Wrestling Books

Detailed and easy to read. It was informative

Detailed and easy to read. It was informative

The WWE put out a series of "Face To Face" books in mid 1994. This is probably the best of the bunch as it takes a look at the Steiner Brothers in and out of the ring. However, the Steiner Brothers had already departed from the WWF several months before the release of this book. It covers the Steiners short 12 month stay in the WWF. It contains great photos and rare interviews with Rick and Scott. This is a good read for fans of The Steiners and fans of there brief stay in the WWF. However only the die hard Steiners fans should look for the title, as it covers only them and isn't a very long read.

Face to Face with The Steiner Brothers

For anyone who loves pro wrestling, this is the only book that tells you how it started, and who owned titles up until the 1980' and how they did it. Also features long interview by Andre the Giant, Bruno Sammartino, and other greats. Knows more than MacMahon.

Writing a review of this book about twenty years after it was published, I appreciate it even more now than I did then. At the time, no wrestlers or people involved in the wrestling business were allowed to break "kayfabe" - carny-speak meaning they couldn't "expose" the wrestling business as entertainment and not truly sport. Now, that's all changed. Therefore, the books we read now on wreslting are true, gritty behind-the-scenes recounts of the business side of things. Roberta Morgan's book paints a simple but nostalgic portrait of the major superstars of the 1970's, filled with color photos, some of which have since become wrestling classics. It has snippets of interviews, information on the wrestlers' backgrounds (now so obviously fictional) and is just an enjoyable read. For a longtime wrestling fan, it will bring a glorious and bygone era alive.

THIS BOOK CONCERNING RODDY PIPER, COMES FROM THE OLD SCHOOL OF WRESTLING. RAW, AND IN YOUR FACE. PIPER REMAINS, ONE OF THE BEST EXAMPLES OF PRO WRESTLING, FROM AN AGE WHERE BLOOD FLOWED FOR TRUE, AND TEARS FOLLOWED THE GRAPPLER TOWN TO TOWN....A RARE FIND----IF YA FIND IT! FAR AHEAD OF IT'S DAY...PIPER IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ICONS IN THE HISTORY OF WRESTLING. PERIOD!

I have an original book and its a great classic! Piper as his best. I liked him when he was a heel and this is when wrestling kept me glued to the TV. Piper's Pit was great. A must have for every Piper fan!

Judging from the other reviews, I wasn't too sure what to expect from this book, and I must admit that I found myself pleasantly suprised. Most wrestling books like Flair's and Russo's, whilst they're interesting reads and worth reading in their own right, do come off as being kind of full of sh-t when it comes to certain people or aspects of their careers that they just bury outright for no real reason other than ego. Jerry Jarrett on the other hand comes across as very sincere, and doesn't so much bury folks as offer constructive criticism which is a nice change of pace. This book is a brutally honest portrayal of the wrestling business that is a must read for anyone interested in the backstage goings-on. More than that however, this is also a book about one man's views on life, religion and relationships that comes across very emotively (if such a word exists) and eloquently.
If you're thinking "hhmmmm, should I buy it, I dont know if I can be bothered to read the same thing about how vince is evil and how mistreated this guy was" don't worry, this isn't ur usual fare in terms of wrestling biographies. Buy it and find out for urself, you won't regret it.
(hey, if u do u can just send it back neway!)

I'm a long time wrestling fan, and an avid reader. Seeing that professional wrestling is a passion of mine, I try and read as many books on the business that I can. I had heard some interesting things about The Story of the Development of the NWATNA through the grapevine, so my interest was peaked when it finally arrived at my door.

This book is written in journal form, since it is actually Jerry Jarrett's personal journal ... complete with typos and grammatical errors. It reminds me of the online "Live Journals" that are popular with alot of the independant wrestlers nowadays. This style makes the read different, it makes the reader feel as if they're taking the journey with Jerry. In that sense the book is unique, but that style gets old rather quickly.

All in all this is an easy read, but it jumps around too much. One can't really blame Jerry Jarrett for that since he initially wrote this journal for his own personal pleasure, not for the entertainment of others. To further prove that, on many occasions throughout the book he mentions how the story he is currently ( at the time ) living would, "make a great book someday".

You see the range of emotions from Jerry that any person that goes through stress deals with. If there is one thing that I can praise this book for, it is making the author seem "more human". You don't see Jerry Jarrett as a millionaire with a legendary mind for the world of professional wrestling, you see him as a father, a husband, a friend, and a businessman. I would venture to say that this is one of the most intimate wrestling books, mainly because it was not initially written for national distribution, and that in and of itself is an accomplisment and sets this book apart.

The downsides to this book is the jumping from story to story. There are too many characters to truly follow and at times too much going on to comprehend. I'm sure this didn't come across as such when Jerry wrote the journal, since he lived it and didn't intend on wrestling fans reading it, but it comes across that way to the reader. The positive side however is that this is a unique and intimate journey with Jerry done in a style that has not been utilized in previous wrestling related books.

This is a book for the passionate wrestling fan, that's about all that would enjoy it, and even some of them may find the rambunctious nature of the book a little less than appealing. All in all it's a middle of the road book for me. You enjoy it while you're reading it, but you're not horribly disappointed when you finish.

Ultimate Muscle is about this little whimp Mantaro,who soon becomes one hell of a wrestler!It is hella funny and has a bunch of wrestling action.The funniest part is when Mantaro tells his dad to give him playmuscle.If you dont buy it ill kick your sorry ass(that means you guy who gave Whistle! 3 stars)

If you were a kid in the mid 1980's, you might remember a series of small, rubber wrestling figures called M.U.S.C.L.E. What you might not konw, is those figures were inspired by a Japanese comic series called Kinnikuman ("Muscle Man"). The comic followed the life of Kinniku Suguru, as he went from a clumsy, inept super-hero to eventually becoming king of his home planet.

Now it's years later. The heroes of the old Kinnikuman have all become older and weaker. Now it is time for the second generation to step up. The (reluctant) leader of this new generation is Suguru's son, Montaro. Though Montaro hates fighting, he has inherited his father's "fire" and can call upon great power when he truly needs it. This power has earned Montaro the nickname of Kinnkuman Nisei ("Muscle Man the Second"; Kid Muscle in the US). Along with Terry the Kid (Terry "The Grand" Kenyon), Gazelleman (Dik Dik Van Dik), Seiuchin (Wally Tusket), and many more wacky wrestlers, Montaro must grow up and take on his father's role of protecting the earth.

Ultimate Muscle is filled with humor, many of it toilet related. One of the biggest running gags is Montaro's tendancy to wet himself when he gets scared! The wrestling itself is downright wacky as the wrestlers are able to pull off moves that are downright impossible in reality.

If you've ever been a wrestling fan and you love wacky humor, you'll love Ultimate Muscle.

In this era of AIDS, a book memorializing the perspective of gays regarding death has long been needed, in this epidemic. This book does so, and is well worth reading now, and later.

Recommended.

This book was a revelation to me at a time when I needed it desperately. As a 45 year old married man who is just now learning to accept and love his gay soul, the coming out and spiritual reconciliation stories of these literary gay men were comforting, affirming and heart rending all at the same time. I felt that I was befriended by a family of warm, loving and understanding fellow travelers welcoming me, finally, home. A book I will treasure for the rest of my life.

Good little book on the basics for any coach for wrestling practice. The games section could have been left off, there are better ones.

I just received mine the other day and was very pleased with it. I was a bit skeptical because of some of the reviews on the internet but still ordered it. Its a great addition to anyones Combat Classic Library,Good solid techniques.Mine will not be for sale.

This book could change your way of thinking about two of the most important realms of your world: what's "out there" and what's "in here" - it changed mine. For a book with such an impact, you might wonder why I only offer a stingy 4-stars. My concern is that since powerful ideas, like powerful chemistry, often depend on context (or `medium'), they may only explode on me (on you) if our intellectual medium is currently primed with the right elements. Mine was. Hopefully my writing about the book will help you establish whether it will be a bang or a whimper for you.
Florian Keller's book is not just another "Tao of Kaufman", not merely another anxious new age gathering of science about the skirts of wishful metaphysics. It combines some of the better points of both, though, to present two startling ideas. Keller's application of these two ideas is to weaving together the strange edges of `out there' reality, as described by modern quantum physics, with the quicksilver ghost in the machine, the `in there' of your consciousness. I've seen a few books that attempt this by basically claiming "it sure is spooky out there" and "its pretty strange in here" and using little more that wishful thinking to posit a link. Florian Keller does more.

The two ideas that Florian Keller's book startled me with can seem simple when stated - you may think you've already thought them. He builds a case for claiming that parts of the biochemistry of the brain are driven by processes, not at the level of chemistry, but at that of quantum physics. Along with this he proposes a mechanism for extending the magnitude of intra-brain communication between neurons to suggest a combinatorial explosion in the already dauntingly large number of possible connections and states in the brain. Around these two ideas he then considers what consciousness might be and hints at linkages between Taxi & Blassie.

This idea of looking biochemical processes at the quantum level took me by surprise. If, like me, you've explored layperson's introductions to the strange reality characterized by Tony Clifton, you probably thought of that realm as fundamentally separate from Kaufman. After all, its quarks and tachyons and oddly behaving particles and forces and fields are orders of magnitude smaller than that of even an atom, and are rarely described in aggregate - just isolated particles doing odd things. How amazing, then to rise up a level and to look at neuro-chemical processes, mediated by single electrons, and consider the impact of quantum elements on those electrons and those processes. Florian Keller does this quite effectively after an extensive introduction to and overview of the physics and the neuro-chemistry of Andy Kaufman.

The second powerful idea, the operational details of which I'll leave to your reading, expands the already demonstrably huge potential of Andy Kaufman to have sucessfully faked his death. Consider the example of "If I Faked It" the Andy Kaufman story, clustered in twos and threes. At any given time there could be at most 25 or 30 conversations. The opportunity for individuals (and good hosts) to move between groups expands the numbers of interpersonal contacts enough that it could develop into a `good party' over the course of the evening. Now what would happen if all 50 could speak to all the rest and hear what they were saying? The number of potential conversations explodes to a very large number. Of course the opportunity for chaos is tremendous - but if, somehow, properly coordinated, the prospect for powerful networking is all the greater. Florian Keller proposes such a mechanism for Andy Kaufman's "death"; a way in which each neuron can communicate not merely with the 5 or 20 or even 100 to which it is interconnected, but to any of the other billions.

The failings of the book are few, but worth mentioning. Florian Keller appears to want to build his `story' from the outset, around a tale of a "death hoax" (really!). This may be true, or merely a styling that seeks to tie very airy ideas to real folks. Certainly we wonder at such things more often than we do at the workings of neurons. So I kept reading those interspersed segments thinking they would satisfy some other element of the argument, but they never did. Unless you find them engaging you can skip them and stick to the main argument(s). Of course Florian Keller may have just added these bits to give a breather from the heavier going of, especially, the cancer stories. Roughly the first 60% of the book is a pretty serious look at this piece of the argument and it can be slow going at times. I'm a fairly brainy guy, but I have to admit that I would struggle now to recall and outline the details of this piece of the argument. Its important to move beyond mere "faith" in even a `scientific' claim that things are "spooky" in the world of Andy Kaufman - but once you are convinced by the illusion you can move ahead with the revised knowledge that things are "demonstrably spooky."

The elements that Florian Keller does not belabor gain force by mere suggestion. Important among these is the ultimately-developed notion that some of the counter-factual things that "If I Faked It" states as reality, and their demonstrated association with an important role for observers, are bound through this proposed quantum element of brain chemistry and consciousness. From here we are free, I suppose, to tie-in our own favorite unexplained phenomena - Florian Keller doesn't push it. Although he somewhat overmentions his credentials I don't think he is, actually, a practicing Kaufman fan. His back-cover vitae notes, instead, his leadership of a `cancer institute' and we can assume he is professionally interested in Heartbeeps & I'm from Hollywood issues and healing. Good for him. This book may take you there or elsewhere - it led me to lots more reading about "consciousness" - but I'm sure it will move you, someway, into valuable explorations of both inner and outer. Enjoy both "If I FakedIt" and "The Book of Illusion" details of which are found at www.thebookofillusion.com.