Don’t buy this. When it arrives sight unseen from an online auction site you’ll discover it’s not by 60s pro wrestler Art Thomas but rather a high school amateur wrestling coach of the same name. You’ll also discover it’s a children’s book, heavily illustrated with pictures of very young kids in singlets locking up and looking inexplicably happy. You’ll also discover that even in the context of having a wrestling book collection, it’s the second worst book a woman visiting your house for the first time can pick off the shelf and idly flick through. Second to Exquisite Mayhem that is. Buy on Amazon
A reprint of a book now in the public domain, this is a nice novelty but doesn’t really have any collector value. Despite the name given to this release, it’s actually part 7 of 8 of a series originally published as “The Sandow-Lewis Kinetic Stress System of Physical Training.” With earlier volumes covering the basics of bodybuilding and self defense, this is the second of three parts dealing with wrestling itself. That most likely suggests this was originally a mail order course sent out over multiple weeks. The 60 or so pages include large photographs and instructions for all manner of holds, including Lewis’s infamous headlock. While they are written for the supposed rules of pro wrestling (such as chokeholds being barred but sleeperholds legal), what’s described appear to be legitimate combat moves that could work in a genuine if performed as described. In particular there’s a lot of detail of correct positioning such as wrist control. It’s tough to recommend this given the nature of the reprint however. A single volume complete print of the full series at a reasonable price would be worth considering, but combining the various instalments would add up to well over $100, which is…
Any list-based book stands and falls on two point: the credibility of the list and the quality and information of the write-ups. Unfortunately this falls short of top-notch in both areas. The big problem with the list is that although the book’s editor Dave Meltzer notes in the forward that choosing criteria for ranking wrestlers — who perform in a sport without objective wins and losses — is difficult, there’s no clear explanation of what Molinaro actually went with. It seems to be some combination of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame’s recipe of in-ring ability, drawing power and historical importance, but how they are applied isn’t obvious. From a historical perspective, there’s little to take issue with at the top of the rankings. My personal off-the-top-of-my-head pick for the ten biggest names ever would be (in alphabetical order) Andre the Giant, Steve Austin, Ric Flair, Frank Gotch, Hulk Hogan, Jim Londos, Rikidozan, Lou Thesz, Antonio Inoki, El Santo and these make up ten of the top 12 names in this list. The middle sections are more disputable and show the difficulty with applying a variety of criteria. It seems strange for example that Jushin Liger is above the…
These are two examples of how printed reference works have been superceded by the Internet, but without the research that went into them, said online reference sources would be far poorer. The Wrestling Title Histories book covers more than 2,000 different wrestling titles, with as complete records as possible until the end of the 20th century. Much of the information gathered by Will and Duncan here served as the basis of sites such as wrestling-titles.com and in turn listings on sites such as Wikipedia. Indeed, it’s worth noting that Wrestling-titles.com’s owner Hisa wrote: I started my “Puroresu Dojo” which included the title history section. The book became the main source for the section, thanks to the permission from Gary himself to use the contents, and the section grew so big that I started another website: Wrestling-Titles.com. Regardless, this book had a lot more championship lineages that this website ever will. Real Names and Aliases is simply a list of around 3,000 wrestlers with their real name, date of birth, debut date and all ring names they have used in various promotions, plus details of any wrestling relatives. While the names book is now only really useful for more obscure wrestlers, I still refer…
This is a strange book as, it’s unclear what it’s meant to be, and whatever the case it it falls short. It’s nothing but captioned pictures and, despite the name, there’s no attempt at chronology or covering major events. Instead the pictures are separated into a couple of dozen loose themes, though the categorization is extremely disputable, with lowlights including Danny Hodge placed across the page from Viscera in the “Journeymen” sections. The images have clearly been sourced and licensed from a variety of photo libraries, with it being clear that inclusion was down to availability more than editorial merit, hence the somewhat unlikely mix of seven wrestlers in the “ladies” section: genuine all-time stars Mildred Burke and Fabulous Moolah are joined by Ivory from the modern era and then lesser-known names Jean Kennedy, Ann Stanley, Ella Phillips and Lola Simpson, all clearly taken from the same collection. The picture quality is a very mixed bag, again seemingly dependent on the source. This creates the odd situation where some of the oldest pictures are sharp and good quality, while some of the shots of Attitude era performers are blurry, poorly lit pictures of wrestlers at social events or taken from the…