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 of the fad: the video games, Silver Vision video, the action figures, the sticker albums and the assault on the pop charts. Each element includes interviews with industry figures who share their unique insights into both the appeal of the WWF and the logistics of adjusting to a boom and bust in demand. Finally, Herbert throws in his own experiences and those of fellow fans, not as self-indulgent opinion but rather as a way to capture how fans experienced those years as a feeling rather than numbers on a spreadsheet.

It’s clearly a book that’s going to appeal most to those who experienced the era or are British fans interested in the early days of the WWF in the UK, but its mix of business, history and emotion mean its worth a look even for overseas readers.

It’s so close to the real thing, it’s like being in the ring!

Disclaimer: The author provided a review copy.

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