Under-the-radar wrestling book recommendations

[BigBadMick]

Yes, finished it last week. 

 

A really good read, and very detailed. I agree about the history of WWF being very well covered.

[Blehschmidt]

The new Wolfie D book by our own @GeneJackson95 is a fun read. Wolfie comes across as a guy who very much knows his place in wrestling history and is happy to just get to tell his story in his own way. Very entertaining from start to finish.

[JNLister]

Excuse the plug, but my book "Turning The Tables: The Story of Extreme Championship Wrestling" is 99p on Kindle throughout January (UK only deal I'm afraid): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Turning-Tables-Extreme-Championship-Wrestling/dp/1520782489

[C.S.]

I'm going through the Gorilla book right now. Very good so far.

The Vince book, Ringmaster by Abraham Josephine Riesman, is currently 99 cents on Kindle.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3Y7K6D5/

[The Thread Killer]

9 hours ago, C.S. said:

I'm going through the Gorilla book right now. Very good so far.

Brian Solomon does outstanding research for his books. His book “Blood and Fire” about The Sheik is one of the most comprehensive biographies I’ve ever read, not just of a Pro Wrestler, but of any person (and I have read a ton of biographies.) The Sheik was notoriously private (he is one of those old timers who maintained Kayfabe with his own family) and Sabu said that Solomon uncovered things about his Uncle that even his family didn’t know. I’m not surprised to hear the Monsoon bio is good, I am looking forward to checking it out.

[JRH]

Anyone read the Barry Darsow book? I'm considering picking up that one.

[C.S.]

The Becky Lynch book is currently $1.99 on Kindle.

https://www.amazon.com/Becky-Lynch-Your-Average-Girl-ebook/dp/B0C7RNBXXC

On 1/8/2026 at 10:57 AM, The Thread Killer said:

Brian Solomon does outstanding research for his books. His book “Blood and Fire” about The Sheik is one of the most comprehensive biographies I’ve ever read, not just of a Pro Wrestler, but of any person (and I have read a ton of biographies.) The Sheik was notoriously private (he is one of those old timers who maintained Kayfabe with his own family) and Sabu said that Solomon uncovered things about his Uncle that even his family didn’t know. I’m not surprised to hear the Monsoon bio is good, I am looking forward to checking it out.

I finally finished the Gorilla Monsoon book. It's LONG but very in-depth and worth reading. 

There's no "dirt," so to speak, because Gorilla was pretty squeaky clean. 

The "worst" thing you can say about him is that he was loyal to the WWE until the end. And why not? He was treated like royalty there and was able to provide a good living for his family, which was his main priority.

Meltzer and his brainwashed acolytes are pretty embarrassing in retrospect, "awarding" Gorilla "worst announcer" for years when he was anything but.

Did Monsoon ever end up in the meaningless WON HOF?

On 1/8/2026 at 12:40 PM, JRH said:

Anyone read the Barry Darsow book? I'm considering picking up that one.

My friend read it and showed me a few transcripts. It looks like tons of fun.

[The Thread Killer]

2 hours ago, C.S. said:

I finally finished the Gorilla Monsoon book. It's LONG but very in-depth and worth reading. 

There's no "dirt," so to speak, because Gorilla was pretty squeaky clean. 

The "worst" thing you can say about him is that he was loyal to the WWE until the end. And why not? He was treated like royalty there and was able to provide a good living for his family, which was his main priority.

Meltzer and his brainwashed acolytes are pretty embarrassing in retrospect, "awarding" Gorilla "worst announcer" for years when he was anything but.

I finally ended up purchasing it and I’m about a quarter of the way through it. As I imagined it would be, this book has also been meticulously researched.

I agree with you, his ridiculous Gorilla Monsoon bashing is one of the many things that I dislike about Dave Meltzer. I would take Gorilla and Jesse (or Gorilla and The Brain) over Excalibur and whoever, or even JR and The King, or especially over Michael Cole, any day of the week and twice on Sundays. I count myself lucky that I was a kid during that era and got to hear them on TV every week and during the early years of PPV.

[sek69]

11 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

I agree with you, his ridiculous Gorilla Monsoon bashing is one of the many things that I dislike about Dave Meltzer

A lot of that came from wrestlers at the time complaining to Dave about Gorilla "ruining" things by saying things like "that move won't win the match" on near falls from moves that guys never ended a match with. I guess I can see how that would be irritating but as a kid who didn't give a shit about that kind of thing I loved Gorilla on commentary. 

[JRH]

James Dixon is contiuing his Titan Trilogy by now working on the WWF's 1992-94 period. As someone who enjoyed that series I may have to get that one soon.