YOUR ALL-NEW WRESTLING BOOK THREAD

[Mister TV]

8 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Prob something on Stern and the WIOR show would fit that too. 

WWOR was the #2 Superstation until the syndication exclusivity law was passed in the early 90’s, that law hit them the hardest since they relied on reruns way more than WTBS or WGN.

[Kuetsar]

I read and re-read a few books lately. Yes! by daniel bryan, which i found to be perfectly acceptable, but nothing to special in terms of stories and the like. Then Ole Anderson's book, which is really good, but would be great if they cut out about 80 pages of redundant bitching about everybody. The first three times about the industry screwing you were fine, ole; we didn't need the fourth and fifth. Have a nice day by mick foley, which is great, but the dumb jokes haven't aged well, and i forgot how much I HATED DUDE LOVE, probably the cringiest (for me anyway) gimmick ever. Gary Hart's book, which may be is the best ever written, then three by uncle dave who may be the worst writer(from a technical standpoint) to ever get a book deal. I've heard the complaints about him for years, but until I read the observer yearbook 97, and Tributes I and II, I hadn't experienced it for myself. Nonsensical sentences, multiple typos(and errors)  and such bad organization that it could have  been from the typewriters of the proverbial thousand monkeys on a thousand type writers. What did the English language ever do to Meltzer to make him treat it in this way? The content was interesting(though the year book had WAY  too much UFC),but the writing is the drizzling shits. 

[Happ Hazzard]

Does anyone know anything about this upcoming book: Lucha Libre: The History and Legacy of Mexican Wrestling : Artes del Mexico magazine: Amazon.co.uk: Books

[Curt McGirt]

Man, I hope it's good. Reminds me of that lucha photo book that came out years ago. An artist friend of mine (who moved to I believe Phoenix and became an awesome clay sculptor) when I was way young had that thing and it was soooooo cool. Solar was on the cover. They had Solitario sitting there with a pair of Great Danes. 

[RazorbladeKiss87]

2 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Man, I hope it's good. Reminds me of that lucha photo book that came out years ago. An artist friend of mine (who moved to I believe Phoenix and became an awesome clay sculptor) when I was way young had that thing and it was soooooo cool. Solar was on the cover. They had Solitario sitting there with a pair of Great Danes. 

I may have unethically changed this book's status in the system at my university's book depository so it was set to be discarded, meaning it was fair game for me to take home. Of course over the years of using, it vanished. Got what I deserved there. 

[Curt McGirt]

Clara's copy was pretty hard to keep together after any kind of use. It's just big, unwieldy, pages were trying to come out, etc. Wouldn't be hard to do that to that book...

[odessasteps]

That’s like the difficulty of getting that giant CMLL book. 

[zendragon]

Stu Hart: Lord of the Ring, an inside look at Wrestling's First Family by Marsha Erb 266pgs.

Starts with Owen's death, then goes back to Stu's childhood on the Canadian prairies, his attempts to make the Olympic team, his marriage to Helen, founding Stampede, selling Stampede, Montreal, circles back to Owen's death and the fallout among the family and ends with Helen's death. A lot of the Stampede stuff is better discussed else where and the most interesting part of the book is hearing about Stu's years wrestling in New York before he founded his own premotion (even if it sounds like Stu was possibly trying to Kayfabe the author a bit, sounds like he wasn't being straight forward about his wrestling matches being entirely works which then calls into question other things). Honestly if you are interested in The Hart Family / Stampede wrestling start with Bret's book then read Dynamite and Davey along with Pain and Passion. Only really recommend this if your a completist (or really interested in pre McMahon New York wrestling but then I'd recommend starting with BallyHoo), book does have some of the more interesting photos of a wrestling book though, Stu with Ali, Owen playing high school football, Bret as a high school wrestler, lots of stuff from Stampede

Edited May 23, 2024 by zendragon

[bobholly138]

On 5/21/2024 at 10:22 AM, Curt McGirt said:

Man, I hope it's good. Reminds me of that lucha photo book that came out years ago. An artist friend of mine (who moved to I believe Phoenix and became an awesome clay sculptor) when I was way young had that thing and it was soooooo cool. Solar was on the cover. They had Solitario sitting there with a pair of Great Danes. 

This book?

 

https://youtu.be/IooW8-1gOdQ?si=3z-56oKy473Cd0X6

 

Got mine  used off Amazon cheap.

[Happ Hazzard]

I think this is the book being referred to.

[Curt McGirt]

Yeah, that's where the dog memory came from. Solitario was with the two little hair-covered dudes who had to have worked in the carnivals as a certain type of attraction as well as in wrestling. 

[AxB]

https://x.com/Phil_Lions/status/1798727024665874534

This is an English translation of a French book that was originally published in 1910. So possibly the oldest Pro-Wrestling book in existence.

[Curt McGirt]

Went to the library in search of Nitro and instead found the almighty SHEIK BOOK! Alright!

[odessasteps]

11 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Went to the library in search of Nitro and instead found the almighty SHEIK BOOK! Alright!

It’s a good read. I had Solomon on the podcast last year to discuss it, 

[zendragon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFstlEfDdno&ab_channel=MachoManRandySavage-Topic

MACHO MAN: The Untamed, Unbelievable Life of Randy Savage by Jon Finkel 302 pgs

Kind of a tale of two books, in fact I kind of wish the author had split the book in two. First half is very interesting as it chronicles young Randy and Lanny childhood growing up with a father in the business, then going into his high school and minor league baseball career and getting into the family buisness after washing out.

A lot of interesting stuff about working for his dad's outlaw promotion and then working for Memphis (with a few other stops on the way such as The Sheik's Big Time Wrestling) but then the book goes into a sort of fast forward flying through his WWF run, Slim Jim endorsement deal,  departure and WCW rebirth (WCW in particular gets a particularly short shift in the book, and no mention of his final wrestling appearances in TNA). Be a Man and his appearance as Bonesaw Mcgraw in which ever spiderman movie that was each get a chapter and the book finishes up documenting his final years.

You could have expanded the first half to 250 pages and then done another 300 pgs on him once he became a star. The author had access to Lanny Poffo who died during the writing so perhaps that hampered things. All in all a solid addition to the wrestling canon of books but maybe not a must read unless savage is truly your guy

[RazorbladeKiss87]

Damn. That's too bad. I was looking forward to reading that one. Will probably try to find it at the library now. Thanks for the review!

[Tromatagon]

On 5/25/2024 at 8:30 AM, Curt McGirt said:

Yeah, that's where the dog memory came from. Solitario was with the two little hair-covered dudes who had to have worked in the carnivals as a certain type of attraction as well as in wrestling. 

I know the image you're thinking of but you're way off.

 

The hair covered dudes were one dude, Alushe, who is a guy in a suit, and the wrestler was Tienieblas and Tienieblas Jr is on the other side of Alushe.

 

If you Google Lourdes Grobet Tienieblas it's the first thing that comes up.

Edited June 21, 2024 by Tromatagon

[Tromatagon]

I really thought the Macho Man book fucking sucked.  Almost zero insight into any of the big moments so the author just wasted time describing them instead.

 

You'll pretty much know about everything they talk about once he hits the WWF just from watching the shows.  

Edited June 21, 2024 by Tromatagon

[Curt McGirt]

I'm loving the hell out of the Sheik book. One of the coolest things is hearing that when Harley Race got in that car crash when he was 17 that killed his wife and unborn kid and they wanted to cut his fucking leg off, Sheik -- who had never even met the kid -- paid his medical bills through the mail. And the big feud that he had with Bruno was done gratis because New York was in serious trouble with houses and they needed the help. 

Also, this has to be one of the top books I've read for listing even in two-word detail every regional star that existed from all of North America. It's like the Hornbacker NWA book if it had a personality 

[zendragon]

The author does a really fun wrestling history podcast called shut up and wrestle, that features a lot of authors. He also has ex-WWF office workers on. I've also listened to him when he's been on other podcasts talking The Sheik and other history. Its really fun that we are in this era of wrestling books where actual professional writers, journalists and historians are writing books

[odessasteps]

Brian was on our show last year for those that didn’t listen. 

he did a great episode a couple weeks ago with his wife which was a fun look at a civilians POV of the business. And he’s having Karl Knox’s son on soon. 
 

[Curt McGirt]

There really needed to be a Sheik book too since everyone is dying and he couldn't even get his son to talk before passing. 

One of his descriptions of a booker I never heard of was a "terse penguin of a man" haha

[Curt McGirt]

The Nitro book is here. So, who made the pre-Nitro offer, was that Vince? I thought he was on hard times right then?

[barrybonanza]

What's the best book about life in Japan, wrestling wise? Any and all recommendations welcome.

[zendragon]

On 6/23/2024 at 10:06 AM, Curt McGirt said:

There really needed to be a Sheik book too since everyone is dying and he couldn't even get his son to talk before passing. 

One of his descriptions of a booker I never heard of was a "terse penguin of a man" haha

Also since he never really had an extended run in either the WWF or JCP/WCW he runs the risk of being a forgotten of history

 

6 hours ago, barrybonanza said:

What's the best book about life in Japan, wrestling wise? Any and all recommendations welcome.

Masked Decisions covers Dick Byer living in Japan while being top Ganjin