Pro Wrestling Books

It would be unfair to call this half-assed, but a substantial chunk of this book is missing in action. Marketed as a “definitive biography”, it suffers from the major shortcoming that it effectively ends in 1999 with the angle of the revelation of Vince McMahon as “Greater Power”. The subsequent 24 years of his life and career is covered in a whistlestop “coda” chapter where, for example, WWE becoming a public company and setting McMahon up as a billionaire gets a solitary paragraph. It would have been disappointing if this had been a planned approach and fully flagged up in the blurb of the book, but this isn’t the case. Speaking to Slam Wrestling, Riesman explained: There was just too much life to fit in there. I had a word count and we didn’t want to go over it because you don’t want a long wrestling book to try and market. Frankly it’s baffling how the publisher considered this acceptable, let alone how the book was then promoted to potential buyers. To make things worse, the abrupt ending will likely come as a shock to many given the book appears to be paced for 1999 to fall roughly in the…

While there’s nothing new here for serious fans, this is a fun biography for young readers (the stated target age is 7 to 9). It’s part of a series title “First Names”, the idea being that the reader will feel like they are on a first name basis with a curious mix of historical and contemporary figures, placing Johnson alongside Greta Thunberg, Nelson Mandela and Elon Musk. The book is simply a repackaging of Johnson’s life story (with an emphasis on inspiration), plus explanations of various concepts such as how wrestling works and the positions and depth chart in college football. For the wrestling sections at least, it will all be familiar for anyone who has read Rock’s WWE book and watched the Young Rock series. It does open with a neat acknowledgement for young readers that would be welcome in certain other wrestling biographies: the author explains that while the facts in the book are based on public record, some of the wording of conversations and descriptions of Johnson’s thoughts at the time are constructed (with direct quotes in italics.) At 150 pages, it’s a relatively comprehensive bio given the intended audience. For the wrestling section at least, it’s…

Sometimes you want a comprehensive, chronological, fact-checked, revelatory account of a wrestling personality’s career. But sometimes you just want to laugh your backside off. Tod Is God falls very much into the latter category, likely reflecting its origin story. It’s ghostwritten by Kayfabe Commentaries host Sean Oliver and he and Gordon are open about the way its production involved 60 hours of conversations followed by Oliver putting the highlights together in a logical order. The result is much like an engaging shoot interview where every question gets an entertaining response. This isn’t to say the book doesn’t address key points: you’ll get Gordon’s take on the origins of the business and his personal and professional relationship with Paul Heyman. You’ll also get his side of the story with incidents such as the NWA title doublecross and his departure amid the “lockerroom mole” gossip. However, the bulk of the book, and the undisputed highlights, are the countless genuinely hilarious stories of the crazy characters involved in pro wrestling. Revealing details would spoil the effect, but it’s filled with ridiculous moments, the humour being enhanced by the way such incidents are considered perfectly normal in pro wrestling, unlike virtually any other business….

You may ask “why write a biography of Adrian Adonis?” For John Ellul, the question was “why not?” As well as a chronological account of Adonis’s life and career, Ellul explores the question of how history remembers individual wrestlers. As he notes, Adonis had high-profile runs in multiple territories, was at once stage rated as one of the finest workers in the business, and had a particularly memorable run with a major match at the iconic WrestleMania III. Yet not only is he in no major Hall of Fame, but his absence has proven largely uncontroversial. Unlike many wrestling bios, Ellul does not have a unique selling point in telling the story such as access to a game-changing source or documentation. Instead it’s a wide-ranging approach that brings together video footage, publications, archive interviews and a range of original interviews with Adonis’s colleagues, family and industry insiders. It produces a multi-faceted account. No one interviewee is a game-changer, but each offers insight into a particular topic, be it future pro Terry Daniels on his noteworthy acceptance of Adonis’s shoot challenges to audience members or journalist Fumi Saito on Adonis’s leisure time at home in California or on tour in Japan….

Depending on your viewpoint and what you know about Gewirtz, he represents everything that’s right or everything that’s wrong with WWE’s modern TV product. This book does a good job of proving the truth is somewhere in between, but will entertain you even if it doesn’t change your mind. For those who don’t know, Gewirtz was a WWE writer throughout the 2000s, including a lengthy run as the head writer. His account addresses that era, including both the development of full-blown Hollywood style writer rooms and the switch to more heavily-scripted promos. Above all else, the book conveys the sheer insanity of applying this process to a TV production like no other (live broadcasts with scripts completed or even written on the day, then handed to athletes without formal acting training) and a boss like no other in Vince McMahon. Many of the best-remembered (for good or worse) storylines are detailed, giving a unique insight into everything from guest hosts on Monday Night War to Katie Vick to the anonymous Raw GM to Goldberg in a wig. To Gewirtz’s credit, he explains the rationale and development process behind each moment, but never tries to pretend something was well-received or effective…

While it tells the story of the ultimate in for-the-moment entertainment, this is a memoir that reveals its depths when taken as a whole. For those who don’t remember it’s notoriety from the tape-trading scene of the mid-to-late 90s, Incredibly Strange Wrestling was an unusual San Francisco based promotion where people who didn’t really know how to (professionally) wrestle performed for people who weren’t really fans of pro wrestling. The group performed in bars and music venues in San Francisco and as part of music tours, gaining a cult following as it evolved from a lucha-style promotion to a cast of outlandish, often tasteless gimmicks from Harley Racist and the Abortionist to El Homo Loco and NAMBLA. Calhoun performed under a host of gimmicks as well as working in publicity and booking for the group. This isn’t a definitive history of the promotion (which would be a particularly weird exercise to embark on) but rather his memories of his time in and around ISW and the punk rock scene. It’s extremely detailed, to the point that it often left me wondering who is meant to care about the minutiae of petty squabbles at the lower levels of independent wrestling (albeit…

Definitely more of a life story than a wrestling book, this should still appeal to Miceli’s fans. While the wrestling career of Madusa is well-known and fondly remembered by many, it’s only part of a live lived to the full, reflected in this story. The book occasionally skips around from subject to subject rather than being a traditional chronological autobiography, but the wrestling section makes up around a third of the content. If you’re purely interested in the wrestling itself, you may be disappointed as most specific on-screen moments are covered only in passing and there’s very little about individual matches. However, there’s plenty of insight into the life of being a wrestler in different eras and settings, in particular the contrast between being a rare female on the roster in the US and being part of an all-female crew in Japan. Almost as much of the book covers Miceli’s love of motorcycles and her monster truck career. Some parts may be a little technical for non-fans, but there’s certainly some interesting parallels with the business side of pro wrestling including the promotional elements and the fine line between competition and camaraderie. As noted, it’s also very much a life…

While a lovely item to own, there’s not enough meat here to make it worth paying over the odds. Wrestling photo books is a niche category and harder to review that traditional titles. This is certainly much better produced and more visually striking than the likes of George Napolitano titles from the 1980s, One Ring Circus or Killer Pics. It’s a similar size and quality to Exquisite Mayhem, though without that title’s… distinctive… content. Lucha Loco is simply made up of around 120 studio portraits of Mexican wrestlers, with the left hand page of each spread being almost completely blank save for a brief quote from the wrestler. These vary immensely, ranging from motivation for being a wrestler to a significant number of comments about who does and doesn’t wear the mask in more intimate moments. It’s a bit of a mixed bag of wrestlers, chosen presumably on availability more than any other criteria, from major superstars like El Hijo Del Santo and the Villanos to El Gangster and the underwhelmingly named Chris. As you might expect, all but a couple are masked. As noted, the book itself is beautifully produced, with my first edition copy coming in a custom…

Characteristically unconventional, this is a book with an approach that would have worked for few wrestlers. Much of the positive feedback has concentrated on the open and honest approach Moxley takes to the book, combining an authentic voice with an open approach similar to that of the original volumes by Mick Foley and Chris Jericho. It’s fair to say he goes a step further as even the most honest book published by an active WWE roster member would have been unlikely to have the references to hard drug use you’ll find here. Unlike the Foley and Jericho books, this does not aim to be a comprehensive, chronological account of a life and career. Instead it’s a series of anecdotes and memories that skip from subject to subject, feeling more like a long car ride with a man telling stories that an autobiography. While less focused than Drew McIntyre’s book, MOX offers plenty of insight into his approach to wrestling and thought process. If you go into this looking for the inside scoop on specific incidents, there’s a good chance you’ll be disappointed. Instead, it’s Moxley telling the stories he wants to tell, with some of the unexpected highlights being his…

One for fans only, this is all breadth and little depth. Michaels has wrestled since the late 80s, chiefly around the East Tennessee and Kentucky areas. While he’s worked for everyone from WWF and WCW to Smoky Mountain and TNA, this doesn’t really have the level of detail you might hope for in a book from an experienced journeyman. Take out the photo section and there’s under 100 pages here, due partly to the fact that most of the incidents he covers are more a statement of fact than a story. It’s not uncommon for a topic to get just a couple of paragraphs, such as his run as a booker for an independent group. Most of the detail involves Michaels’ colourful private life and whether this interests a reader will largely determine their response to the book. A few stories, including those involving his mentor Tracey Smothers are entertaining enough but beyond that there’s not much in the way of insight here to recommend it to the general reader. Read on Amazon