Best Pro Wrestling books?

[psychokiller]

So I bought an iPad a few weeks ago & want to start reading some wrestling books on it. Any you personally recommend to get?

[DiBiase is Good]

Walking a Golden Mile - William Regal
It’s brutally honest but very funny.

[legendkiller1985]

Jericho's Three autobiographies
Bret Hart's Hitman
Foley's first two
Death of WCW updated
Hardcore History ECW

[Lardlad]

Justin Roberts
Bret Hart
Titan Sinking: The Decline of the WWF in 1995
Titan Shattered
Titan Screwed: Lost Smiles, Stunners and Screwjobs

[LexExpress]

Ditto for Bret, Death of WCW and Justin Roberts.

Bob Holly's book is surprisingly good, and JTG's two short volumes are a fun read. I'd also suggest the original Wrestlecrap book (but wouldn't recommend the book of lists).

[Deleted]

Bret Hart's
Foley's first 2
Jericho's first
Regal's
Dan Severn's I found interesting too.

[Deleted]

Jillian Hall.


.........oh dear God, I misread this thread's title apologies.


I've read very few, but Bret's bio was dense & incredible and Heenan's first was very decent. I recall flipping thru Regal's years ago and.....just skimming it was intense. And I hate to say this but I read Foley's first book and barely even remember reading it much less remembering how it was. Yikes.

[edgestar]

I read Edge's in a day.

[Ryback on a Pole!]

Off the top of my head I enjoyed Regals, Angles, all of Jericho's, Dan Severn's and Bob Holly's alot. Death of WCW was a good read too.

[Deleted]

Dynamite Kid's book Pure Dynamite

[msc]

Another vote for Bret's book. It does have a lot of Bretisms in it, but he's actually shockingly honest about his failings, his drug taking, his adultery and so on. The stuff about surviving a stroke, and the family collapse in a few years is somber but very well written. Plus, his love of certain wrestlers just shines through, like Mr Perfect and Rick Rude.

Foley's first book is great. It starts with him at college and works up all the way to his first World title win. His second book is more Mick Foley, lots of anecdotes and bad jokes. I quite like it, especially the anecdotes of working on the road with Austin and Rock. The last portion of the book is a bit notorious online, so I can see, but I really enjoyed it at the time, and if you take it at face value (its a defence of the WWF from a pro-McMahon POV) some of the stuff about how stats and facts are warped by *any* industry to mislead folk was quite illuminating at the time. Have A Nice Day is full of blood, sweat and tears. Foley is Good is full of cheap pops. The other two books don't count in my canon.

[nisidhe]

Dec 13, 2017 23:58:49 GMT -5 @jr1 said:

Dynamite Kid's book Pure Dynamite

I would suggest you read this book _before_ you read Bret Hart's autobiography. There are different takes on some common history which do not hold up to equal weight after reading both; you would not enjoy _Pure Dynamite_ after reading Bret's book. Bret's is a must-read, however.

Foley's _Have a Nice Day_ is good in a different sense in that it's far lighter and, for that, better written. Both Bret's and Foley's books are self-written as opposed to ghost-written: to me, writing the work oneself is almost essential to get an accurate voice of the subject. For that reason alone, I have not read any other WWE-related autobiographies and probably will not, on principle. If you want someone else to write your story, make that writer the author and call it a biography.

But Bret's and Foley's books should be on your shelf.

[Woo]

Dec 14, 2017 7:36:07 GMT -5 nisidhe said:

Dec 13, 2017 23:58:49 GMT -5 @jr1 said:

Dynamite Kid's book Pure Dynamite

I would suggest you read this book _before_ you read Bret Hart's autobiography. There are different takes on some common history which do not hold up to equal weight after reading both; you would not enjoy _Pure Dynamite_ after reading Bret's book. Bret's is a must-read, however.

Foley's _Have a Nice Day_ is good in a different sense in that it's far lighter and, for that, better written. Both Bret's and Foley's books are self-written as opposed to ghost-written: to me, writing the work oneself is almost essential to get an accurate voice of the subject. For that reason alone, I have not read any other WWE-related autobiographies and probably will not, on principle. If you want someone else to write your story, make that writer the author and call it a biography.

But Bret's and Foley's books should be on your shelf.

Did Edge not write his own?

[nisidhe]

Dec 14, 2017 14:31:23 GMT -5 Woo said:

Did Edge not write his own?

If it was published under the WWE imprint, it generally meant that it was ghost-written and often with some measure of kayfabe intact. If Edge was an exception to it, I apologize for not having read that.

[Deleted]

Fred Blassie, you will love a look at how things were before there was even TV.

[2coldMack is even more baffled]

Terry Funk's book is pretty good, as I recall, if a bit of a "whistle stop tour" of his career.

[Nikki Heyman]

Dec 14, 2017 15:54:24 GMT -5 nisidhe said:

Dec 14, 2017 14:31:23 GMT -5 Woo said:

Did Edge not write his own?

If it was published under the WWE imprint, it generally meant that it was ghost-written and often with some measure of kayfabe intact. If Edge was an exception to it, I apologize for not having read that.

I read his book (had an autographed copy, which was stolen along with my HHH book) and Edge did it mostly OOC. He clarified when he talked about Christian (calling him "Jay") and this was the first time that I recall confirmation that he and Christian weren't really brothers.

I will vouch all of Jericho's books, Foley's first book, Edge's and Death of WCW. The Titan series was also very informative. Kinda wish they had kept going after Titan screwed.

[Baby, it’s Jes outside]

Dec 13, 2017 20:16:26 GMT -5 edgestar said:

I read Edge's in a day.

I read Edge’s after the whole Matt/Lita thing. Then I laughed my ass off.

[The Rick Jericho]

Bret Hart
Death of WCW
Hardcore Holly
Chris Jericho: 1,2,3 and 4
Mick Foley
Chyna

[edgestar]

Dec 14, 2017 17:18:21 GMT -5 Nikki Heyman said:

Dec 14, 2017 15:54:24 GMT -5 nisidhe said:

If it was published under the WWE imprint, it generally meant that it was ghost-written and often with some measure of kayfabe intact. If Edge was an exception to it, I apologize for not having read that.

I read his book (had an autographed copy, which was stolen along with my HHH book) and Edge did it mostly OOC. He clarified when he talked about Christian (calling him "Jay") and this was the first time that I recall confirmation that he and Christian weren't really brothers.

I will vouch all of Jericho's books, Foley's first book, Edge's and Death of WCW. The Titan series was also very informative. Kinda wish they had kept going after Titan screwed.

I met Christian a few weeks ago, and told him that I met Edge. His response? "Sorry to hear that" Both are very nice I'd love a Christian bio someday.