New Wrestling Book Chronicles Professional Wrestling In Detail

“The Buzz on Professional Wrestling,” a book by Scott Keith, is a well-written text that covers all aspects of the pro wrestling business. Keith, a regular contributor to wrestleline.com, begins by creating an impressive and accurate timeline. Over the years, the industry sorely missed a neutral source that kept track of important dates and events.

Keith avoids the historical revisions put out by the major wrestling companies. He traces the history of the business back to 1873, when the first masked wrestler, appropriately named “The Masked Wrestler,” arrived on the scene. Keith highlights the successes of the first pioneers of the sport, such as George Hackenschmidt, Ed “Strangler” Lewis, and Frank Gotch.

The book traces the history of the modern day WWF back to April 1963, when the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) recognized its first champion - Buddy Rogers. On May 17th of the same year, wrestling legend Bruno Sammartino captured the title from Rogers in under a minute, and possessed it until January 1971, a record even Hulk Hogan can’t claim.

Keith notes that the WWWF became the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in April 1979. Three years later, Vincent Kennedy McMahon Jr. purchased the promotion from his father. McMahon’s vision was undaunted, taking a northeastern promotion national. He started hiring the top wrestlers from other regional promotions, forcing most to go out of business. McMahon taped matches and syndicated his television shows nationwide.

The book calls the rise of the WWF in the 1980’s the “WWF Golden Age,” focusing on the birth of Hulkamania. Keith also highlights several of the major players during the time period, such as “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase. Keith notes each wrestler’s contributions to the business, best and biggest matches, and biggest rivals.

Despite the recent dominance of the WWF, Keith doesn’t limit the book to covering the company. The book also traces the roots of the NWA/WCW. Jim Crockett Jr. ran the company under the NWA banner until late 1988, when he broke away from the Alliance and renamed his promotion World Championship Wrestling. The section devoted to WCW also spotlights the careers of “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair, Lex Luger, and Sting.

Keith does a superb job covering the down period of professional wrestling in the early 90’s in a chapter titled “The Dark Ages: 1990-96.” The book notes the transitional champions the WWF had during the period, including Diesel (Kevin Nash), who was a complete failure as WWF champion from a financial standpoint. The best line in the text comes in this chapter, as Keith points out that Nash “made lazy wrestling vogue.”

The book concludes with a section devoted to the Monday night wars. Eric Bischoff created “WCW Monday Nitro” to compete head to head with the WWF’s “Raw” in September 1995. The birth of the New World Order accelerated WCW past the WWF in the pivotal Monday night rating battles.

The book also contains a section devoted to wrestling gimmicks, moves, managers, and the different types of matches. The author’s list of best gimmicks includes The Undertaker, Mankind, and The Rock. Keith’s list of best moves contain the Stone Cold Stunner, Nash’s Jack Knife Power Bomb, The Rock Bottom, Triple H’s pedigree, and Mick Foley’s Mandible claw.

I enjoyed reading “The Buzz on Professional Wrestling,” and recommend it to any wrestling fan regardless of age. The book is a Lebhar-Friedman title, and can be purchased at all major bookstores.

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