8 Things You Learn Reading A Wrestling Magazine From 1990
8. Its Still Real To Them Dammit
The confusion over kayfabe is instantly most apparent. Right from the very first pages of the magazine, you are greeted with an abundance of mind boggling letters from fans talking about wrestling as if it was MMA and everything was 100% legit. That might seem superficially logical, but its not really because by 1990 Vince McMahon and the WWF had well and truly established that wrestling was for kids and fans of irony. It was entertainment not a legitimate sport. And that should have been plenty obvious to any wrestling fan in 1990 given the things that happened that year. Some of the more outstanding letter writers include: The guy who is mad at wrestlers for wearing masks (there is always the big danger of men who have been suspended or banned wrestling with masksit makes a mockery of the rules') The guy who was offended that an earlier edition could dare question the loyalty of Tugboat to Hulk Hogan (Tugboat has proven time and again that he will remain loyal to Hulkthat letter writing campaign he started for Hulk last spring was positively inspiring) And the guy who just really hated heels (Im tired of seeing so much cheating in the WWFits unfair that the referees always have to disqualify the good guys when its really the bad guys who cause the trouble) It is wrestling fan heaven and a surreal look into a period where the general public was still on the fence about how exactly wrestling should be categorised.
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