Wrestling books

[JackSlater]

I will admit that I am in no way above reading Missy Hyatt's book. I'm honestly interested at this point.

 

[reckoning]

The Missy book is well worth picking up. It's best known for the stories about her sex life; but there's also stories about Eddie Gilbert where she sounds genuinely heartbroken about him.

There's a bit about hockey too. She got interested in it when she dated Jason Hervey, and he had seasons tickets to the Kings. She said hockey fans were far more bloodthirsty than wrestling fans.

 

[MadDevil]

I'm about a third of the way through Nitro, which is a book that goes more into the business/behind the scenes aspects of the rise and fall of WCW. It's kind of a dry read at times but still pretty interesting.

 

[Ozz]

Best book about Piper? His "autobiography" or one of the ones he wasn't involved with?

 

[Bondurant]

Best book about Piper? His "autobiography" or one of the ones he wasn't involved with?

Piper was involved with 2 of 3 books about him. The earliest was a WWF publication from '85. In the Pit with Piper ('02) is a good read but Roddy weaves between shoot and work which can be annoying at times. Rowdy ('20) is the book he was working on when he died. His children and a ghost writer formulated his ideas into a biography and they did a wonderful job. It is one of my favorite wrestling books.

 

[Bondurant]

Currently reading Pain and Passion: The History of Stampede Wrestling by Heath McCoy. It was referenced earlier and a quick purchase from Prime. One of the more impressive wrestling books I have read with 1/4 remaining. The chapter where Benoit is introduced does not age well. He was described by Mike Shaw as "Dynamite without the dark side". McCoy relied on access to archives and wrestlers and other involved parties, including the Harts, to craft a candid and honest history of Stu's Stampede promotion. No punches pulled.

 

[sabremike]

Currently reading Pain and Passion: The History of Stampede Wrestling by Heath McCoy. It was referenced earlier and a quick purchase from Prime. One of the more impressive wrestling books I have read with 1/4 remaining. The chapter where Benoit is introduced does not age well. He was described by Mike Shaw as "Dynamite without the dark side". McCoy relied on access to archives and wrestlers and other involved parties, including the Harts, to craft a candid and honest history of Stu's Stampede promotion. No punches pulled.

There is an expanded edition that came out with a bonus chapter dealing with the Benoit murder/suicide and it's aftermath.

 

[CaptainCrunch67]

Currently reading Pain and Passion: The History of Stampede Wrestling by Heath McCoy. It was referenced earlier and a quick purchase from Prime. One of the more impressive wrestling books I have read with 1/4 remaining. The chapter where Benoit is introduced does not age well. He was described by Mike Shaw as "Dynamite without the dark side". McCoy relied on access to archives and wrestlers and other involved parties, including the Harts, to craft a candid and honest history of Stu's Stampede promotion. No punches pulled.

Its a exceptionally well written and researched book. Especially when they cover the end of Stampede Wrestling and the chaos of Bruce Hart. I've had back and forths with Heath McCoy on Twitter, I recommend this book to anyone that has an interest in wrestling books because this book is gritty and revealing and in the end incredibly sad. I've told Heath that he needs to write another wrestling book because he did so well with this one ***** out of 5

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

What's HBK's second autobiography like? is it as good as heartbreak and triumph?

 

[BostonBob]

I recently finished this book by Dick Bourne:

I really liked how everything was laid out chronologically and how certain important moments were discussed in depth. I guess my only complaint is that I really would have like some more " behind the scenes " stuff. Anyway - I liked this book so much I recently ordered another book by Bourne:

I just received it on Monday so I'll leave a review after I read it. For anybody that is a fan of rasslin' ( and not that F***ING SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT crap that Vince shoves down our throats ) you should check out some other books that Bourne has written. It's out of stock right now but eventually I'll be picking up one he did on the NWA U.S. Championship.

 

[Bondurant]

I wanna suggest a killer one I couldn't put down, but it'll have to wait til my next pick at the latest

Circling back. What's the book?

If anyone is a fan of zines I highly recommend The Atomic Elbow published in Athens, GA by a fine fellow Robert Newsome.

 

[Kaner9]

Circling back. What's the book?

If anyone is a fan of zines I highly recommend The Atomic Elbow published in Athens, GA by a fine fellow Robert Newsome.

lol For real spill the tea.

 

[CHGoalie27]

Circling back. What's the book?

If anyone is a fan of zines I highly recommend The Atomic Elbow published in Athens, GA by a fine fellow Robert Newsome.

lol For real spill the tea.

Sabuuuuuuuu!

 

[Bondurant]

Sabuuuuuuuu!

Intrigued. Was not aware Sabu had a book. It's available on Amazon but not Prime eligible. Ratings are fantastic. Adding this to my "to read" list.

Just ordered a copy of Jericho's new book. Comes in a wee bit under $40 with shipping. Flush with cash after a work bonus and hoping this is something I can flip on E-Bay for a profit in the future. Independently published and may be limited. Could blow up in my face if it sells well and the pressings increase and/or a larger publishing house decides to secure rights for it.

 

[JackSlater]

Intrigued. Was not aware Sabu had a book. It's available on Amazon but not Prime eligible. Ratings are fantastic. Adding this to my "to read" list.

Just ordered a copy of Jericho's new book. Comes in a wee bit under $40 with shipping. Flush with cash after a work bonus and hoping this is something I can flip on E-Bay for a profit in the future. Independently published and may be limited. Could blow up in my face if it sells well and the pressings increase and/or a larger publishing house decides to secure rights for it.

Is this the fourth Jericho book? Fifth? I've heard that he ran out of interesting material a few books ago. I would be interested in reading about some of the stuff that went into his switch from WWE to AEW.

 

[Bondurant]

Is this the fourth Jericho book? Fifth? I've heard that he ran out of interesting material a few books ago. I would be interested in reading about some of the stuff that went into his switch from WWE to AEW.

He went independently published for a reason. Cannot say I am shocked a larger publishing house was not interested. This is a book that serves as a chronological record of his entire wrestling career from his first match in 1990 to his last match of 2020. Jericho provides commentary and a rating for each. Throw in some photos and random tidbits and you have this book. He says the inspiration was drawn from a book Rush released that featured their tour and set list history.

My only interest is the potential for future flipping if it becomes a true scarce item due to limited production numbers. His first book must be one of the best wrestling books ever released but this does not have the same pull.

I will say that Chris Jericho was ahead of his time being one of the first wrestlers I am aware of to have a website. Back in the days when everything looked like an Angelfire page Jericho had a comprehensive website and on of the features was match history.

 

[JackSlater]

He went independently published for a reason. Cannot say I am shocked a larger publishing house was not interested. This is a book that serves as a chronological record of his entire wrestling career from his first match in 1990 to his last match of 2020. Jericho provides commentary and a rating for each. Throw in some photos and random tidbits and you have this book. He says the inspiration was drawn from a book Rush released that featured their tour and set list history.

My only interest is the potential for future flipping if it becomes a true scarce item due to limited production numbers. His first book must be one of the best wrestling books ever released but this does not have the same pull.

I will say that Chris Jericho was ahead of his time being one of the first wrestlers I am aware of to have a website. Back in the days when everything looked like an Angelfire page Jericho had a comprehensive website and on of the features was match history.

That's more interesting than what I'd expected. Jericho was definitely earlier than most of the prominent wrestlers to embrace the internet, which isn't difficult when most of them seemed to treat "the internet" as a sort of boogeyman. I'm not surprised that Jericho would go down the route of rating his matches, as he was always vocal about ratings his matches received from fans. I somewhat recently read a column Jericho wrote in the early 2000s where he crapped on fans for crapping on his match with I believe Rob Van Dam.

 

[sabremike]

He went independently published for a reason. Cannot say I am shocked a larger publishing house was not interested. This is a book that serves as a chronological record of his entire wrestling career from his first match in 1990 to his last match of 2020. Jericho provides commentary and a rating for each. Throw in some photos and random tidbits and you have this book. He says the inspiration was drawn from a book Rush released that featured their tour and set list history.

My only interest is the potential for future flipping if it becomes a true scarce item due to limited production numbers. His first book must be one of the best wrestling books ever released but this does not have the same pull.

I will say that Chris Jericho was ahead of his time being one of the first wrestlers I am aware of to have a website. Back in the days when everything looked like an Angelfire page Jericho had a comprehensive website and on of the features was match history.

Those publishers clearly had their heads up their asses because Jericho has pretty much been a gold mine selling merch since AEW started. It looks like the first printing is going to sell out real quick.

 

[Bondurant]

Those publishers clearly had their heads up their asses because Jericho has pretty much been a gold mine selling merch since AEW started. It looks like the first printing is going to sell out real quick.

I won't fault major publishing houses for passing. In their eyes it's a list of fake fighting results. Even among wrestling fans it's a niche concept. How many people want a hardbound list of matches? I hope it's a tad more than books published but not convinced it will be the case.

 

[CHGoalie27]

Intrigued. Was not aware Sabu had a book. It's available on Amazon but not Prime eligible. Ratings are fantastic. Adding this to my "to read" list.

Just ordered a copy of Jericho's new book. Comes in a wee bit under $40 with shipping. Flush with cash after a work bonus and hoping this is something I can flip on E-Bay for a profit in the future. Independently published and may be limited. Could blow up in my face if it sells well and the pressings increase and/or a larger publishing house decides to secure rights for it.

It's worth it. Though mine is signed by both he and Melissa, I don't think it'll ever be seen on eBay. Sad because she and I had a falling out over a sad misunderstanding.
I'm about to start New Jack's which just came in the mail, unfortunately unsigned as i ordered it just a bit too late.
Jericho will always be worth the read, whatever he puts out.

 

[Megahab]

I've read quite a few wrestling books since starting this thread 9-10 months ago. Here are my thoughts on all of them:

A Lion's Tale by Chris Jericho - Jericho's first book. I really enjoyed it and put it on the level of Bret Hart and Mick Foley's first book. But Jericho does come across a kind of a jerk though and likes to brag about drinking and driving. Also there were a lot of really lame jokes that didn't land. He was trying too hard to be funny.

Undisputed by Chris Jericho - his second book wasn't as good as the first but still a good read. There was too much Fozzy stuff that I didn't really care for. It's kind of turned me off reading his third and fourth book because I feel those will be even more Fozzy-heavy.

The Death of WCW - a lot better than I thought it would be as I thought it'd just be an info dump/recap but there is a lot of opinion and analysis in it too that was interesting. I think any fan that grew up during the Monday night wars should read this one.

Chris and Nancy by Irvin Muchnick - very interesting and learned some things I didn't know about the murders.

Hollywood Hulk Hogan - this was a quick, fun read for a laugh. Full of lies and Hogan thinking he's the greatest thing ever. I felt stupider after reading it but it was fun.

Sunny/Tammy Lynn Sytch's autobiography. I'm not above this trashy read and I knew what I was getting into. I was looking for trasg talking and this has quite a bit. I don't think Sunny admitted any wrongs in the entire book. It was funny that Sunny presented her porn career as if it was her redemption and something to be proud of.

Martha Hart's book - this was amazing and makes you really feel for Martha and hate WWE. I can't say how much of it is true or unbiased but Martha Hart is so damn believable. I couldn't find this in Canada and had to order it from some UK website for like $30.

Diana Hart's book. I had been wanting to read this after finishing Martha's. IIRC, Martha sued Diana for slander and this was pulled off shelves. I paid $50 from Facebook marketplace for this, the most I've ever spent spent on a book just because it was so hard to find. Anyway, this is the trashiest book I've read and made me lose all respect for Diana. She talks shit about everyone and thinks she's perfect. She also comes across as thinking she is a big part of the Hart family's success.

Ric Flair's autobiography - this was okay. Not great but not bad. Some of the 2000 WCW stuff was interesting.

 

[Megahab]

Some more wrestling books I've read since my last post:

Forgiven by Vince Russo
I found this on Facebook marketplace for $5 and snatched it. I thought it was be at least be entertaining and have a lot of insider dirt about people in wrestling. But this book absolutely sucked. 300 pages of preaching about God.

My Life Outside the Ring by Hulk Hogan
I'm not sure why I started this book since Hogan's first book was garbage. But I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It goes deep into his personal life and seems much more honest than the first one. The first one seemed full of lies and almost like it was written in character. But this one had some intriguing stuff in there, especially about his kid's car accident and his marital problems. Nothing that great but an entertaining read.

Started Moxley's book today that I've been looking forward to for a while. Only a few pages in. I haven't read any reviews (I stay away from them until I'm done the book) but I am predicting a very open book with hopefully some backstage stuff that I've never heard before - which is the main reason I read wrestling books at all.

 

[sabremike]

A really great one that may have slipped under the radar was Scott Norton's.

 

[JackSlater]

A really great one that may have slipped under the radar was Scott Norton's.

Now that shocks me. Must have some great arm wrestling yarns or something.

 

[Ozz]

Just finished Regal's book, Walking A Golden Mile, and enjoyed it. What a mess he was at many times! Glad he came through it positive, I was always a fan going back to the WCW days. I remember my grandma haaaating him (for the right reasons, of course, pure old school heel hate) and getting a huge kick out of it. Good times!