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Prior to the days of the world wide web, my friends and I used to buy wrestling magazines like it was a life or death situation. I used to buy every wrestling magazine I could get my hands on…Pro Wrestling Illustrated, Wrestle America, Pro Wrestling Digest, World Of Wrestling and others. Now when I go to the store to by magazines, I go and buy Stuff Magazine, Maxim Magazine, ESPN Magazine and Game Pro Magazine. Now, why don’t I buy any wrestling magazines, because I can get all the information in those magazines and a lot more faster on the internet than waiting for the monthly issues to come out.
For example, today on PWInsider alone, I found ECW/Smackdown Spoilers, Ohio Valley Wrestling TV Report, Live Report From The WWE Cyber Sunday Press Conference and much more. If I had waited for the monthly magazine, I would have found out most of the news and information, but it would have taken a month to find it out instead of a few minutes. In a world where patience is no longer a virtue, it is a lot easier to click on a few links to wrestling news than to stand next to the mail box waiting for the wrestling magazine to arrive.
In the early days of pro wrestling, the wrestling magazine was a way of life for wrestling fans who wanted to learn and discover the world of wrestling they couldn’t watch on TV. Wrestlers like Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair, Lou Thesz, Harley Race and others graced the covers of the magazines. Inside, there would be articles and pictures about recent title defenses, big time matches and everything else you can think of.
You get the same basic stuff in today’s wrestling magazines, but the fans who read the magazines now know who all the wrestlers are, know the results from all the shows and already read the news weeks ago on the internet.
The internet has obviously been the thorn in the side of the wrestling magazine for years now, with the magazines dying a slow and painful death. There are very few, if any reason to read the magazines now, unless you either work in the wrestling industry or are a truly hardcore fan of the sport.
Is there anything the wrestling magazines can do in order to keep up with the internet, with the answer being very little to nothing. The only way the wrestling magazines have a chance to be competitive with the internet is to publish and release a magazine everyday. To do something atrocious like that would cost the magazines more than they bring in, which is instant death to anything, not just magazines.
How much longer can the wrestling magazine last in today’s world of wrestling websites?
Well they have hung on for years now, even though they are rapidly becoming more obsolete with everyday passing on the calendar. However, as long as there are wrestling fans willing to put there cash into the magazines, there will always be someone to publish them for.
You can reach David Tees at thejobbersjournal@yahoo.com
