Under-the-radar wrestling book recommendations

[C.S.]

I couldn't sleep a few nights ago and decided to explore Overdrive.com (Libby app). Much to my surprise, in the Performing Arts section - of all places - was the book Incomparable by the Bella Twins. So, I said, what the hell, let me check this out...

It was much better than I expected.

I won't go into full detail, but I'll highlight a few interesting points:

- The Bellas have zero fucks to give. They absolutely bury the shit out of WWE, exposing the toxic backstage culture, cattiness of other female workers, how shitty women were treated by the company during the Divas era, etc. She never mentions AJ Lee by name, but her "pipe bomb" promo is brought up as an example of how the women didn't support each other back then and the division only got better when they all decided to unite (Four Horsewomen, etc.). 

- John Cena is never mentioned by name, which is rather bizarre considering how high-profile their relationship was. Instead, Nikki only refers to him as "my ex." She also mentions another ex from the business - she calls him Brad - that I'm assuming is Dolph Ziggler (unless their prior relationship referenced on Total Divas was a complete work). He was described as kind of cruel, but also funny, and still a friend.

- The Bryan/Nikki relationship is covered in-depth. 

- The Bellas address accusations that they only got ahead or used their influence because of their boyfriends and/or father-in-law.

- The Bellas go into way too much detail about their private parts, so be warned. 

Incomparable is presented as a series of alternating passages between Nikki and Brie (similar to the book Matt and Jeff Hardy wrote years ago), which can be a bit confusing because it's easy to lose track of who is writing what, but it's a fun read in general.

[Blehschmidt]

Just saw on Twitter that today only Rock Rims is offering 10% off his excellent "Rotten" Ron Starr book which I finished last week and really enjoyed.

Supposedly only 6 copies left. Says to email him at [email protected]

 

[C.S.]

3 hours ago, Blehschmidt said:

Just saw on Twitter that today only Rock Rims is offering 10% off his excellent "Rotten" Ron Starr book which I finished last week and really enjoyed.

Supposedly only 6 copies left. Says to email him at [email protected]

Assuming this is long gone, where else can this book be purchased? Google is failing me. 

[Blehschmidt]

11 hours ago, C.S. said:

Assuming this is long gone, where else can this book be purchased? Google is failing me. 

It may now be too late for the 10% off, but he seems to be the only person who sells the book. I'd shoot him an e-mail and see if he sold out.

[C.S.]

I'm reading Gary Hart's book now, and it's amazing. I just have one question, which I'll get to below...

But first, full disclosure: I'm reading the PDF that's floating around the net, because the original book has been out of print for years, used copies go for stupidly high prices, and the co-author refuses to re-release it legitimately - even when Court Bauer offered to pay him for the publication rights, or so that story goes. I would GLADLY buy a legitimate copy of the book for a fair price should it ever be republished.

With all of that out of the way, does anyone know if all of the PDF versions out there are missing Chapter 12? (The one about NY and MSG.) Mine goes from a blank Chapter 12 to Chapter 13 about Bruno. 

That's where I am now, so I don't know if there are any other idiosyncrasies like that.

I know the PDF version is said to be a "rough draft" and different from the final publication, which is another reason I'd gladly buy it legitimately if it's ever republished.

Spoiler

You can get it here: https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/10-wrestling-book-must-reads/ (Just scroll down to Gary Hart's book and click on the link.)

It was easy enough to e-mail to my Kindle via the @free.kindle.com address. Just put Convert in the subject line and it converts the file from a PDF to Kindle's native format. Some PDFs don't convert well, but this one looks pretty much perfect.

Note: I am not advocating piracy. Like I said, I would GLADLY buy a legitimate copy of the book for a fair price should it ever be republished. 

[Ricky Jackson]

The "chapter" on NY is a joke. Hart never worked for Vince Sr, hence the chapter being blank 

[C.S.]

2 minutes ago, Ricky Jackson said:

The "chapter" on NY is a joke. Hart never worked for Vince Sr, hence the chapter being blank 

Interesting. I wonder why Vince Sr. never wanted Gary Hart. Maybe he felt the Three Wise Men were enough, and no one else could compare? Hard to fuck with the quality of Albano, Blassie, and Grand Wizard, to be fair, although I consider Gary Hart in the same league. 

[Ricky Jackson]

Based on the timeframe on the book, Hart would've beat both Wizard and Blassie to NY. I think he explains why it didnt happen, but who knows what the real story was 

[C.S.]

Just now, Ricky Jackson said:

Based on the timeframe on the book, Hart would've beat both Wizard and Blassie to NY. I think he explains why it didnt happen, but who knows what the real story was 

Yeah, you're right. I guess that was still the Skaaland era. I assume Chapter 13 about Bruno is where he explains why it never happened. I stopped at 12/13 to investigate the "missing chapter." 

[NintendoLogic]

According to the book (or at least the PDF version), Jim Barnett was working on a deal where Hart would manage Ivan Koloff when he beat Bruno for the title. Then, after Koloff dropped the belt to Pedro, he'd bring them both to Australia with a big push as "the duo that beat Bruno." But Bruno shut down any attempts to bring Hart to New York because a WWWF prelim guy who had worked Amarillo told him that Hart had badmouthed him. I can't imagine Vince the Elder putting the heat from ending Bruno's title reign on a fly-in manager, so the story sounds fishy to me.

[Matt D]

The guys Hart doesn't like in that book (Lothario, Fullers, Fuji), he really doesn't like.

[C.S.]

5 hours ago, Matt D said:

The guys Hart doesn't like in that book (Lothario, Fullers, Fuji), he really doesn't like.

Particularly Jerry Jarrett - HOLYYYYYY SHIT!

Speaking of which, is Jerry Jarrett okay? He used to have a podcast with @Sean Liska@Sean Reedy (not sure which of these names is current, if either) and was active on Twitter, but the podcast hasn't been updated since 2019 (at least on iTunes) and I haven't seen him on Twitter in a while.

[Coffey]

I just finished the Bret Hart book a couple of days ago & it was pretty good but I felt like I had already heard all of the stories that were in the book. From Bret doing shoot interviews & his Hall of Fame speech & what not. A lot of the drama with his family, especially after Owen died, reminded me a lot of how selfish my own family has been in similar situations. Sucks that some people are like that, so I felt for him there. 

Now I'm currently struggling to get through the second Jim Ross book. It feels like a total cash-grab rush job & it's reads like a high school worksheet. That being said, it's super short at least so I could finish it quickly in one sitting if I could find the motivation to do so. The "chapters" are all like a page or two each & read like "remember this. this happened. this sucked. this was cool."

[C.S.]

14 minutes ago, Coffey said:

I just finished the Bret Hart book a couple of days ago & it was pretty good but I felt like I had already heard all of the stories that were in the book. From Bret doing shoot interviews & his Hall of Fame speech & what not. A lot of the drama with his family, especially after Owen died, reminded me a lot of how selfish my own family has been in similar situations. Sucks that some people are like that, so I felt for him there. 

Didn't the book's publication pre-date most of that though? So, I remember it all being really fresh and interesting at the time.

14 minutes ago, Coffey said:

 Now I'm currently struggling to get through the second Jim Ross book. It feels like a total cash-grab rush job & it's reads like a high school worksheet. That being said, it's super short at least so I could finish it quickly in one sitting if I could find the motivation to do so. The "chapters" are all like a page or two each & read like "remember this. this happened. this sucked. this was cool."

Glad I didn't pay full price for this. I'll wait until it's a couple of bucks on KIndle, just to have it for the sake of completion. 

Drew McIntyre and Jericho both have new books coming out.

The Jericho book is seemingly only available from a specialty website for a jacked-up price, but the concept is cool - it's basically a diary of every match he's ever wrestled in (up to a certain point, I would imagine).

https://thescribestore.com/products/the-complete-list-of-jericho-by-chris-jericho

[JRH]

I like the concept of the Jericho book, but I doubt he discusses EVERY match, that would include nondescript house show matches, tv squashes, etc. He likely lists all of his matches, and goes into detail about the more important ones (his debut, his title wins, and such). Also, only 2722 matches in his whole career? For a guy who's been wrestling since 1990, thats actually surprisingly low.

[Ricky Jackson]

34 minutes ago, JRH said:

I like the concept of the Jericho book, but I doubt he discusses EVERY match, that would include nondescript house show matches, tv squashes, etc. He likely lists all of his matches, and goes into detail about the more important ones (his debut, his title wins, and such). Also, only 2722 matches in his whole career? For a guy who's been wrestling since 1990, thats actually surprisingly low.

It kinda makes sense if you add it up. His early years have a relatively low count since he wasn't working full time. Then after WCW and 1999-2005 WWF/E he came and went numerous times, often with long periods off. And last year, even though he is one of AEW's top guys, he only wrestled 25 matches 

[C.S.]

52 minutes ago, JRH said:

I like the concept of the Jericho book, but I doubt he discusses EVERY match, that would include nondescript house show matches, tv squashes, etc

I could see him doing something like listing a bunch of house show matches with, say, Rey Mysterio, and then using that to discuss Rey as a wrestler, throw in some personal, stories, etc.

But who knows.

Wish this wasn't only available on a specialty site. 

[Sean Reedy]

On 4/20/2021 at 1:16 PM, C.S. said:

Particularly Jerry Jarrett - HOLYYYYYY SHIT!

Speaking of which, is Jerry Jarrett okay? He used to have a podcast with @Sean Liska@Sean Reedy (not sure which of these names is current, if either) and was active on Twitter, but the podcast hasn't been updated since 2019 (at least on iTunes) and I haven't seen him on Twitter in a while.

He's good! Enjoying life and attending his grandson's college football games during the fall. He's 78 and gave us 57 episodes and we ran through pretty much everything. I'm really proud that we got as much out of him as we did because otherwise it would have been lost to history.

[Ricky Jackson]

Good to hear. Enjoyed the show, Sean 

[Al]

Read the Gary Hart pdf and certainly there's a lot to take away. But Hart may be the only person in the industry who had a higher opinion of Warrior over Sting.

[C.S.]

I finished the Gary Hart book. It definitely lived up to the hype as one of the best wrestling books ever.

He buried the shit out of Sting, as mentioned above, and also Dave Meltzer. I think he made some good points about Meltzer's reporting style though.

Definitely worth seeking out. 

Other wrestling books in my queue:

- The Eighth Wonder of the World (Bertrand Hebert/Pat Laprade book about Andre)
- Rowdy (the Piper bio written by his kids)
- Memoirs of a Mad Man (Mad Man Pondo book with the greatest cover ever)
- Wrestling with Pixels (which is still available at storybundle.com/games for a limited time in the $5 tier in a variety of DRM-free file formats, including Kindle)
- Young Bucks: Killing the Business from Backyards to the Big Leagues
- Wrestling with the Truth (Bruno Lauer/Downtown Bruno/Harvey Wippleman book)

Any recommendations on which one(s) I should tackle next?

[Al]

Andre was as good a third party wrestling bio as I’ve ever read.

[Strummer]

Haven't read the book but Dave said Hart got mad at him because Meltz was pitching to turn Muta babyface and Hart was dead set against it.

[C.S.]

20 hours ago, Strummer said:

Haven't read the book but Dave said Hart got mad at him because Meltz was pitching to turn Muta babyface and Hart was dead set against it.

Hart contradicts this in the book by saying he wanted Muta to eventually turn babyface.

[C.S.]

I am reading Bruno Laurer (Harvey Wippleman)'s book Wrestling with the Truth right now.

The rasslin' aspect of it is fine and interesting, but holy shit, what a judgmental, homophobic prick he comes across as.

He somehow conned Rock into writing the forward, only to call Rock's grandmother a total bitch in the book. I guess Rock never actually read the thing he wrote the foreword for. Great sign for Rock's upcoming Presidential campaign, and something Baron Trump will definitely nail him on during the debate. 

Downtown Bruno/Harvey Wippleman is so blatantly, embarrassingly, uncomfortably homophobic to the point where you're cringing while reading this. He drops the homophobic f-slur casually, seems obsessed with who is and isn't gay, who is and isn't a "closet queer," and he apparently laments that none of the gay wrestlers he ran into ever showed any interest in him - even though he is 100%, he promises, he swears, he insists, really, completely straight. 

I just got to the WWF portion, so we'll see what he says, if anything, about Pat Patterson.

Another "gem": Bruno is Catholic - great, no problem - but then he says he knows Johnathan Boyd (one of the Sheepherders and one of his mentors) is in Hell because he never found Jesus. Really, Bruno?!

Like I said, the rasslin' portion is great - especially the chapter about what an abuse psychopath asshole Sid is - but everything else about this guy's personality makes me regret spending $10. I get the sense he's probably funny in real life, or at least funny to a wrestling locker room - where you're considered a genius if someone saw you with a book in your hand once - but his "humor" (if you can call it that) definitely doesn't work on the page. At some points, his ranting style comes across as a bootleg of Jim Cornette. Must be something they both picked up in Memphis.