided to grab the one thing my wife keeps telling me to get out of the garage.  It's big and heavy, and full of pro wrestling knowlege, not just from WWE (or WWF, blast you panda huggers), but also now defunct organizations like WCW, AWA, USWA, WCCW and more!  Where might you find this vast wealth of info?  Of course, in THE BOX!

In this box you'll find stacks of wrestling magazines from years gone by.  With titles like Pro Wrestling Illustrated, The Wrestler, Wrestling Revue, WOW, WWF Magazine, RAW Magazine and more, you'll find probably over 250 magazines that I've collected over time.

As you might notice, some are quite old, like this one from 1981, the year I was born.

Then there's this one from 1983 that questions whether this youngster, 'The Incredible' Hulk Hogan can become the world champion.

I think he did OK in his career.

Now, I wasn't reading these things when I was a mere tot.  The back issues were bought as a gift to me somewhere around Christmas when I was about 8.  That's when I began to dig back through the years and learn more about wrestling's storied history.  All the while, I collected the current issues at the time, and looks like that died off about 2008 or so (darn internet).

Not only does the box contain these cherished publications, but it also has something that might risk me being labeled as a hoarder, but here we go anyway.

Yeah, those are the backs of packages that once contained wrestling action figures.  If I had really been brave and searched the depths of my attic, I could have found the well-worn figures as well.  Sure they're not mint condition, but no one can resist taking out some serious aggression on a vintage 1989 Honky Tonk Man figure with a 90-91 series, Ric Flair figure.  C'mon, you know that's a joke.  The WWF LJN rubber figures were about twice the size of the WCW Galloob plastic figures, not to mention, Flair and HTM were both bad guys! (Sorry, more dork coming out).

Finally, I've kept a few programs from events I have attended, like this one from just a couple years ago at the Evansville Coliseum, featuring the 35 year feud coming to a head between Jerry 'The King' Lawler and Bill 'Superstar Dundee. This was the big match, I was lucky enough to be the ring announcer for.  Huge moment for me!

Then, I found this one from 1993.  This was a card I attended at The Louisville Gardens, sitting in the second row to watch Bret 'Hitman' Hart battle Lex Luger, and lo and behold 'The King' himself even wrestled on that card and picked up a win over Papa Shango by disqualification (I know that, because I kept great stats with a pencil right on the sheet).

At 12 years old, I never would have guessed I'd ever be in the same ring with greatness like that.

Getting this big box out always makes me want to read the old issues.  Seems I learn something new every time.  And maybe you think I'm a dork for owning it or caring about it, but that's OK.  You have something that makes you equally weird.