 Number 3. This is slightly unfair, as I used to own this book, but it went missing and so I have now replaced it and so this is more a re-read than a cold reading. But that’s okay because it is a good read. I enjoyed it first time and again the second.
This one is ‘Wrestlecrap’ by R.D. Reynolds and Randy Baer (2003).
For those not aware, wrestlecrap.com is a website which highlights some of the more, shall we say, stupid things that have graced the squared circle over the years. It’s an affectionate, irreverent and funny look at some of the lesser lights of wrestling glory. Remember, for every ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, there was a ‘Ringmaster’.
The website highlights different pieces of crap on an individual basis. I initially got this book thinking it was going to be the same sort of thing (though not exactly the same, as the site had warned it was going to be different), but it isn’t. It’s basically the history of wrestling in the big promotions in North America through the crap that has graced their stages.
It takes bits and pieces of the website and sort of melds them into a coherent whole. There are occasional detours – like Hulk Hogan’s “acting†career, WBF, XFL – but it’s really all about the things that didn’t work – or should not have worked – in the wrestling ring.
There are some great moments here – the Doomsday Cage match where Hogan and Savage beat what seemed like every single over heel in WCW in one match is one of my favourites, and their description almost makes the actual event seem more ridiculous… almost – and some stuff that, being down here in Australia, I had never considered before.
I said at the start of this that the website is done with a degree of affection for wrestling. Unfortunately, that is not always the case in this book. However, that cannot be entirely blamed on the authors. The gimmicks were one thing, but some of the stuff in the late 1990s was something else again. What the book calls “nWoverkill”, the Katie Vick saga, the final throes of WCW… it was actually depressing and embarrassing to be a wrestling fan then, and that feeling of almost resentment at what was force-fed to us is evident in the writing.
Don’t get me wrong – the whole book is not like that, not at all. The forward by John “Earthquake†Tenta (amongst other aliases) is really good, and self-deprecating, making the late Mr Tenta appear to be quite a nice guy. I mean, which other person who had headlined shows against Hulk Hogan would contribute directly to a book called Wrestlecrap? And the opening chapter with its initial focus on the emergence of the infamous Gobbledy-Gooker at Survivor Series, is head-shakingly funny. The pre-Hulk Hogan WCW stuff was just painfully amusing; we never got that down here, and had to rely on months old video tapes, but it is written in such a way that we can picture it well enough to shake our heads again in disbelief at the things they thought would draw money.
The misses here are few and far between, unlike the gimmicks and other things detailed in the book. The style is easy to understand and read (which seems to be the way with wrestling books – are they assuming their target demographic will not understand something more formal? Dumb question, forget I asked it), though not as conversational as the previous two. It does require some knowledge of the subject beforehand; I don’t think a wrestling novice could get into this book too well.
I think if you take wrestling seriously, this is not the book for you. But if you can laugh at things and take the good with the bad, then this is clearly aimed at you. Well written, well set-out and thoroughly researched, it is a fine work.
I guess I’ve struck it lucky. 3 books, three good ‘uns. So yet again – thoroughly recommended.
