WWF Magazine, October 1996

One of the things I loved about wrestling mags of yore was learning about stars I’d never seen before and only knew by reading. For years I had never, ever seen an Abdullah the Butcher match, but I definitely knew who he was, what he looked like, and what type of a wrestler he was. It was even better when it was someone new to the business – seeing those first pics in a magazine was akin to getting someone’s rookie baseball card. It was fun seeing who they were breaking in and pondering where they might wind up in the future.

At least it was usually fun. Today’s article, from the fall of 1996 in the WWF, was kinda the opposite.

Entitled “From Rookies to Legends”, this was an inside look at the newest performers in the company. “These ‘superstars-to-be’ are going to run into a lot of obstacles” the article warns, sadly omitting “such as horrible gimmicks we are going to saddle them with.”

If you ever needed to know just what this era was all about, this would be the article for you. Holy crap (and I do mean CRAP), what a disastrous line up. For whatever reason, and don’t ask me because I have zero idea, the company dedicates a full two pages to the following hot newcomers: Freddie Joe Floyd, TL Hopper, Salvatore Sincere, Who, Goon, and Alex “Pug” Pourteau. Any idea what all those guys have in common?

That’s right – every single one of them has been inducted right here at WrestleCrap! I’m not sure any other article in the history of the world carries such a distinction. If you can think of any that even come close, drop ’em in the comments section below!