Pro Wrestling Illustrated
March 1980
By Adam Zimmerman
This time, I want to take a look at the March 1980 issue of PWI. That would make this magazine slightly older than I am. The stork dropped me off on my parents' porch in October of that year.
Taking a look at the cover stories - Bruno Sammartino humbles Greg Valentine; Ric Flair hates Buddy Rogers; the secret reason Dusty returned to the WWF is revealed; Terry Funk was apparently "crippling for money" at the time; and there's also an article about Verne Gagne, but that article is probably about as boring as his matches ever were... so perhaps we'll skip that one.
Flipping to the back cover of this mag, there's a pretty cool poster of Mr. Wrestling II (Johnny Walker). Walker had been a wrestler for a long time and was even pretty much retired by the time he took on that gimmick, being introduced as the partner to Mr. Wrestling I (Tim Woods). From what I've always heard, Johnny Walker was a nice guy and the more well-liked and well-known half of the team. From all accounts, Tim Woods was kind of a dick.
Next, let's take a look at Stu Saks' "Dressing Room Confidential" column, where he explains what Buddy Rogers has been doing during his 15-year layoff from being a former world champion until coming back to become a manager. Apparently, Rogers spent (kayfabe) years in India studying hypnosis to make the wrestlers he manages more "animalistic"! You gotta love these old wrestling magazines and the shit they came up with.
Now, we'll take a look at "The Morganstein Report" written by Gary Morganstein. One of the opinions he shares this month is the fact that he feels managers (especially heel managers like Capt. Lou Albano) should be banned from ringside.
Following this, we run across articles about how Dusty Rhodes returned to the WWF after losing his NWA title to Harley Race, and Greg Valentine being humbled by a returning Bruno Sammartino.
We then run across an "interview" with Jimmy Snuka, and with all due respect to a legend in the business, Jimmy Snuka never spoke English this coherently in his life! Even fans at the time had to have known this interview was completely made up. Jimmy Snuka's command of the English language was that he could say words in English and you'd understand what he was saying, but he never strung together any sort of sentence that made sense. Anyone who's seen any Jimmy Snuka promo knows this to be a fact.
For more kayfabe things that wrestlers aren't actually saying that PWI claims they said - we come to the "What Are They Saying" column, and finally, we get to the rankings section of the mag. That was always one of my favorite features in issues of PWI. The rankings in this particular issue are especially intriguing. Bobby Duncum is ranked #2 in the WWF rankings, and Hussein Arab (who would later be known as The Iron Sheik) is ranked at the bottom of the Top 10, even though we all know, around 4 years later, he would be the one to eventually unseat Backlund as the new champion. In the NWA rankings, Ric Flair is ranked as the #7 challenger in the NWA, ranked behind people like Manny Fernandez and Mr. Wrestling II, but Flair would go on to be THE world champion of the '80s in a lot of people's eyes.
It's always enjoyable to take a look at these vintage wrestling magazines with you guys. I look forward to the next go-round when we get to do it again. Until then...