Wrestler Annual
Spring 1984
By Adam Zimmerman
Today I wanted to take a look at this Spring 1984 issue of "Victory Sports Series" Wrestler Annual from Spring 1984.
Taking a look at the cover, it's not in terrible shape, but it's one of the most damaged covers of a wrestling mag that I own. It's a little faded and has some cosmetic damage, but that's why I rescue and "bag and board" these things to preserve them for the future. I do really like the cover photo, though - a bloodied Harley Race being helped to his feet by the ref after a hard-fought battle!
Looking at the contents page, there are some interesting articles that we're gonna take a look at. Kevin Sullivan as he tries to shatter his past "mirror image.' Jay Youngblood apparently saves Ricky Steamboat's life somehow. Harley Race's long road back to the World title since he lost it to Dusty Rhodes in 1981.The connection between a young Eddie Gilbert and Andre the Giant, and a feature about Hussein Arab, who was beginning to transition into The Iron Sheik character at the time.
First, we'll take a look at the piece about Kevin Sullivan. I'd like to mention at this time that even though this is called a "wrestler annual" from 1984. All of these articles come from years past. It's less of an annual and more of a greatest hits of articles published over the last four years or so. Some as far back as 1980. The Sullivan article we're looking at was first published in "The Wrestler" in January 1982. The article itself is an examination of Kevin Sullivan as an evil, rule-breaking heel. At the time of writing, he had recently wrestled a match against Terry Taylor in Knoxville, TN, and this particular match caused him to reflect on how much Taylor reminded Sullivan of a younger version of himself. As always with these old wrestling mags, the articles are absolutely kayfabe, and the quotes from various wrestlers are completely made up and worked into a story that makes that particular article interesting. That's the way it worked back then, though, and interesting, it is.
Next up is an article about how Jay Youngblood "saved Ricky Steamboat's life". The story isn't about him saving Steamboat's life, per se. It's more of a kayfabe origin story about how the team began. One day, Steamboat was checking his mail, and a letter arrived from Buddy Rogers. Rogers was a heel manager at the time. He was trying to recruit Steamboat and promised to make him champion. Poor Ricky was conflicted because when he saw all of the strategies, he knew they would make him champion but they were all dirty tactics. Eventually, Steamboat sought advice from his good friend, Jay Youngblood. Youngblood, being the fine, upstanding man that he was, told Ricky that if he followed these strategies, it would indeed make him a champion, but it would also cripple innocent men. Youngblood proposed that he and Steamboat should form a team instead and pursue the tag team titles. If that didn't pan out, then Steamboat would be able to do as he chose. For the record, Steamboat and Youngblood are one of my favorite tag teams. They were great together. It's a shame Jay Youngblood died so young.
Then we come to an article from December 1981 about Harley Race's long road back to the top. Race had just lost his World title to Dusty Rhodes, and he had travelled back to where he started, the St. Louis territory. He was now wrestling against preliminary wrestlers to refine his technique, practice his moves, and make his way back to the top of the ladder. Now, we come to a particularly interesting article about Eddie Gilbert and Andre the Giant. I never knew these two had ever tagged together, but apparently they did. Andre (kayfabe) called up Eddie one day because he said he needed a partner for an upcoming match. Eddie said he didn't know anyone to recommend, and Andre laughed and said, "No, I want YOU to be my partner". Eddie was so excited to team with the giant. They ended up winning the match, but Eddie was disappointed afterward because whenever Gilbert was in the slightest amount of trouble, Andre would tag in. If Andre got in trouble, he refused to tag Gilbert. Eddie Gilbert felt disrespected, as if he were a kid that Andre was trying to protect. After Eddie made some comments to reporters that were reported back to Andre, both he and Gilbert had a locker room meeting and came to terms and became friends again. Such a sweet story, am I right?
Finally, we get to the "Rankings" section. I always say, when I was a kid, this was the section of various wrestling magazines that I always paid attention to the most. Aside from the territories that I watched on television (WWF, Mid-Atlantic), I was always interested in seeing the rankings from other territories. I wasn't familiar with all of the wrestlers around the country but I liked to imagine what they looked like and what wrestling style they utilized, based on their names. Were they a brawler? Were they a scientific wrestler? I was always very curious and hoped to eventually see all of these grapplers on TV, one day.
