We started the conversation in another topic, but I wanted to continue now that I finished the book.

In short, this book will soften even the hardest wrestling fan to the sick and depravity that the industry not only supports but enforces.

The primary source through the book is Chris Benoit beginning with his start in the Hart dungeon and going all the way until his murder-suicide. The book includes some of the most depraved first hand accounts I have ever heard such as Arn Anderson fooling models into sleep with him and Raven remaining high on ecstasy for 14 days straight. With a few stories of the actual politics in WCW that drove it into the ground and the madness of Vince McMahon, it's pretty interesting as an insight into the horrible professional wrestling industry.

Benoit is shown in a much more honest and frank light - calling him directly "A baby-murdering junkie" for one - and it shows that while he was totally responsible for the descent that lead to him to methodically murder his wife and son, the wrestling industry helped validate it.

My one major complaint with the book, outside of the horrible editing work on it missing so many horrible spelling and grammatical errors, is the obviously biased slant he takes that borders on muckraking. His stories and testimonials can be validated with a good search online, but I feel that had he held back his opinion so much, the book could be taken a lot more seriously.

In the end, it's a stunning and tragic tale that seemed almost inevitable.

Anyone read it or plan to read it? Personally, I stopped watching pro wrestling officially the Tuesday after Benoit died. I had been watching it sparingly in recent years, catching maybe a match or two here and there, ordering the ECW pay-per-view when it first started back, then watching a year later as the first episode of ECW was just a poor bastardization, but after watching WWE glorify a child-murderer then pretend it didn't happen and he didn't exist the next night, was deplorable especially with the Death of McMahon angle taking place almost two weeks prior. The book mentions that that Death of McMahon angle proves that WWE's tribute shows are just manufactured blame passing pieces. Even before then, I just felt that they should have canceled Raw.

Thoughts?

Obviously I'm a staunch supporter of the book. Randazzo is a guy with deep connections inside of the industry, as far as people inside WWE were begging him to come work for WWE's creative team. The book is without a doubt laden with his opinions, but it doesn't bother me, as I wasn't looking for an objective recollection of Benoit. Plus, I feel that in wrestling especially, you don't get that sort of view, most wrestling books are written by either wrestlers or people that have their heads so far up their asses and are so concerned with being a part of 'da biz' and protecting their sources that they will essentially condemn the industry and then quickly turn right back around and start talking about how great it is.

Randazzo is a huge fan, so the general tone and so on is coming from a disenfranchised fan who understands exactly how sick pro wrestling is, would really love to see it 'reformed' but understands that really, there is no hope.

There are some things in here, like the Dave Lagana stuff that have never really surfaced to the public beyond whispers that were quickly shot down. This book is a very, very big deal in WWE HQ right now, to the point where Vince has reached one of his obsessions over it, to where, at least for the past few weeks, it has dominated the discussion at the booking meetings, much like any big story in the Observer gets. With Meltzer doing a long review when only halfway through, allowing Randazzo to have a letter in the next week's and Meltz planning on having a rebuttal to the rebuttal, this book is going to be a pain in their ass for quite a while. There is even word that part of Vince's rant when he announced the give-away contest a few weeks ago, parts were aimed at Randazzo and other people writing Benoit books like Irv M. and so on, the whole, "the elitists look down upon us, upon you, up everybody in the back" shit.

Really, I think that this is the best pro wrestling book that you can find, you just have to be able to handle it. I've found the reactions to be hilarious and also sort of sad. People who are still delusional over what pro wrestling are get very defensive, as do people 'in da biz.' You won't hear people denying any of it, just pulling the, 'who are you to judge?' stuff.

Really, for a book that was a complete rush job (he had only a few months to write this, as his publisher wanted to rush it out before anything else of substance on the subject came out), the wrong edit sent to the press and with next to no marketing behind it, it has done extremely well and should hold strong for quite a while. There are parts that are cookie-cutter, like lots of the WCW stuff was in other books, but then there is a lot that is just from out of nowhere.

Well, it was pre-released on Amazon, I think it has a wider distribution now, as it is 'officially' released. Amazon has had it for the past 3 weeks, so it has been available at Borders, who orders through Amazon. It should be around in more places now, but Amazon is the best bet.

As for how it paints it, look at it this way, music, television and film do not require drug abuse. Do they involve drug abuse? Of course they do, but it is a choice for the artists and people involved, in pro wrestling, if you can't perform, if you don't have the look, you are done. Period. Look at it this way, the industry has, for years, I mean, before Vince's bodybuilder fetish, been all about big, freakish looking guys. The problem is, most guys have to take steroids to attain the body they need, but then are so hopped up that they can't sleep, so they have to take downers or drink to sleep. To wake up in the morning, your body is so sore that you need endless supplies of painkillers to even move, never mind work out or perform.

There is no health insurance and it is a very physical industry, but no matter what, you are expected to work. The sense of paranoia is insane, so people come back from injuries very early, take more drugs to do so, or simply work injured. There is a story of Benoit working with a shattered ankle as well as upping his drug dosage to come back from his broken neck.

One of the stories that comes to mind involves Kurt Angle, right before the Angle/Lesnar WM main event, Kurt's doctor tells him if he wrestles that match he will probably be paralyzed for the rest of his life. Kurt goes to Vince and tells him, and Vince tells him that he can "not wrestle the match" and that it was his right, but then goes on to explain that he "can wrestle the match." The implication, of course, being that if he doesn't, he is through. So of course, after the match he is foaming from the mouth, has to be helped out, and after that his arms begin their atrophying and his body decay is just through the roof, as is his painkiller usage to keep himself moving.

One of the SoCal favorites, Hardcore Kid (can't remember his name) was in WWE for a short while, and broke an unwritten code by going to the staff trainers and chiropractors to help him out, Michael Hayes saw this, flipped out, told Vince, and he was let go for being a "pussy" and going to the doctors. The only people that use them are the untouchables like Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, etc.

Basically, the fall of the regional promoting style and the whole national touring circus has created an unlivable atmosphere that is conducive to massive substance abuse and lots of mental trauma. At least guys could have a steady home, have family lives and have some sort of stability, as opposed to traveling 300 days a year like they are now.

One of my favorite bits of information in the book is that some of the wrestlers in WCW had a death pool going, and Raven bet on himself.

Any luck finding this book free to read on the internet?

Gladly! So how long do I wait for this book to ship to Bulgaria?

[quote][cite] Spunk:[/cite][quote][cite] spudz:[/cite]Gladly! So how long do I wait for this book to ship to Bulgaria?[/quote]

Matt is a reasonable guy, http://matthewrandazzo.com/store.htm go there and e-mail him if you want a copy. Explain your situation and I'm sure he'll be more than happy than to help.[/quote]
You are such a dear! Thanks a bunch, darling, I will try this in the near future...

I'm not going to get started on your logic, because I could go on for quite a while. The point is that wrestling as an industry forced performers as well as influenced them to do stupid things. It ropes them in by enamoring them, and then saying, "well, if you really want to do it, you have to play ball."

As for the editing situation, it was the publisher's fault. There is a complete, edited version, they simply were not diligent in checking which file they sent to press, sadly.

Wow. That is, uh, really hard. I mean, when even Bret Hart was on stuff, you know it is going to be very, very hard to dig up somebody clean within the past 30 years, at least.

Honky Tonk is a possibility. Although he had some rather bloody feuds in Memphis which got him to the WWF.

You'll definately have to go back to the 70's at least....although even then finding someone with no spots more dangerous than a piledriver is gonna be hard. (Remember that was the era of blood and guts....I think ANY spot that you blade is more dangerous than a piledriver spot)

If you take that out of the equation, I think Mick Foley was probably one of the non-performance enhancing performers. (He never had a look that required those type of drugs...now PAIN PILLS on the other hand...)

Bruno Sammartino

And again, Sammartino used to do quite a bit of blading.

It also wouldn't surprise me that he did some steroids and such.

Ted Debiase?

Sting......uh no sorry. I'm sure at least when he was with PowerTeam USA he was on the juice. And then some of his matches vs Vader....some BRUTAL spots in that.

DiBiase? Hard to say.....he was never a big muscle head...so juice is probably not a factor. Although he was a major coke head by his own admission. He did some brutal stuff in UWF and Japan to get noticed by the WWF.

How about:
Michael P.S. Hayes (His partying was NOT enhancement drugs)
Greg Gagne (Granted he owes it more to his Dad than his actual talent)

So...all wrestlers are coke/steroid addicts?

Lance Storm

Yokozuna is a possibility.

Ric Flair has said he used steroids back when they were legal.

And I'm the only one who said blading is more dangerous than a piledriver spot...but I can see not counting JUST blading.

I think the rock maybe a safe pick.

Thinking recently maybe Cody Rhodes? (he isn't exactly huge) umm Christian? (Edge admitted to roids but CC didnt) LOL ok how about the bushwhackers? after that I am stumped.

The Rock? Seriously, have you seen him post-wrestling? He actually looks like a healthy man his age that is in good shape, as opposed to a freak. Wrestlers are freaks. Since when are grown men supposed to look like Triple H or John Cena? They aren't. To look like that you need to spend 8 hours a day in the gym, and even then, you can't keep that up for long. Bodybuilders don't always look incredible, they have off time in between competitions.

[quote][cite] spudz:[/cite]Only a few even know what Sammartino is...
Plus, it was different back then. Wrestling what it was years ago isn't what wrestling is today...[/quote]
You know maybe you have something there .But quite frankly I think wrestling's the absolute same.The only thing that's changed are the fans.I mean what's changed?The storylines are the same but with different characters,the preassure on people's the same,hell even the top company hasn't changed yet.

its weird how when eddie past away they were all like "he sobered up, he never took any more drugs. Thats why WWE gave him an opportunity to become the world champ, yada yada yada" But when you read the book the writer says eddie took A LOT more steroids during that time.

Wow I was expecting "ALL THIS TALK ABOUT DRUGS HAS GOT ME IN THE ZONE! ITS FIVE KNUCKLE SHUFFLE TIME!"

Uh yeah, it was Ken Shamrock, also renowned steroid and pain killer abuser.

[quote][cite] Spunk:[/cite]Bodybuilders don't always look incredible, they have off time in between competitions.[/quote]

Those pro bodybuilders at the Olympia level look like puffy brick walls in the off season. True, they have their own set of drug abuse health problems, but at least they only get into contest shape a few times a year and give their bodies a bit of rest in between. Pro wrestling needs an off season. It's the only way to restore some sense of sanity. Of course, first you'd have to get every promotion to agree on a set off season. Not a small task.