Having reached the milestone of my 250th review, I’ve decided now is the right time to cease regular updates of Pro Wrestling Books. This is primarily because the money generated by ads and affiliate links no longer justifies the time I spend on the blog. A secondary issue is that the way Amazon is now flooded by low quality “books” produced either through cut-and-pasting of Wikipedia or generative AI tools, to the point that when a wrestler dies, there’ll be literally dozens of so-called biographies published within a day. This has overwhelmed Amazon’s algorithms such that search tools for upcoming or recent releases of wrestling titles are virtually useless. The practical changes of my move as as follows: The 250 reviews on the site will remain online. I’ll still add new reviews as and when I read a wrestling title, but these will become less frequent. I will no longer post the weekly release schedule or the recent release round-up features. As these are time-sensitive, I’ll be removing the archive posts for these categories which may mean the site as a whole works more smoothly and loads quicker. Thank you to everyone who has read, subscribed to the blog, shared…
Something of a mixed bag, this takes a while to get going but provides some useful insight. The ghostwritten format works well when sharing the first-hand accounts of Dewey Robertson, the man behind the gimmick. However, in what could be either an attempt of completeness or a touch of padding out, the book does occasionally fall into extensive lists which are neither informative nor entertaining. Unfortunately this is particularly prevalent in the early stages dealing with Robertson’s early life and local wrestling career before moving out to the territorial circuits. This means readers will need to stick with it to get to the best content. Once into the meat of his career, the book becomes insightful, with Robertson sharp on the way promoters operated, the importance of character development, booking approaches and the realities of varying pay structures. It’s particularly strong on the similarities and differences of various promotions and the realities of their declines. One confusing element is the approach to kayfabe: Robertson is open about how wrestling worked and why particular booking patterns emerged, yet at times describes matches as if he was legitimately competing to win. It’s more of a linguistic quirk than an attempt to fool…
In a just world this would be an autobiography. We’ll have to settle for an entertaining and informative biography. A good wrestling biography will do one of three things: adequately document a wrestler’s in-ring career, give some insight into their life outside the ring, and share some engaging stories. This manages all three, thanks largely to its authorship. It’s not quite the same as when Scott Teal steers the recollections of a wrestler into the realms of reality, but perhaps the next best thing. Cosper is an experienced wrestling biographer who conducted dozens of interviews for the project, while Candido (Chris’s brother) was clearly incredibly close with Chris and shares not just personal memories, but retells experiences and conversations which Chris had shared with him. The result is both a life story and a career retrospective that doesn’t simply list dates and matches, but shares the lessons Chris Candido learned on his journey to becoming a truly great worker in the professional wrestling business. Inevitably it’s not the happiest of tales at times and doesn’t shy away from Candido’s low points or the effects his drug problems had on his career and colleagues. However, it does fully convey the tragedy…