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YOUR ALL-NEW WRESTLING BOOK THREAD


OSJ

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  • 5 weeks later...
On 4/1/2020 at 6:42 AM, EricG said:

The Jim Ross book was delivered yesterday. I can't wait to start it. I was never a huge fan until I started listening to the podcast. 

Is his first book worth reading?

His first book was not an all-time great wrestling book (which, given JR's history in the business, is kind of disappointing), but it's good enough so it's definitely worth a read, yes. 

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1 hour ago, Liam said:

A good book that is a let down considering what it could have been is probably about as spot on as you can get.

Just saw there is an Andre the Giant book due out in the next few days

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Dave is absolutely raving about just how great this book is. Last time he was as enthusiastic in his praise for a book as this one was the Pillman book, so yeah you're all probably going to want to get this one.

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13 hours ago, Happ Hazzard said:

Do the two Jim Ross books cover different parts of his career or are they just two separate bios? 

The first book ends roughly around the time he returns from Bell's Palsy at Wrestlemania 15, so I'd assume the second book follows the time after that. (This also is a benefit for reading the first book and could make it less disappointing to a lot of people here on DVDVR: if you want to hear about promotions that comparatively get very little play in books, because it goes very in-depth through his time in Houston and Mid-South, this is the book for you.) 

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On 4/10/2020 at 8:14 AM, sabremike said:

Dave is absolutely raving about just how great this book is. Last time he was as enthusiastic in his praise for a book as this one was the Pillman book, so yeah you're all probably going to want to get this one.

Hebert/Laprade's track record alone is enough to sell me on this.

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On 4/2/2020 at 1:43 PM, SorceressKnight said:

His first book was not an all-time great wrestling book (which, given JR's history in the business, is kind of disappointing), but it's good enough so it's definitely worth a read, yes. 

Thanks. Just finished Under the Black Hat and thought that was a good description—could have been great but really was just above average. I'd recommend it for a quick read but temper your expectations. 

On 4/11/2020 at 12:48 PM, SorceressKnight said:

The first book ends roughly around the time he returns from Bell's Palsy at Wrestlemania 15, so I'd assume the second book follows the time after that. (This also is a benefit for reading the first book and could make it less disappointing to a lot of people here on DVDVR: if you want to hear about promotions that comparatively get very little play in books, because it goes very in-depth through his time in Houston and Mid-South, this is the book for you.) 

It does. It starts with him working in the office and then being called back to Raw. 

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If your public library has access to the Hoopla service, the Andre book by Bertrand Hebert/Pat Laprade should be available. Will dive into that later tonight...

Edited by Shane
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3 hours ago, Shane said:

If your public library has access to the Hoopla service, the Andre book by Bertrand Hebert/Pat Laprade should be available. Will dive into that later tonight...

If you use hoopla, search by the Title “eighth wonder of the world.” I couldnt find it when i searched for Andre the Giamt. 

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8 hours ago, odessasteps said:

If you use hoopla, search by the Title “eighth wonder of the world.” I couldnt find it when i searched for Andre the Giamt. 

Spelling "Giant" right might have helped.

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Very hard to find time to sneak in reading right now, but I've managed some before bed the last few nights and just made it through the first French Catch chapter, and it's so great to see some more context on some of what we've been seeing and to catch names pop up. In watching all of those Petit Prince matches, I had no idea both he and Andre were trained by Saulnier at the same time, and even promoted to debut together. While, the authors have a number of interviews to work with, a lot of what they're working off of are primary documentation, whether it be the few matches that survived, or the training footage, or programs, and I can sympathize strongly with that (not just due to my history background), because that's a lot of how we're trying to make sense of what we're seeing.

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I mentioned this in Dolfan's WM thread but I read a biography on Roddy Piper that was written by his kids Ariel and Colt.  It's called "Rowdy:  The Roddy Piper Story"  It was intended to be an autobiography from Roddy where he went back to his roots to look into how he was growing up and to catch up with friends and relatives.  But then he passed away so for awhile this didn't happen.  So when the kids talked with the family they decided to go through with whatever they had from him to tell his story.

And what a story it's been.  There were definitely things that were referenced in his previous autobiography.  But this one went much more in-depth on not just his family history but also about people that he grew up and worked with.  It has quotes from all kinds of wrestlers from Mando Guerrero and Len Denton to the likes of Edge and Big Show.  And with it being Colt and Ariel telling the story while it didn't happen much there were times where they would give their brief thoughts on something.  For example when talking about Roddy with the half-black paintjob for WM6 they realized it was a dumb idea and tried to figure out his thought process with that and the aftermath.  Plus it does cover his time doing "They Live" and they even got some quotes from John Carpenter in it.

I came across it a few weeks ago at Barnes and Noble and it made for a really fun read.  I did come away from it thinking of Roddy as a very complex man with some demons that crept up on him in various ways.  A lot of it stemmed from his strained relationship with his dad but he did seem like a very flawed yet good person all-around.  I would definitely recommend checking it out.

Edited by NikoBaltimore
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On 11/25/2019 at 5:16 PM, odessasteps said:

 

The very concept of some 600 pages of Jimmy Valiant's ranting is strangely intriguing.

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5 minutes ago, OSJ said:

The very concept of some 600 pages of Jimmy Valiant's ranting is strangely intriguing.

Seriously I think you just sold me on going to Amazon and ordering this. War and Peace as done by Jimmy Valiant? Yes please!

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2 minutes ago, sabremike said:

Seriously I think you just sold me on going to Amazon and ordering this. War and Peace as done by Jimmy Valiant? Yes please!

You sick little monkey! I'm fighting the urge to do that very thing. (1.) I know that I will only read about twenty pages and give up because I only speak English, and I'm not quite sure what it is that Jimmy Valiant speaks, but I haven't understood a word the man has said since about 1982.  (2.) There is no such thing as a wrestling book that doesn't hit the remainder table sooner rather than later.

Edited by OSJ
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