Longtime wrestling reporter Bill Apter appeared on WrestleZone Radio to talk about his new book and working with WWE again. Here are the highlights.
On working with the WWE again:
A lot of people don’t know that a year ago they flew me down to do a pilot show at Full Sail. Kind of something that would be in the vain of Inside The Actor’s Studio. That type of thing with me interviewing legends. I did fifteen minutes with Dusty, fifteen minutes with Larry Zbyszko, with Renee Young as the other person with me and then fifteen minutes with Terry Taylor. It’s still there in Network land as a pilot show and whether it will get picked up or not I have no idea. Just the fact that Triple H, who is an old school guy in a new school world, appreciates the history and was able to mix it with what Vince McMahon wants as well. The fact that he got in touch with me and reached out to me and asked me to host this pilot show was the most amazing thing of my career to date.
On how he came up with the title of his book Is Wrestling Fixed? I Didn’t Know It Was Broken!:
You know where the title came from? Probably in the late seventies I was shooting a match between Abdullah the Butcher and Mr. Wrestling #2. After the match this kid came over to me and said, “(Southern Accent) I seen the wrastler bleed too because Abdullah cut him with a knife.” And he said, “Mr. Apter, I read your magazines and is wrastlin’ fixed?” And out of my mouth came out, “You know, I didn’t know it was broken.” His Dad who was standing next to him said, “(Southern Accent) That’s right, you can’t fix something that ain’t broken.” When ECW Press and Greg Oliver, who is the wonderful Editor for this book, I had never written a book I was a rookie at this. He helped polish and shine the whole package here. When we were trying to come up with a headline people were coming up with, you know, “Bill Apter: My Career In Wrestling.” All I could think was, “Boring!” So, I wanted a catchphrase. I didn’t know what it was. So, I remembered that and they loved it right away! Last week, depending on when you’re listening to this, which would be the third of October, at Legends of the Ring in New Jersey. I did a Q&A in front of about 75 people. I walked in the back of the room, turned, faced forward and looked at all of them and said, “I’m Bill Apter and before I start, I have a question for all of you, ‘Is wrestling fixed?’” In unison they all went, “I didn’t know it was broken!” Come on.
You can listen to the entire podcast here:
