English Wrestling

When most people think of the celebrated greatness that is Coach Dan Gable, they think of an almost mythic intensity toward wrestling. Gable breathes and bleeds the sport and faithfully applies lessons learned from both on and off the mat. Expanding upon Gable's first collection of stories, A Wrestling Life 2 goes a little deeper into the mindset and life events that have shaped the man, the wrestler, and the coach.

WWE has always been willing to take risks and push the envelope to entertain its fans. Sometimes that works out great, but other times, WWE comes away looking incompetent at best, and downright tasteless at worst. This book looks at the absolute worst of the worst, the storylines that not only misfired on all cylinders, but made us embarrassed to be wrestling fans. Relive Big Show's anguish as the Big Boss Man stole his dead father's casket, the night Dawn Marie killed Torrie Wilson's father with her overactive sex drive, Muhammad Hassan's transformation from All-American kid to hardened ...

”I’ve never been one to turn down a challenge, but these particular ‘dares’ beat anything I’ve ever seen!” My sorority sisters throw down a triple dare!!! I'm sure it's because they know that no matter what they toss at me, I'm NOT going to knock it back. I'll be up for it. First my sorority sisters challenged me to get the underwear of all the guys in the frat house. I took that dare. And I think I came up with a fair exchange! Next I had to challenge a guy to a wrestling match. Tricky, but at least it didn’t have to be a guy from the wrestling team! The only catch is that ...

Ballyhoo! The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling is a history of professional wrestling’s formative period in the U.S., from roughly 1874 to 1941, and the contested interplay of wrestlers and promoters who built the “sport” as we know it. During this period, the major conventions that would define wrestling to the present day were perfected and codified, as wrestling morphed from a rough sport practiced on farms and at town gatherings to melodramatic mass entertainment that reliably drew large crowds in cities across the nation.

Ross' ascent in WWE mirrors the rise of professional wrestling itself from a DIY sideshow to a billion-dollar business. Under the Black Hat traces all the highs and lows of that wild ride, in which Jim served not only as on-air commentator, but talent manager, payroll master, and even occasional in-ring foil to threats like Paul "Triple H" Levesque and Undertaker.

Let’s not mince words: WCW had an atrociously bad first half of the 90s, and it seemed like nothing they tried could bring them the ratings and success they so badly wanted. That all changed when the NWO invasion finally gave WCW the boost they needed, and for two years, WCW rode the NWO to a seemingly insurmountable ratings lead over the WWF. But since this IS WCW we’re talking about here, the whole thing eventually came spiraling back to Earth in dramatic fashion thanks to the usual mismanagement and backstage politics. This book tells the story of how WCW improbably rose to the very ...

Rick Reilly has been a senior sports writer for Sports Illustrated for the past 17 years, and has been named "Sports Writer of The Year" seven times. Now, he pokes his nose into the world of golf. How does he do it? By caddying ("looping") for top players, celebrities, and some really bad run-of-the-mill golfers, Reilly gains insight into the minds of golfers, their winning or less-than-winning ways, and what they actually mutter when they're in the middle of play.

He was the most vicious, bloodthirsty, reviled villain in the history of the ring. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, he drew record crowds everywhere he went and left a trail of burned and bloody opponents in his wake. But what those legions of fans screaming for his head never knew was that The Sheik was really Eddie Farhat. The son of Arab immigrants, Farhat served his country proudly in World War II and was fulfilling the American dream. When he wasn't screaming unintelligibly and attacking his enemies, he was busy being the owner and operator of World Wide Sports.

We spend 8 hours a day, for 10 months a year, for nearly 17 years, sending our kids to school to prepare them for life. In all of that time, there is never a course on sacrifice, on goal setting, on perseverance, on overcoming adversity, on being a great teammate. I guess that is what the sport of WRESTLING Is for. One of the greatest assets in my life, other than my family and friends has been the sport of wrestling. It has made me into the person I am today. A person who can handle whatever adversity life throws at me. The disciplines of wrestling are impactful on a young athlete’s life...

Earl Hebner used hard work and determination to become the most recognizable officiating name in professional wrestling, if not "the greatest of all time." Starting in Virginia as ring crew, he gained the respect of Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair, going on to referee NWA's biggest events. Then, in front of 33 million fans, Earl debuted on WWF's most-watched event ever as the evil twin ref who stole Hulk Hogan's title. As WWE senior official, he played an integral part in "The Montreal Screwjob", calling an unplanned controversial finish that screwed Bret Hart out of his championship for real. ...

Once among the top wrestling companies in North America, Jim Crockett Promotions hit hard times in the late 80s, was sold to Turner Broadcasting, and transformed into the company we came to know as World Championship Wrestling. To say the corporate culture at Turner had a hard time meshing with the old-school wrestling mentality of WCW would be an understatement, and by the time the 90s began, WCW was barely recognizable after morphing into a second-rate WWF knockoff. The revolving door of executives with no experience in (or mind for) the wrestling business did everything they could to try...

In this eloquent account of her current struggle with physical pain, Joni Eareckson Tada offers her perspective on divine healing, God’s purposes, and what it means to live with joy. Over four decades ago, a diving accident left Joni a quadriplegic. Today, she faces a new battle: unrelenting pain. The ongoing urgency of this season in her life has caused Joni to return to foundational questions about suffering and God’s will.

Leon White grew in Compton before taking on the world. His impressive college football days led him to the NFL and ultimately the Super Bowl. Reinventing himself as a wrestler, he battled monsters in the ring like Bruiser Brody and Jerry Blackwell, until given his own monster-like gimmick in Japan. As “Big Van Vader," he defeated Antonio Inoki for the IWGP title and had his eyeball knocked out of his head by Stan Hansen, initiating his own legendary status. Taking on all the top names and winning titles around the world, this mastodon became “The Greatest Super Heavyweight of All Time....

After enduring a turbulent year in 1995, Vince McMahon was looking to rebuild his sinking empire in 1996. He had high hopes for a new World Wrestling Federation flag bearer, Shawn Michaels - the man he was looking to as the leader of the WWF’s "New Generation". With Michaels supported by a strong cast of established characters, some old faces, and an influx of new blood, McMahon fully expected the WWF to dominate rivals WCW in the burgeoning Monday Night War. It did not work out that way.

Brutus Beefcake: Struttin' & Cuttin' brings you everything you want to learn about the world's most famous wrestling barber Brutus Beefcake was a main event WWF Superstar who traveled the world. His tell-all book covers; the parasailing accident that almost ended his life & the struggle to make his miraculous comeback... Growing up in Tampa with Wade Boggs & Hulk Hogan in the mix... Breaking into the wrestling business... Working in the territorial days of wrestling... Vince McMahon's take over... The Dream Team championship run with Greg Valentine... The WWF takeover in the initial ...

Chuck Palahniuk's world has always been, well, different from yours and mine. These pieces from Stranger Than Fiction, his first nonfiction collection, prove just how different, in ways both highly entertaining and deeply unsettling.

The past thirty years of the wrestling business have been a very tumultuous time, as what was once a regional business grew into a national, and eventually global, entertainment industry. That history is loaded with pivotal moments where one slight change could have had a massive ripple effect that completely changed the landscape of wrestling as we know it today. This collecting of Wrestling History Revisited titles looks at many such pivotal moments in the history of WCW. How would things have been different if Hulk Hogan had never gone to WCW? What if the NWO invasion never happened? ...

Arm yourself with the wisdom to confidently support your wrestler’s journey and help them reach their full potential on and off the mat. How to Succeed (and Fail) as a Wrestling Parent contains practical guidance and real-life stories from Donovan Panone's 28 years in the trenches as a coach, as well as from being the parent of a wrestler.

The last 16 decades are rife with incidents like the "Montreal Screwjob", but in this new audiobook, it's time for some unsung heroes of professional wrestling's past to finally get their due. When did tag team wrestling migrate from Australia to the United States? How did a mid-ring heart attack reshape lucha libre? What was the first intergender wrestling match? There’s an unlimited amount of angles from which to view the fits and starts of professional wrestling’s serpentine growth.

In the early 1870s when a sturdy and stubborn teenager from a middle-class Bengali Hindu family joined a wrestling gymnasium in Dacca, little did his family and friends know that this young wrestler will be extolled in the distant future as the pioneer of the cult of physical strength and courage in Bengal. At the age of 23, to prove his masculinity and extraordinary fortitude and physical strength, Shyama Kanta Banerjee chose an unusual vocation – wrestling with wild tigers. For seventeen years people across Bengal were captivated by the breathtaking circus shows of Professor Banerjee, ...