Download or read book Breaking Kayfabe written by Scott Teal and published by . This book was released on 2017-01-30 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2012, three friends -- Dan Lambert, Robert Mitchell and John Menhennet -- decided to invite one of the legends of professional wrestling to dinner, where they could talk to him about his experiences both inside and out of the squared circle. They enjoyed themselves so much that they invited other friends -- Jeff Bowdren, Bob McKeon, Greg Goode, and Duane Long -- to join them for what would turn out to be a series of dinners with the wrestlers they idolized during the '70s and '80s. The group members, all of whom lived in South Florida and came from all walks of life, began referring to themselves as "The South Florida Marks." One of the members, Jeff Bowdren, had been a wrestling fan since the early '70s. His fascination with the wrestling business led him to visit arenas all over the Southeast, and in 1987, across the Pacific Ocean to Tokyo, Japan, where the wrestling bug bit him hard. In 1991, Jeff became the first (and only) person to write a regular column for the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, one of the first publications to pull back the curtain that hid the behind-the-scenes manipulations of the professional wrestling business. Since then, Jeff has been known by everyone as "The Booker." Since the first dinner he attended, he has taken notes and recorded 24 interviews filled with anecdotes, tales of the road, and wrestling history. This book is the product of his efforts.Interviews with: Arn Anderson, Barry Windham, Bob Backlund, Dutch Mantell, Gerry Brisco, J.J. Dillon, Jerry Lawler, Kevin Sullivan, Larry Zbyszko, Masked Superstar, Paul Jones, Paul Orndorff, Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Ron Bass, Stan Hansen, Steve Keirn, Ted DiBiase, Terry (Magnum TA) Allen, Terry Funk, Terry Taylor, Tommy Rich, Tully BlanchardAlso included are interviews with Karl Gotch, Great Malenko & Tom Nash

Download or read book Breaking Kayfabe written by Wes Brown and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Breaking Kayfabe Other Stories written by Andy Geels and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 123 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Breaking Kayfabe written by Wes Brown and published by Bluemoose. This book was released on 2023-05-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling written by Aubrey Sitterson and published by Ten Speed Graphic. This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the host of the critically acclaimed pro wrestling podcast Straight Shoot, this graphic novel history of wrestling features the key grapplers, matches, and promotions that shaped this beloved sport and form of entertainment. As a pop culture phenomenon, professional wrestling--with its heroic babyfaces and villainous heels performing suplexes and powerbombs in pursuit of championship gold--has conquered audiences in the United States and around the world. Now, writer/podcaster Aubrey Sitterson and illustrator Chris Moreno form a graphic novel tag team to present wrestling's complete illustrated history. Featuring legendary wrestlers like Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, and The Rock, and modern-day favorites like John Cena, Kenny Omega, and Sasha Banks, the book covers wrestling's progress from the carnival days of the Gold Dust Trio to the dominance of the WWF/WWE to today's diverse independent wrestling scene, and it spotlights wrestling's reach into Mexico/Puerto Rico (lucha libre), the U.K. (all-in), and Japan (puroresu).

Download or read book Wwe written by Dru Jeffries and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-24 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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. At the same time, the internet and fandom have a greater influence on the company than ever before. By examining various sites of struggle and negotiation between WWE executives and in-ring performers, between the product and its fans, and between the company and the rest of the wrestling industry, the contributors to this volume highlight the role of various media platforms in shaping and disseminating WWE narratives. Treating the company and its product not merely as sports entertainment, but also as a brand, an employer, a company, a content producer, and an object of fandom, #WWE conceptualizes the evolution of professional wrestling's most successful company in the digital era.

Download or read book This Thing Called Life written by Neal Karlen and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A warm and surprisingly real-life biography, featuring never-before-seen photos, of one of rock’s greatest talents: Prince. Neal Karlen was the only journalist Prince granted in-depth press interviews to for over a dozen years, from before Purple Rain to when the artist changed his name to an unpronounceable glyph. Karlen interviewed Prince for three Rolling Stone cover stories, wrote “3 Chains o’ Gold,” Prince’s “rock video opera,” as well as the star’s last testament, which may be buried with Prince’s will underneath Prince’s vast and private compound, Paisley Park. According to Prince's former fiancée Susannah Melvoin, Karlen was “the only reporter who made Prince sound like what he really sounded like.” Karlen quit writing about Prince a quarter-century before the mega-star died, but he never quit Prince, and the two remained friends for the last thirty-one years of the superstar’s life. Well before they met as writer and subject, Prince and Karlen knew each other as two of the gang of kids who biked around Minneapolis’s mostly-segregated Northside. (They played basketball at the Dairy Queen next door to Karlen’s grandparents, two blocks from the budding musician.) He asserts that Prince can’t be understood without first understanding ‘70s Minneapolis, and that even Prince’s best friends knew only 15 percent of him: that was all he was willing and able to give, no matter how much he cared for them. Going back to Prince Rogers Nelson's roots, especially his contradictory, often tortured, and sometimes violent relationship with his father, This Thing Called Life profoundly changes what we know about Prince, and explains him as no biography has: a superstar who calls in the middle of the night to talk, who loved The Wire and could quote from every episode of The Office, who frequented libraries and jammed spontaneously for local crowds (and fed everyone pancakes afterward), who was lonely but craved being alone. Readers will drive around Minneapolis with Prince in a convertible, talk about movies and music and life, and watch as he tries not to curse, instead dishing a healthy dose of “mamma jammas.”

Download or read book WWE 50 written by Kevin Sullivan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-03-31 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the creators of the official WWE Encyclopedia, WWE 50 gives you the behind-the-scenes knowledge to become the ultimate WWE fan! Learn the Real Story Behind Key Events in WWE History: The split from the National Wrestling Alliance. Controversial figures and events from all eras. National expansion and the perilous risk involved. The legal and financial strife that nearly devastated WWE. Triumph in the Monday Night Wars. Innovations of WrestleMania, Raw, SmackDown, Survivor Series, and more! With Stunning Visuals and Insider Commentary.

Download or read book Unladylike written by Heather Von Bandenburg and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-11 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'One of the greatest wrestling memoirs I've had the pleasure to have read... Unladylike was a great reminder of why I fell in love with wrestling to begin with' Mick Foley{::}** ** Forget what you think you know about wrestling. In the world of Heather Honeybadger, aka Rana Venenosa, there are no steroids, no tans, no million-dollar contracts – there is only lycra, a sweaty underground club and an unbreakable resilience. From the day that Heather steps into the ring of the punk wrestling school Lucha Britannia, she finds herself transformed into a person she never knew she could be. How do you become a wrestler when you hate sports so much you can't do a press-up? What makes feminists and wrestlers both mortal enemies and unlikely best friends? For the first time, an independent female wrestler talks in depth about how she went from a sad, lost riot grrrl to an empowered, persevering fighter who has performed across the world. Unladylike is a feminist romp like no other – hard-hitting, life-affirming and funny, just like the women who find themselves in the ring.

Download or read book Kayfabe written by Sean Oliver and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-11-22 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Sean's story, beginning as a renegade, outlaw company and evolving to redefining the shoot video genre, is extremely fascinating. Who knew that the man asking the questions was as fascinating as his subject matter?" -Justin Barrasso, Sports Illustrated "Kayfabe brings to life a world that once had its own version of 'omerta' in a fascinating, well written book that will intrigue long time fans, new fans, and just those who are hoping to take a peek behind the curtain of this unlikely cultural phenomenon." -Eric Bischoff, WCW President "I worked in a business full of liars, cheaters, workers, con artists and of course...politicians. I can name maybe 3 people over the years that I 100% trusted, or even believed for that matter. Sean Oliver is one of those men. In reading Kayfabe, you can believe that 100% of this masterpiece is accurate-yes, even the parts about me. The most stand-up guy perhaps ever associated with the business of Pro Wrestling. You want truth-you'll find it right here." -Vince Russo, Former WWE/WCW Head Writer If you thought the world of pro wrestling was wild, imagine what you haven't seen on TV and in the ring. Add to that the backdrop of building a renegade production company, negotiating with impossible wrestling talent, and hosting groundbreaking, shoot-style programming, and you have the story of Sean Oliver. Sean has seen industry-wide accolades for the company he co-founded and for which he serves as frontman. But there are also the threats, stories of abuse, and moments of downright hilarity that you haven't known...until now. Watch the unpredictable and unconventional story through Sean's eyes.

Download or read book Magic Is Dead written by Ian Frisch and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-02-26 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the vein of Neil Strauss’ The Game and Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein comes the fascinating story of one man’s colorful, mysterious, and personal journey into the world of magic, and his unlikely invitation into an underground secret society of revolutionary magicians from around the world. Magic Is Dead is Ian Frisch’s head-first dive into a hidden world full of extraordinary characters and highly guarded secrets. It is a story of imagination, deception, and art that spotlights today’s most brilliant young magicians—a mysterious club known as the52, who are revolutionizing an ancient artform under the mantra Magic Is Dead. Ian brings us with him as he not only gets to know this fascinating world, but also becomes an integral part of it. We meet the52’s founding members—Laura London, Daniel Madison, and Chris Ramsay—and explore their personal demons, professional aspirations, and what drew them to their craft. We join them at private gatherings of the most extraordinary magicians working today, follow them to magic conventions in Las Vegas and England, and discover some of the best tricks of the trade. We also encounter David Blaine; hang out with Penn Jillette; meet Dynamo, the U.K.’s most famous magician; and go behind the scenes of a Netflix magic show. Magic Is Dead is also a chronicle of magic’s rich history and how it has changed in the internet age, as the young guns embrace social media and move away from the old-school take on the craft. As he tells the story of the52, and his role as its most unlikely member, Ian reveals his own connection with trickery and deceit and how he first learned the elements that make magic work from his poker-playing mother. He recalls their adventures in card rooms and casinos after his father’s sudden death, and shares a touching moment that he had, as a working journalist, with his childhood idol Shaquille O’Neal. “Magic—the romanticism of the inexplicable, the awe and admiration of the unexpected—is an underlying force in how we view the world and its myriad possibilities,” Ian writes. As his journey continues, Ian not only becomes a performer and creator of magic—even fooling the late Anthony Bourdain during a chance encounter—he also cements a new brotherhood, and begins to understand his relationship with his father, fifteen years after his death. Written with psychological acuity and a keen eye for detail, Magic Is Dead is an engrossing tale full of wonder and surprise.

Download or read book Titan Screwed Lost Smiles Stunners and Screwjobs written by James Dixon and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2016-05-23 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "To level up to the pedestal of World Championship Wrestling and end the ratings disparity of the Monday Night Wars, Vince McMahon knew he had to reinvent his business come the dawn of 1997. But the question was, how? The time-tested ethos of World Wrestling Federation programming and booking was about to be cast to the wind, trampled beneath the sudden embrace of excessive violence, adult themes, and the fostering of internal conflicts to be served up to a gawking audience. Through those conflicts, McMahon had to make extremely bold decisions in regards to the population at the top of his roster. One particular controversy would forever change the perception of the World Wrestling Federation, with shockingly positive implications. The perceived 'second-place' promotion suddenly came roaring back, ironically looking to draw blood after previously disallowing it. Through McMahon's glaring eyes, 1997 was the year that the 'good guys' broke all the rules to regain the edge."--Page [4] of cover.

Download or read book Journey Into Darkness written by Michael Chiappetta and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2005-08-30 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kane has always been a dark, complex, and haunted man, and fans have always been drawn to him. They have wondered what caused his pain and suffering. What was his motivation?Instead of basking in the glow of the spotlight, Kane has shunned attention. Kane did not utter a single word for the first years of his career. In a time when Superstars scream for attention, he drew in the masses with onlyhis presence.Journey Into Darknessis the story of a boy who suffers an unspeakable childhood tragedy, losing his family in a fiery blaze. This left him aloneand at the mercy of strangers, who whispered about this friendless child who must be cursed.Follow Kane into a terrifying place that few would dare to go -- his life.

Download or read book The Business of Kayfabe written by Sean Oliver and published by . This book was released on 2019-02-04 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is that thing you love to do in your spare time worth a million bucks? The personalities in pro wrestling have always been some of the most unique and entertaining in the world. For over ten years, Kayfabe Commentaries has been the leading production company in the shoot interview genre, and now you'll go inside the company and see how it was done. Sean Oliver, the on-camera ringmaster and co-owner of the company, takes the reader through all the components of building the business that bought the real-life personalities behind wrestling's outrageous personalities to the masses. From the hits to the cancellations, Oliver explains the logic behind each decision in producing the shows and handling talent--often the most challenging aspect of the job. Filled with real-world examples from Sean's leading Kayfabe Commentaries, the book outlines the entrepreneurial tenets that can make a small business thrive. Building a "Business of Blood," which Oliver describes as a business born out of its creator's passion for a hobby, will give the small business owner advantages over big business. Go on the KC shoots, explore its business tactics, see the presentation Sean made to TNA Wrestling back in 2010, and hear about his product pitch to KISS's Gene Simmons before he even founded KC. Everything Sean learned about succeeding in this out of the ordinary industry is presented to you in The Business of Kayfabe. Join Sean and see how your Business of Blood might be able gross over a million dollars in under ten years due to your level of love and insight.

Download or read book Jim Cornette Presents Behind the Curtain Real Pro Wrestling Stories written by Jim Cornette and published by IDW Publishing. This book was released on 2019-08-21 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pro-Wrestling's secrets and greatest moments are immortalized in this graphic novel from legendary wrestling personality Jim Cornette. A true-story style anthology, these insider tales will show the lengths that wrestlers went to uphold "kayfabe" (the old carny term for the presentation of legitimate conflict), as well as the noteworthy cultural, racial, and economic effects these events and characters had on society. This is the graphic novel that old school wrestling fans have been waiting their entire lives for: a no-holds-barred representation of the moments that wrestling insiders couldn't talk about for years.

Download or read book Cosmo written by Spencer Gordon and published by Coach House Books. This book was released on 2013-03-22 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2013 CBC Overlookie Bookie Award for Most Underrated Canadian Book "These stories read like collaborations between Stephen King and TMZ with Borges and Nabokov on the edits. Each short story sounds with the thunder of a novel. Enthralling, dark, gut-busting stuff!"—Jeff Parker Actor Matthew McConaughey descends into a surreal desert of the soul, an admirer of Miley Cyrus performs a three thousand-word sentence in defense of his passion, an aging porn star dons a dinosaur costume to film the sex scene of a lifetime, and Leonard Cohen shills for Subway: these mercurial and wildly varied stories explode the conventions of short fiction. Spencer Gordon is the author of the acclaimed short story collection Cosmo (Coach House Books, 2012), the poetry collection Cruise Missile Liberals (forthcoming from Nightwood Editions in fall 2017), and three chapbooks. He is a co-founder of the ten-year-old literary magazine The Puritan, and his writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, the National Post, the Toronto Star, and other forums. He works at a speakers bureau in Toronto.

Download or read book Self Help written by Al Snow and published by ECW Press. This book was released on 2019-05-07 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Professional wrestler Al Snow delivers highlights from his onscreen antics and never-before-heard tales from the road in this high-flying memoir spanning 30 years in the ring In the late 90s, wrestling journeyman Al Snow looked in the mirror and saw a man who needed help. A man whose reputation within the wrestling industry was excellent but whose career was going nowhere. Channeling his frustration into the gimmick for which he would become best known, Al began talking to (and through) a mannequin head. With Extreme Championship Wrestling, Al reinvented himself as an unhinged neurotic and became one of the hottest acts in the most cutting-edge promotion in America when wrestlingÕs popularity was at its peak. This led to a journey back to the industryÕs main stage, World Wrestling Entertainment, during the wildly popular Attitude Era, and in the central role as a trainer and father figure on the MTV reality show, Tough Enough. Now, after 35 years in the industry, Al Snow tells the stories of the unbelievable yet true events that formed his career, from his in-ring recollections to out-of-ring escapades, including drunken midnight journeys with a vanfull of little people, overuse of Tasers at autograph signings, and continual attempts on his life by assorted members of the animal kingdom. Self Help is Al Snow at his best, delivering what everybody wants and needs.