Books about Wrestlers from Amazon.com

Written without collaborators and based on decades of tape recordings he made throughout his career, HITMAN is Bret Hart's brutally honest, perceptive and startling account of his life in and out of the ring that proves once and for all that great things come in pink tights..
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This is the first-ever biography of the legendary wrestler Gorgeous George, filled with incredible never-before-told stories George directly influenced the likes of Muhammad Ali, who took his bragging and boasting from George; James Brown, who began to wear sequined capes onstage after seeing George on TV; John Waters, whose films featured the outrageous drag queen Divine as an homage to George; and too many wrestlers to count. Amid these pop culture discoveries are firsthand accounts of the pro wrestling game from the 1930s to the 1960s.

The ideal American male used to be stoic, quiet, and dignified. But for a young couple struggling to make ends meet, in the desperation born of the lingering Depression and wartime rationing, an idea was hatched that changed the face of American popular culture, an idea so bold, so over-the-top and absurd, that it was perfect. That idea transformed journeyman wrestler George Wagner from a dark-haired, clean-cut good guy to a peroxide-blond braggart who blatantly cheated every chance he got. Crowds were stunned—they had never seen anything like this before—and they came from miles around to witness it for themselves.

Suddenly George—guided by Betty, his pistol of a wife—was a draw. With his golden tresses grown long and styled in a marcel, George went from handsome to . . . well . . . gorgeous overnight, the small, dank wrestling venues giving way to major arenas. As if the hair wasn't enough, his robes—unmanly things of silk, lace, and chiffon in pale pinks, sunny yellows, and rich mauves—were but a prelude to the act: the regal entrance, the tailcoat-clad valet spraying the mat with perfume, the haughty looks and sneers for the "peasants" who paid to watch this outrageously prissy hulk prance around the ring. How they loved to see his glorious mane mussed up by his manly opponents. And how they loved that alluringly alliterative name . . . Gorgeous George . . . the self-proclaimed Toast of the Coast, the Sensation of the Nation!

All this was timed to the arrival of that new invention everyone was talking about—television. In its early days, professional wrestling and its larger-than-life characters dominated prime-time broadcasts—none more so than Gorgeous George, who sold as many sets as Uncle Miltie.

Fans came in droves—to boo him, to stick him with hatpins, to ogle his gowns, and to rejoice in his comeuppance. He was the man they loved to hate, and his provocative, gender-bending act took him to the top of the entertainment world. America would never be the same again.

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Price: $12.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]

People around the world know Dave Batista as World Wrestling Entertainment's "the Animal," the rope-shaking, spine-busting World Heavyweight Champion, one of the most popular Superstars in recent years.The crowd turned Batista from heel to babyface after they were electrified by his awesome physique and physical wrestling style.

Few fans, however, know that Batista didn't join the profession until he was thirty years old -- an age at which many wrestlers are thinking about hanging up their boots. Nor do most fans know the tremendous toll the climb to the top has taken on Batista's personal life. While successfully staying away from hard drugs and -- usually -- liquor, he found sex too tempting to resist.

"Women were my drug of choice," the Animal confesses. That addiction cost him his marriage, destroying a relationship that had helped him climb from poverty to the pinnacle of sports entertainment in less than two years.

Now, in Batista Unleashed, the WWE Superstar comes clean about the choices he made and the devastating effects they had on his family. He talks about the injury that stripped him of his title -- an injury he blames on Mark Henry's carelessness. While being sidelined cost Batista untold hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost income, it also set the stage for a tremendous comeback that cemented the Animal's reputation as a true champion.

Batista talks about growing up in the worst part of Washington, D.C., where three murders occurred in his front yard before he was nine. He speaks lovingly about his mother -- a lesbian -- and how hard she worked to keep the family not just together but alive. He talks candidly about his own criminal past: a conviction on a drug charge and another, since overturned, on assault. He speaks of his days as a bouncer and a lifeguard, and tells how bodybuilding may have saved his life.

Once he made it to the WWE, Batista realized he wasn't really ready for the big time. His career seemed headed for a fall until Fit Finlay took him under his wing. But his real education came when he joined Evolution and rode with Triple H and Ric Flair, two of sports entertainment's all-time greats. Batista talks about what they taught him, and details some of their wild times on the road.

But the champ also reveals a kinder, gentler side. While his soft-spoken manner in the locker room has sometimes been misinterpreted as arrogance, in truth Batista's always been somewhat shy and quiet. Emotional by nature, he reveals for the first time that the tears fans saw at WrestleMania 21, when he won the World Heavyweight Championship for the first time, were very real. And he speaks movingly about his problems with his ex-wives and teenage daughters, and how it felt to become a grandfather.

While his straight-shooting mouth has occasionally gotten him into trouble -- most notably in a backstage confrontation with Undertaker after some remarks about SmackDown! -- Batista is his own harshest critic. He explains his early limitations as a wrestler and the work he has done to overcome them. Interspersing his memoir with accounts from life on the road, Batista lightens the narrative with a surprising sense of humor. An Animal in the ring, he reveals himself as an honest and even humble man in everyday life..
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Somewhere beyond the circle of money, glitz, drugs, and controversy that characterizes professional sports in America, remnants of an ideal exist. In Iowa, that ideal survives in the form of high school wrestling

Each a three-time state champion, Jay Borschel and Dan LeClere have a chance in their senior year to join the sport's most elite group: the "four-timers," wrestlers who win four consecutive state titles. For Jay, a ferocious competitor who feeds off criticism and doubt, a victory would mean vindication over the great mass of skeptics waiting for him to fail. For Dan, who carries on his back the burdens of his tiny farming community, the dreams of his hard-driving coach and father, and his own personal demons, another title is the only acceptable outcome.

Four Days to Glory is the story of America as told through its small towns and their connection to sport the way it was once routinely perceived: as a means of mattering to the folks next door.

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Mick Foley is a nice man, a family man who loves amusement parks and eating ice cream in bed. So how to explain those Japanese death matches in rings with explosives, golden thumbtacks and barbed wire instead of rope? The second-degree burn tissue? And the missing ear that was ripped off during a bout-in which he kept fighting? Here is an intimate glimpse into Mick Foley's mind, his history, his work and what some might call his pathology. Now with a bonus chapter summarizing the past 15 months-from his experience as a bestselling author through his parting thoughts before his final match. A tale of blood, sweat, tears and more blood-all in his own words-straight from the twisted genius behind Cactus Jack, Dude Love, and Mankind.

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In the notoriously crooked and exploitative world of professional wrestling, WWE legend Chris Benoit was supposed to be the exception Chris was universally recognized as the best pro wrestling had to offer: a decent, humble, and devoted family man loved and admired by all who knew him. Nobody could have predicted the horrific events of June 22-24, 2007 when Chris strangled his wife and seven-year old son before committing suicide. RING OF HELL is the true story of Benoit's journey through the destructive, dysfunctional, and bizarre pro wrestling industry and the catastrophic physical and mental breakdown that led to his grisly end.

One of the best books ever written about professional wrestling certainly the best ever written by a non-wrestler. (Shelton Hull, Columnist for Folio Weekly)

Were it not for fact that pro wrestling is the redheaded stepchild of American society, Randazzo would likely be up for a Pulitzer Prize for the journalism contained in this book.... This book sets a new standard for exposing the truth about pro wrestling, one that may never be topped and certainly won't be anytime soon. (Rick Morris, Sports Talk Network radio host and McGraw-Hill business journalist.)

While dissecting what made Chris Benoit tick, Matthew Randazzo takes a scathing look at the sleazy manner in which the pro-wrestling business operates. Randazzo adroitly exposes the elements that contributed to Benoit's demise. So much sordid behavior is described from Benoit's time in WWE and the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling that hard-partying rock stars seem like choirboys in comparison. (Alex Marvez, columnist for Fox Sports and Scripps-Howard News Service.)

I know [Matthew Randazzo V], and he is legit. For an outsider to the industry, if that's the correct term, he seemed to have more access to inside info than all but a few people. No matter what the book says about this period [in wrestling], it's a viewpoint that should be looked at and thought about. (Dave Meltzer, Yahoo! Sports and Editor of The Wrestling Observer.)

It's an amazing story well-told and an honest look inside a brutal and backwards business. (Jon Snowden, author of Total MMA and editor of the Total MMA Newsletter)

Randazzo takes a scalpel to the dark underbelly of the wrestling business and slices away with a butcher's intensity and surgeon's skill and carves out a tale of desperation, frustration, misplaced loyalties and heartbreak. (Dan Madigan, former World Wrestling Entertainment writer, and author of Mondo Lucha a Go-Go and the 2006 feature film See No Evil.)

Matthew Randazzo has written a great pro wrestling book that requires no knowledge of the business. But if you are a fan, there's a deeper experience to be gained. Ring of Hell challenges your perception of these heels and high-flyers and confronts you with the flesh-and-blood price paid for your precious childhood memories. (Chad Damiani, former World Championship Wrestling announcer.)

Ring Of Hell is an unfiltered, unbiased look into the world of professional wrestling and sheds light upon the shortcomings of an industry that has shrouded itself in paranoid secrecy for years. A must-read book for anyone. (Domenic Cotter, former World Wrestling Entertainment producer.).
Price: $15.47 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Everyone's got a price.

Everyone's got to pay.

'Cause the Million Dollar Man always gets his way.

After proving his point, Ted DiBiase would laugh and fan out his large roll of hundreds, worsening the degradation of whoever had been foolish enough to accept his challenge or get in his way. Defeated opponents -- put to sleep with his Million Dollar Dream -- would have the added humiliation of awakening to discover that the Million Dollar Man had been stuffing bills down their throats. Winning match after match, yet no closer to the championship, DiBiase wanted the title, but he couldn't seem to win it. His solution: pay Andre the Giant to win the title, make sure the referee was also "taken care of," and then have Andre hand the championship title over to him.

True to his taunt, the Million Dollar Man had gotten his way, and Ted DiBiase became the most hated person in sports entertainment.

Making his way to the top of the profession that he had loved since he was a child, Ted DiBiase never did anything by half measures. He couldn't, because the men he respected and worked side by side with expected that "Iron" Mike's kid would give his all. And each day while on the road learning what it was to be a wrestler, Ted remembered how his father had taught him to give his all every time. It was how his father lived -- and how he lost his life, dying during a wrestling match while Ted was still a boy.

From the dusty roads of Texas to the bayous of Louisiana, Ted moved from one wrestling promotion to another -- sometimes a babyface, other times a heel. He learned how to tell a story and how to draw the fans in, both inside and outside the ring. In 1987, Vince McMahon had an idea for a new character, the Million Dollar Man, and one person came to mind: Ted DiBiase. For nearly a decade, fans waited to see just how Ted could prove his adage that "Everyone's got a price." When he was sidelined by a neck injury, DiBiase started a second wrestling career, as a manager. He managed some of the biggest stars: Bam Bam Bigelow, King Kong Bundy, and a very green wrestler, the Ringmaster (who would later be known as Stone Cold Steve Austin).

Ted DiBiase, the Million Dollar Man, is fondly remembered by wrestling fans for his style and his command of the ring. This is the inside glimpse of three decades inside and outside the squared circle..
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Matt and Jeff Hardy have proven that a relentless drive for success can make your wildest dreams come true. While still in high school, Matt and Jeff decided to become professional wrestlers at any cost. In a business that usually prizes giants, they were told their aspirations were unreasonable and impossible. But after the tragic loss of their mother, they began to pursue their goals with unstoppable determination.

The Hardy Boyz: Exist 2 Inspire tells the story of Matt and Jeff Hardy's journey to WWE superstardom. Whether taking beatings from Razor Ramon and Nikolai Volkoff during their first WWE matches or winning the WWE Tag Team Championships against the Acolytes, the Hardy Boyz have experienced all the pains and pleasures that sports-entertainment has to offer. Their fast-moving, high-flying ring style has raised the bar for anyone who aims to follow in their footsteps.

From receiving a standing ovation for their 1999 No Mercy ladder match against Edge and Christian to winning singles championships, Matt and Jeff have succeeded both as a team and as individuals. Still in their mid-twenties, the Hardyz have long careers ahead of them. The Hardy Boyz is the inspirational true story of two small-town North Carolina boys who clawed their way to the top of the magical world of professional wrestling and achieved their childhood dreams.

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Price: $13.74 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Born without arms or legs below his elbows and knees, Kyle Maynard excels as a champion athlete, inspirational speaker, college student and male model. No Excuses is his inspirational autobiography that shows how a positive can-do attitude gives someone we might see as disadvantaged the advantage over life..
Price: $6.79 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Winning and losing. Heels and babyfaces Kliqs and Curtain Calls. Tearing down house shows and tearing up hotel rooms. Ladders and cages. Vacated titles and unwarranted suspensions. Works and screwjobs. Heartaches and backbreaks. Forced retirements and redemption. Rock 'n' roll and Graceland. There are two sides to every story; for Shawn Michaels, there is Heartbreak & Triumph.

World Wrestling Entertainment fans think they know "The Heartbreak Kid." He's "The Showstopper" who pushes his high-flying abilities to the limit. He's the company's first "Grand Slam" champion. And of course, he's forever the guy who conspired with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon to screw Bret "Hitman" Hart out of the WWE Championship.

Heartbreak & Triumph introduces us to Michael Shawn Hickenbottom, the youngest of four children whose "really conservative upbringing" made him shy and "afraid that people wouldn't like me if I showed who I really was." But upon discovering Southwest Championship Wrestling (SWCW) one night, Hickenbottom realized instantly what hewanted to become. From there, Hickenbottom fully recounts "Shawn Michaels's" tutelage under Mexican wrestler Jose Lothario; working matches at Mid-South Wrestling; flying high with Marty Jannetty as "The Midnight Rockers" in the American Wrestling Association (AWA); and how a barroom confrontation almost prevented the tandem from ever joining the World Wrestling Federation. "The Rockers" would climb to the top of World Wrestling Entertainment's tag-team division in the late 1980s.

Heartbreak & Triumph tells what dissolved Michaels's partnership with Jannetty and started his transformation into "The Heartbreak Kid." You'll learn firsthand of the "unfair" allegation that brought about HBK's classic Ladder match with Razor Ramon at WrestleMania X; the incident in Syracuse that set the stage for Shawn's unbelievable "comeback" victories at Royal Rumble 1996, and in the Iron Man WWE Championship match with Bret Hart at WrestleMania XII; and how his escalating backstage feud with Hart inadvertently built toward the formation of "D-Generation X," as well as the first-ever "Hell in a Cell" contest against Undertaker.

Beyond the squared circle, Michaels clears the air about his days running with "The Kliq" -- Kevin Nash ("Diesel"), Scott Hall ("Razor Ramon"), Paul Levesque ("Triple H"), and Sean Waltman ("The 1-2-3 Kid") -- their contributions to WWE's wildly successful "Attitude" era, and the consequences of their uncharacteristic Madison Square Garden "Curtain Call" in May 1996. And for the first time anywhere, Michaels shoots completely straight about his role in "the biggest scandal in wrestling history," the infamous "Montreal screwjob" at Survivor Series 1997.

While reliving the crippling back injury that forced him to retire in his prime following his WWE Championship loss at WrestleMania XIV, Michaels credits the new loves in his life -- his second wife Rebecca, his children, and his newfound faith -- with giving him the strength to kick his habit, recover physically, and make a jubilant return to the ring at SummerSlam 2002. Now back on top and doing what he enjoys most, the WWE Superstar regards Heartbreak & Triumph as the perfect means "to review my life, and attempt to figure out how I became the person I am.".
Price: $9.26 [Notify me when price goes down.]