(Part 2) Top products from r/SquaredCircle

This set does look good. Mid-South was considered the best territory in the nation during the early to mid 80s. I'd recommend it for the Midnight Express vs. Rock N' Roll Express matches, which are widely regarded as some of the best tag team wrestling of the '80s. IMO, the Rock N' Roll Express circa 1984-1985 were the best tag team in the world for that time period, which is saying a lot.

The angle where Ted Dibiase turns face is brilliant and brutal. I unfortunately don't see anything with the Fantastics vs. The Sheepherders on this set.

Match listing is here:

http://www.amazon.com/WWE-Legends-Mid-South-Wrestling-Blu-ray/dp/B00DBPBPZK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374506700&sr=8-1&keywords=mid+south

• The World According To Dutch and Tales from a Dirt Road by Dutch Mantel are both great
  
• Swimming with Piranhas: Surviving the Politics of Professional Wrestling by Howard Brody - not a wrestler, but a prolific promoter and former NWA President
  
• The Professional Wrestler In The World Of Sports-Entertainment and The Somebody Obession by Matt Murphy are really good to give insight into the business in the indies.
  
  
  BONUS:
  
  
• Ringside: A History of Professional Wrestling in America - By Scott Beekman

I think it'll help you if you research pro wrestling's history/past. I've been reading David Shoemaker's "The Squared Circle", and I feel like I've learned a good deal about pro wrestling in general despite only being a few chapters in. For example, the chapter on Gorgeous George explains that GG innovated basically all the classic "heel" traits, like being a cocky/arrogant bastard, flamboyant/effeminate behavior, cheating, etc. He drew massive crowds of people who wanted to see him get his ass kicked, actually became a legit celebrity figure, introduced the idea of pro wrestling being a spectacle of performance art, and was incredibly important in the success of televised pro wrestling.

http://www.cagesideseats.com/2013/5/1/4291028/underrated-and-under-appreciated-wrestler-series-gorgeous-george

>The simple fact of the matter is that Gorgeous George was the most influential wrestler in the history of this business. Professional wrestling would not be the great spectacle that it is today without Gorgeous George. He popularized the entertainment part of sports entertainment. In-ring weddings and the hair match were brought to us by the Human Orchid. George was the first in a long line of wrestlers to capitalize on the concept that people will pay for the chance to see you get beat.

>A significant part of his legacy as an entertainer is the establishment of wrestling on television -- and television itself. Steve Slagle of The Ring Chronicle wrote that:

>>"In a very real sense, Gorgeous George single-handedly established the unproven new technology of television as a viable entertainment medium that could reach literally millions of homes all across the country. Pro wrestling was TV's first real "hit" ...and Gorgeous George was directly responsible for all of the commotion. He was probably responsible for selling more television sets in the early days of TV than any other factor."

Switching gears, be sure to keep in mind wrestling in different parts of the world.

http://www.uproxx.com/sports/2011/10/the-best-and-worst-of-wwe-hell-in-a-cell-2011/3/

>If you told me two years ago that Mistico would be competing on a WWE pay-per-view and the fans would be chanting “boring”, I wouldn’t (and couldn’t) believe it. There are a lot of problems keeping this from being what it should be, and I’ve come up with a handful.

>1. Lucha libre in Mexico is a different style of wrestling, and when I say “style” I don’t mean they do different moves and have different characters, I mean that it’s a completely different genre of pro wrestling. A lot of wrestling fans in the United States can’t get it through their heads that other interpretations of the Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin thing we cling to like a baby blanket exist, and that there is a world where selling doesn’t really matter. Nobody chants “you fucked up” when somebody botches a spot, because the audience accepts that these guys are super heroes doing crazy shit and sometimes they aren’t going to land it. If WWE put a big Keystone Light logo in the middle of the ring, the Internet would berate them into unconsciousness and hashtag them to death until they changed it back. That’s not what happens in Mexico. When you have luchadores trying to add U.S. wrestling psychology to a very not-U.S. wrestling type of match-up, you shortchange lucha libre AND U.S. wrestling, and it comes out sounding like one of those country/rap efforts that sound good for a minute, but God, no.

>2. Heel/face in the United States means “guy the fans like against guy the fans don’t”, and the reason fans don’t like the one guy is because he’s arrogant or cheats, or something. In Mexico, rudos and técnicos aren’t divided by “guy who cheats and guy who doesn’t”, they wrestle two very distinct styles. In WWE you’ve got Hunico playing Sin Cara 2, but he’s too big to be trying to match Mistico move-for-move. He’s not that guy. That’s why they’re messing up a lot. Sin Cara 2 should be wrestling a rougher, rudo style (like Averno, for example) to compliment Sin Cara 1 instead of detract from what makes him special. Hopefully they can move past the mirror image stuff now and get to some real rudo/técnico stuff, or Chico can come bumbling into frame as Sin Cara 3 and give us a punchline.

http://www.examiner.com/article/a-primer-to-strong-style-and-king-s-road-styles

http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/columns/misc/ejt04.html

Here are some links to some online comps of Brody with commentary by a fan,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34VLfHQU7H4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoDd6j9vyMM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KBKMOqqiJA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F3vwwz7TiY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c--xX4z3E8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OILiEdqKTDo

and here is a book I'd recommend,

https://www.amazon.com/Brody-Triumph-Tragedy-Wrestlings-Rebel/dp/1550227602/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497315013&sr=8-1&keywords=bruiser+brody+book

and some podcasts,

https://www.mixcloud.com/bsradio/wrestling-sunday-school-episode-1-bruiser-brody/


http://www.blogtalkradio.com/vocnationradio/2016/05/15/i-love-80s-wrestling-podcast-remembering-bruiser-brody

https://mlwradio.libsyn.com/history-in-the-making-bruiser-brody

*3'rd podcast is VIP subscription based so you'll have to pay to hear it but it's good and I'd recommend it.

They're sold in comic stores, but you can get them collected in trade paperbacks (multiple issues of comics bundled together) from anywhere that sells books.

Here is the first volume as sold on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/WWE-Vol-1-Dennis-Hopeless/dp/160886944X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549472606&sr=8-1&keywords=wwe+comic

And they have many collected volumes now of the main series, but collections of special issues like the ones that focus on different eras (Attitude/90s) or NXT. Lots to explore. You can see more here:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=wwe+comic

I would check with your local library, as they might carry some, many, or even all of these. My local library system is incredible at carrying comics.

None I can think of that are all interviews as wrestling was protected. Try this though or Lou Thesz's book.

As for some good Mania era dirt, check out Sex, Lies, and Headlocks. It ain't perfect but it's a good read.

And check out Dave Meltzer's Tributes books. They're reprintings of obituaries from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter but they're most likely new to you. If they're not new to you, don't bother.

Hope that helps.

Box Brown's graphic novel is incredibly good (his Andy Kaufman/Jerry Lawler graphic novel is too).

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JO0ULZ6/

There's another really good André graphic novel by Box Brown. Surprisingly well-researched, too. IIRC, there's a section of citations and sources in the back.

I just finished a newly released book about Brian Pillman. Highly recommend it - one of the best I've ever read. To go with that, I'd add Bret's book as well as Pain & Passion (book about Stampede Wrestling).

You should buy this book:

Ringside: A History of Professional Wrestling in America https://www.amazon.com/dp/027598401X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_bJ5kxbHKX6P8F

It wasn't overnight, but for a shorter read here's a good look at perhaps the most important change agents in wrestling:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Dust_Trio?wprov=sfsi1

National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly That Strangled Pro Wrestling

It's a great, very detailed book that goes back to even before the NWA was initially started.

Pain and Passion: The History of Stampede Wrestling

Another great book all about the Harts promotion.

Damn, that's some impressive stuff from Thesz at 74!

His book was very good, worth a read

The best I can do: https://www.amazon.com/Ecw-Extreme-Music-Various-Artists/dp/B00000DF9K

As a start, I'd recommend having a read of Steel Chair to the Head and Performance and Professional Wrestling. They're both books full of academic writing about wrestling. There's a really pertinent essay by Sharon Mazer in Steel Chair that you could use as a foundation for your argument, and then have a look at what she's cited in her references and who else has cited her online to help branch your research out from there.

Also, I did my dissertation on wrestling last year, so if you need a hand at all, drop me a line.

The story with Brody's boots is that for as big of a guy as he was, he always thought he had skinny legs. His wife came up with the idea of gluing rabbit fur to his boots to make his calves look bigger.

source

it's an excellent read.

Reading the Gorgeous George biography right now - very good book to read if you want to learn a little bit about one of pro wrestling's all-time greats and an American icon.

All of these are ones that I own and would recommend:

https://www.amazon.com/Shooters-Toughest-Men-Professional-Wrestling/dp/1770410406/ref=sr_1_38?ie=UTF8&qid=1493334562&sr=8-38&keywords=pro+wrestling+books

https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Professional-Wrestlers-All-Time/dp/1770411046/ref=sr_1_55?ie=UTF8&qid=1493334635&sr=8-55&keywords=history+of+pro+wrestling

https://www.amazon.com/Ringside-History-Professional-Wrestling-America/dp/027598401X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1493334676&sr=8-4&keywords=history+of+professional+wrestling

https://www.amazon.com/Pioneers-Professional-Wrestling-Tim-Corvin/dp/1480804584/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1493334676&sr=8-8&keywords=history+of+professional+wrestling

Yeah, volume 1, vol 2 and vol 3 are available on Amazon. Each one focuses on a different member of the Shield.

There is actually, and it's really good.

https://www.amazon.com/Hardcore-History-Extremely-Unauthorized-Story/dp/1613210418

The Macho Man Randy Savage. His promos are amazing.

You can probably find the Macho Madness DVD for under $10 at WalMart or Best Buy.

https://www.amazon.com/WWE-Jake-Snake-Roberts-Poison/dp/B000AOEPT8

It was released back in 2010 but for some reason it's not on the Network yet.

But yeah just search for 'Jake "The Snake" Roberts' on the network and you'll get all his matches.

You'll probably be interested in this once it's published:

Performance and Pro Wrestling https://www.amazon.com/dp/1138937231/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_VwmqxbQBE4JZT

And I'm not just saying that because I have a chapter in it.

Well, ECW did use the Motorhead version on their CD. I figured they did that because they couldn't afford to use Metallica's version.

Pure Dynamite - http://www.amazon.com/Pure-Dynamite-Price-Wrestling-Stardom/dp/1553660846

If you want something a bit more academic, there's a book coming out next month that examines professional wrestling with a performance studies framework. Link to it here.

There was a Brody book. http://www.amazon.com/Brody-Triumph-Tragedy-Wrestlings-Rebel/dp/1550227602

Vol. 1

Vol. 2

Vol. 3

any ideas why this book is so expensive ?

http://www.amazon.com/Hooker-Authentic-Adventures-Professional-Wrestling/dp/0970651600

https://www.amazon.com/WWE-Crash-Cage-Play-Set/dp/B01ARGB3T8

Here's your reason Ellering is in a cage

Poster for the Legends of Mid-South Wrestling DVD.

He's already way ahead of you

http://www.amazon.com/WWF-D-Generation-X-VHS-Triple-H/dp/6305015090

http://www.amazon.com/Death-Clutch-Determination-Domination-Survival/dp/006202311X

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001UDS4CC?pc_redir=1406273387&robot_redir=1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B00000DF9K/ref=tmm_acd_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=&sr=

https://www.amazon.com/Squared-Circle-Death-Professional-Wrestling-ebook/dp/B008BM4MN0

Yes

($4) http://www.amazon.com/WWE-Jake-Snake-Roberts-Poison/dp/B000AOEPT8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1413376873&sr=8-2&keywords=jake+the+snake

http://shop.wwe.com/WWE-Legends-Jake-the-Snake-Roberts-DVD/W00038,default,pd.html

You can probably find it in some used Video stores.

Highly recommend this one on the history of Stampede Wrestling.

https://www.amazon.com/Pain-Passion-History-Stampede-Wrestling/dp/1550227874

There’s also one on the history of the NWA I’ve heard is a bit dry but informative.

I found this one on amazon but it has HBK on the cover so I'm not sure if its the same one. But there's also a DVD re-release of it dated 2006 so maybe?

Which one do you recommend? Macho Madness or The Randy Savage Story or should I just grab both?

I've only been able to find copies of issues #1-4 and #5-8 at Forbidden Planet. All of my other searches come up with digital.

https://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/wwe-ongoing-volume-1

Amazon has volume 3 set for a September release.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/168415202X?tag=siscuk-21

They came out with a new toy back when they first started using them again.

Edit: Here it is. The actual toy is called the "Crash Cage:" https://www.amazon.com/WWE-Crash-Cage-Play-Set/dp/B01ARGB3T8

WWE released a Mid South DVD a couple of years back, plus much of it is on the Network.

Edit: Whichever dipshit downvoted that, suck on this.

Just read his autobiography. Most people try to make themselves sound good when writing about themselves, but Billington seems to revel in being a miserable asshole.

The Squared Circle: Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling by David Shoemaker

They did, it's called Pick Your Poison. I watched it once a while ago, and it was a tough watch. (Not bad, just very emotionally draining.)

Sex, Lies, and Headlocks: The Real Story of Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment
http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Lies-Headlocks-Wrestling-Entertainment/dp/1400051436/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334940482&sr=1-2

Hardcore History: The Extremely Unauthorized Story of ECW
http://www.amazon.com/Hardcore-History-Extremely-Unauthorized-Edition/dp/1613210418/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334940563&sr=1-1

Pure Dynamite
http://www.amazon.com/Pure-Dynamite-Tom-Billington/dp/0953709701/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334940610&sr=1-2

Missy Hyatt: First Lady of Wrestling
http://www.amazon.com/Missy-Hyatt-First-Lady-Wrestling/dp/1550224980/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334940713&sr=1-1

The Death of WCW: WrestleCrap and Figure Four Weekly Present
http://www.amazon.com/The-Death-WCW-WrestleCrap-Present/dp/1550226614/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334940760&sr=1-4

The WrestleCrap Book of Lists!
http://www.amazon.com/The-WrestleCrap-Book-Lists/dp/1550227629/ref=sr_1_18?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334940787&sr=1-18

Tales From A Dirt Road
http://www.amazon.com/Tales-From-A-Dirt-Road/dp/145644090X/ref=sr_1_40?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334940841&sr=1-40

depressing book, but:

Ring of Hell: The Story of Chris Benoit and the Fall of the Pro Wrestling Industry

http://www.amazon.com/Ring-Hell-Benoit-Wrestling-Industry/dp/1597775797

I thought the shark cage match they had at NXT Toronto during the Dusty tag match Final was just a gimmik to sell the Crash Cage toys, But damn this is just stupid. I just know jericho will drop a weapon down for KO to use.

• Bret Hart's Book
  
• Dynamite Kid's Book
  
• Ted DiBiase's WWE Book
  
• Ring of Hell by Matthew Randazzo - Re: Benoit - The Amazon rating is bad, but methinks it's just butthurt fanboys
  
• Hardcore History - The Unauthorized History of ECW by Scott E. Williams - Some of the dates are off and the name spellings aren't consistent, but a great read, especially if you're interested in the early days of ECW
  
• The NWA - The Untold Story of the Monopoly that Strangled Pro Wrestling by Tim Hornbaker - Extremely detailed.
  Fixing the Indies by Norm Kaiser - Some of what he talks about is beyond the means of some indies, but the model is very sound.
  
• The Death of WCW by RD Reynolds & Bryan Alvarez - It reads like a dirtsheet, but the detail is there.

There is no possible way the WWE does the DX story the way it should be. The amount of crap Shawn and HHH got away with in '97 and early '98 is unfathomable on today's show.

http://www.amazon.com/WWF-D-Generation-X-VHS-Triple-H/dp/6305015090

Hell, this VHS has DX, both the first and second versions, encouraging women to flash their tits for the camera and it's totally uncensored.