C.S.
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Posts
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Everything posted by C.S.
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It wasn't as sexist/degrading/etc. as the Attitude Era was for women, but that's because: 1. Vince Russo was gone, and anyone else was bound to be an improvement when it came to tastefulness, and 2. WWE was now PG. But the women were still relegated to three-minute matches as used as bathroom break sideshow acts. Sexism and misogyny doesn't only entail being thrown into mud pit matches - the women were still marginalized in a myriad of ways after the Attitude Era was over and Russo was gone. Anyway, I've seen those Cornette comments too, and he's right to think that. Developmental, like the women, was just there and had no real support behind it. It's ridiculous how primitive DSW and FCW were - poor working conditions, not enough live events, very little that was conducive to actual learning. Out of all the pre-NXT developmental leagues, OVW under both Cornette and Heyman probably had the best track record. The problem there was that there was a massive disconnect between what was happening in OVW and how the characters would be treated and used on Raw and Smackdown (with the Basham Brothers being one of the primary examples). The Development Hell book I posted about above is actually a pretty interesting look at the history of WWE Developmental. Nothing new necessarily if you've followed "insider" news long enough, but it's still enjoyable reading about the evolution of the program.
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Because it's bullshit, and not even a remotely valid criticism. LayCool was the best women's act on the roster by a mile (not exactly hard to accomplish, granted, but they were good by any metric). If you don't think women were generaly presented in an extremely misogynistic and dated fashion a few years ago in WWE, I'm not sure what to tell you.
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AJ's book is fantastic. There isn't that much wrestling content in it, but that almost doesn't matter because it's still such a raw, compelling read. I agree that Punk had a right to be frustrated by all of the terrible women who were wrestling back then - I just don't think LayCool deserves to be lumped in that category. They were great characters and decent in the ring for the standards of the time.
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I'm reading this now: Development Hell: The NXT Story This is about the history of the WWE developmental program in general (OVW, DSW, FCW, etc.), not just NXT. There probably won't be any new information if you've regularly followed "insider" wrestling news over the years, but it's fascinating to see it all researched and put into one place. The author really digs in though and includes commentary quotes from the obscure early NXT "reality show" seasons. One thing that struck out at me was CM Punk burying Layla on commentary by calling some nonsense on the show "the first good thing she's ever done" or words to that effect. I won't pretend I was ever a major Layla fan, but I thought LayCool was a pretty effective act, and this really exposes both Punk and WWE back then as misogynistic and bullying. For how heavy-handed the "Divas Revolution" and "Women's Evolution" are, it really is amazing to see compared to the way women were treated in the company only a few years ago. But seemingly everyone was buried on the reality show abortion those early NXT shows were - including, obviously, Daniel Bryan at the hands of Michael Cole. What a bizarre, counterproductive, and downright stupid concept and waste of money and airtime that was. It's no accident that almost no one from those seasons of NXT became a real star. Where I've reached in my reading: Triple H is about to take over the developmental program and establish the "real" NXT (Chapter 14). The book is "free" with Kindle Unlimited if you want to give it a try.
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I had no idea either. I sincerely hope no one took my comment - "while the glory days of great wrestling books being on [Kindle Unlimited] is long gone, there are still some good ones" - to be about Liam's magnificent book, which I loved and reviewed on Amazon. I was referring to books like the ones written by Dusty Rhodes, Terry Funk, and Jim Duggan that used to be on KU but are no longer there.
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I recently signed up for another Kindle Unlimited trial, and while the glory days of great wrestling books being on that service is long gone, there are still some good ones. I just finished Dusty Wolfe's book. (Dusty Wolfe, for those who may not remember him, was a "journeyman" wrestler - jobber - for the WWF and WCW in the '80s and '90s, but he did a lot more than that and actually wrestled all around the world. You might remember him as "Dale" Wolfe if Dusty Rhodes happened to be there while he was.) Hoo boy, while the book is badly in need of an editor and way too long and dry at points, it's actually a pretty interesting look at several eras of wrestling from a guy who's been everywhere, wrestled everyone, and seen everything. It also doubles as a travelogue of sorts. My favorite part are his little "ADD" observations at the end of each chapter. They're one or two sentence mic drop statements. There's one about Jerry Jarrett always having to bail Jerry Lawler out of jail because of The King's "preferences" when it comes to the opposite sex. Wow! Much better IMO. Even though Dynamite was a sociopath shithead, his stories were infinitely more entertaining than anything in Bret's overlong and overrated - but still great, don't get me wrong - book. I wish we could all get Gary Hart's book, but it's been out of print for years and fetches ridiculous prices on the secondhand market. What the hell exactly is preventing it from being republished?
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Good interview with Liam O'Rourke about the Pillman book. http://slam.canoe.com/Slam/Wrestling/2018/02/27/22773561.html
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What did he say exactly? All I can find is this from PWTorch.com: "Matt Striker brought up that JoMizzy were in distress due to Prop 8 in California, which would ban gay marriages." True, but from the way he describes it, he actually has professional lighting, sets, scripts, etc. and comes up with different ideas and concepts. That sounds a lot better than RF and others, which are amateur hour.
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Guys, guys, guys! Sean Oliver clearly > Rob Feinstein > Gordon Jump. Seriously though, what's the issue with Stryker? Commentary aside, Victator mentioned that "he seems like a bad person." What's the story there? It's a catch-22, because his writing style makes the book much more engaging than it has any right to be, but I do agree that he does tend to become a bit overbearing as it progresses. I can see why opinions and tolerance levels would differ on this though. Stuff like the "Kayfabe Commandos" - what he claims his fans refer to themselves as - was too much for me. I have a very hard time believing a grown man or woman would ever call themselves such unironically. I've only seen a few KC clips on YouTube, and he seemed half-asleep and/or stoned in some of them - but the delayed late-night filming he mentioned in the book might be the reason for some of that. Either way, he has to be miles ahead of his disgusting "competition." I know nothing about the guy in real-life, but the narrative in his book about a plucky businessman who broke into the carny world of wrestling with no experience or contacts is pretty interesting one to me. Whether it's more wrestling bullshit, I couldn't say, but it worked for me as his central "storyline."
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Both of the posts below are interesting to me because it indicates that you guys actually care about the non-wrestlers in the book. I don't. They're a means to an end, to me, to get to the fun wrestling stuff. That didn't bother me because I went into the book knowing nothing about the author or Marvin, so I didn't exactly care about them specifically. I was more interested in the stories about the wrestlers themselves, the process of booking a show, the hurdles they faced, etc. I suppose if you went into this as a fan of Sean Oliver's, I could see why his abrasive in-your-face personality would bother you - but I'm reading it for the fun wrestling stories, not because of who the author is. Like I said, my exposure to Kayfabe Commentaries is limited to random YouTube clips - I've never bought a single video. (I'm surprised they aren't streaming anywhere though...or are they? I'd be interested in that, potentially.)
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I'm reading this now. His humor can be very crude and shocking, but he has an undeniable lowbrow wit about him that's perfect for the carny world of rasslin'. One example: Early on, he mentions wrestlers using wrestling terms for real life - for example, "kicking out" of a bad situation. He follows that up several chapters later by talking about the Verne Gagne nursing home incident. Gagne, who was in the late stages of Alzheimer's and/or dementia, attacked and ended up killing another patient. That patient was a Holocaust survivor. Oliver's quip was something like: "He kicked out of the Holocaust but couldn't survive Verne Gagne." Wow. But as jaw-dropping as that line is, it speaks for how well the book is written and constructed that he wrote something early in the book and gave us the unexpected punchline/payoff several chapters later. This is a great read even if your only exposure to Kayfabe Commentaries - like mine - has been clips on YouTube. BTW, if you're an Amazon Prime member, this book is now available to borrow for free - even without a Kindle Unlimited subscription. That definitely wasn't the case a month or two ago, where it was only (and still is) available through KU. The Kindle Lending Library for Prime members is more limited - only one book a month, a smaller selection, and you have to borrow it through the device. I read this the other day. It's short but fun. I'm definitely NOT complaining about something that's free, but I have no idea why he presented it as separate links on a website instead of linking to ebook files in various formats. It was easy enough for me to cobble everything together in one file with Calibre and then send it to my Kindle, which is how I read it.
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I really appreciate that you did the Matchbook thing. Thank you! For anyone who doesn't know what that is: if you bought the paperback from Amazon, you can get the Kindle version at a much lower price - in this case $1.99.
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I'm not aware of a new Dustin Rhodes book, but I wouldn't mind if he wrote a second one that's a lot beefier. "Cross Rhodes" was a disappointment at best - too much about his drug problems and "daddy issues," and not enough about wrestling. Regal also covered his drug problems, but not at the expense of everything else. While Regal's book was somewhat uplifting, I found Dustin's downright depressing.
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I looked up @Liam O'Rourke's Crazy Like a Fox again on Amazon, and I was shocked to find there were only four reviews. I honestly expected dozens by this point because it's so good. I'm not sure how much yet another five-star review can help, but I added my own anyway... https://smile.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R1HKDBX5BIOSQK/ BTW, Amazon currently has the Kindle version of As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride on sale for $2. It's obviously not a wrestling book, per se, but I think it's a must-read for any wrestling fan because there are great Andre stories in it. https://smile.amazon.com/As-You-Wish-Inconceivable-Princess-ebook/dp/B00IWTWOI2/
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I finished it a few days ago. The last three or four chapters - needless to say - were very depressing, and also infuriating because... Of course, that is not a slight against the book at all - just an inevitability based on the person you were writing about and what happened to him. Truly an outstanding book, Liam. Now that I've finished it, my original opinion still stands - this is one of the best wrestling books (and books in general) that I've read in many years. I got into a conversation on FB wondering who you could possibly write about next that would compare to someone as entertaining and enigmatic, controversial and complicated, as Brian Pillman was. BTW, I came across Brian Pillman Jr./II on Twitter, and that was nice to see. https://twitter.com/FlyinBrianJr
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I was going to post more - I just didn't want to "spoil" the book for anyone who hasn't read it - but since you, the author, asked... The Hollywood Blonds stuff was frustrating to read about because it was such a massive missed opportunity on WCW's part. This was one of WCW's only acts that had the kind of sports-entertainment charisma and entertainment factor we'd more normally associate with top WWF characters. Despite being so short-lived, I still consider them one of the greatest tag teams I've ever seen. The subsequent Austin-Pillman feud was such a dud, and Pillman's face turn landed with a thud. The Austin-Col. Parker pairing never made any sense to me, and seemed ill-fitting at best. Austin's motivations in general for the turn were so weak and lacking. I just groaned throughout the whole thing at the time, and again when re-living it through your book. I was surprised that Flair and Arn vs. The Blonds at Clash of the Champions drew such a low rating, but it makes sense too. The segments leading up to it were entertaining, but there was zero doubt about the outcome. Austin and Pillman had not been built up enough at that point to make me ever think they had a hope in hell of beating Flair and Arn. Also, tag teams in that era were positioned as decidedly inferior to singles wrestlers, which Flair and Arn were. To blame the Blonds for the rating afterward reeks of typical WCW backward thinking. A tag team match was a dumb idea for Flair's return anyway. I stopped at Chapter 15 last night. Austin has just been fired from WCW and Pillman joined the Horsemen. The Loose Cannon error is about to begin! One of the biggest surprises so far (for me at least) is how close Pillman and Raven were. I never really associated those two together in my mind. Reading about the Pillman-Flamingo feud made me remember it again, but I think it's safe to say that was overshadowed by all of the other things they both did after. I also wasn't expecting... This is already one of the best wrestling books I've read in many years, and it's only going to get better from here. I'm mildly curious, but Hogan and Beefcake seemingly working a Twitter feud designed to sell books turned me off. "Workers gonna work" and all that, I know, but ehh. If it is somehow a legitimate beef, that makes me even sadder. Throwing away a decades-long friendship and "brotherhood" seems extremely petty and doesn't exactly fill me with enthusiasm about reading the book. If anyone else does though, please post impressions!
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I'm up to chapter 7 in the Pillman book (he's about to join WCW), and it's spellbinding so far. Keep in mind, I say that as someone who doesn't give two shits about football (what most of the early chapters are about), but it's fascinating anyway. I would have read more, but it was pushing 4 a.m. The book is fantastic. Get it, everyone!
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I just got the Pillman book today and I'm very excited to get into it! @Liam O'Rourke Would you consider making the Kindle version Kindle Matchbook eligible? What that does is reward loyal customers who bought the paper version by making the Kindle version either very cheap or free for them, depending on what you choose. Just an idea, but I think it would be a cool gesture.
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Amazon code for $5 off $15 on any print book: BOOKGIFT17 Works perfectly with the Pillman book, which I just ordered.
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I'm not Liam, but... https://smile.amazon.com/Crazy-Like-Fox-Definitive-Chronicle/dp/1976541247/
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In the Volume 2 book, he addressed the lack of Japanese coverage in the magazine - sales and interest were down for those stories, he said. There is a recent interview with a UK promoter though (it might be exclusive to the book, even) - I can't remember who or which fed, because I don't really keep up with UK wrestling, but it was an interesting read nonetheless. Edit: Andy Quildan - 2016 interview - Revolution Pro Wrestling
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I just finished The Power Slam Interviews Volume 2: https://smile.amazon.com/Power-Slam-Interviews-2-ebook/dp/B06XQQ8KJW/ It's a long, fun read. Volume 1 is good too. The author also wrote Pro Wrestling Through The Power Slam Years: 1994-2014, but as someone who never read the magazine and doesn't live in England, I'm not sure how much interest that holds for me. Interview books though? I could read those all day long. I tweeted Wade Keller to turn his Torch Talks into a book - seems like a major missed opportunity - but of course he ignored me (or doesn't know how to use Twitter, which is probably more likely considering his age). I realize there were Torch Talk "Yearbooks" once upon a time (or something like that), but those have been out of print for decades. Pushing them all on Kindle seems like easy, instant money to me - but what do I know? Maybe he feels the need to keep them exclusive to the PWTorch site as a subscriber incentive? I have no idea...
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I liked the first DiBiase book - Every Man Has His Price: The True Story of Wrestling's Million-Dollar Man - which I bought back in the days before the internet. I actually had to special order it from a Christian bookstore, of all places. I have no idea what led me there. I think I vaguely remember someone at Borders or one of those bookstores suggesting that as a possible avenue for buying the book. Back in those days, buying anything was a lot harder than it needed to be. I don't remember it being bland though. I just read through the sample of the WWE version of the book that's on sale, and it seems like more of the same. I'm not sure if it brings anything new to the table. That's what I'm afraid of. The sample is too short for me to be able to tell. It seems really unnecessary IMO to essentially rewrite the first book, if that's what happened here. What's the point? I don't think the first book covered WCW though, and this one does, but I really doubt we'll get any new information we don't already know.
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Batista Unleashed is just okay, but it has some good stories - the Jericho blood situation someone else mentioned above, and he goes off on what a fat lazy piece of shit Bubba Dudley is (his words). I barely remember Edge's book at this point, but I think he wrote it himself and it had more personality than most wrestling bios for that reason alone. If you get My Favorite Match, you may as well also get Are We There Yet? and Rumble Road. They're kind of an unofficial trilogy of sorts, as they're all in the same style and I think the other two are actually better books (but it's been a while since I've read them, so I could be mixing up which one is which - I don't think I am though). One of them has a priceless Justin Credible rib story - at least I think that came from these books. In addition to Are We There Yet?, Rumble Road, and My Favorite match, I also recommend Rey Mysterio's book, which I found surprisingly excellent and much better than I was expecting it to be. Edit: I just bought Are We There Yet? because I remember my hardcopy having faded text on some pages. That won't be a problem on Kindle. I have the other two - My Favorite Match and Rumble Road - on Kindle already.
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Major Kindle sale on WWE books: 99 cents - Big Apple Takedown $1.99 - 10 Count Trivia: Events and Championships - Andre the Giant: A Legendary Life - Are We There Yet?: Tales from the Never-Ending Travels of WWE Superstars - Batista Unleashed - Eric Bischoff: Controversy Creates Cash - Have More Money Now: A Commonsense Approach to Financial Management - Hollywood Hulk Hogan - Lita: A Less Traveled R.O.A.D.--The Reality of Amy Dumas - My Favorite Match: WWE Superstars Tell the Stories of Their Most Memorable Matches - Rey Mysterio: Behind the Mask - Rumble Road: Untold Stories from Outside the Ring - The Unauthorized History of DX - The WWE Championship: A Look Back at the Rich History of the WWE Championship - WWE Legends - Superstar Billy Graham: Tangled Ropes $2.99 - Adam Copeland On Edge - Ted DiBiase (WWE) - Walking a Golden Mile (William Regal) - Note: One review mentions bad typos and formatting issues in the Kindle version. $3.99 Note: This has been $2.99 in the past. - Cross Rhodes: Goldust, Out of the Darkness As tempting as it is to splurge on all of these, 1. I already own most of them in hardcopy, and 2. I worry is that all of these will end up being like the Kindle version of the Regal book with typos, formatting issues, etc. (according to one review). I did buy Big Apple Takedown for 99 cents despite already owning the paperback because it's batshit crazy in a good way - it throws Attitude Era WWE stars into the middle of a wonderfully terrible action movie/cop/crime scenario. How is the DiBiase book? Worth it if I've read his previous book? (Every Man Has His Price: The True Story of Wrestling's Million Dollar Man) I'm worried it'll just be a WWE-published rehash.
