YOUR ALL-NEW WRESTLING BOOK THREAD

[Nomad]

I Second the Beyer book. Stan Hansen's book is also really good.

[Curt McGirt]

Here's a passage from the Sheik book that I have to share. He had just shown for a tag with Pat Tanaka against Kevin Sullivan and Taz(maniac) for the only time he ever wrestled in the ECW Arena. Couldn't even get in the ring because there was no steps, but brawled on the outside with Sullivan and threw fire twice.

Spoiler

"Farhat [Sheik] was keenly aware of the disappointment, as is evidenced by Dreamer's recollection of being driven back to the hotel that night with Sheik and Sabu, by a critical fan who got more than he bargained for. "We're going over the bridge by where the Eagles play, over the Schuylkill River. The guy who's driving the car says to Sheik, 'Such an honor to see you live. It sucks that you missed the first fireball, but you got it the second time.' The car goes silent. Sabu tells the guy to shut up because he sees Sheik getting mad. And then Sheik throws a fireball at the guy while he's driving and goes, 'Did I miss now?'" 

 Crazy old bastard!

[Curt McGirt]

It really had a touching ending. Sheik could be his own worst enemy, but he did it his way. Dude deserves a statue in Detroit just for history's sake. 

Highest recommendation.

EDIT: I went ahead and just ordered my own copy to keep even if I don't read it again, so there you go. 

Edited June 28, 2024 by Curt McGirt

[driver]

Loved The Sheik book to death. It was as in depth as the Culkin's Mississippi Territory wasn't. Read both back to back and enjoyed both.

[zendragon]

Now onto the other Sheik, The Iron Sheik....

There have been two biography's of Khosrow Vaziri; one was commissioned by the WWE when they had the Simon and Shuster deal (and where trying to do something like a book a month) and got shelved cause it was apparently just so damn dark and depressing. This has never seen the light of day.

The other was started by Brad Balukjian and ended up being published 20 years later as The Six Pack: in The open road in search of WRESTLEMANIA (2024, 286 pgs). This is certainly one of the more interesting concepts for a book, it starts with The Iron Sheik in the depths of his crack addiction and the author ends the project after realizing he's essentially enabling self destructive behavior.

So instead of a biography its a series of profiles of the men who lead the WWF's expansion period heading up to WrestleMania (not all of the men profiled where on the 1st WrestleMania card or where completely out of the company) Tony Atlas (also likes crack along with feet), Vince McMahon (some very interesting comments from people who worked behind the scenes for him during this period, running theme through the book is the differences between him and his father given how many men worked)  , Sgnt Slaughter (his stolen valor BS and why he got on the outs with Vince) Tito Santana (his son talks about how his father grew up extremely catholic but grew to accept him as gay), Bill Eadie (wanna know why Demolition isn't in the HOF yet? his 11 year lawsuit) , Jose Luis Rivera (growing up in poverty in Puerto Rico and being inspired by Pedro Morales) and Finally Hulk Hogan (trying to get to the truth of a lot of his bullshit and recent scandals) and an overall lot at how the wrestling business uses abuses and spits the boys out.

And then it circles back to Khosrow Vaziri at the end of his life dealing with murder of his daughter and having cleaned up, seemingly at peace.

It's very well done and attempts to find the real men behind the characters.  The human being who portrayed these superhuman beings, almost all men profiles are interviewed (Slaughter, Vince and Hogan being the exceptions) and he interviews a good number of people who where involved with them at various points in their lives (doesn't get slaughter but does talk to his 90 year old HS football coach for example)

a really fun read about the early WrestleMania era of the WWF

[Curt McGirt]

That sounds really cool. 

On the topic of dark and depressing, I'm reading the Nitro book now and opened it again over breakfast (I always read at the table). The chapter I was starting has Ted Turner congratulating everyone over the Time-Warner merger and then it immediately drops you into the backstory of Ted and how his father was a bipolar abusive maniac who shot himself after his breakfast with a .45 one morning. THAT was unexpected. Damn...

Anyway, the book is really good so far, and it's fun to read between the lines or pick a side when given two polar opposite viewpoints/retellings of history. Like, of course Kevin Sullivan wrote the shows and Bischoff is lying out of egotism. 

Edited July 1, 2024 by Curt McGirt

[Chopper_kingpin]

Quote

17 hours ago, zendragon said:

Now onto the other Sheik, The Iron Sheik....

There have been two biography's of Khosrow Vaziri; one was commissioned by the WWE when they had the Simon and Shuster deal (and where trying to do something like a book a month) and got shelved cause it was apparently just so damn dark and depressing. This has never seen the light of day.

The other was started by Brad Balukjian and ended up being published 20 years later as The Six Pack: in The open road in search of WRESTLEMANIA (2024, 286 pgs). This is certainly one of the more interesting concepts for a book, it starts with The Iron Sheik in the depths of his crack addiction and the author ends the project after realizing he's essentially enabling self destructive behavior.

So instead of a biography its a series of profiles of the men who lead the WWF's expansion period heading up to WrestleMania (not all of the men profiled where on the 1st WrestleMania card or where completely out of the company) Tony Atlas (also likes crack along with feet), Vince McMahon (some very interesting comments from people who worked behind the scenes for him during this period, running theme through the book is the differences between him and his father given how many men worked)  , Sgnt Slaughter (his stolen valor BS and why he got on the outs with Vince) Tito Santana (his son talks about how his father grew up extremely catholic but grew to accept him as gay), Bill Eadie (wanna know why Demolition isn't in the HOF yet? his 11 year lawsuit) , Jose Luis Rivera (growing up in poverty in Puerto Rico and being inspired by Pedro Morales) and Finally Hulk Hogan (trying to get to the truth of a lot of his bullshit and recent scandals) and an overall lot at how the wrestling business uses abuses and spits the boys out.

And then it circles back to Khosrow Vaziri at the end of his life dealing with murder of his daughter and having cleaned up, seemingly at peace.

It's very well done and attempts to find the real men behind the characters.  The human being who portrayed these superhuman beings, almost all men profiles are interviewed (Slaughter, Vince and Hogan being the exceptions) and he interviews a good number of people who where involved with them at various points in their lives (doesn't get slaughter but does talk to his 90 year old HS football coach for example)

a really fun read about the early WrestleMania era of the WWF

 

A few copies of The Iron Sheik biography made it out.

 

https://www.facebook.com/WrestlingBooksAutobiographies/photos/a.711119585589054/4455144501186525/?type=3

[zendragon]

Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra - THE SHEIK OF ARABY - 1932 (youtube.com)

The song that apparently inspired the Sheik

The Sheik 1921 Rudolph Valentino - YouTube

and the film (and currently Hollywood High School mascot) that he likely was aware of

[odessasteps]

He also apparently loved The thief of Baghdad.

[sabremike]

The Brian Gewirtz book is on sale for $3.99 on Kindle. Two chapters in and it reminds me of Jericho's books in terms of being very enjoyable and informative.

[colonial]

On 7/1/2024 at 12:36 AM, zendragon said:

Now onto the other Sheik, The Iron Sheik....

There have been two biography's of Khosrow Vaziri; one was commissioned by the WWE when they had the Simon and Shuster deal (and where trying to do something like a book a month) and got shelved cause it was apparently just so damn dark and depressing. This has never seen the light of day.

The other was started by Brad Balukjian and ended up being published 20 years later as The Six Pack: in The open road in search of WRESTLEMANIA (2024, 286 pgs). This is certainly one of the more interesting concepts for a book, it starts with The Iron Sheik in the depths of his crack addiction and the author ends the project after realizing he's essentially enabling self destructive behavior.

So instead of a biography its a series of profiles of the men who lead the WWF's expansion period heading up to WrestleMania (not all of the men profiled where on the 1st WrestleMania card or where completely out of the company) Tony Atlas (also likes crack along with feet), Vince McMahon (some very interesting comments from people who worked behind the scenes for him during this period, running theme through the book is the differences between him and his father given how many men worked)  , Sgnt Slaughter (his stolen valor BS and why he got on the outs with Vince) Tito Santana (his son talks about how his father grew up extremely catholic but grew to accept him as gay), Bill Eadie (wanna know why Demolition isn't in the HOF yet? his 11 year lawsuit) , Jose Luis Rivera (growing up in poverty in Puerto Rico and being inspired by Pedro Morales) and Finally Hulk Hogan (trying to get to the truth of a lot of his bullshit and recent scandals) and an overall lot at how the wrestling business uses abuses and spits the boys out.

And then it circles back to Khosrow Vaziri at the end of his life dealing with murder of his daughter and having cleaned up, seemingly at peace.

It's very well done and attempts to find the real men behind the characters.  The human being who portrayed these superhuman beings, almost all men profiles are interviewed (Slaughter, Vince and Hogan being the exceptions) and he interviews a good number of people who where involved with them at various points in their lives (doesn't get slaughter but does talk to his 90 year old HS football coach for example)

a really fun read about the early WrestleMania era of the WWF

Brad Balukjian also wrote 2020's "The Wax Pack," where he opened a 1986 Topps baseball wax pack and searched for the 14 ballplayers featured on the cards. Sounds like he learned that brevity was better with The Six Pack (I liked The Wax Pack, but going on a search for 14 players and discussing your own life as well could be overbearing at times in one book. Also didn't care for what appeared to be the author essentially stalking Carlton Fisk for an interview, which he didn't want to do and his assistant turned down).

[zendragon]

Turning The Tables: The Story of Extreme Championship Wrestling by John Lister 2005 159pgs.

A quick trip down memory lane. Similar to other books about the declines of WCW & ECW you probably know most of the big stories (Austin and Pillman showing up for example) but this does have some interesting info. A Chapter devoted to the whole Raven v Dreamer feud (no, the loser leaves ECW match wasn't Raven's first pinfall lose to Dreamer), and in-depth look at the mass transit incident, also a good bit about ECW business numbers, a lot of info about actual PPV buy rates, live attendance, and a lot of detail about the bankruptcy. Final chapters of the book cover One Night Stand and ECW lasting legacy and influence.

[Curt McGirt]

Finished Nitro. That was great. So many insane details (like Russo making some wrestler sing basically a whole set of Sinatra for release and corporate immediately nixing it) and interesting personalities you didnt know existed. There really wasn't any one finger to point at the demise, but do I believe in "the conspiracy"? ...Maybe. Siegel's air of contempt at the very start of Who Killed WCW? about wrestling in general was just too strong for me to trust a goddamn thing he said in any positive manner. I still have to finish the last chapter so maybe some more thoughts then.

[zendragon]

If you've finished Nitro and need more WCW in your life might I suggest..

SITTING RINGSIDE: VOLUME 1 By David Penzer w/ Guy Evans (who wrote Nitro and co-wrote Eric Bischoff's lates book which I have no plans to read or review) 281 pgs.

You might remember Penzer pretty much replaced GMC around the start of the Nitro era and was there till the end, so that's the material covered along with breaking into the business on the local level, doing high school radio, and getting his start in WCW by driving up job guys to tv tapings. It's a bit of a fresh perspective on what the hell happened with WCW during the MNW. Covers the various transitions between regimes (he was pretty close with Sullivan and actually ended up being a minor voice in some of the later creative committees including the Jimmy Hart booked WCWSN) along with guys he ended up being close with such as Jericho, ARN, and various refs and announcers (gets into detail about back stage drama with them) and some fun road stories like the Sid squeegee incident, a couple of sleeze thread worthy stories about The Public Enemy , and Hardwork Bobby Walker going to prison! Book ends with WCW being bought out by WWF, and what it was like for him and others to be up in the air during that period. Vol. 2 is supposed to start with his work in TNA. Book also contains several hundred pages of show formats and memos that may be of varying interest 

Goes well with Smellys thread...

[Curt McGirt]

That sounds really cool. I still have to get the Kayfabe and Portland books though first...

[Gorman]

I have published my ECW history book, "King of Philadelphia: Who Was the MVP of Extreme Championship Wrestling?"

Here's the link: King of Philadelphia: Who Was the MVP of Extreme Championship Wrestling? (Jeff Gorman's Pro Wrestling History): GORMAN, JEFF: 9798327497351: Amazon.com: Books.

As per tradition, let's see how many Dean tributes I put in this book:

For taking psychological warfare to the EXTREME~!, Raven is the MVP.

New Jack's unique brand of mayhem (including a STAPLE GUN~!) was only available in ECW.

He decided this match needed MORE COWBELL~! and taped a second one to Corino's head.

Making up the rules as you go along is EXTREME~!

Because copyright infringement is EXTREME~!

 

 

[Happ Hazzard]

I'm halfway through Steve Keirn's second book after reading the first one. They're very good.

Some takeaways so far:

Steve has a low opinion of Eddie and Mike Graham, after growing up thinking of Eddie as a kind of father figure (while his own father was a POW in Vietnam) and Mike as a brother. Eddie tried to get Steve to invest in CWF and kept giving him bags of money before Keirn backed out of the deal and got his investment back. Mike got Steve to invest money in a bar that a few weeks later he said had closed down and the money was gone.

Steve didn't admit any philandering while he was in the Fabulous Ones. I think he's been married to the same woman for about 50 years so that would probably explain why.

Keirn is forthright about his failings as a promoter in the late 80s with FCW/PWF. Even after Dusty came in they were only drawing about 200 people and sometimes much fewer. Dusty also wasted their money by flying in a Lear jet.

He also admits he wasn't much good as a realtor and that's why he had to come back to wrestling.

The Skinner gimmick was Keirn's idea. He was a legitimate Alligator hunter until the US allowed imports of Caiman hides from South America which caused the price of Alligator hides to plummet. He liked doing the gimmick but after a while realised it wasn't going anywhere.

He suggested being the second Doink and the attack on Crush at WM9. He was under the ring for the entire show, both before and after that match.

After a while he was sick of having to put on the Doink makeup every night which took about two hours. The WWF had makeup artists for TV but he had to do it himself for house shows. He figured he could get a contract from WCW so he asked for his release.

In WCW the original idea for the "Bad Attitude" tag team with Keirn and Bobby Eaton is that they were both pissed off that Stan Lane wasn't teaming with them anymore. However Stan Lane wasn't in the promotion at the time so it didn't really make sense. Ric Flair's intended name for the team was "Men of Distinction" but they didn't like it.

 

[RazorbladeKiss87]

Honestly, "Men of Distinction" is a really cool tag team name. 

[No Point Stance]

Weren't Eaton and Keirn also The Fabulous Express for, like, a week?

[RazorbladeKiss87]

Has anyone read the Bert Prentice book? I'm guessing there's a lot of carny stuff but I'm really intrigued.

[AxB]

https://x.com/HybridShoot/status/1872780348888891568

Way of the Blade 2, eh? In less than two months, even?

[odessasteps]

Intrigued to get the London book. 

[Happ Hazzard]

What are the best wrestling books of 2024? Has the shortlist for Meltzer's awards come out yet?

[Matt D]

Did anyone read the Barry Horowitz book yet?

[SovietShooter]

1 hour ago, Happ Hazzard said:

What are the best wrestling books of 2024?

I imagine most "best of 2024" lists will have The Last Real World Champ and Blood & Fire on them... and both are excellent.