While digging through my personal collections I found this cover from December 1983.

For a wrestling fan it’s stunning. Not for what is here, but for what isn’t.

Dusty Rhodes on the cover. Mentions of Harley Race, the Freebirds, tag team specialist Rick Steamboat. The NWA was king and these were the names that sold magazines.

Hulk Hogan won the WWF title in 1984. Specifically, he won it in January 1984. Just one month later every wrestling magazine would begin to feature not only Hogan, but the cartoon nature that was WWF. Gone were the bloody covers and in were action figures and ice cream bars.

Sometimes it’s amazing how much can change in a year.