Author: Thom Loverro Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1416561560 Category : Sports & Recreation Languages : en Pages : 283
Book Description
Independent wrestling promotions were once the norm all across the country. However, with the rise of World Wrestling Entertainment and the creation of World Championship Wrestling -- out of three Southern promotions -- the possibility of an independent succeeding grew fainter and fainter. As the nineties began, independents were looking for creative ways to survive. In the East, several banded together to share cost and talent; they were known as Eastern Championship Wrestling. Based out of a warehouse in Philadelphia that stored parade floats and hosted bingo, this promotion seemed doomed to be just one more ninety-day wonder. When they hired a brash New Yorker, Paul Heyman, he warned Eastern Championship Wrestling that the job was just temporary. He would come in, shake up a lot of the wrestlers, and then leave. But what Heyman did redefined professional wrestling in the nineties. What he created was a company that dared to push the boundaries of sports entertainment. What he created became Extreme Championship Wrestling. As the person responsible for booking -- who was going to wrestle and who was going to win -- Heyman dared to break with tradition. Rather than relying on local talent and down-and-out veterans to draw in crowds, he created new characters and story lines that would appeal to the core wrestling fans: eighteen- to twenty-four- year-old men. Paul also realized that to persuade them to come, you had to get their interest and keep it. You had to offer the fans more than just the match. ECW became known for the interview, the shoot. Heyman got to know each wrestler's style, and in their interviews he would encourage them to speak from their hearts. When it came to the matches, ECW broke even farther from the mainstream. Tables, ladders, chairs, barbed wire, and even frying pans were used with abandon. Wrestlers not wanting to be topped put their bodies on the line, taking ever greater risks, daring to jump, leap, and fall from places never tried before. ECW matches became the stuff of legend. Word spread as savvy wrestling fans began talking about the promotion and exchanging tapes. To keep the buzz building, wrestlers used the age-old trick of taunting the fans, and ECW fans responded in kind. By including the fans in the shows, ECW attracted a rabid, cult-like following that is still going strong today. For nearly a decade, ECW redefined professional wrestling with a reckless, brutal, death-defying, and often bloody style that became synonymous with "hardcore." Through extensive interviews with former ECW talent and management -- Paul Heyman, Mick Foley, Tazz, Tommy Dreamer, Rob Van Dam, and many more -- The Rise & Fall of ECW reveals what made this upstart company from Philadelphia great -- and what ultimately led to its demise.
Author: Scott E. Williams Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1613218737 Category : Sports & Recreation Languages : en Pages : 288
Book Description
Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) was one extreme contradiction on top of another. An incredibly influential—but never profitable—company in the world of professional wrestling in the 1990s, it portrayed itself as the ultimate in anti-authority rebellion, but its leadership was working covertly with the World Wrestling Federation and the World Championship Wrestling. Most of all, it blurred the line between reality and the fantasy world of professional wrestling. Hardcore History: The Extremely Unauthorized Story of ECW offers a frank, balanced look at the evolution of ECW starting before its early days as a Philadelphia-area independent group and extending past its death in 2001. Featuring dozens of interviews with fans, officials, business partners, and the wrestlers themselves, this is a very balanced account of this bizarre company—and it’s sure to be extremely controversial for fans and critics of ECW, and wrestling, alike. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. In addition to books on popular team sports, we also publish books for a wide variety of athletes and sports enthusiasts, including books on running, cycling, horseback riding, swimming, tennis, martial arts, golf, camping, hiking, aviation, boating, and so much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
Author: Tod Gordon Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1637588674 Category : Sports & Recreation Languages : en Pages : 252
Book Description
The uncensored inside story of ECW’s founder Tod Gordon’s journey from jewelry store owner to one of the three most powerful promoters in pro wrestling. “An incredible, entertaining and insightful story of one of the most important—and also underappreciated—promoters in wrestling history. A must-read for any wrestling fan, promoter, executive or any of the boys looking to laugh and learn.” —Alfred Boima Konuwa III, Forbes Extreme Championship Wrestling was the revolutionary, industry-redefining wrestling federation of the ’90s, and founder and owner Tod Gordon is telling his story for the first time. Gordon went from local Philadelphia businessman to the third most influential man in wrestling as ECW became the fiery challenger to WWE and WCW. ECW’s young roster featured inventive risk-taking talent that both major federations sought to emulate but could never duplicate. Chants of “E-C-W!” rang out in wrestling arenas across all federations for decades. “…a must-read story detailing the colorful history of ECW.” —Justin Barrasso, Sports Illustrated In Tod is God—so named for a chant the ECW fans created to honor the founder—Gordon chronicles each step of the company’s meteoric rise to prominence, as well as the elements that led to his removing himself from the company before its demise. Gordon’s former partnership with ECW booker Paul Heyman made for magical TV and in-ring moments. The friendship between Gordon and Heyman, both a blessing and curse, was the once-in-a-lifetime bond responsible for so many of history’s greatest teams, bands, and partners. Gordon has stayed silent on the causes for the split and, by doing so, assumed blame for it. Until now. "The true, raw and unvarnished journey of an extreme influencer who changed the entire trajectory of the professional wrestling industry. The letters ECW never cease to fascinate fans and Tod Gordon finally reveals all the inner workings and machinations that came with the creation, rise and fall of the most influential wrestling company of the 1990s.” —Mike Johnson, PWInsider Tod is God is the closest you’ll ever get to living ECW’s ride to the top. Come sit beside Sandman, Sabu, Terry Funk, Cactus Jack, and other ECW stars as Gordon brings you inside the locker rooms, hotel rooms, and car rides. From the triumphs and breakthroughs to the frustrations and tragedies, you’ll live it all alongside the man who started it all. “ECW was figuratively (and occasionally literally) the match and accelerant that took the wrestling business from being a niche product to a staple of broadcast and cable television. Without Tod Gordon, there never would have been a WWF Attitude Era. He ended up changing an entire industry.” —Dave Scherer, PWInsider
Author: John Lister Publisher: Exposure Publishing ISBN: 9781905363780 Category : Sports & Recreation Languages : en Pages : 196
Book Description
ECW was the upstart promotion which revolutionised the wrestling industry. Turning The Tables is the first published history of the company which grew from a run-down bingo hall to become a national pay-per-view competitor... then crashed in a sea of debt. John Lister (author of Slamthology) gives an independent, objective and informative account that reveals hidden secrets and shatters common myths. From a little-known truth about ECW's most famous feud to a blow-by-blow account of what really happened in Revere, this book will give you the true story behind America's most controversial wrestling group.
Author: New Jack Publisher: McFarland ISBN: 1476638306 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 211
Book Description
You may have cheered him. You may have booed him out of the building. But until now, you've never really known "The Most Dangerous Man in Wrestling." For the first time, Jerome "New Jack" Young opens up about his rise to stardom in Extreme Championship Wrestling. From his crazed dives off balconies and scaffolds to his bloody weapons matches that trampled the line between reality and entertainment, this candid memoir reveals the man behind the infamy, with new disclosures about the Mass Transit incident, the brutal beat-down of Gypsy Joe, and the stabbing of a fellow wrestler in Florida. Beyond the gimmicks that united white supremacists and the NAACP against him, New Jack discusses his violent youth that nearly led him to a life of crime, his career as a bounty hunter, a near-fatal drug addiction, the last months of ECW, and his place in wrestling history.
Author: Jon Barber Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 92
Book Description
Read about the Rise of Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) from some of those who lived through one of the most tumultuous times in professional wrestling. The tragedy and triumph of the late professional wrestling organization is explored in this unofficial retrospective. XPW carved a niche during a post-Monday Night Wars era that has since never been replicated!
Author: Mick Foley Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1847395910 Category : Sports & Recreation Languages : en Pages : 488
Book Description
What does it feel like to fall through a flaming table for the very first time? Or the umpteenth time for that matter. In the fresh off-the-cuff style that has earned him legions of admirers and made his previous wrestling books massive worldwide bestsellers, Foley gives readers a blow-by-blow first-hand account of exactly what it is like to step into the wrestling ring. As a champion wrestler he was known both for his tenacity in the ring and for the fearlessness which led him to take extraordinary risks in any number of groundbreaking dangerous stunts. And as an industry insider he offers a unique perspective on what it was like to perform at that level which readers will never find anywhere else. In HARDCORE DIARIES Mick Foley will take fans right inside a hardcore match, vividly recreating his experiences, and revealing how mentally and physically preparing for this extremely challenging sport has helped him become the legend he is today.
Author: Eric Bischoff Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 141652729X Category : Wrestling Languages : en Pages : 401
Book Description
Under Eric Bishoff's watch as president of WCW, the company went head to head with Vince McMahon's WWE and beat them at their own game before WCW itself spectacularly imploded. But by then, Bishoff had made an indelible mark on televised wrestling, producing shows that had appeared more dangerous, more sexy, and more edgy than anything that had come before. He did this to such an extent that in 2002, McMahon seized the chance to bring in his former nemesis as General Manager of RAW; since then, true to form, Bishoff regularly surprises fans with matches that would once have been unthinkable for television. In this revelatory look at his life and career, Bishoff frankly discusses the things he did, both right and wrong, as he helped shape the sports entertainment industry into today's billion dollar business.
Author: Thom Loverro
Author: Thom Loverro
Author: Scott E. Williams
Author: Tod Gordon
Author: John Lister
Author: New Jack
Author: Jon Barber
Author: Mick Foley
Author: Eric Bischoff
Author: Daniel Bryan