The Squared Circle: Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling Hardcover Author: Visit Amazon's David Shoemaker Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1592407676 | Format: PDF, EPUB
Download The Squared Circle: Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling Download for free books Download The Squared Circle: Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling from mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link
From Publishers Weekly
With the loyalty of a devoted Wrestlemania fan determined to keep the sport respectable, Shoemaker, a book designer at Henry Holt and longtime wrestling scribe, establishes the tie between the amateur grapplers in the old sideshows and carnivals to the muscled studs of the current professional contests performing for sell-out crowds. Shoemaker is at his best when telling comic anecdotes about the colorful characters of the sport: Nature Boy Buddy Rogers, Vince McMahon, Gorgeous George, Sylvester The Junkyard Dog Ritter, Ed The Sheik Furhat, The Funk Brothers, Kamala the Ugandan Giant, Abdullah the Butcher, the Von Erich clan, the Fabulous Moolah, and the Chiefs Wahoo McDaniels and Jay Strongbow. He explains how the Old School rules worked during the Jim Crow days when black wrestlers could not battle with whites. Fans will recognize some of the biggest names of the staged spectacles in this lively, informed survey: Captain Lou Albano, Macho Man Randy Savage, Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, and the shapely Miss Elizabeth. (Nov.)
From Booklist
Professional wrestling is not a competition, at least not in the ring. The wrestlers know it, the promoters know it, and the fans absolutely know it. Everybody’s in on the joke, but the sport is no less a significant part of pop culture (and the competition outside the ring among promoters and cable networks is ferocious). Shoemaker navigates wrestling’s history from the turn of the late 1800s, when it was often a carnival sideshow. Later it became a regional endeavor, and still later it became a staple of the nascent television industry, where wrestling’s first stars were created. Shoemaker writes with a sly, understated wit, which is probably the best style with which to convey the “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” relationship the spectacle has with its fans. Adventurous readers, indifferent to wrestling though they may be, will find this a fun look inside an alternate universe. Fans, of course, will be whacking each other over the head with fake metal folding chairs to get their mitts on a copy. --Wes Lukowsky
See all Editorial Reviews
Books with free ebook downloads available Download The Squared Circle: Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling Hardcover
- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: Gotham (October 31, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1592407676
- ISBN-13: 978-1592407675
- Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
It is an impressive book and worth buying. I would tell any wrestling fan it is worth reading. I am not talking about just current wrestling fans, anyone who has ever been a wrestling fan will enjoy it. Even if you have not watched a match since Wrestlmania V or the last Monday Night Nitro, part of this book will speak to you.
The book is an enjoyable read. I had an easy time getting into it. I read it on my kindle, mostly on my lunch break. The chapters are the right length where I could finish a chapter or start over if I needed to get back to work.
Each chapter is the story of a different wrestler. The roots of the book was Shoemakers Dead Wrestler of the Week column he started at Deadspin. He tells the story of pro-wrestling by framing the stories around the dead wrestlers. He does not focus on how wrestlers died, but how they lived. He frames many of the great stories of wrestling this way.
He starts the book with the History of Wrestling. He tries to figure out the point where wrestling went from a competitive sport to a "worked" sport that we have today. This gives him a way to introduce many of the tropes of wrestling. This was the least interesting part of the book to me, but I can see why he had to include it. You could tell he did research on this part of the book, but only about 10% of it was new to me.
The most interesting stories were about the wrestlers I watched first hand. Reading about Andre the Giant, Randy Savage, and Road Warrior Hawk put a smile on my face. It made me feel like I was celebrating their lives. It is odd to read about them now because I am older then they were when I started watching them wrestle.
It is the stories like Curt Hennig that make me sad.
Book Preview
Download The Squared Circle: Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling Download
Please Wait...