Great book

I've only recently become interested in wrestling and I find myself much more interested in the backstage politics rather than the in ring action. It covers different aspects that what I've seen or heard from other media which meant I was hooked on it and not bored by the same old things. The narrator wouldn't be good for novels in my opinion but his energy perfectly suits the timeframe when this story begun as well as the theatricality wrestling industry. There are time when things are rattled of like he is simply reading statistics of wins and losses. But those moments are few and far between, otherwise I think it flows really well. It feels like a view from the trenches rather than a general's view of the battlefield. There wasn't as much about the climactic battle with the WCW and ECW brands as I expected. This mostly covers the skirmishes and alliance between the large number of small territories in the early days of the wrestling industry. It covers the key events from wrestlers popularity, industry defining wins and losses, face and heel turns, business hardships and successes as well as all the backstage choices that lead to the state of the wrestling industry. Great listen and would have been an even better read.

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Great

Really informative and interesting, if you have any interest in the history of wrestling I would 100 percent recommend this

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Great book annoying narration

The book is fantastic, very in depth and a lot of background on wrestling even hardcore fans like myself hadn't heard of before.
But the narrator is poor, draws out words and emphasises the end of words more than HHH. Off putting and ruins the mood the book creates.

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great book

loved this book. it provided a great history of Pro wrestling in the USA. would recommend

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enjoyable if a little sloppy in places

it's an interesting history of an unexplored part of working class entertainment. However it often skips past what appear to be key events, or did not set the scene properly. A title change following a double cross, in a match is described as being seminal, for example, but never really explains why clearly enough.

It would benefit from a good edit, but it's enjoyable.

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Important piece of wrestling history

Most wrestling fans know vaguely that the business in the US used to be run by a cartel of territories, which was destroyed by Vince McMahon junior's relentlessly expanding empire. This book comprehensively tells the story of how "New York" came to dominate the whole nation, and then the whole world's wrestling scene with it's revolutionary style of "sports entertainment": as well as the territories belated attempt to form a unified front to stop him. It's an interesting tale and is told well here, and manages to steer clear of the trap of either judging the old territories as clunky dinosaurs, or falling into nostalgia for them.

It's a book that certainly makes you realize how very different the business used to be compared to today's slick, highly polished, family-friendly product. And whatever one thinks of McMahon, you can't help by be impressed at his vision and energy in getting in front of the competition time and again throughout his career.

The narrator is competent.

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