Recommend A Good Wrestling Book

[Lardlad]

Can someone recommend a good wrestling book, or two or three for me?

I love reading books about wrestling, mainly one's from guys who have been in WWE.


From memory, I have already read: Bret Hart's, all of Mick Foley's, The Rock, Kurt Angle, Chyna, Steve Austin, Under The Mat, all the Wrestlecrap books, Ted DiBiase, Bruno Laurer, Shawn Michaels, Ring of Hell, Eddie Guerrero, and maybe a few more?

Edit: also, Chris Jericho's book, Ric Flair, Edge, Broken Harts (Martha, Owen's wife), and Triple H's Making the Game book.


I am looking forward to Russo's upcoming "Roap Opera" book next month, but are there other's I should read??

[Pervy Stone Cold]

Sex, Lies, and Headlocks. It is very Vince centric but I recommend it for an indepth overview over a lot of important history that went on behind the scenes.

[lmoney215]

Chris Jericho's autobiography was a great read. Covers everything up to his first WWE run. Ric Flair's book was good too. Some things were mixed up, but I am a Flair mark.

[johnnyk9]

Andre's book isn't bad although it's more of a guideline of his career, then his life

[ICBM]

Jan 8, 2010 12:40:47 GMT -5 Pervy Stone Cold said:

Sex, Lies, and Headlocks. It is very Vince centric but I recommend it for an indepth overview over a lot of important history that went on behind the scenes.

Vince centric yes but it buries him with actual printed fact. I loved this book because of the way it started by telling the "Evil Empire" story of the Old old NWA (Waterloo cartel) and Vince's plucky upstart and meteoric rise to national prominence despite the big huge monster NWA. Then it of course covers how he ended up becoming the evil empire.

[Naniwa]

I thought William Regal's book was a really good bit of work, it was interesting to get an inside view of the last days of the British wrestling circuit, plus the stuff about him hitting rock bottom and going into rehab is really powerful.

[indymadman]

Regal's book is very good.

I'd suggest Jericho's book FIRST. That book is awesome. A top 3 all time book for sure.

I also loved the unofficial history of ECW book (can't remember the name) as well... along with Terry Funk's book, which should have been 200 pages more.

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

I really enjoyed Freddie Blassie's book. It manages to cover his entire career, from beginning in the carnival to his latter WWE appearances, all in a conversational tone. It's easy to imagine Freddie sitting there telling the stories himself.

"Playboy" Gary Hart's book was also very good. Great stories from all over the wrestling world including some classic interactions with Jerry Jarrett, Missing Link, and others, as well as some interesting insight into the Von Erichs.

I liked Harley Race's book, but it could have been longer. Probably worth reading just for his telling of the events of the night before Starrcade '83.

Ole Anderson's book is much like Ole himself: most people will either love it or hate it. I like Ole, so I enjoyed the book.

Ivan Koloff's book was better than expected, plus it was interesting to me because I like the guy and didn't know much about his career aside from his run with Crockett and that he had beaten Bruno for the WWWF title years before.

JJ Dillon wrote a good one that not only covers his career as a wrestler and manager, but also gives some behind the scenes info on his time as Vince's right hand man in the WWF.

[vanillainsd]

I really like Dynamite Kid's book, even though he comes off as a complete jerk. He's a bitter ball of hatred, but I thought the story was good. Heenan's first book was pretty funny, better than the second one. I also liked Blassie's book- someone else mentioned that.

[indymadman]

I always wondered about JJ Dillions book... I'll have to check it out. Talk about a man who has something to say! He was right with the 4H and worked side by side with Vince..

Did he come off "honest" in the book?

[Lardlad]

I forgot to add Chris Jericho's book to my list (edited in original post now) as well as Ric Flair, Edge, Broken Harts (Martha, Owen's wife), and Triple H's Making the Game book.


I'm curious about JJ Dillon's book as well ... like I mentioned above, I'm more of a WWF/E guy, so I'm wondering if he goes into much detail of his WWF experiences or not?

[Deleted]

I didn't see it in your list, but Jerry Lawler's book is very interesting, funny and well-done, being as he was an owner & booker for one of the most-infamous territories in wrestling history.

Some childhood background, how he got into the business, the Nick Gulas-Jerry Jarrett fallout, a chapter on his "feud" with Andy Kaufman. A bit on how he held off the WWF expansion in the mid-80s. You can't pass this one up; it's got the feel just like a friend coming over and talking to you.

(Yeah, there's a chapter on his break-up with the Kat and a chapter about sex, but take those away and it's one of my favorites. Okay, the sex stories were good, lucky bastard. But the chapter on the Kat was uncomfortable to read.)

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

Yeah, JJ came off pretty honest. He wasn't afraid to take himself to task for living the Horsemen lifestyle and the affect it had on his family life, etc.

It's been a while since I read the book, so I can't remember exactly how much is devoted to his WWF tenure. I do recall that he discussed his reasons for leaving, his feelings toward Vince, and how he compared to his father in JJ's estimation.

I'll have to check it here in a bit and see if he talked about it a lot or not. I was getting (and reading) a lot of wrestling books at that time because I was going to get them signed at Fanfest (Harley's, Dillon's, Watts', Koloff's, etc.) so my memory isn't the best.

[Johawn]

Am I right in thinking Harley Race has a book out? Is it any good?

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

Yep, I mentioned it above. It's good, but I wish it was longer. Still, there's a good amount of info I didn't know about him and some cool stories, including a meeting with Vince on the night before Starrcade '83 and a visit to a WWF house show in Kansas City before signing on to become "the King."

[Crusty Ruffles]

Has anyone ever read the book on Stampede Wrestling that came out a few years ago?

I always thought Edge's book was really overlooked.

[Joe Neglia]

Ole's and Gary Hart's are great. One that I like, but may not be to all tastes here due to the time period, is Lou Thesz's "Hooker" - If you aren't familiar with pre-1970s wrestling, you may be a little lost trying to read it.

[Wieners=$$$]

Jan 9, 2010 18:15:53 GMT -5 Crusty Ruffles said:

Has anyone ever read the book on Stampede Wrestling that came out a few years ago?

I always thought Edge's book was really overlooked.

Yeah I just read Stampede Wrestling. It's pretty good from a historical perspective, but it's really depressing and brutal. The author (name?) kindof comes off as too involved in the story, when it comes to the later chapters, and it really shines a harsh light on the family, especially Stu. Worth a read, but it's like the Titanic; you know it doesn't end well.

[James McCloud IS John Godot]

Has anyone got a review of "The History of the NWA"? I've seen it in a few book stores as of late.

[repomark]

Death of WCW
All three of Mick Foley's autobiographys
Ric Flair's
Batista's
Chris Jericho's
Bret Harts'
Jerry Lawler's