The View From Down Here – eBook Review ‘Scott’s Blog Of Doom Presents: The Worst of Wrestling’

Books, Columns, Reviews, Top Story

I have friends. No, really, I do. One of them recently discovered that I’ve got all the Scott Keith books, so he got me this e-book: ‘Scott’s Blog Of Doom Presents: The Worst of Wrestling’. It’s a compilation of his rants from the worst professional wrestling Pay-Per-Views ever, in Scott’s opinion. Now, to be fair, I’d read a couple of them before, but not all of them, so this was an interesting exercise.

Okay, let’s be honest here: I am a fan of Scott’s work. I think his reviews – while occasionally over-cynical and also at times border on the callous – are extremely entertaining. It sort of strikes my own personal sense of humour when watching wrestling, and I agree with about 80% of what he writes (though he likes Undertaker more than I ever could).

A few personal things in here surprised me. I didn’t realise he had reviewed Heroes of Wrestling which I dedicated a recent column to, and in my current work-in-progress I reviewed WCW Uncensored 1996 and I think I was harsher on it than Scott.

Okay, to the book. There were only three shows in this that I had not seen – Girls Gone Wild, XPW Baptized In Blood, and NWA Bunkhouse Stampede 1988. This means that I can actually read what he has written and decide if what he says is true.

And it is.

The writing is full of the Scott Keith wit, and the matches are spelled out in his trademark detail. It is a quick read, and it is a fun read, though for younger readers, some of the pop culture references will go over heads; hell, I’m a few years older than him and I miss a few of them.

Some of the rants, though, do stand out.

The Wrestlemania XV one is great for those of us watching at the time. Now, I was actually in an anti-WWF phase from WM13 to WM2000, so I saw very little except on tape delay (up to 3 months in some cases), but the way Scott describes the whole Vince Russo directed clusterf**k that was that PPV is amazing. And, the scary thing is, it’s true. And the scarier thing is, after this he continues to be employed by wrestling organisations.

The Uncensored 1995 rant made me go back and rewatch it. Stupid! It was as bad as Keith said it was, and even then I think he may have over-rated some of the matches. Though not as horrid as Uncensored 1996 (my personal worst ever PPV of all time), it was still pretty damn atrocious.

And finally the Great American Bash 1991 (the Flair protest show) is probably one of his best show rants. He just rips everything apart. What is odd is that this was the first NWA/WCW video tape I ever saw, and yet I still continued to watch, even after this. (Mind you, wait for my WCW series coming up and you’ll see an even bigger act of stupidity on my behalf concerning the first WCW PPV shown in Australia and me buying it…) The descriptions here put you in that audience that was hostile and angry and completely unco-operative, and it would make you wish you had been there if only the wrestling had not been so goddamned awful.

Now, in the interests of me being actually fair and balanced… I think the book would have worked better in chronological order. At the moment the PPVs are all over the place. While I understand that by doing that you avoid having all the WCW ones together, and the WWE ones, etc, but it would give some sort of historical perspective. Also I think it lacks a 2013 Scott Says type of additional commentary throughout, maybe to explain some of the in-jokes or allusions to wrestling history that have been lost in the mists of time, or to explain what went on to happen. And finally, a quick edit to clean up some old errors in grammar, formatting, etc, would not have gone astray.

These, however, are minor quibbles. And, really, for 99 cents US you can’t really go wrong with an entertaining and fun little read.

Really recommended.

 

(Now, before you go… Have you filled in last week’s poll? How about looking at my own blog? Please?)

Australian. Father. Perpetual student. Started watching wrestling before Wrestlemania 1. Has delusions of grandeur and was known to regularly get the snot beaten out of him in a wrestling ring. Also writes occasionally in other Pulse sections.Thinks Iron Mike Sharpe is underrated. http://stevengepp.wordpress.com