YOUR ALL-NEW WRESTLING BOOK THREAD

[Hagan]

Mox's book is not the best wrestling book ever but it may be the best book written by a wrestler, if that makes sense. Just a bonkers rambling stream of consciousness from a very unique, interesting guy. 

 

[Roman]

I just read Stranglehold by Larry Nelson, an AWA announcer. I cannot recommend this book at all. It has nothing of interest in it. Some thoughts:

- He is a bad storyteller. Stories that could potentially be somewhat interesting or funny are ruined by his complete inability to string an entertaining sentence together.

- The vast majority of stories he tells are insipid and boring, like that one drunk you always see at the bar and tries to be popular by making a big deal out of telling a story that’s just... completely unremarkable. ‘Two women shared a room and one of them paid for it. While she was gone, the other raided the room refrigerator. She drank all the wine and her roommate had to pay! Hahaha!’

- He tries to put himself over so much in terms of what a manly man he is. ‘Very few people drank as much as I did,’ and ‘Every tour I found a groupie to sleep with.’

- He mentions a few angles, but none of them are described in a captivating way. Once he has to mention how he put over a big angle by saying on commentary, ‘Who could possibly win this thing?!’ Brilliant, Larry. Brilliant.

- The most offensive thing is how he describes women: either in uncomfortably and disgustingly lecherous detail (both random women and wrestlers like Sherri Martel) or in insults about how fat and/or ugly they are. And he does this constantly.

- He takes credit for bringing Eric Bischoff into the wrestling business because he chickened out of coming in for a day of doing interviews so the producers had to use Eric Bischoff. (The AWA was in dire straits and Larry Nelson had decided to leave the state and start over elsewhere without telling the AWA about it.) The book was written in 1999.

- There was one very disturbing (but mercifully short) story about Road Warrior Hawk sexually assaulting a minor in Winnipeg. Larry Nelson was mainly worried about how this would get him in trouble. (To be clear: he had no part in the action; Hawk just told him what had happened the night before.)

- They have sections where they go over the history of professional wrestling, and it borders on level of cringe with how inaccurate and amateurish it is. There are frequent mistakes of names (and spelling, which is another matter) like calling Harley Race ‘Harvey.’

All in all, don’t get this. It’s boring, bland and occasionally infuriating.

[Nomad]

 

The best wrestling book I've read in a while is "Falls, Brawls and Town Halls: The History of Professional Wrestling in Northern Ireland" by Nick Campbell.  It covers wrestling on the island throughout the 20th century including the effect The Troubles had on the business.  It has lots about the Finlay family, not just Fit but also his mum, dad & sister and aunty and uncle who were all involved in some way.

Other names are Eddie Hamill (Kung Fu), Wild Angus Campbell and Orig Williams.

[Peck]

Finished Mox's book on a flight to Vegas last week and really enjoyed it. He almost has a hint of a Seinfeld-ian sense of humor, especially that whole bit on sandwiches.

 

[The Green Meanie]

Also finished Mox's book, and it's easily a top 5 for me. I could listen to that man speak about anything for hours, doesn't even have to be wrestling related.

[Curt McGirt]

Just got Mox for my birthday today and I think it is gonna be very enjoyable. 

[Curt McGirt]

Before I forget: The Buc-Ee's vs. WAWA conversation that @DEANand @J.T.were having in another thread is decided on the Moxley side for Buc-Ee's. 

EDIT: After reading up it looks like the Niemann Foods subsidiary Haymaker's is trying to compete with these two in Central Illinois, based on store size and style. Out here though we got Casey's so we win. You'll never look at gas station pizza the same way.

Edited December 9, 2021 by Curt McGirt

[dragonzombie]

 

[driver]

On 12/9/2021 at 1:30 PM, Curt McGirt said:

Before I forget: The Buc-Ee's vs. WAWA conversation that @DEANand @J.T.were having in another thread is decided on the Moxley side for Buc-Ee's. 

EDIT: After reading up it looks like the Niemann Foods subsidiary Haymaker's is trying to compete with these two in Central Illinois, based on store size and style. Out here though we got Casey's so we win. You'll never look at gas station pizza the same way.

Casey's pizza and subs are AMAZING if the store in question doesn't have staff issues. For me it's always been Speedway's "Grab N Go". I don't have the time for the Speedy Cafe. YMMV.

 

[The Green Meanie]

On 12/9/2021 at 12:30 PM, Curt McGirt said:

Before I forget: The Buc-Ee's vs. WAWA conversation that @DEANand @J.T.were having in another thread is decided on the Moxley side for Buc-Ee's. 

EDIT: After reading up it looks like the Niemann Foods subsidiary Haymaker's is trying to compete with these two in Central Illinois, based on store size and style. Out here though we got Casey's so we win. You'll never look at gas station pizza the same way.

It warmed my heart to learn that Mox knew about the absolute Texas treasure that is Buc-ee's.

[Peck]

15 hours ago, The Green Meanie said:

It warmed my heart to learn that Mox knew about the absolute Texas treasure that is Buc-ee's.

Popped my Buc-ee's cherry in Daytona Beach last week. What an interesting place. Controlled chaos.

[dragonzombie]

Soon, Tam Nakano's Autobiography "White Scripture" to be released in mid-Jan 2022.

[Curt McGirt]

Mox also brought up Wawa! So he could definitely engage in the debate. 

Something else he brought up that 100% puts him in my cool book is listing a bunch of deep cut matches that you should check out and the first one on the stack is this sweet piece of work. 

EDIT: Fuck it, here's the full list. Sorry Jon, still want people to buy the book, but the matches are too good to not spill the beans on. 

Spoiler

Barnett/Suzuki 

Tajiri/Psicosis from Hardcore TV in 2000

Callihan/Havoc, Cage of Death (which is fuckin incredible)

Miyamoto/Takeda, Scaffold/Construction Site Death Match from 2009

Bock/Dory Jr. from Slamboree '93?! Whoa I gotta see that. 

NORMAN SMILEY VS. MINORU SUZUKI in UWF. FUCK YEAH. 

Trent Acid vs. Homicide, ROH 2003

Joe vs. Necro. Mox: "I made Renee watch this on a plane." 

 

Edited December 18, 2021 by Curt McGirt

[Pete]

On 8/25/2021 at 10:34 PM, elizium said:

Just circling back to this, as it arrived earlier in the week

It is very cool, but I would say it is mostly just for Hernandez completionists. By his own admission, none of these drawings and sketches were meant for public consumption. They were merely for his own entertainment or character studies, so he uses the same image over and over and makes small tweaks to it. There's a few poses that are used almost a dozen times with just the hair coloured different or different tights, etc. You'll see Maggie's face a lot too or as he calls it, his "universal face."

That said, a lot of the pics are super cool, some action shots, the faux magazine covers and captions are 1970s note perfect and I love how the interview is integrated within in the whole of the book. So often in art books the interview is just one big block of text at the beginning and its always so easy to skip past it without the desire to read it.

This is my favourite piece in the whole thing

I picked it up last month during our sojourn to SoFla at Tate's Comics, an awwwwwwesome LCS at a wonderfully dingy strip mall in Sunrise. Shortish but very fun to look at as Jaime really nailed the grindhouse look to 60s/70s wrestling mags. If you liked "Whoa Nellie!," you'll like this too.

[dragonzombie]

"Supreme Triple Crown Champion Mitsuharu Misawa"

[Nice Guy Eddie]

I got a Barnes & Noble gift card for Christmas, so it looks like I'll be picking up Moxley's book.

[Happ Hazzard]

Has anyone read Chavo Guerrero Sr's book? I've only just heard about it. It's 488 pages long.

[bobholly138]

Learned earlier that Pete Gas has a book out...and ordered a copy. Has to be better than Chyna and Lance Von Erichs' books.

[The Natural]

I need to pick up Mox's book and @Phil Schneider's. 

Out of the wrestling books I've read, my top five:

5. Walking a Golden Mile by William Regal. More people need to read this.

4. A Lion’s Tale: Around the World in Spandex by Chris Jericho.

3. Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling by Bret Hart. The most in depth wrestling autobiography.

2. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks by Mick Foley.

1. Yes: My Improbable Journey to the Main Event of WrestleMania by Daniel Bryan.

Edited January 8, 2022 by The Natural

[Cobra Commander]

My copy of Phil's book has arrived a day before it's estimated arrival through Amazon. The delivery process is a little different for newish stuff compared to the stuff i've ordered through Amazon through 3rd party spots where there's like 4 stops to my location.

I was able to open the package without using a New Jack exactoknife

[Curt McGirt]

Mine arrived within days and as a constant purchaser of vinyl through the mail, that never happens. 

[paintedbynumbers]

On 1/6/2022 at 11:11 PM, bobholly138 said:

Learned earlier that Pete Gas has a book out...and ordered a copy. Has to be better than Chyna and Lance Von Erichs' books.

It's actually really good. I liked it. Learned a lot.  Lots of crazy shit Shane did when they were younger. 

[Cobra Commander]

I'm through 1994 in Way of the Blade. I also noted the "Made in the USA, Coppell, TX, 07 January 2022" text on the backpage in-between the "Hybrid Shoot also published a Ken Shamrock biography" and the backcover. January 7th was the midpoint in-between me ordering the book on January 5th and getting it on January 9th. So somebody's book machine was hard at work last week.

Also doesn't take much time to get from Coppell (a Dallas suburb) to me (in a KCMO suburb)

[paintedbynumbers]

I believe Ken has 2 books out. I was talking with him on Linkedin and asked if he would sign one if I paid the shipping. He directed me to his site where I would have to buy the book again and pay additional for the sig. It was like $85-$90 at the time. More if he personalized it.  

[Linus]

We're back! Issue 13 of Wrestling Can Be Anything is chock-full of the usual FACT FUN, including a career retrospective of Jushin Thunder Liger, a run-down of all the times Superman and wrestling have collided, and a look at the various gimmicks of Ron "The Yetay!" Reis. Throw in the story of lucha's Nazi teen idol and Big Daddy's assault on the charts and you have an issue for the ages!

40 pages, black & white, 10pt Trebuchet MS

You can get a copy posted to your house by sending £3.50 (£4.50 for anywhere outside the UK) through PayPal to [email protected]. Please tick the "sending to a friend or family" box and put your address in the notes so I know where to send it to! Alternatively, you can use the webstore at wrestlingcanbeanything.bigcartel.com, but it costs an extra 50p! I also do PDF copies for £1 each!