Worried about the decline of the print magazine format? Not so the geniuses behind the W.W.E., who plan to introduce a lifestyle magazine along the lines of Maxim or FHM but with wrestlers (thus building the homoeroticism right in). WWE's unique selling proposition, at least to us, is the regular column

Abuse, [which] shows an editor being hit by a cane, with welts on his back to prove it. In later issues, Mr. Romando says, the editor will demonstrate what it is like to be hit by a folding chair or slapped across the face by a wrestler.

This may very well be the idea that saves the entire industry. Who wouldn't pick up a Vanity Fair if they knew that the Editor's Note had photos of Graydon Carter enduring the Brainbuster? How much more likely would you have been to read Harpers had Lewis Lapham occasionally undergone a sleeper hold (as opposed to the one his column put on his readers)? We cannot understate the importance of this concept: Were we able to see men in feather boas smacking Adam Moss with a card table week in and week out we would surely spend the twelve bucks a subscription to New York costs.

This is the wave of the future, people. We can almost taste it.

For Wrestling Fans, a Magazine About Getting Hit in the Face [NYT]