goodhelmet Posted January 19, 2006 Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 Below is a quote from DA in the current "Wrestling books that you have read" thread. His post made me think that we should do this for more books. If DA wanted to post importnat facts and passages from Wrestling At the Chase, I am sure that there are other posters who would be willing to do the same with other books. I would recommend not doing this with books like Tributes or Greatest Tag Teams. Instead, I think it would be better if we concentrated on books that are from a specific point of view. I would be more than willing to do any book on my list (preferably one I haven't read). I have Bill Watts' book on the way so that would be a good start for me. DA has already done some great stuff with the Chase book. I know Loss just picked up Death of WCW. I would have picked DK's book but I have a gut feeling wild pegasus would want dibs on that. What do you guys think? Basically, Larry Matysik points out Sam Mushnick's booking philosophies and disciplines. Just a couple of points about Sam's booking... - He didn't like to hotshot. Sam felt hotshotting might work to pop a crowd once or so, but then there is a letdown that you can't match. Sam was all about consistency and respecting the audience. Sam never refferred to fans as "marks" because he felt it disrespected the people putting money in your bank and food on your table. - Sam subscribed to the 6-8 interchangeable guys on top to keep main events fresh versus one guy knocking back challenger after challenger, although Mushnick has seen that approach work. Sam came from a real sports background and was of the theory that a 4-5 team pennant race was more exciting than a one team runaway. - They booked backwards. If the champion is going to be in town in April (NWA champ came to St. Louis every once in awhile) they'd better start building up whoever was going to be facing that champ starting in January. - Was adamant about guys doing jobs and if you didn't want to job, you couldn't work for Sam. Was of the thinking that if you were built up to face the champion and didn't beat him, it didn't mean you went back down to midcard status like today. Nick Bockwinkel also said that doing jobs actually convinced him to work harder because he wanted to put doubt in the promoter's head about whether or not the right guy went over and a good performance jobbing to a champion actually raised your value. - Was huge on protecting the championship versus protecting the champion. Sam felt the championship was the most important thing. - When booking always ask yourself "Does this make sense?" when it comes to storylines and "Will it draw money?" when it comes to angles for the main event and who should go over. There are a bunch of other things. I may do a more in depth synopsis or book review for this particular message board once I finish the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dangerous A Posted January 19, 2006 Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 To do "Wrestling at the Chase" justice, I think it would be best for me to recap chapter to chapter. That is the best way for this particular book since there is so much stuff between Matysik's recounts of people who worked St Louis and his personal encounters with Sam Mushnick. I wouldn't mind recapping chapter by chapter for this particular book. The next wrestling book I plan on tackling is Terry Funk's book, followed by Scott Williams ECW book slated for March 1, 2006. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted January 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 Sounds great. Anyone else up for this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted January 19, 2006 Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 I could help out. I'm half way through Dusty's book and have got JJ's and Ole's books yet to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted January 19, 2006 Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 I'd recap Death of WCW, but it would take quite a while. But I'm willing to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted January 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 I don't think we have to do just straight recaps either. For instance, in the Death of WCW, there is no need to tell us the finger poke was a bad move when it is common knowledge. If you look at DA's post, I knew none of those things about Sam Muchnick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted January 19, 2006 Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 Well, Death of WCW is pretty much all common knowledge, it's just that it was all brought together as one cohesive book. So I don't think that would work in this case because it would be all common knowledge stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted January 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 Ah ok. Well, if you come across any rare nuggets of information, feel free to share. Do you have any other books you would be interested in doing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted January 19, 2006 Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 I think with a book like Death Of WCW it's more interesting to talk about the authors analysis of what happened, rather than simply recap the history, as most of us lived through it as fans. The book was a good overview of what happened, but sometimes I felt their analysis was a bit simplistic and didn't look at the big picture enough. Too much, ha, ha, wasn't this a stupid angle, not enough looking at the behind the scenes turmoil that led to the stupid ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest EastCoastJ Posted January 19, 2006 Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 I'm in for the Bill Watts book as soon as I finish it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted January 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 How did you get it already? I thought it wan't released. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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