While the subjects don’t exactly have a broad career to match the likes of a Billy Graham or Jerry Lawler, all the more so when this was published in 2003, there’s more substance to this than you might expect.

Ghostwritten by Michael Krugman, the book alternates between the voices of Matt and Jeff and Krugman does a good job of distinguishing the two while still making it clear and coherent. He makes sure to highlight occasions on which the pair disagree, such as when Jeff talks about a desire to push the in-ring style to the limit while Matt talks about having a finite number of bumps in his career and wanting to make them count. (It may be hard to believe for those who’ve been online in the past decade, but Matt was once considered the level-headed one of the pair.)

While the narrative of the book only really covers the pairs backyarding adventures, creation of the independent Omega group, and their early years as a WWE team including the TLC bouts, it covers several events and incidents that you might have expected to have been glossed over.

One such case is both wrestlers working on TV tapings in their teens, including a 16-year-old Jeff Hardy taking a beating from Razor Ramon on Raw after lying about his age. Another is a lengthy discussion of being the accused party in “wrestler’s court” with JBL as prosecutor and Undertaker as judge. It’s the type of story you’d be forgiven for dismissing as internet gossip, so it’s a real surprise to see it in an official WWE publication.

It’s a must-read for fans, even though it comes so early in their career. For everyone else, it’s worth your time if you can get it at a decent price and enjoy frank opinions in an official account.

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