Table of contents for October 2019 in Pro Wrestling Illustrated

PEOPLE STILL WONDER if Stu Saks is real, and I suppose I can understand why. Throughout the long history of our publishing company, we’ve sprinkled in a few writers who, candidly, did not exist. If you do an online search, there has been quite a bit of speculation over which of our writers are real and which are not. That’s okay. This is wrestling after all. Speculation has been and always will be a vital part of the fan experience. I’ve already come clean about Matt Brock, Liz Hunter, and even Dr. Sydney M. Basil. Until Eddie Ellner agrees to do our podcast, I refuse to send people to yogasoup.com to advertise his yoga studio or show people the front page of the New York Daily News that reported on…

BRIAN CAGE’S CHAMPIONSHIP journey was almost over soon after it started. After months of pursuing the Impact heavyweight title, Cage finally received his long-anticipated championship match when he faced Johnny Impact on April 28 at the Rebellion pay-per-view in Toronto. The physical back-and-forth contest took a dangerous turn just three minutes into the match when Impact delivered a Spanish Fly to Cage from off the top of the ramp to the floor. It was obvious Cage was in severe pain after hitting the ground. Despite that, Cage insists, there was nothing that was going to keep him from getting through the match, defeating Impact, and taking his rightful place in Impact Wrestling history. Cage did just that about 10 minutes later when he connected with the Drill Claw on…

In 1979, the owner of our company, Stanley Weston, was approached by a prominent national magazine distributor, asking him if he’d consider signing a contract to allow them to service his line of wrestling and boxing magazines. Mr. Weston was impressed by the company’s presentation, but being a fiercely loyal man, he was not about to sever relations with the distributor he’d been with for many years. Still, he was a businessman, and he saw some benefit to having two distributors battling for his affections. Mr. Weston already had plenty of magazines in his stable, but he decided to add a couple more, specifically for this new distributor. Thus the birth of KO boxing magazine (now defunct) and a wrestling title that continues to thrive to this day. Join us…

Top 10 and Tag Team ratings are based on won-lost records for the past month, quality of opposition, and inherent skill of each wrestler or tag team. These ratings are compiled by a committee consisting of Stu Saks, Dan Murphy, Kris Zellner, Brian Yoder, Louie Dee, and STRIGGA (cagematch.net, purolove.com). The numbers in parentheses indicate a wrestler’s position in that category last issue. Agate-sized ratings are supplied to PWI by promoters and can be e-mailed to us at pwiresults@yahoo.com (please put the word “ratings” in the subject line).  FOR PERIOD ENDED JUNE 10, 2019 TOP 10 1 SETH ROLLINS 217, Davenport, IA (1) WWE Universal champion 2 KOFI KINGSTON 212, Ghana, West Africa (3) WWE heavyweight champion 3 KAZUCHIKA OKADA 236, Tokyo, Japan (2) IWGP heavyweight champion 4 MATT TAVEN 219, Boston, MA…

Upfront and personal… All Elite Wrestling is WWE’s most potent competitor in nearly 20 years—a viable sports-oriented alternative. Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes and lead announcer Jim Ross effectively conveyed that message in interviews with Variety to promote AEW’s inclusion in WarnerMedia’s Upfront presentation at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. “For many years throughout my youth and plenty of other fans’ youths, pro wrestling has been essentially just one company and that’s not really the case,” Rhodes told Variety. “I want to be the sports-centric alternative in the pro wrestling world.” Regarding his long career in WWE, Rhodes said, “As much as I say it was a wonderful job, it wasn’t wrestling. That’s something I’ve learned a lot about, the grittiness and the sports-centric element…

KOFI KINGSTON’S 2019 started off as most other recent years—by avoiding near-certain elimination from the Royal Rumble match in spectacular fashion, only to be eliminated minutes later. But what did you expect? It’s not as if Kofi could ever actually challenge for a world title at WrestleMania. For all his charisma and athleticism, after 11 years in WWE, fans had come to accept Kingston as little more than a utility player. As one-third of the popular New Day, he was getting plenty of TV time, and had picked up several tag team and secondary singles titles. But the sun had long set on any prospects of Kingston making it to the very top of the sport. But never underestimate “the power of positivity.” After a series of events that Kingston…

THE VELVETEEN DREAM is the most talked-about superstar in NXT, and conventional wisdom says he will follow former arch-rivals Ricochet and Aleister Black to WWE’s main rosters of Raw and Smackdown. His recent capture of the North American championship from Johnny Gargano makes it a near-certainty. But nothing else about Velveteen Dream is conventional or certain. An enigmatic mystique surrounds him like a velvet fog. And he makes for an unusual interview. Some wrestlers portray characters, and, even if these wrestlers attempt to stay in character, they’ll often lapse into real human beings by commenting on the weather, cracking a joke, or offering a phone number or address. Other wrestlers have strong personalities and seem to be the same person in the ring or on the phone. Steve Austin is…

WINNERS & LOSERS You can say what you will about New Japan and All Elite, but in this country at this time, WrestleMania is the card that tells today’s most important story and shapes the future of what’s to come in the sport’s top company. “The real loser of the match between Kurt Angle and Baron Corbin was Vince Mc-Mahon,” wrote Bob Steadman after reading our annual “Real Winners & Losers” section in the August 2019 edition. “How can Vince disrespect Kurt and the fans by allowing him to lose to Baron Corbin? Dumb.” On the other hand … “I name Vince McMahon the real winner of the Rousey-Charlotte-Becky match,” opined Laura O’Leary. “Lynch’s non-pin of Rousey sets up a rematch, if and when Ronda decides to come back.” “The…