Sex, Lies, and Headlocks

Author: Shaun Assael
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307758133
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Book Description
“Current fans and recovering Hulkamaniacs alike should find [Sex, Lies, and Headlocks] as gripping as the Camel Clutch.” —Maxim Sex, Lies, and Headlocks is the ultimate behind-the-scenes look at the backstabbing, scandals, and high-stakes gambles that have made wrestling an enduring television phenomenon. The man behind it all is Vince McMahon, a ruthless and entertaining visionary whose professional antics make some of the flamboyant characters in the ring look tame by comparison. Throughout the book, the authors trace McMahon’s rise to power and examine the appeal of the industry’s biggest stars—including Ed “Strangler” Lewis, Gorgeous George, Bruno Sammartino, Ric Flair, and, most recently, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. In doing so, they show us that while WWE stock is traded to the public on Wall Street, wrestling remains a shadowy world guided by a century-old code that stresses secrecy and loyalty. With a new afterword, this is the definitive book about the history of pro wrestling. “Reading this excellent behind-the-scenes look at wrestling promoter McMahon . . . is almost as entertaining and shocking as watching the most extreme antics of McMahon’s comic-book style creations such as Steve Austin and The Rock.” —Publishers Weekly “A quintessentially American success story of a cocky opportunist defying the odds and hitting it big . . . Sparkling cultural history from an author wise enough to let the facts and personalities speak for themselves.”—Kirkus Reviews

Sex, Lies, and Headlocks

Author: Shaun Assael
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1400051436
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Sex, Lies, and Headlocks

Author: Shaun Assael
Publisher: Crown
ISBN:
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Book Description
From the cable television ratings to the bestseller lists, professional wrestling is red-hot. How it got that way is not a pretty picture, but it’s one that is painted in more detail than ever before in Sex, Lies, and Headlocks, the first in-depth, journalistic look at the world of wrestling. At the heart of the story is Vince McMahon, the mercurial owner of the World Wrestling Federation. The authors trace his beginnings as the forgotten son of a second-generation wrestling czar who left rural North Carolina to stake his own claim to the family business. They detail his early, ruthless genius in declaring war on the old territory czars who had grown fat and lazy. And they show how his first brush with fame in the 1980s with Hulk Hogan and Cyndi Lauper sowed the seeds for the drug and sex scandals that nearly toppled his empire in the 1990s. They also tell us the inside story of McMahon’s blood feud with Ted Turner, adding some surprising details about the two men’s quests to ruin each other. Throughout the book, the authors examine the appeal of the industry’s biggest stars—including Ed “Strangler” Lewis, Gorgeous George, Bruno Sammartino, Ric Flair, and, most recently, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. In doing so, they show us that while WWF stock is traded to the public on Wall Street, wrestling remains a shadowy world guided by a century-old code that stresses secrecy and loyalty. Sex, Lies, and Headlocks is the ultimate behind-the-scenes look at the history, personalities, back-stabbing, scandals, and high-stakes gambles that have made Vince McMahon the king of the ring and wrestling an enduring television phenomenon.

We Promised You a Great Main Event

Author: Bill Hanstock
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062980858
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 493

Book Description
“A fascinating dive into the physical art of modern-day wrestling entertainment and the unbelievable characters who make it work in the ring and the back.” —Chris Kluwe In We Promised You a Great Main Event, longtime sports journalist Bill Hanstock pulls back the curtain to give a smart fan’s account of WWE and Vince McMahon’s journey to the top. Untangling the truth behind the official WWE storyline, Hanstock does a deep dive into key moments of the company’s history, from the behind-the-scenes drama at the Montreal Screwjob, to the company’s handling of the Jimmy Snuka scandal, to the real story of the Monday Night Wars. WWE is an extraordinary business success and an underappreciated pop cultural phenomenon. While WWE soared to prominence during the Hulk Hogan years, as the stakes grew more and more extreme, wrestlers faced steroid scandals and assault allegations. The whole story is here, good, bad, and ugly, from the heights of iconic cultural moments like Wrestlemania III to the arrival of global superstars like The Rock and John Cena. We Promised You a Great Main Event is an exhaustive, fun account of the McMahon family and WWE’s unprecedented rise. Drawing on a decade of covering wrestling, Bill Hanstock synthesizes insights from historians, journalists, and industry insiders with his own deep research to produce the most up-to-date, entertaining history of WWE available. Full of amazing characters and astonishing stories from the ring to corporate boardrooms, it is a story as audacious as any WWE spectacle.

TrumpMania

Author: Lavie Margolin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780692989463
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Book Description
The bluster and bravado that Trump witnessed at several WrestleManias, whether from a front row seat or inside the ring, surely lent a hand to his memorable electoral debate oratories. TrumpMania is the story, on screen and off, of the mutually beneficial business and personal relationship between Donald Trump, Vince & Linda McMahon and the WWF/WWE. No matter what side of the political aisle you sit on, it would be hard to deny that Vince McMahon had some hand in the election of the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

The Death of WCW

Author: R. D. Reynolds
Publisher: ECW Press
ISBN: 155490255X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 355

Book Description
What went wrong with WCW? In 1997, World Championship Wrestling was on top. It was the number-one pro wrestling company in the world, and the highest-rated show on cable television. Each week, fans tuned in to Monday Nitro, flocked to sold-out arenas, and carried home truckloads of WCW merchandise. Sting, Bill Goldberg, and the New World Order were household names. Superstars like Dennis Rodman and KISS jumped on the WCW bandwagon. It seemed the company could do no wrong. But by 2001, however, everything had bottomed out. The company -- having lost a whopping 95% of its audience -- was sold for next to nothing to Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment. WCW was laid to rest. How could the company lose its audience so quickly? Who was responsible for shows so horrible that fans fled in horror? What the hell happened to cause the death of one of the largest wrestling companies in the world? The Death of World Championship Wrestling is the first book to take readers through a detailed dissection of WCW's downfall.

Steroid Nation

Author: Shaun Assael
Publisher: ESPN
ISBN:
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 376

Book Description
An investigative journalist looks at America's complex relationship with steroids and how it has become the country's most dangerous and pervasive drug addiction, examining incidence of steroid use throughout the world of sports, from the bodybuilders of the 1970s, to the baseball scandals of today, and profiling the godfather of the steroid movement, Dan Duchaine. 75,000 first printing.

Wrestling Babylon

Author: Irv Muchnick
Publisher: ECW Press
ISBN: 155490286X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 179

Book Description
Irvin Muchnick ' a widely published writer and nephew of the late, legendary St. Louis wrestling promoter Sam Muchnick ' has produced a book unlike any other on the astonishing growth of professional wrestling and its profound impact on mainstream sports and society. In Wrestling Babylon, he traces the demise of wrestling's old Mafia-like territories and the rise of a national marketing base thanks to cable television, deregulation and a culture-wide nervous breakdown. Naturally, the figure of WWE's Vince McMahon lurks throughout, but equally evident is the public's late-empire lust for bread, circuses, and blood. As this book demonstrates, the more cartoonishly unreal wrestling got, the more chillingly real it became. What truly distinguishes Wrestling Babylon, however, is Muchnick's ability to show how professional wrestling has become the ur-carnival for a culture that feeds on escapist displays of humiliation, revenge, fantasy characters, and sex. His People magazine article on Hulk Hogan blew the lid off the drug abuse of the sport's signature superstar. His award-winning Penthouse profile of the ill-starred Von Erich clan was the first to connect the dots between wrestling, televangelism, and MTV-style production values. His never-before-published investigation of the death of Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka's girlfriend suggests the cover-up of a murder. The book's appendix ' a comprehensive listing of the dozens of wrestlers who died prematurely over the last generation, with little or no attention ' is both a valuable resource for wrestling historians and a shocking document of the ruthless way sports entertainment eats its own.

World Wrestling Insanity

Author: James Guttman
Publisher: ECW Press
ISBN: 155490269X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Book Description
The nepotism, backward logic, racist overtones, and power plays behind the World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) downfall are exposed in this indictment of wrestling's first family--the McMahons.

Betaball

Author: Erik Malinowski
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501158198
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Book Description
"A compelling look at how the Golden State Warriors organization embraced saavy business practices and the corporate culture of Silicon Valley to produce one of the greatest basketball teams in history and become a model franchise for the NBA"--