Stu Saks Says Goodbye To PWI

Stu Saks is a real person.

That may surprise longtime readers of Pro Wrestling Illustrated under the impression the staff is comprised of Matt Brock, Liz Hunter and other fictitious characters. But rest assured, PWI’s longtime editor and publisher is made of flesh and blood. And modesty.

Saks and a couple staffers were invited to participate in 80’s Wrestling Con last year, revealing the three greatest covers from the magazine’s golden years. “People would come over and chat and after five minutes of speaking with Stu, they’d ask his last name,” recalls Al Castle, senior writer and co-host of The PWI Podcast. “They’d be blown away. ‘Wait, you’re Stu Saks?’ He has this mythic persona.”

It’s rare for an influential figure to keep such a low profile in the pro wrestling industry. After all, it’s show business – everybody wants to be a star. PWI already had its star, though. Bill Apter worked for London Publishing for nearly a decade before Saks joined. A skilled photographer and a true mensch, Apter traveled to the matches, infiltrating the highly guarded locker room with his disarming smile, Jerry Lewis shtick and overflowing respect for the performers. Establishing relationships with industry members and building a rapport with fans, Apter became the personality of the magazines. His influence so monumental that PWI and its sister publications became widely known as the “Apter Mags.”

Meanwhile, Saks avoided the spotlight, staying at the office to ensure his team put out the best product possible. He’s weathered changing ownership, various offices, a rotating cast of contributors and a seismic shift in the magazine’s direction. As the wrestling landscape evolved from the dying days of the territories to the Monday Night War to the McMahonopoly to AEW’s emergence, fans have always been able to rely on one constant – flipping the cover over and reading Saks’ “From The Desk Of…” column. Even during the digital age, he has managed to keep PWI on the shrinking magazine rack.

Only recently has Saks received a taste of the adulation he deserves. In March, about a week before the United States shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, he took to Twitter to announce his retirement, effective June 6, 2020. An outpouring of love instantly followed as wrestlers, readers and fellow media thanked him for his tireless dedication to the craft and for shaping their fandom.

“Apter was the face of PWI, but Stu has been the heart, brain and muscle for 40 years,” Castle says.

Journalist by Trade

A Long Island native, Saks grew up in Plainview – MJF’s hometown. Although they don’t share the same level of humility, they’re equally ambitious with a work ethic noticeable from a young age.

When Saks was 14 years old, he and his friend Mitchel Brown were such avid wrestling fans that they wanted to start their own newsletter. However, Brown’s dad was soon transferred to Hong Kong, taking his family with him. Saks decided to go it alone with the newsletter, providing straightforward coverage of matches from Madison Square Garden. The inaugural issue of “Wrestling Results” contained his report of Ivan Koloff ending Bruno Sammartino’s historic WWWF World Heavyweight Championship reign on January 18, 1971. Saks sent the newsletter to fan club editors of the national wrestling magazines, hoping they’d give him a plug. One of those editors just happened to be his future colleague and dear friend.

“I remember getting letters from Stu Saks when I wrote the magazine,” Apter says. “I’ve never forgotten writing him a letter, which I think he still has, telling him how good his newsletter was.”

Over time, Saks gathered correspondents from around the country (Dave Meltzer reported on the Bay Area) and even had Brown report on the TV matches from Australia that were broadcast in Hong Kong. He also dug into the history of wrestling, going to the public library and running through microfilm just to see results from the 1950s.

He gave up the newsletter when he started at State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he joined the college newspaper, The Statesman, and quickly became sports editor. The managing editor was Michael B. Kape and the news editor was Jonathan D. Salant, current Washington correspondent for NJ Advance Media. Salant was also a part-time sportswriter for Newsday, as was future critically acclaimed playwright and novelist Gary Morgenstein. Through Salant, Saks was able to get an interview with Newsday and landed a part-time position, primarily covering high school sports.

In his junior year, he became editor-in-chief of The Statesman. By then, Kape and Morgenstein had become editors at New York-based London Publishing. When Kape left, Morgenstein arranged for Saks to be interviewed by Peter King, editor-in-chief at the time. After passing a writing and editing test, he was offered the position.

Unfathomable to journalists today, Saks turned it down. Instead of juggling a full-time job while trying to finish school, he focused on his classes and hoped he’d find a gig afterward. Another opening arose less than a year later, and he declined again!

Destined for the position, Saks was offered a third time after future chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission Randy Gordon jumped to London Publishing’s boxing rival, The Ring. He accepted and started in July 1979, one month after graduating.

“I didn’t expect to be here for even two years,” Saks says. “I had kind of fallen out of wrestling and wanted to be a sports reporter for a newspaper. But it was a great environment and creative atmosphere. We were all just out of college and having fun, working a 9-5 with weekends and holidays off. Why would I want to leave?”

Caesar’s Writers

By the time Saks joined, two issues of PWI had been published.

It wasn’t yet the flagship of Stanley Weston’s wrestling magazines, but it represented a different style. Whereas The Wrestler and Inside Wrestling were tabloids, PWI was classier and tasteful in the vein of Sports Illustrated. With his expertise, Saks was the perfect fit to help carry out Weston’s vision.

“Stu always referred to wrestling as a sport,” says Craig Peters, who worked at PWI from 1981 to 1996. “He said the business will respect us for that and our readers will respect us for that. When big issues in wrestling started to leak into mainstream news, like Dr. D and John Stossel or the deaths of a Von Erich or Bruiser Brody, Stu was excellent in terms of bringing the proper perspective to how we ought to be covering that in the magazine. He found the proper balance of keeping kayfabe while acknowledging real-life events.”

Back then, everybody who was hired came in as an editor. Saks’ title was associate editor and his duties included proofreading stories, writing photo captions and penning a column (and maybe a story) for each issue. Then a well-kept secret, PWI’s stories were often concocted rather than reported, decades before “fake news” became a battle cry. There was an obligation to maintain kayfabe – the industry hadn’t yanked down the curtain yet. As long as the magazines adhered to the storylines on TV, wrestlers and promoters usually didn’t mind what was written. Most of them were grateful for the national exposure.

“We were given liberty by the business to write stories about the wrestlers in character,” Saks says. “If we called WWE up and asked to do a story on John Cena, it would be a complete waste of time to ask him to speak in character about whatever storyline was happening. So, we fabricated quotes to enhance those stories.”

Here’s a glimpse into the editorial process:

Every Friday afternoon, Saks would yell “headlines” and the staff would gather to discuss the next issue’s content. Apter would pull out a half dozen folders with photos from the latest matches. Then, everybody would brainstorm headlines that could relate to the photos. After a headline was approved, that writer would summarize the story in a 50-word blurb and then flesh it out to 1,000 words.

“The further back you go, the more outrageous the stories get,” Peters says. “If you’re having fun writing the story, the reader is going to have fun reading it. It reminds me of the writers’ room for Sid Caesar’s Show of Shows. The creativity and electricity in that room, bouncing ideas off each other, this unity of purpose. We were like players in a good rock band, we could just look at each other and know where the other was going.”

A staple of PWI was the heel columnist, a role conceived by Dan Shocket. The cigar-smoking champion of the avant-garde antagonized readers, trashed heroes and celebrated villains. A freelancer who also wrote for Screw, an old weekly porn tabloid aimed at heterosexual men, Shocket would come into the office once a week, pound out three stories and then go home. Diagnosed with cancer, he worked from home while undergoing chemotherapy. “I went to his house to deliver some stories and told him a secret that I’d been dating someone from the art department,” Saks recalls. “Unbeknownst to anyone else on staff, we got engaged before telling anyone we were dating. He just said, ‘Well done, sir.’ (Saks has been married to that same gal for 36 years.)

After Shocket passed away at just 35 years old, Eddie Ellner took up the heel columnist mantle. A free spirit who today owns the Yoga Soup studio in Santa Barbara, CA, Ellner was every bit as good as Shocket in the role, Saks says. “He was an excellent athlete and would play racket ball with the boxing magazine editor during lunch. One day, Eddie dropped a piece of paper at my desk with the final score of the game before it even happened,” Saks laughs.

And then came Brandi Mankiewicz, the first woman to work full-time at PWI. Idolizing Gino Hernandez, she was a natural to fill the heel columnist role, claiming to be readers’ queen and champion. “We didn’t have to watch our language around her because she was worse than any of us,” Saks says. “She was a really good writer and really tough editor. We had so much product at the time and she was the last proofreader on everything, even for the art department. A real sticker, she made them redo something quite a few times.”

Even after the era of kayfabe had passed, PWI still fostered that outside-the-box sensibility. For example, senior writer Harry Burkett’s favorite story was a Shakespeare poem about Spike Dudley and Molly Holly’s romance in 2001. Hamlet Burkett (according to his byline) says he whizzed through the piece in an hour, coming up with lines like “Upon the sound of the breaking glass/Kurt Angle knew he’d been handed his ass.”

“I’ve learned to never be afraid to mention an idea to Stu,” Burkett says. “He’s always looking for an original spin on something.”

PWI’s willingness to push the boundaries influenced Colin Hunter, founder of Kayfabe News – pro wrestling’s version of The Onion. Under the pseudonym of C.F. Hunter, lest his newspaper bosses find out he was moonlighting for wrestling magazines, he penned a few dozen articles for Saks in the 2000s and early 2010s. “The parody articles of Kayfabe News are written in a serious, reverential tone, treating professional wrestling as the sport of kings,” Hunter says. “It is a voice, tone and stylistic approach I developed writing for Stu, and I’m grateful he gave me room to experiment and play (even if, on occasion, he had to tell me to tone down the silliness a bit).”

At the Helm

In 1987, Saks was appointed editor in chief by Weston.

Although Apter had seniority, Saks was universally accepted among the staff as the guy to lead the organization. There was no jockeying for position. “Stu was a huge wrestling fan, but he was also a broader sports fan and had that broad knowledge base,” Peters says.

That knowledge was vital because Saks didn’t just handle the wrestling magazines; he oversaw production of boxing magazines, a hockey magazine and even a country music magazine. Boxing was Weston’s first love – he worked as a stock boy for The Ring during his childhood summers. He’d go on to compete with that magazine, launching various boxing publications over the years, including the popular KO Magazine. In 1989, he finally acquired The Ring, rekindling his love of the business.

“Except for when he purchased The Ring, Stanley wasn’t that involved in the magazines for most of the time I was there,” Saks says. “He figured we knew what we were doing, and he was making a lot of money, so he stood back and let us do it.”

The mid-1980s was PWI’s height of profitability, even outselling Sports Illustrated on newsstands. (Not in subscriptions, although they continue to rise in the digital age.) The magazine’s popularity rose with the explosion of cable television, as more wrestling was being consumed than ever before. Even though WWE had banned access due to launching its own magazine, PWI continued to thrive by strengthening its relationships with the NWA and AWA.

Apter became a familiar face on TBS and ESPN, hosting press conferences, award presentations and interview segments as part of Best of World Championship Wrestling. He also appeared on the nationally syndicated Superstars of Wrestling as part of the Pro Wrestling This Week segment. PWI was getting weekly publicity on TV, cementing its position as the No. 1 news source for the entire industry. “While I was out on the road, Stu was in the office making sure that everything I covered was presented in the best way possible,” Apter says.

When comparing the sales of the boxing magazines to the wrestling magazines, Weston said of his new property on Long Island: “wrestling paid for the first four floors, boxing paid for the fifth.”

Although not as profitable, Saks considers running the boxing magazines a good experience. “It allowed me to do some traveling and I was fairly decent with a camera,” he says. “I was sorry when the magazines split.” Sports and Entertainment Publications, LLC, owned by a group of private investors led by Oscar De La Hoya, acquired The Ring in 2007.

In 1992, Weston sold London Publishing (and all the magazines that came with it) to Kappa Publishing, a Pennsylvania-based company specializing in crossword puzzles and word games. The staff willing to make the move were relocated to Blue Bell, PA, a small town located 45 minutes outside of Philadelphia.

“I learned from Stanley how to get the most out of people,” Saks says. “How to trust people to do your bidding, when to lay back and let them do their thing. It’s hard when you’re in a leadership position because you think you know better in every regard. You have to let people make mistakes and find their way because that’s how they find their true potential.”

Setting the Standard

Mirroring the peaks of the wrestling industry, PWI experienced a surge in sales during the late 1990s, too.

Between the five different titles (PWI, Inside Wrestling, The Wrestler, Wrestling Analyst and Wrestle America) at the time, including special issues and one-offs, Burkett estimates that the company produced 70 magazines within a year. That’s on top of the other publications covering different genres, all of which Saks managed. It was so much work that Burkett was able to quit his job and work from home.

“Saying as much as you can in as few words as possible is Stu’s style,” Burkett says. “He’s a very logical and meticulous editor who picks up on little mistakes. I remember writing about Mark Chapman founding the International Wrestling Institute, and Stu asked if John Lennon’s killer was a wrestling fan. Of course, I meant Mike Chapman and Stu was able to catch it before print. He always had you take the extra mile, suggesting it might be good to reach out to so and so. He always knew to ask questions and to call the right people.”

Reaching out to wrestlers was a new concept during the late ‘90s and into the 2000s, as the process of coming up with story ideas evolved. As kayfabe evaporated and fans cared more about the people behind the characters they saw on TV, the magazines adapted. PWI didn’t fully embrace the “dirt sheet” route, but it did incorporate previously forbidden insider terms, as well as cover TV ratings and other facets of the business side.

Dr. Sidney M. Basil’s practice was closed.

“Sometimes I give the writer an angle, but most of the time, I want them to engage the wrestler and see what comes out of it,” Saks says. “If a writer is worth his salt, he’ll get something that’s not typically in a Wikipedia bio. Most of the time it works because we all have a story to tell. Every wrestler has a backstory worth exploring.”

Although quality writing was always Saks’ top priority when hiring, having a journalism background became even more important as the magazine changed direction. Even today, every contributor has some sort of media or communications experience. They’ve come from local newspapers, marketing agencies and even national publications like Newsday, all having grown up reading their boss’ work.

“Stu inspired so many of us to get into writing,” Burkett says. “When I was close to graduation, I sent him a letter explaining that I was a journalism major and asking if he had any openings. I’ll never forget he sent a very nice page-long letter back, thanking me for my resume and encouraging me to get experience outside of wrestling for a couple years. I was struck by how considerate he was.”

Saks has tremendous respect for professional journalists, says Castle, who has written for major publications over the past two decades. “I’ve gotten more guidance on how to improve my writing from Stu than some editors I’ve worked in the same newsroom with for years,” Castle says. “Even little things I should have known, like when to use different kinds of dashes and hyphens.”

As the internet has shown, every fan wants to write about pro wrestling. They have the hottest of takes and can recite every Intercontinental Champion in order. Those aren’t the qualifications to contribute to PWI, though. Above all else, you must possess some serious writing, editing and reporting skills. Surprisingly, wrestling knowledge isn’t a pre-requisite.

“If an applicant isn’t a wrestling person, they must have an inclination to dive in and learn and become part of that world,” Saks says. “One sportswriter did brilliantly on our difficult editing test, but his heart wasn’t in it because he just didn’t like wrestling. Then you get someone like Craig Peters, who had no wrestling background whatsoever, but you could tell by his personality that he would allow himself to be consumed by this very foreign world. You can teach somebody wrestling – it’s too late to teach someone to be a good writer or editor.”

As steward of PWI, Saks has built a professional magazine that the industry can be proud of. “Even though we’re covering a pseudo-sport, he didn’t want to put out a fake magazine,” Burkett says. “Stu made it so whether you’re a fan or wrestler, if you have a copy of PWI and you show it to a non-fan, there’s quality there.”

PWI 500

Little-known fact: Saks conceived the PWI 500.

He’s quick to point out that somebody else needed to implement it, but the concept of an annual ranking of the top 500 wrestlers in the world, what would become the magazine’s top-selling issue, was his brainchild in 1991.

Already having too much on his plate, Saks certainly wasn’t going to handle the list. Former writer/editor Bob Smith stepped up to the herculean task, researching and assembling min-biographies without the help of the internet. “One time, Stanley was driving past the office at 2 a.m. on a Friday,” Saks says. “On Monday, he called me into his office to say somebody left the lights on over the weekend. I told him that was Bob Smith working on the PWI 500. The next week Bob had a little extra in his paycheck.”

The voting process evolved over the years into a daylong meeting, in which the writers (most worked remotely by that point) came into the Blue Bell office on a Saturday. Saks would order lunch and give everyone a tour of the office. Then, the group would spend about seven hours debating the top 100 until they got burnt out.

For contributing writer Brady Hicks, it was an opportunity to finally meet fellow writers in person, scour the archives and pose with Wrestler of the Year plaques that were never claimed. “PWI 500 meetings were an absolute blast,” Hicks says. “It’s like having a giant fantasy football draft where you need every team to agree with every pick. Stu has a knack for balancing different opinions. He’s very receptive to what people have to say and he’d find the best way to incorporate everybody’s ideas.”

Despite his seniority and often being the voice of reason, Saks was actually voted down on several occasions. The 2011 edition remains a sore subject, according to Castle. “There wasn’t a clear-cut choice for No. 1 – nobody had a long reign as champion or a truly dominant year,” Castle recalls. “Stu insisted we can’t have The Miz, but myself and some writers argued that The Miz had a great year. Stu really wanted Edge, but he had retired so he wasn’t officially eligible. In retrospect, we should have listened to Stu. Even by the time the magazine came out, it didn’t hold up well.”

For over a decade, after the top 100 names were selected, former senior writer Dan Murphy compiled the rest of the list. He’d spend the summer accumulating press clippings, highlight reels and resumes from hundreds of independent wrestlers eager to be spotlighted. He also created the PWI Women’s 100, expanding the Female 50 ranking as women’s wrestling exploded in popularity. Immersing himself in the scene, he traveled to SHIMMER events and even co-authored Sisterhood of the Squared Circle with Pat Laprade.

“Stu is the most responsive and respectful editor that anyone could have,” Murphy says. “He made me a much better writer. Sometimes, I would rush through pieces just to get them done, and Stu would call and challenge me. Maybe I was being too general or needed more facts to support my stance or needed to show, not tell. He was right every time.”

Saks holds Murphy in equally high regard, calling him the “most prolific writer we’ve ever had.” “When he told me he was leaving, that influenced my own decision,” Saks says. “I couldn’t see going on without his contribution.”

End of an Era

Saks had been contemplating retirement for quite some time, contrary to what he said during The PWI Podcast celebrating the magazine’s 40th anniversary last July.

At 64 years old, it’s time for him to explore new options and experience life without having schedules and deadlines. After all, he’s worked at the same place since graduating. Now he’ll have more time for softball, chores around the house and volunteering at the local fire department. His wife wants him to take guitar lessons.

“When he told me he was retiring, I was surprised,” Apter says. “The magazine has kept up journalistically and made lots of changes for the better through his handling. But I guess he’s gone as far as he can to get it to the pinnacle of what it can be.”

While happy for his friend, Apter hates to see the end of an era. He considers Saks, Peters and himself to be the originals at the magazine, the Three Horsemen, if you will. Now the last horseman is riding off into the sunset. So many memories come flooding back: eating lunch with Saks, Peters and Capt. Lou Albano; Saks refereeing or serving as commissioner for Apter’s Championship Office Wrestling matches; and on the rare occasion that he joined Apter on the road, Saks refereed an empty arena match between Randy Savage and Lanny Poffo in Memphis.

But Apter’s fondest memory of his friend speaks volumes to Saks’ character.

“When I got the offer from WOW Magazine, I talked to him alone in his office,” Apter says. “Stu said he didn’t want me to leave, but how could I turn down so much money? So, I took the offer and felt like I was breaking up our family. On my first day in the WOW office, Stu actually called me there just to see if I was okay.”

Saks misses the fraternity of the office. PWI is the only wrestling magazine still around from Weston’s regime and has been reduced to just six issues a year. Instead of staff writers, everyone is technically a freelancer. Saks is one of the few to work in the office (PWI 500 meetings take place online now) and on his last day, he’ll probably have nobody to say goodbye to due to social distancing measures.

While he’s still passionate about pro wrestling, his fire doesn’t burn as bright as it used to.

“I have to confess I don’t watch as much wrestling as I should,” he says. “I’ll flip channels on a Wednesday to try to get the flavor and I use the internet like everyone else. I have enough knowledge to talk with our writers who have a lot more knowledge than I do. But we really should have the guy in charge be completely immersed in wrestling.”

Enter Kevin McElvaney, a lifelong reader and contributing writer since 2007. His first paid story out of college was for Inside Wrestling/The Wrestler about potential tag team titles for the revised ECW brand. “Stu was a great editor because he wasn’t shy of giving the feedback I needed to grow as a writer,” McElvaney says. “He’s a legitimate, hard-boiled, old-school journalist. That’s why PWI has stood the test of time.”

Saks interviewed several people to be his successor, narrowing it down to McElvaney and one other candidate. Des McNulty, CEO of Kappa Publishing, asked to just meet McElvaney. “I’m familiar with his work and work ethic, he’s familiar with how the magazine works and he already has a relationship with most of our writers,” Saks says. “We’re not going to miss a beat with him in charge. In fact, we’re going to gain because he’s so motivated and his skillset exceeds mine in a lot of ways.”

Perhaps the only valid criticism of PWI over the past decade (rankings are subjective, folks!) has been its slow development of a web presence, especially with social media. As the internet emerged and the print industry crumbled, Saks had to rethink the style of the magazines. The lag time from writing to reaching the reader’s hands was even more important in the age of immediacy, so PWI made a conscious effort to present its content in an analytical and forward-thinking fashion. Whereas SummerSlam results may seem outdated by October, a feature story on Becky Lynch’s rise to stardom is timeless.

Although Saks could adjust the product, he didn’t have the expertise to adjust the distribution. With McElvaney’s background in social media marketing, he’s the perfect choice to thrust PWI into the digital age. His multimedia approach is already noticeable, as PWI has created a YouTube channel and organized Zoom roundtable discussions among the writers. In addition to focusing on the future, he has embraced the past – resurrecting PWI Weekly, a newsletter from the early ‘90s that has been converted into a free, weekly email newsletter.

In terms of coverage, he follows the independent and international scene more than Saks has in recent years. While he’d love to have more of that type of content, he understands the importance of not alienating long-term readers. “The challenge is balancing new things with the PWI standard that people have come to expect,” McElvaney says. “Stu’s good at having perspective in the grand scheme of things. I’m still trying to learn that from him. Ultimately, I hope I can make him proud.”

Saks’ last “From The Desk Of…” column is in the August issue (available online and on newsstands now). Running more than 2,600 words, it’s one helluva goodbye. “With Kevin taking over and knowing how Kappa management views PWI, I know the magazine is going to be in good hands,” Saks says. “I’m grateful that 40 years of my life isn’t going to be washed away.”

Although his byline will no longer be in PWI, Stu Saks’ impact on not just pro wrestling media, but the entire landscape of the industry will be felt for decades to come.

“Stu created the, this is a sort of a pretentious way to say it, zeitgeist in which we produced the magazines,” Peters says. “It’s almost like the butterfly effect: Stu put his stamp on the magazines, the magazines put their stamp on readers and now those readers are in the business today. It’s not a stretch to say Stu had a very strong effect on what the business is today. People in the industry probably don’t even recognize it.”

About Author

John Corrigan

Editor-in-chief John Corrigan has covered pro wrestling for nearly a decade, reporting for Wrestledelphia, The Philadelphia Daily News, The Temple News and others.

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