Under-the-radar wrestling book recommendations

[SomethingSavage]

Conrad made Beefcake's book sound interesting on that particular podcast.

When Brutus popped up twice on Austin's show to plug it? Not so much.

Maybe the book really is a decent read. But Brutus is still one of those older generation guys that exaggerates A LOT and seems to expect people to simply buy it.

I mean, he seems harmless enough with his tall tales. But he had no shortage of them on Austin's podcast - where he talks about working 24 hour days on movies with Hulk, working 45-minute house show tag team matches where all 4 guys got juice in 80s WWF, teaching the "green" Bulldogs how to work main event style, etc.

[C.S.]

1 hour ago, SomethingSavage said:

teaching the "green" Bulldogs how to work main event style, etc.

I can at least believe this one. We've heard similar stories of Vince having X-Pac do the same with Jericho.

[flyonthewall2983]

According to the Kindle link, the publishing company's name is "Walking On Hot Waffles". I should hasten my dream of becoming a writer, sign up with them so I can tell my grandchildren one day that the great American novel was published by them.

[C.S.]

Chiming in with a recommendation for Teeny: Professional Wrestling's Grand Dame. I was in the mood to read it after listing to the first few episodes of the Jerry Jarrett podcast.

It's an absolutely riveting read and a must for any wrestling fan, historian, etc.

You can borrow it for free with Kindle Unlimited or get the Kindle book for $4 otherwise. The paperback is around $15. However you choose to read it, it's worth it.

 

[C.S.]

Cross Rhodes: Goldust, Out of the Darkness just dropped to 99 cents on Kindle. 

Just be aware that it's more about Dustin's drug issues and daddy issues and less about his wrestling career, so don't expect any deep insight on his great matches and angles. 

I may re-buy it on Kindle anyway - not sure yet.

I haven't checked to see if any other WWE books have dropped in price. I'll update the thread if there's anything else.

Edit: Full list of price drops on WWE books:


99 cents
 

- Andre the Giant: A Legendary Life

- Showdowns: The 20 Greatest Wrestling Rivalries of the Last Twenty Years

- Batista Unleashed

- Cross Rhodes: Goldust, Out of the Darkness

- Diary of a Heartbreak Kid: Shawn Michaels' Journey into the WWE Hall of Fame

- My Favorite Match: WWE Superstars Tell the Stories of Their Most Memorable Matches

- The World Wrestling Entertainment Yearbook 2003 Edition

- Wrestling for My Life: The Legend, the Reality, and the Faith of a WWE Superstar

- WWE Legends - Superstar Billy Graham: Tangled Ropes

$1.99
 

- Adam Copeland On Edge

- Hollywood Hulk Hogan

- Triple H Making the Game: Triple H's Approach to a Better Body

 

It's been years since I've read Superstar Billy Graham: Tangled Ropes, but I remember liking it. That's probably the one sure buy for me. (Edit: I bought it.)

Wrestling for My Life, the HBK religious/wrestling book, is surprisingly good. I actually liked it more than his first book. No idea how Diary of a Heartbreak Kid is though.

I remember My Favorite Match being a fun read.

Adam Copeland On Edge was written too early in his career, but it's good for what it is. This is where the JBL shower story comes from. If you look up the term "wrestling bubble," this would be it - with Edge describing the experience as some kind of rite of passage and honor, or at least that's how it came across to me.

 

[flyonthewall2983]

Regal's book is 2.99

[C.S.]

1 hour ago, flyonthewall2983 said:

Regal's book is 2.99

That seems to be the pema-price on Kindle, but be aware, it apparently has massive OCR issues (basically a bad conversion with formatting issues, typos that weren't there originally, etc.). If someone has it, please let us know if that's still the case.

[Al]

I don't see any obvious formatting problems. I'm looking at the Web Kindle reader. I seem to recall text overlapping with images, that's been fixed. I recommend it.

[JRH]

So has anyone picked up the History of Nitro book (simply titled "Nitro") by Guy Evans? I just bought it and while I havent gotten around to reading it yet, the reviews I saw were incredibly glowing and described just how much depth the book goes into.

[SPS]

Still waiting for mine in the mail as I prefer to read the physical copy over a digital one although I have that one sitting on my laptop.

[C.S.]

A couple of new Kindle deals:

Free (wrestling novels)

- The Condemned
- Buddy Cooper Finds a Way: A Novel
- The Secret Life of Dr. Demented

99 cents

- Ted DiBiase
- Rey Mysterio: Behind the Mask

I remember the Mysterio book being surprisingly great.

[SirEdger]

How didn't I know before today that there were wrestling novels? And I always dreamed of writing one as well!

[The Thread Killer]

I have ordered a couple of new books that are on their way to me as we speak.

The first book I ordered is NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW by Guy Evans. I have seen a bunch of people giving this book rave reviews online and heard people widely praising it on podcasts.  One of the things I have enjoyed about Eric Bischoff's podcast is the details he has provided about the inner workings of WCW on the corporate and business end of things.  Backstage stories about booking and who hated who are interesting, but I find the corporate aspect of WCW even more compelling.

I remember Kevin Nash once saying that the WWF was a wrestling company that had a TV show, whereas WCW was a TV company that had a wrestling show. The fact that WCW was owned by a corporation that was run by executives who had no desire to be the wrestling business always fascinated me.  Guy Evans managed to get interviews with all of the usual suspects for this book from the wrestling end of things (Bischoff, Russo, Nash, etc.) but he also managed to score interviews with high level Turner Broadcasting executives like Harvey Schiller, Bill Burke, Joe Uva, Scott Safon and more interestingly Jamie Kellner...the man who many people say really killed WCW.

A number of people who have read this book have claimed that it has given them a totally different perspective on the whole "Monday Night War."  Bischoff has read it and says that he thinks it is fair and accurate for the most part, with the caveat that he is less than thrilled with how he comes across in parts of the book.  He certainly likes this book more than The Death of WCW, but from what I have heard this is hardly a puff piece.   One of the reasons I ordered it is because apparently some of these executive interviews reveal details that even Bischoff was unaware of regarding the higher level of Turner Broadcasting's attitude and machinations toward WCW.

I'm looking forward to giving it a read and seeing how it is.

The other book I ordered was Death of the Territories: Expansion, Betrayal and the War that Changed Pro Wrestling Forever by Tim Hornbaker.  I am a big Tim Hornbaker fan. He was one of the writers responsible for helping to uncover and expose the hoax perpetrated on baseball fans about Ty Cobb by disgraced (and deceased) sportswriter Al Stump.

Without getting into too much detail, a writer named Al Stump wrote Ty Cobb's official biography. After Cobb died, Stump wrote a second sensational book about Ty Cobb, which basically totally destroyed his reputation.  Stump then went on to sell a ton of Ty Cobb memorabilia and donated items of Cobb's (like a diary) to the Baseball Hall of Fame. In Stump's book Cobb is portrayed as a drunk, drug addicted, womanizing, egotistical, mentally ill racist, who also killed somebody.  This book was so popular it was made into a movie starring Tommy Lee Jones as Ty Cobb and Robert Wuhl as Al Stump, in which Cobb is further portrayed as a rapist.  This book and movie have basically shaped the modern perception of Ty Cobb that stands to this day with many people.

The problem is, the majority of Al Stump's book and the entire film are total fabrications.  Researchers have managed to expose this fact, and it was later discovered that the memorabilia Stump was selling and donating was all forged by Stump.  The actual biographical information in his book was plagiarized and the remainder of the stories were invented by Stump.  Tim Hornbaker did an incredible job of researching Cobb's life, and documenting and exposing the truth about both Ty Cobb and Al Stump's financially motivated fictional character assassination of him. (For the record, Ty Cobb was still an aggressive jerk - he just wasn't anywhere near the monster Stump made him out to be.) Hornbaker has also written books on the infamous 1919 Black Sox scandal and Shoeless Joe Jackson.

Tim Hornbaker had already written a number of wrestling titles like "National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly That Strangled Pro Wrestling" and "Capitol Revolution: The Rise of the McMahon Wrestling Empire." When I heard Jim Cornette and Brian Last raving about his latest book "Death of the Territories" I was intrigued because I already liked Hornbaker based on his work on the Cobb book.  Since then, I have heard nothing but great things about this new book from a number of wrestling personalities and podcast hosts whose opinions I respect.  Put it this way, when Jim Cornette thinks you have done a good job at documenting Pro Wrestling History, you must have done something right.  Say what you want about Cornette, but the man knows and appreciates his wrestling history.

I am also greatly anticipating the arrival of this new book.

When both of them have arrived and I have read them, I will post reviews here.

 

[Migs]

I'm about 150 pages into Guy's book and it's pretty good so far. Some really interesting stuff on things going on with the higher ups. No really big revelations on the stuff closer to the wrestling show if you've followed other things, but some interesting tidbits there. 

I will also say - I was next to Guy for a day on Podcast Row at Starrcast, and he (and Neil Pruitt) are super nice, smart dudes. Pleasure to talk with them for my podcast, and Guy is going to be a guest on my live wrestling comedy show on October 25.

[Al]

I had my eye on the Hornbaker book, will almost certainly order that one.

[WingedEagle]

Very interested in hearing what folks think about the Nitro and Hornbaker books.  Both sound promising.

[Tabe]

Here is my review of Tim Hornbaker's "Death of the Territories".  It was written for Amazon but they think Tim bribed me so I can't post it there:

Tim Hornbaker is a writer with feet planted firmly in two subject areas - professional wrestling and baseball history. His biographies of Ty Cobb and Shoeless Joe Jackson have received universal acclaim and are absolutely best-in-class for their respective subjects and in the realm of baseball biography.

Hornbaker's pro wrestling offerings have been much more of a mixed bag. His initial entry, "National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly That Strangled Pro Wrestling" was a dense, scholarly tome packed with a tremendous amount of detail. Unfortunately, it was held back by a lack of editing, mixing of real & stage names, and being out of order chronologically. Hornbaker's history of the World Wrestling Federation, "Capitol Revolution: The Rise of the McMahon Wrestling Empire" featured better editing but its back cover falsely claimed the book covered the WWF up through the late 80s (it actually stopped in early 1984) and it suffered a bit of sameness with regard to material in comparison to his NWA book.

"Death of the Territories" is Hornbaker's latest foray into the world of pro wrestling and it largely corrects the flaws of his prior books. Stage and real names used in a way that makes sense? Check. Chronological order? Check. Better editing? Check.

"Territories" tells the history of how the pro wrestling industry divided the United States into various areas ("territories") in which promoters would have essentially exclusive control of the wrestling business. Competition between territories was largely non-existent. This format allowed dozens of groups to flourish.

Then came Vince McMahon and cable television in the 1980s. Suddenly, fans in one part of the country could see wrestling from another part of the country. The boundary lines became blurred and the rumblings of competition began. McMahon had the foresight to know what this meant for the future of wrestling and immediately began making moves to expand his World Wrestling Federation after purchasing it from his father in 1982. One after another, McMahon moved in on various territories and swallowed them up. This eventually led to wrestling being reduced, essentially, two companies with McMahon's WWF being the far larger of the two.

"Territories" recounts this expansion in tremendous detail. There are plenty of dates, attendance and gate dollar figures to satisfy even the most demanding of readers. Hornbaker has always been known for his deep research and that is on full display here. I am well-versed in the subject of wrestling's territories and the expansion of the WWF and I still learned quite a bit from this book. I would think EVERY wrestling fan would find "Territories" educational.

If "Territories" has a flaw, it's the inevitability of the story it's telling. We all know how it plays out and where it's going. In addition, there's a certain sameness to much of the detail. McMahon's expansion mostly boils down to something like this: Lure away a couple of star wrestlers, land a TV station in a territory, begin running live events, buy out or force to close the competition, rinse and repeat. That's not Hornbaker's fault - after all, that's how it really played out - but some might find this just a touch repetitive.

Also missing are new/fresh interviews with the subjects of the book. Sure, some major players, like Verne Gagne, are no longer alive. But many others - McMahon, Jim Crockett, Bill Watts, Jim Cornette, Greg Gagne, etc - are but they are not interviewed here. We do get quotes but they are all from news stories or prior articles from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter or various newspapers. Hornbaker's style is to do research, not interviews, but I think it hurt this book just a bit. Some additional "color" and stories would have helped balance out the litany of statistics.

So what's the bottom line? "Death of the Territories" is very, very good. It tells a well-known story with a depth of detail not previously seen and tells it well. With "Death of the Territories", Tim Hornbaker has hit his stride as a pro wrestling writer. Any fan who was around in the 1980s or has explored that time period at all will enjoy this book and find much information that they didn't previously no. Definitely recommended. Five stars.

[Tabe]

I'm 160 pages into "Nitro" by Guy Evans and, so far, it's the best wrestling book I've ever read.

[DMJ]

I'm interested in Nitro and will probably buy it (or try to get it through the library), but am curious how it compares to Death of WCW. My fear is that I'm going to read 500+ pages of information that I've already read and reread and reread through Death of WCW. Does it offer new insights? New sources of info? A different take on what went wrong and right?  

[fakeplastictrees]

56 minutes ago, DMJ said:

I'm interested in Nitro and will probably buy it (or try to get it through the library), but am curious how it compares to Death of WCW. My fear is that I'm going to read 500+ pages of information that I've already read and reread and reread through Death of WCW. Does it offer new insights? New sources of info? A different take on what went wrong and right?  

Its definitely worth the purchase. Death of WCW and "WCW Nitro" are two different reads. Not to plug myself, but I touched on your concerns (and potentially other questions you may have) in my conversation with Guy Evans on a recent episode of MIS. Listen to the first 15 minutes or so and I think that will cover your questions. Its deinfitely not a fluff piece or an opinion piece. Its probably the most matter-of-fact account of WCW's history ever printed.

 

[rovert]

18 hours ago, Tabe said:

I'm 160 pages into "Nitro" by Guy Evans and, so far, it's the best wrestling book I've ever read.

Enjoyed it lately. Have never fully gotten over the promotion closing on a level that is more personal than I'd like to admit. Also have been rewatching WCW on the Network for a good while now as a nostalgia kick. Nitro brought a new level of closure to me on what went down.

[Blehschmidt]

On 7/13/2018 at 11:45 PM, C.S. said:

Chiming in with a recommendation for Teeny: Professional Wrestling's Grand Dame. I was in the mood to read it after listing to the first few episodes of the Jerry Jarrett podcast.

It's an absolutely riveting read and a must for any wrestling fan, historian, etc.

You can borrow it for free with Kindle Unlimited or get the Kindle book for $4 otherwise. The paperback is around $15. However you choose to read it, it's worth it.

 

I will go ahead and second this one. I am about half way into the book and enjoying it quite a bit. Very fun and interesting read.

Wasn't sure I would like it since I can't stand Double J, but his grandmother and father are quite alright!!

[G. Badger]

Haven't seen it mentioned but, The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling is a fun overview of the history of wrestling for fans of comics. Its relatively new-covers US, Mexico, UK and Japan.

[C.S.]

Amazon's traditional Black Friday/Prime Day coupon code: NOVBOOK18 for $5 off a $20+ book order.

I'm thinking of using it to get the Nitro book. 

One note: For some reason, using coupon codes seems to take away your "verified purchase" status if you review the book, if you care about such things. Made me look like an illicit bootlegger when I reviewed Liam O'Rourke's Pillman book, even though I did purchase it legitimately from Amazon. Might've just been a glitch at the time though. Who knows? 

[DMJ]

So glad I purchased Nitro a few weeks back. It is, as others have said, a fantastic read. Strongly recommended.