Inside Wrestling
Winter 1971
By Adam Zimmerman
I love collecting vintage wrestling magazines. A lot of collectors love collecting figures. Around here, Canadian Bulldog has that covered with his Wrestling Figure Database and, honestly, I enjoy figures and have more than a few but I prefer to specialize in collecting old wrestling mags. I loved them when I was a kid because it was the only way to read about certain wrestlers who wrestled in other parts of the country (or around the world) that you never actually got to see compete live. I love old wrestling mags now because it's pretty amazing that these 50+ year old relics of wrestling's past still exist. I mean, they are paper products after all. Thanks to all of yesteryear's old fans who took great care of these before I acquired them.
Today, I will look at the "Special Collector's Issue" of Inside Wrestling from Winter 1971. The original cover price was 60 cents. I have to admit; I paid a bit more than that to get my hands on this copy but it's well worth it. As opposed to later mags that had multiple cover stories - this just features two. "The Girl Wrestler Who Can Fly" and Blackjack Lanza's boast that he'll stomp Dick The Bruiser's brains out. That seems like a very serious threat from Mr. Lanza. As far as the girl wrestler who can fly goes; her name is Jane O'Brien. That doesn't ring a bell so I assume she didn't go very far in the wrestling world but hey; she made the cover of the Winter, 1971 issue of Inside Wrestling so she accomplished something.
At 53 years old; this is one of the oldest and most fragile wrestling magazines that I own. I read it once when I first purchased it because I mean, you have to, right? I keep it sealed under a dust cover and I'm re-opening and taking another look at it now for this review but this will probably be the last time it's ever unsealed again. In my lifetime at least. This baby needs to be protected.
One of the first articles we run into is a profile on a very young Kevin Sullivan (RIP). He was always a favorite of mine during the 80s and 90s. When he was a younger man, though, he had a very different style compared to the later "Gamesmaster/Taskmaster era". In this article, he is touted as a 21-year-old kid from the "hep generation" with dark hair and sideburns who's destined to be a standout later in his career. I'd say that Steven Schuman (the author of this particular article) called that right. Sullivan was truly a legend and ended up having a great mind for the business.
The next article we come across is one about Dewey Robertson and how he had formerly been a "Canadian Stringbean" yet was getting bigger and putting on more mass as of the time of printing this particular magazine. Dewey Robertson may not be a recognizable name for some fans but he later became the enigma that was known as "The Missing Link". The Missing Link managed by Gary Hart in WCCW was mesmerizing for me to watch as a child. He was one of the wrestlers that intrigued me the most back then. His autobiography (Bang Your Head: The Real Story Of The Missing Link) was also one of the first wrestler biographies I ever read and, for the record, it's quite an interesting read!
The final article we're going to take a look at today focuses on George "The Animal" Steele. When I was a child in the 80s; George Steele was a loveable, goofball sort of wrestler. He had a simple mind but a pure heart. He even once tried to save Miss Elizabeth from the abusive clutches of "Macho Man" Randy Savage. Here in 1971, though, he was a cannibalistic, monster heel. For the record, as the article eventually reveals, what spoiled George Steele's appetite for flesh in this particular match was Earl "Mr. Universe" Maynard rubbing himself down with insect spray. Now that we've all taken a look at this wrestling relic from the past; I'm going to go ahead and seal it back up for perhaps the final time.
I look forward to digging through my wrestling magazine archive again and bringing you another spotlight on a vintage wrestling mag in the near future.
