Paul O’Brien’s debut novel, published last year, received high praise: in the pages of FSM we described it as “the first truly professional novel about professional wrestling.” Volume two answers the question of what happened next and does so in a stylish manner. Without spoiling too much of the plot, the new book deals with the immediate fallout of a battle between rival promoters that spilled over from control ...
A tale of big dreams and personalities in a small world, this captures the unique way in which professional wrestlers are both partners and rivals across multiple levels of reality. After some quick cuts of perspective at the start (illustrating the multiple layers of illusion and interpretation in pro wrestling), the book settles into the parallel stories of two wrestling trainees at a local school run by a former star. It’s set in and aro...
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 bus...
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 a...
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 ori...
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 bre...
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, includin...
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 ton...
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 o...
Many pro wrestlers have been told their life would make for a captivating novel – and many have written autobiographies with a healthy dose of fiction – but this is quite the twist on the concept of “inspired by a true story”. Long time British wrestling fans who skip the blurb will quickly recognise that both the character of Jonny Arnold and the details of his career and personal life and incredibly reminiscent of Adrian Street. That ma...
This is certainly a diversion from the usual wrestling novel and its darkness and power may be a matter of personal taste. While most wrestling novels tap into the territorial era, this is set in the modern independent circuit. It’s a tale of weekend warriors for whom local titles are their world championship. How “big” the promotions actually are is not always clear and in some sense it doesn’t really matter. From a wrestling perspective...