Al Isaacs is one of the driving forces in Pro Wrestling journalism today. The creator of Scoops Wrestling, which has made a miraculous return as Al Isaac�s Wrestling Scoops, and of SMARKS, the hillarious pro wrestling comic strip with television in its future, shares with Nathan Stein stories of legends, tales of Break the Barrier, and what's next.
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STEIN: What started your interest in pro wrestling?
ISAACS: My dad and my grandfather really. My grandfather was a boxer and later a boxing manager in Brooklyn at a time when boxers and wrestlers regularly worked out at the same gym. He was friendly with a lot of the workers back then and had some great stories. Then my dad took me to my first match, which was Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbysko at Shea Stadium. I've been hooked ever since!
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STEIN: For a wrestling fan who may not have read Scoops, how would you draw them in, especially with now the competing market of the hundreds or thousands?
ISAACS: It's different in that I'm trying to add my own personality to things. I know there are a ton of sites that badmouth each other and I'm just not into doing that. By the same token I also don't talk down to readers. Wheher you know the things I'm talking about or not, I'm no better that any other fan. Just maybe a bit more fortunate to have connections in the right places.
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STEIN: How did the original Scoops Wrestling news site come about?
ISAACS: Really as kind of a goof. I was meeting with the folks at NYM Studios (who would later become my partners) on a totally unrelated project. At the end of the meeting it came up that I was doing some voice-over work on a news hotline in New York, and one of the things that I covered was wrestling. One thing led to another, and what was supposed to be just a side project and hobby basically became my life!
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STEIN: Why did the original Scoops come to an end?
ISAACS: Tough to say. We were growing at a rate that was way too big to manage on our own, so we started listening to some big companies who wanted to buy us. Snowball.com ended up being the one. At the time they were getting ready to go public with their stock and we were certainly attractive in our numbers. So, unbeknownst to us, they were already creating their own wrestling site (IGN Wrestling) and bought us at the same time with plans to merge the two down the line. To make a long story short, the bottom fell out of the whole internet market. Banner ads and such couldn't cover the costs anymore and the company did a major overhaul. Scoops was one of the casualties.
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STEIN: What has been your journalistic experience (i.e. where all have you worked, written for)?
ISAACS: Wrestling-wise, Scoops is pretty much it. The first article that I wrote was about the night that "The Kliq" broke kayfabe at Madison Square Garden and it ran on the MiCasa website. But I've done work that has appeared in ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, FORTUNE, newspapers, radio shows, and even GOOD MORNING AMERICA about wrestling.
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STEIN: If you did, what was your involvement with Break the Barrier?
ISAACS: You name it. The idea came to me and I pitched it to our financial partners (pre-Snowball days). Nobody had ever thought of doing anything like it, or at least hadn't dared to try. So from booking it and making arrangements, to writing music for, and eventually taking a powerbomb through a table. I had a hand in a lot of it.
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STEIN: What sticks out in your mind about the Break the Barrier experience?
ISAACS: The whole thing. My wife slapping Tom Brandi right at the top. Totally unexpected, unplanned, unrehearsed. He gave me the powerbomb and she just belted him! That Itallian temper I guess. The fact was that she was supposed to come make sure I was OK. But Lou Thesz was in there as well, and told her to bail. When Lou tells you to do something you DO IT! So she was panicked and it just happened. Needless to say I was still 'unconscious' in the ring. Brandi couldn't hit her back, so he climbed back into the ring and pounded on ME some more. And I didn't know why!
Also the opening segment with Shane Douglas where he quit ECW. We didn't know he was going to do it. We just stood in the back saying, 'How do we follow this?!?!". I saw Shane a year later at the Brian Pillman show, and he was working for WCW at that point. I told him we were planning BTB2 and he was like, "Great...now I have to quit WCW at your show?" Why not? It would have been like Pete Rose getting destroyed by Kane every year.
Oh...and I can't forget Headbanger Mosh using Adam Sandler's song "At a Medium Pace" as an entrance theme. Classic.
The whole thing was a really great experience. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
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STEIN: What do you think has been your favorite match to watch of all time?
ISAACS: The one that immediately pops into my head is the classic Savage/Steamboat from Wrestlemania 3. But also a match that I saw live last year that wasn't seen by too many people, Kurt Angle vs. Christopher Daniels at a UPW show. All things considered that was right up there with the best.
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STEIN: What do you think was the best story you covered?
ISAACS: Tough one. One of my favorites had to be going out to cover Shawn Michael's last match in San Antonio a couple of years ago. He really opened up and gave me all the access to himself and his family that I could ask for. I had a blast at The Pillman Show as well.
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STEIN: Who has been your most favorite person in wrestling to talk with?
SCOOPS: Another tough one. I'm biased into saying Terry Taylor as he's become a business partner. But the guy knows so much about the business and the phone company is ready to build a wing in my name after all the hours that I've spent talking to him since last September. Another guy has to be Lou Thesz. I really love him and his wife, Charlie. They've become like family to me.
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STEIN: How did you end up meeting Lou Thesz?
ISAACS: I don't even remember the exact circumstances. I think he was looking for a presence on the web for his book "Hooker" and someone recomended me to him. The next thing I know I'm on the phone with a legend! In person I flew out to the opening of the International Wrestling Museum in Iowa, which is run by a really terrific group of people and I met Lou and Charlie there for the first time.
Somehow I felt like I had known them for years. Afterwards I came back and all these other people were telling me how tough Lou is and that he doesn't like talking to people and all that. It couldn't have been more different. Just an amazing individual with an incredible wealth of knowledge...and still in amazing shape!
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STEIN: Who is someone that you've always wanted to interview or write an article on that you've yet to?
ISAACS: That's tough. When I first started I had my "Holy Trinity" of Lou Thesz, Bruno Sammartino, and Bret Hart. I did all those within the first year and everything else has just been icing on the cake. I spoke with Arn Anderson a few times, and Tully Blanchard, but never Ric Flair so he's at the top of the list. I'd love to speak to Vince McMahon as himself rather than as his television persona.
I've spoken with Linda, who is very charming, as well as Shane and Stephanie. So Ric and Vince would be it.
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STEIN: What are some of your future plans, especially with the NEW Scoops?
ISAACS: Well, right now my main focus has been on the SMARKS Pro Wrestling Cartoon. It's my baby. The project has been in my head for four years and two years ago Ted Smith helped bring it to life. And now with Terry on board with all his great stories nothing can stop us. We've got a video game deal set and we're negotiating with several studios to create an animated sitcom. It's the hardest work that I've ever done, and the most gratifying.
As far as SCOOPS, it's a tough call. I love writing about this industry. But it's a far different field than it was when we first started. Back then there were only a handful of sites covering it...The Bagpipe Report and MiCasa really. Today there are HUNDREDS, if not thousands!!! Not to mention the landscape of the industry itself. No WCW or ECW anymore.
I'm pretty content just writing more from opinion than trying to break news. As long as I'm able to, and people still want to read, I'll be around. But I'll be starting a family this year, and with the future of SMARKS I'll be playing it all by ear.
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STEIN: How did Terry Taylor become a business partner with you?
ISAACS: Well, I've always been a Terry Taylor fan. And as fate would have it he was a regular Scoops reader. A few times some of the guys from BTB would call me and mention that they were going to WCW tryouts and that Terry Taylor liked me.
A year or so goes by and Smarks is going strong. It was my intention to bring someone on board from within the industry to pick their brain for storylines, as well as to let the wrestling industry know that it was all being done with respect and that 'one of their own' was on our team. Then a mutual friend suggested Terry. We spoke on the phone, really hit it off, and the next thing I knew papers were being drawn up. He's an enormous asset and really a great guy.
We're very lucky to have him on board.
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STEIN: Anything additional you'd like to add about upcoming video game?
ISAACS: Just that the key to the whole thing is to make it fun. Literally going back to the days of "Pro Wrestling" for the oringinal Nintendo in terms of learning curve and playability. There are so many great games that go for the 3-D "Virtual Fighter" experience, and we didn't want to go in that direction.
If I had to compare it to anything it'd be the Fire-Pro series. The aim is that all wrestling fans, not just SMARKS readers, will really enjoy it for a long time.
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STEIN: What platforms are you looking to release the SMARKS wrestling video game on (i.e. GameBoy Advance, Game Cube, PlayStation 2, etc.)?
ISAACS: I was told that the platforms planned are PS2, Gameboy advance, and either Xbox or Gamecube, not positive on which.
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STEIN: Any release date for the game?
ISAACS: Much depends on who develops the animated series and when. As I understand it in the best of all worlds it'll be out for the holidays this year.
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STEIN: Anything else you'd like to add?
ISAACS: Just how much I appreciate the letters from people such as yourself welcoming me back. I tried not to make too big a deal out of it, keeping it a small part of the site. Unfortunately Snowball owns all my old photos, interviews, and articles so there was really never the thought of starting another "mega-site". So I like to think that I've come full circle with things. Writing a small article for whoever wants to read it, and just hope that they enjoy it.