Pro Wrestling Books

A wrestling referee is simultaneously absolutely core to the performance and illusion, and yet somewhat on the fringes of the industry, not quite part of the inner core but not an outsider. It’s a unique vantage point on a unique industry. Before going further, there is an elephant in the room to address, which I was unsure how to handle in this review. I concluded the most appropriate course is to simply state that Levin left the wrestling business in 2021 after public accusations of abuse by a former partner. Those accusations remain readily available online today. Levin gives his response to the accusations in the book. He also discusses his reactions (which vary significantly between cases) to friends, colleagues and acquaintances being the subject of other accusations. Levin is a former referee who worked around the Northeastern United States in promotions of all sizes, most notably specialising in deathmatches for GCW. He also worked as a referee and behind the scenes in what was then Impact Wrestling where he attracted attention for his extremely youthful looks, earning the nickname Kid Ref. In later years he booked the post-CHIKARA “Camp Leapfrog” series. Because the book is specifically about his career,…

A hugely pleasant surprise, this is something of a sleeper hit on a subject that would not top most people’s lists of obvious wrestling book subjects. The Bahamas, specifically Nassau on the island of New Providence, was largely an outpost for US wrestling territories. Just 180 miles from Miami it was actually closer than many other stops on the Florida territory, albeit requiring a plane ride. Indeed, the bulk of its heyday shows were as an outpost for Eddie Graham’s NWA operations, albeit with its own angles and titles. Douglass covers this in full, along with attempts at a local independent scene and the brief revival in the late 1980s when Dusty Rhodes returned to the short-lived PWF promotion. The book skilfully uses a combination of contemporary newspaper reports and interviews with wrestlers from the period. Unlike with many such projects, Douglass has picked his quotes skilfully, clearly avoiding the temptation to use every fact and opinion his research threw up. It’s highly focused on the big picture story, with wrestlers speaking on topics where they had expert knowledge, insight or unique first-hand relevance. There’s also clearly labelled but informative speculation where Douglass explores why particular decisions were taken or…

A tale of two well-documented men, this brings together two entwined lives in a new form. Big Daddy vs Giant Haystacks straddles the lines between multiple approaches — biographies of two individuals, a history of a wrestling era, a specific rivalry, and one high-profile event — in a way that has many of the advantages of each without becoming unfocused. The book brings together material from existing books and news articles, plus original interviews with Bret Hart, Tony St Clair and Mal Sanders among others. It’s weaved together well and uses relevant extracts to tell the story, rather than feeling too much like a “cut-and-shut” operations. There’s also a well balanced level of non-wrestling historical content to put things into context rather than padding, for example noting how Big Daddy’s match with John Quinn escaped an ITV broadcaster strike by a matter of weeks. (Said match is also a good example of the book not getting too caught up in the narrative, correctly identifying it as both the forerunner of, and in some ways bigger than, the Haystacks Wembley match.) It means there’s not much in the way of new revelations here, but rather a case of putting the pieces…

My book “Turning The Tables: The Story of Extreme Championship Wrestling” is 99p on Kindle throughout January (UK only deal I’m afraid): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Turning-Tables-Extreme-Championship-Wrestling/dp/1520782489   ECW was the upstart promotion which revolutionised the wrestling industry. Turning The Tables is the first published history of the company which grew from a run-down bingo hall to become a national pay-per-view competitor… then crashed in a sea of debt. John Lister (author of Slamthology) gives an independent, objective and informative account that reveals hidden secrets and shatters common myths. From a little-known truth about ECW’s most famous feud to a blow-by-blow account of what really happened in Revere, this book will give you the true story behind America’s most controversial wrestling group.

Author James Vachowski has sent word of Jet Fuel Can’t Melt Steel Beams, his new novel with a pro wrestling theme: In the spring of 1993, Jessie Carpenter is fifteen years old, and still alive. A few months from now, a bullied student is going to shoot up Jessie’s school in a horrific act of revenge. The coming massacre was foretold by her younger stepbrother– an adult version of the autistic toddler from Jessie’s present– who traveled back in time to deliver the warning. With her future uncertain and her own life hanging in the balance, Jessie works to prevent the tragedy. Taking cues from her father– a professional wrestler whose losing career is now suddenly, almost unbelievably, on the rise– Jessie manages to connect with her troubled classmate through a shared interest in World Wide Wrestling. As the unlikely relationship deepens, the odds of Jessie living to see high school increase exponentially. But by tampering with the events in her timeline, and by changing her future, Jessie will unintentionally create a second, larger disaster. One so massive, it will defy all belief. Read on Amazon: Amazon

In the brief gap between Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and the Power Rangers, the WWF was the craze in the United Kingdom: selling out Wembley Stadium, saving a sticker album company and proving the musical theories of Simon Cowell. This is the story of that craze, told in a way that captures both the numbers and the magic. Such a project (which I must enviously confess I had considered as a book pitch myself and never followed through on) could have been approached in several ways. It could have been a straight recap of the on-screen product in the same vein as multiple PPV history/home video history releases. It could have been a business analysis of the boom and bust in both ticket sales and merchandising as WWF led Sky TV to a growing market. Or it could have been interview based, getting the experiences of those who worked in the industry or experienced the fandom. Herbert’s winning approach is to combine all three. There’s extensive details of the UK tours from the London Arena debut in 1989 to the lesser-known afterlife of Shawn Michael’s Survivor Series Knights in 1993. But this is interspersed with deep dives into every element…

If you saw a WWF commercial in the 90s or 2000s, or a TNA/IMPACT video package in the past 20 years, it was probably produced by David Sahadi, who is good at his job and well regarded by his peers. Now you’ve read that, you don’t really need to read this book. It’s somewhat baffling who this is really aimed at. The first two-thirds covers his WWF run and it feels like 90% of it is simply a complete word-by-word, shot-by-shot breakdown of every commercial or spot Sahadi made, followed by a comment on how good it was and how people praised it. It would make a great YouTube playlist or the basis of a resume, but it doesn’t really work as a book. Beyond this we learn that most guys are great to work with, celebs are sometimes tricky, and the Rock was a bit of a dick once. And that’s about it. The remainder of the book is the TNA period and, save for a few stories that don’t bring much new information (there was a fire once; Jeff Hardy was in no state to perform), it’s mainly made up of score settling and the machinations of various…

Kesar is better known as WWE’s Karrion Kross, but this is not a pure autobiography. It’s somewhere between a life story and a self-help book, but it may be too much of a blend of formats to find wide appeal. Perhaps the most similar previous wrestling title is Bobby Heenan’s second book, but that was more explicit about tying life lessons to moments in Heenan’s career. This explores Kesar’s wider life story, including his time working as a bouncer and competing in martial arts and combat events of varying levels of professionalism. As a result, those looking purely for wrestling content will be out of luck, particularly as some of the more specific stories have names removed. The advice, or rather life philosophies, is often interesting and well thought-out, with a degree of levelheadedness and self-awareness that’s not always present in a wrestling book. The parts that do relate to the wrestling business may well be engaging to fans. There’s a particularly interesting observation by Kesar, who didn’t make his pro debut until 29, that he benefitted by gaining life experience first rather than growing up while navigating the unique world of pro wrestling. The main drawback is that the…

Think more the Channel 4 version of Fighting With My Family than the Hollywood remake and you’ll be closer to the feel of this no holds barred book. Explaining the movie to some non-wrestling fan viewers, I noted that while much of the story may have been fictionalised, everything that happened before Saraya/Paige’s move to to the US certainly felt like something that was believable, if not true. This book, which shows no signs of toning things down to appease a wrestling employer, reveals that this was quite the understatement. Knight appears to hold nothing back in her description of an extremely unorthodox childhood in a family which was, to say the least, not typical. It’s affectionate without being naive, highlighting the very clear realisation that what we each experience as normal is not always what the rest of society would see the same way. The movie of course ended with the dream moment of debuting on the main roster and winning the WWE womens title and wrestling fans will no that what happened next was far from a Hollywood dream story. Knight doesn’t shy away from discussing her subsequent highs and lows, the pressures of fame at a young…

A mixed bag by its very nature, this part-history, part-travelogue covers a wide range of aspects of the WWF’s national expansion. The book has its origins in the early 2000s when Balukjian began work ghostwriting the Iron Sheik’s autobiography before their professional relationship broke down. Two decades later he decided to adapt the project as a follow-up to The Wax Pack, in which he attempted to track down every player in a pack of baseball trading cards. For this book he attempted to do the same with six wrestlers who appeared on the card where Iron Sheik won the WWF title from Bob Backlund. Not only are these very different men to one another, but they allow Balukjian to explore different elements of the business. With Iron Sheik we get as close to a verifiable biography as possible of the real Khosrow Vaziri and the blurring with his character. With Bill ‘Masked Superstar’ Eadie, we get facts and figures about the finances of national expansion thanks to his lawsuit against the WWF for underpayment. With Tito Santana we learn that even the man seen as unsullied by the business and the great escaper has his secrets. Meanwhile Tony Atlas gives…