During a recent edition of VOC Nation’s In The Room, Bill Apter commented on the passing of his good friend and Impact Wrestling executive Bob Ryder. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On his relationship with Bob Ryder: “It’s really difficult to sum up in a short period of time what he meant to me. At the very beginning, after I had left (Pro Wrestling Illustrated) and the magazine that I was working for afterward – WOW Magazine – hit hard times and it looked like my wrestling magazine career was doomed, Bob Ryder and Joey Styles gave me the opportunity to become a full time employee of 1wrestling.com. Number one, it started a great relationship business wise; but then, it turned into a very dear friendship. Bob and I had, beside wrestling, Bob loved Broadway shows and I’m a Broadway fanatic. So we had that in common and we just became very dear friends…Joey Styles worked for (Pro Wrestling Illustrated) way, way back so there was already an established relationship there… He was someone I talked to several times a week, not just about the website and doing things on 1wrestlingvideo and 1wrestling.com, but also personal things that we enjoyed like Broadway. He was also a key to me keeping alive relationships with people from WCW and Impact Wrestling and TNA, so it was a multi year cherished friendship and business relationship and that will live on forever with me.”
On his favorite interview ever: “One of my favorite videos of all time is one of (Maestro) and the Rock and Roll Express (that I did) in Wilmington, North Carolina, one of Charlie Hartman’s Giving Tree shows. That was one of my favorite video moments of all time. It’s got like a million views… (Maestro) always gave me so much time, and it’s a pleasure to be on the same team (as him).”
