Professional Wrestling

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.

The Wrestlers' Wrestlers spotlights elite performers and analyzes exactly what made them your favorite wrestler's favorite wrestlers. Authors Dan Murphy and Brian Young interviewed more than 40 in-ring veterans, historians, referees, and promoters to get a unique insider's look at the people who have made a lasting impact on the world of professional wrestling. It offers a special peek "behind the curtain" and a rare look into the top stars' thoughts on their peers, their influences, and their personal favorites.

If you want to learn how to become an independent professional wrestler, then check out Independent Pro Wrestling Guide. This guide is written by a former indie pro wrestler who will show you step by step to get started in the independent wrestling world. Learn how to get your start in as a professional wrestler on the independent circuit. Hear tales and get advice from someone who knows what it's like to wrestle as an independent wrestler. Find out how to find the perfect wrestling school as well as how to pay for your wrestling education. Having trouble getting booked in your first match? This book lets you know what tools you need to get yourself between the ropes!

International pro wrestling star Jeff Bearden has gone by many names: Butch Masters, Giant Warrior, Big Tiger Steele, and Colossus the Gladiator. Under these guises, he became part of wrestling history. Enter the wild, bloody life of pro wrestling during its Golden Age, from the viewpoint of one of its “biggest” stars. At seven feet tall, Jeff Bearden towered over his competition from the time he premiered in territory wrestling in 1987, through the crazed and dangerous wrestling scenes, infamy, and championships.

Telling the remarkable tale of a man who is still remembered on the streets of New Orleans and in the hearts of professional-wrestling fans, this book aims to restore the overlooked Junkyard Dog to his proper place in the history books. In 1979, Sylvester Ritter, also known as the Junkyard Dog, managed to break one of the final color barriers in the sport by becoming the first Black wrestler named undisputed top star of his promotion, and this biography reveals all the famous feuds and business back stories that made him a wrestling legend.

The millions of fans who watch World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) programs each year are well aware of their role in building the narrative of the sport. #WWE: Professional Wrestling in the Digital Age explores the intersections between media, technology, and fandom in WWE's contemporary programming and business practices. In the Reality Era of WWE (2011 to the present), wrestling narratives have increasingly drawn on real-life personalities and events that stretch beyond the story-world created and maintained by WWE.

How to Start, Run, and Promote a Successful Independent Professional Wrestling Show provides guidance on setting a vision and goals, assembling a team, choosing a business structure, understanding the market, and conducting market research. It offers strategies for promoting and marketing shows, managing finances and budgets, and exploring revenue streams. The book covers various aspects of show production, including venue selection, talent acquisition, show format and storyline development, technical production, and ensuring crowd safety.

This audiobook tells the story of the production of wrestling from black and white TV straight to the Internet. First, I discuss about the transition period from black and white TV to color TV and the transition to cable TV. It was the height of the territory wars, which featured the broken up territories of the NWA and the WWWF which became the WWF when Vince McMahon took over.

Virtually every big name in wrestling in the second half of the 20th Century crossed paths with "Ms. Christine," as she was known to most. If they followed her rules, Christine "Teeny" Jarrett probably taught them a thing or two about staying out of trouble and saving money for a rainy day. If they got out of line, they likely faced The Grip. Over the course of her 50-year career in wrestling, Teeny worked her way from selling tickets in the back of a Nashville, Tennessee shoe store to running a network of towns for Nick Gulas and Roy Welch...