Seeing I killed this thread back in February with my post I'll go ahead and bump it with another...

Just finished The Bob Holly book. It was really good, but maybe not in the way you'd consider a book good. While it wasn't a particularly well written book you get to see how wrestling changed through a guy that was with the company for 15 years.

At times he seems like a bitter guy and seems to contradict himself. Every chapter he seems to say how he knew his role in the company was to put other guys over, but then doesn't understand how he was never in a big program with guys like Lesnar. He seems to understand in most ways his value (or lack there of) to the WWF/E but he still just wanted a shot, which to be honest he probably deserved just out of loyalty.

He really doesn't like HHH (who does) and seems to think HHH held his career down. Other wrestlers told him that was the case so it's hard to disagree with him.

Still, Holly has lived an interesting life (from bar-room braws, auto racing, motorcycle racing) and I enjoyed reading about it from a historical point of view. Not up there with the Bret Hart book, but an enjoyable and quick read.

I remember in the late 90's when Holly, who was almost exclusively a JTTS at the time and never really won matches, scored a random upset win over Owen Hart on Raw. They never really went anywhere with it or turned it into a push, so it didn't make a lot of sense and I pretty much forgot about it. Upon Owen's death Holly mentioned that it came about because Owen went to him and said "Hey we're in your home town, I want to put you over tonight," and upon request the match was made and it happened. Goes to show that Owen wasn't the huge mark for himself that so many wrestlers (his brother included) are.

I don't remember this particular story in the book (it may have been there and I'm forgetting) but Holly did have kind words to say about Owen and even said something to the effect of your last sentence.

Holly pointed out that some wrestlers - Like Bret - really thought they were a World Champion even though all it really meant was that Vince (in the case of WWF/E, obv.) was the one who decided you would be champion. You worded it better, the differences between a guy like Owen and Bret.

Holly was beyond loyal to the company but was only really interested in holding a title belt because it meant more money, especially on Pay-Per-Views, generally. As Holly pointed out, being a champ, or fighting for the champ, didn't always mean bigger payouts though. I was surprised - assuming he was telling the truth - at some of the paltry payouts he did receive the few times and did hold a mid-card title or had a world title match. He said for title match against Lesnar (I think it was?) he received like 1500 bucks. He said for walking to the ring once to interfere during a RAW he got like 5k. Seemed (maybe still is?) totally arbitrary.

I mean his base salary was likely at least 50k, more likely 75-100k since all the mid-carders in WCW/WWF were overpaid (Divas min. salary was 45k or so). It's not like they're giving away $1m PPV bonuses to anyone but The Rock

I'm excited for the George The Animal Steele book coming out. Do you guys think that when WWE is the publisher they censor what guys can and can't say? I'm fairly certain WWE is the publisher on Steele's book so was curious.

Here's DDP's youshoot, it's pretty good:
http://youtu.be/6etOmB4TzKs

WWE is not the publisher, it is Triumph Books, which gives me hope that it will be a good book. I think WWE is famous for trying to align themselves with their former talent when they write books so they can censor what comes out. I think Bob Holly said WWE came to him when they knew he was writing his book and he declined their association (even though it cost him money) because he wanted to tell the truth about everything...similar thing with the Bret Hart book, which is also fantastic.

In Short -To me, not WWE backing usually means a more truthful (and better) book.

In general, this notion holds fact. One exception, I believe is the Stone Cold Truth, especially the parts where he pretty much said that creative writers and the wrestlers should go back and approach and structure wrestling in an old-school manner rather than try to be a slick and more scripted Hollywood-like company (and this book was written about 10 years ago.)

had this one today in the background. Basically a bunch of bloopers and reshoots and things that JR/Lawler/Cole say while they're prepping for the show or when they cut to commercial. Got kind of old, but was entertaining for a little while.

The WCW War Games DVD coming out soon looks sick.

I don't know if I mentioned this but all of the Coliseum Videos are available in full on YouTube. Watched a ton of them.

Anyone watched the CM Punk Best In The World DVD?

Yeah, it's fantastic. Go get it.

Thanks. Was going to get it when I get paid on Friday. Need something decent to watch when I'm hungover on a Sunday. Last decent DVD I bought was the Ric Flair collection.

Just watched it all. Fantastic all around. Man I love me some DDP

Picked up the George Steele book, it's pretty meh. Might be worst biography I've read thus far. Anyone read the Andre the Giant book?

Finished the George Steele book, and I have changed my mind. Started off slow, but I thought it was definitely worth checking out. Tells of some inside stories, and him juggling between being a high school teacher, and wrestler. Pretty interesting stuff.

While I was walking by a book store yesterday, I accidentally saw (and bought) Mick Foley's Hardcore Diaries on one of the clearance tables. Quite a bargain: 7 dollar, down from 39.95.

Just finished the book in the post above (i.e. Mick Foley's Hardcore Diaries). Man, what a piece of work that was. His first two books are really well written, but the third one is all over the place. Most of the time he is just rambling meaningless stuff and one has to try really hard to find anything interesting. There are a few cool stories though - barely enough to keep me going. But overall a thumbs down - I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

My next wrestling book purchase is almost certainly going to be David Shoemaker's upcoming release, "The Squared Circle: Life, Death and Pro Wrestling." Shoemaker's Grantland stuff has been very good.

Is that this week? Yeah, I'll probably pick that up for my Kindle app. As good as his Grantland stuff is, his Dead Wrestler of the Week column for Deadspin might have been even better.

Mick Foley's book "Foley is Good" is amazing. His humor is absolute gold, he covers not only his wrestling career from 1999-2001, but also his family life, Owen Hart's death and how he went about writing his first book. One thing I appreciate is the way he is able to critique his own wrestling ability, something that I think most wrestlers would have trouble doing. I loved this book so much, that I ordered his first autobiography "Have a Nice Day."

Have a Nice Day is significantly better, but Foley is Good is a solid read, too ... as long as you skip the last section/epilogue/whatever it was called.

It may have been because my expectations were really high, but this fell just a little flat for me. I did enjoy the sections dealing with the history of pro wrestling's beginnings (1900-1950 or so), and there were a couple wrestler bios that were really good. But most of the "modern era" stuff was just OK.

That part was very boring, agreed. I did skip most of it. Doesn't take away from the book as a whole, though, it was very good. Can't wait to read Have a Nice Day.