YOUR ALL-NEW WRESTLING BOOK THREAD

[zendragon]

RINGMASTER: Vince McMahon and the unmaking of America

by Abraham Josephine Riesman 356pgs

Pretty much the definitive history of one Vincent Kennedy McMahon and his all consuming lust for glory. Does a very heavily researched deep dive into Vince's history, childhood, and relationship with his father through his various scandals (steroids, ring boys, wrestler deaths) to his push for deregulation into his relationship with trump and Lindas forays into politics. A good bit at the end about Owens death and the screw jobs and the idea of wrestlers as independent  contractors (which dove tails with our recent conversation about people not wanting to cross him for fear of losing potential income). A theme of the coarsening of American culture runs through the book, tracing Vince's long friendship with Trump to possibly Vince's sort of greasing the skids for Trumps presidency and Trump basically using WWE's promotional tactics. Book kinda ends a bit to early with Vince resigning (the first time) due to the Wall Street Journal's reporting on his hush money payments so maybe a chapter on Ms. Grant for the paper back as that was truly his final undoing.

I'm reminded of two books first Sex, Lies and Headlocks which get a thanks in the acknowledgements , which covered the various scandals of the 90's but felt much more tabloidy and muckraking. Also Jim Smallman's I'm Sorry I Love You which I revied a few pages back as you probably are familiar with most of the material covered but this goes into much greater detail, and i got new incite in some of the scandals which have been talk about for decades. The Author actually went to Vince's hometown and talked to people who he grew up with so you get a sense of the man (also some solid genealogical research into Vince's family tree apparently him and Rod where full brothers, not half as I'd previously seen reported) overall a very serious piece of reporting, reading the acknowledgements you see how far she went in interviewing people who have either covered wrestling or been involved in it. You will certainly find something enlightening in this story that we endlessly discuss here. 

[Curt McGirt]

Almost forgot! It took me awhile but I finally finished Blood and Thunder Vol. 2 by our own Alan Boon! This one was MAMMOTH. The minutiae of Japanese independent puroresu is in full display here, this time dissecting W*ING, SWS/WAR, Michinoku Pro, and a handful of related micro-indies. When I say "minutiae" I mean it: thee smallest, teeniest aspects of these feds, practically down to Cagematch levels of dissecting cards, is on display. The individual feds are handled by introducing and describing the career of a key booker/promoter/wrestler (among them Mr. Pogo, Genichiro Tenryu, the Great Sasuke, the Takano brothers, Shiro Koshinaka, and even Ryuma Go) and then going through the history -- by event. It can get pretty heavy to handle, admittedly. Not many of us need to know the turnout for a show in a fruit and vegetable market parking lot, but they're all here. What keeps you going is the trivia on display, from things like reading "good lord, they worked a parking lot in a fruit and vegetable market?!" to the almost limitless goofiness of the gimmicks. The M-Pro section alone is rife with absurdity. The history for all its detail is never dry either. It's a daunting read, and even when you want to skip it's hard to because so many gems are thrown in, but I'm happy I got through it. Crossed fingers for Volume 3!

[Linus]

Thank you so much! I debated myself about the level of detail to go into but then I figured, this is the only time these things are ever going to be written about! 

[Hagan]

Haven't posted on here in ages. Should I read the Ole Anderson book or is it completely out to lunch? 

 

[No Point Stance]

46 minutes ago, Hagan said:

Haven't posted on here in ages. Should I read the Ole Anderson book or is it completely out to lunch? 

 

Man, good luck finding an affordable copy. I thought I had a PDF of it but realised recently that I was sadly mistaken.

[Kuetsar]

1 hour ago, No Point Stance said:

Man, good luck finding an affordable copy. I thought I had a PDF of it but realised recently that I was sadly mistaken.

Its on Crowbar press for $20.

[odessasteps]

1 hour ago, No Point Stance said:

Man, good luck finding an affordable copy. I thought I had a PDF of it but realised recently that I was sadly mistaken.

You can find it on certain people's drives. 

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

4 hours ago, No Point Stance said:

Man, good luck finding an affordable copy. I thought I had a PDF of it but realised recently that I was sadly mistaken.

The Kindle version is $10.

[No Point Stance]

17 minutes ago, Stefanie Sparkleface said:

The Kindle version is $10.

Oh wow, thanks - I didn't think it had made it to an official epub release.

[zendragon]

Brian Solomon had had a lot of authors on his podcast. A good conversation with Abraham Reisman about Vince and another not about flair with Tim hornbaker 

[bobholly138]

Finished Bahamian Rhapsody the other day.

About pro wrestling in the Bahamas from the start until maybe 2 years ago.

Pretty decent read about a piece of wrestling history I had very little knowledge of.

[odessasteps]

How much is about Tyree Pride?  

[bobholly138]

22 hours ago, odessasteps said:

How much is about Tyree Pride?  

A decent amount. 

[zendragon]

On 2/15/2024 at 2:43 PM, Happ Hazzard said:

Has anyone read "Ballyhoo!: The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling (Sports and American Culture)"?

 

Ballyhoo!: The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling by Jon Langmead 239pgs

A telling of the early days of prowrestling from the late 1800's through the 1930's. Basically a history of pre National Wrestling Alliance American Wrestling set against the life of promoter Jack Curley as a framing device. I mentioned in another review that I enjoyed An Idiot's Guide To Pro Wrestling back in the day cause it gave me incite into the carnival days through Gotch/Hackensmidt. This book covers the same material, even seems to use some of the same source material but in much more scholarly depth. This is probably the definitive work on the subject.

Interesting to see how much things stay the same no matter how much they change, from doing inclusive finishes to get the audience back to some promoters preferring Body Guys such as Munn and Londos over athletes who seemed "legit" to Jack Pfefer using a collection of oddities and freaks as almost a precursor to the cartoon wrestling of the 80's and early 90's.

Now we are living in an era where kayfabe is pretty much dead with AEW All Access, and WWE's Rivals and Legends programs showing the inner working of the business, but its interesting to read how as early as 1905 newspaper men new something was up and where writing exposes on the business and athletic commissions where forcing wrestling matches to be promoted as "exhibitions". Make's me chuckle at certain wrestling grandpas  getting upset at how open the business is now. Now I think wrestling has become much more socially acceptable seeing as we are in on the fact that its a show, but it brings to mind which ever Hart brother said "people always say 'wrestling fake...isn't it?' and that's where we make our money" people might have known they where being had but they didn't quite know where the line was exactly. And I think there's something thing to be said for the magician not revealing all his secrets as opposed to some of the stuff I've seen on indy shows like Joey Ryan flipping people with his dick or George South wrestling a Michael Jackson impersonator who transforms into a werewolf. At least take it seriously and act as if its real, like they did back in the day. I also think that presentation gets family's bringing kids, and women, not just your wrestling neck beards. Food for thought.

Overall this is kinda like the Ken Burns Baseball series are you interested in hear about 1930's baseball for two hours/ reading about 1930 wrestlling? then this if for you.

[odessasteps]

He was on JC’s podcast last week discussing it. 

[DJ Hero Morganti]

I now low key want a Ken Burns wrestling documentary 

[zendragon]

22 hours ago, odessasteps said:

He was on JC’s podcast last week discussing it. 

He also did Brian Solomon 

 

20 hours ago, DJ Hero Morganti said:

I now low key want a Ken Burns wrestling documentary 

for as much as it is a wrestling institution it would make so much sense 

[zendragon]

On 4/28/2023 at 7:04 PM, zendragon said:

Death of the Territories: expansion, betrayal, and the war that changed wrestling forever

by Tim Hornbaker

fascinating look at what was going on with the territories during Vince’s expansion, a lot of which has been covered before but not in one place. Starts in 1948 with formation of the NWA and ends with Crocket selling to Turner. A lot of the smaller territories are charted as well which is interesting if your a fan of Vices Tales of The Territories. Goes into a lot of detail of who trying to expand, who had to sell, who had tv (a number of people went national before Vince with syndication or cable) who ended up pulling out of the NWA. Also it shows gate figures for Vince’s expansion shows and numbers for shows running opposition, you have think Vince viewed a lot of those early shows in a new territory as kids leaders as he often didn’t do well out the gate

@Cobra Commanderyou might be interested in this book, lots of talk about who had TV when and where

[Cobra Commander]

7 hours ago, zendragon said:

@Cobra Commanderyou might be interested in this book, lots of talk about who had TV when and where

I have that book. I was thinking more about the general concept of cable/superstation expansion but there’s probably a way to do a Hornbaker book on that too

[SirSmUgly]

Has anyone read Paul Boesch's book Hey Boy, Where'd You Get Them Ears? It's an astronomical price on the internet, but it also seems like it's worth reading.

I'd love to hear Boesch's viewpoints about breaking away from Dallas and his relationship with Bill Watts before Watts sold Mid-South without telling him. If anyone has the book and has read it, would it be too much to ask if there's anything interesting or notable that Boesch writes about either of these things?

Edited Tuesday at 06:35 PM by SirSmUgly

[odessasteps]

It’s probably available on one of the better known Google drives.