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Wade, what can I say? 1,000 editions and still counting. As a forcibly retired newspaper reporter who lost his job because of a stroke, it's simply amazing. With regular newspapers becoming corporate dinosaurs because of the Internet, including my former employer, The Oakland Press, slowly becoming corporate dinosaurs because of the Internet, the longtime success of the Torch is simply amazing.

From humble beginnings, the Torch is now a wrestling media juggernaut that is amazing not just because the focus is pro wrestling, but in part because the Torch still comes out both on paper and on the Internet. Slowly but surely, the regular newspaper industry is being killed off by the Internet. The Torch thrives both on the Internet and in print. No matter what Vince McMahon, Vince Russo, or any other wrestling guru says, the Torch cannot be ignored because of the smart fans it attracts as readers.

With the wrestling industry now justifiably under attack by Congress due in large part due to the steroid industry and the deaths of way too many wrestlers, the importance of the Torch is even redoubled, someone must speak for fans who are tired of too many wrestlers dying of steroids. Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit and so many others who have died as a result of the superhuman bodies that wrestling promoters demand deserve to be remembered with a wrestling industry free of steroids and the superhuman bodies they produce because Vince McMahon won't push anyone but a superhuman body type.

Congratulations on a thousand issues, May you have a thousand more. As a fan who grew up watching the Sheik, not the Iron Sheik, at the air conditioned Cobo Arena in Detroit, I value each and every issue of the Torch. Your family, columnists, staff writers, past and present and Torch readers alike are responsible for a publishing miracle that continues unabated.

Hank Schaller
Muskegon, Mich.
Pro Wrestling Torch VIP member

***

I have been a subscriber for the most part since #678, which I still have. You've done a great job, no question about it. It's well worth my $7.50 a month fee... Not only do I get the current news, but I can also peruse the older issues that I missed from before my days as a subscriber.

Take Care,
Alan Skinner
Springfield, Ohio

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I just wanted to drop you a line and let you know that I really enjoyed the article on your path to 1,000 issues. When I was a child in Nashville, Tenn., my father used to be given your newsletter back in the early days (like '88-'89) by someone at the gym. There were always lots of 'rasslers around the gym at that time, so I knew what the deal was from like age seven, and I hung out around many guys that went on to success in the WWF from an early age. I loved reading your dirtsheet at like age eight and then going to elementary school and telling everybody what was going to happen on taped shows. Little kids thought I was clarivoyant(sp?)! I never even realized that you did not get a website until '99. I guess I must have started coming here very shortly after it opened. Good luck in the future...

On a side note, I gotta' say that if it was not for Ring of Honor, my wrestling watching days would have ended three or four years ago. I own close to 50 of their shows on DVD, and everyone I know thinks I am insane...

Robert Komisar

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From one entrepreneur to another, congratulations on extending your run to Issue #1000. You and your team do excellent journalistic work and it's always a joy to read your coverage of a very unique industry.

Chad Nguyen

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Hey Wade, congrats on the 1000th issue. Great column. I only discovered The Torch about six or seven years ago, but I was a fanzine publisher and newspaper editor back in the PMT camera, typesetting cut & paste days and can relate to the grind and urgency of publishing and mailing a handmade journal from your living room with deadline and subscription pressures. You've come a long way, and yes - I agree with your compliments about Bruce Mitchell, and in fact have written and told him the same thing a couple times - keep it going!

Cheers,
Dave in Canada

***

Congratulations on the 1,000th edition of the PW Torch Newsletter. Twenty plus years in business and 1,000 issues is quite an accomplishment. I wish I would have been a subscriber all those years to have witnessed the changes.

Brian

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Dear Wade,

I just wanted to say congratulations on reaching your 1,000th issue of the Torch newsletter. Your hard work has keep me up to date with the latest insider news ever since I was 13 years old. From calling some hotline from the yellow pages in 1996 (some guy would give a hotline report that came from Torch newsletter) to stumbling upon the Torch website in March of 2000 to (finally) becoming a VIP member last year, I've thoroughly enjoyed passing time at work (I'm a Computer Analyst for an oil and gas company in Oklahoma City (Devon Energy)) by reading the archived newsletters and listening to the audio reports from various members of the Torch. I hope your tremendous success continues as I look forward to the next 1,000 issues.

Sincerely,

Adrian L. Finley
VIP Member since 2006

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