WrestleCrap: The Very Worst of Pro Wrestling [Paperback]

Numerous times on his site, Reynolds promised that the book would NOT simply consist of rehashed examples from his web site. Unfortunately, that's exactly what at least 95% of this book is.

A true fan of the site will recognize almost all the material here. Compounding the problem is that Reynolds's trademark wit is absent. Except for a few bright spots, he seems to be holding himself back, adopting a lamer, more "proper" writing style than the funnier, freer one found on his site. So not only is the reader presented with old material, but it's not even presented in as amusing a fashion as it has been before.

Also, the "exposé" material promised by Reynolds on the site is rather weak. His account of the fall of the WCW is accounted more thoroughly and better elsewhere - Shaun Assael's solid yet unspectacular "Sex, Lies, and Headlocks" is one such example.

I am a Reynolds fan, and I wanted to like this book. For the reasons given above - which, I believe, anyone will recognize upon an open-minded reading of the book - I could not. If you're not a fan of wrestling, you probably don't care about the myriad ridiculous wrestling angles from throughout the years. If you are a fan of the site, skip it entirely. You've seen it all before, only better.

This leaves the wrestling fan who is not familiar with the site. This might actually be a good book for such a reader. It's sure to conjure up some hilarious moments that you forgot about long ago. There is, after all, a rich history of material to work with here. For everyone else, I would recommend a pass. Reynolds certainly has it in him to crank out an excellent book. This one just isn't it.

Wrestlecrap primarily focuses from the mid 1980s to the present, when Vince McMahon Jr gave pro wrestling a brand new paint job, and how folks like WCW's Jim Herd tried to "outcamp" the WWF with disastrous results. While I've read countless articles presenting icons like McMahon as everything from innovative to cutthroat to no-nonsense maverick, it's not very often you get to read a detailed report on the many blunders that go on amidst the successes, in the ring and behind the dressing room curtain. Yes, we know multiple Doink the Clowns were lame, how embarrassing the fake Razor Ramon & Diesel was, or how we cringed at WCW's "Wonderful World of Oz." But Wrestlecrap goes into great detail about the geniuses who dreamed these angles up, why they expected them to work, why they didn't work. We read about backstage politics, and how some promoters created bad gimmicks specifically to make the wrestlers they disliked personally look bad. The author is also humble enough to point out a gimmick that, considering how way-out it was, should have failed, but instead became one of the most successful pro wrestling personas of all time: The Undertaker.

Early on in the book, Reynolds and Baer appropriately take the heat off the wrestlers for performing these gimmicks, since they are performing a job at the booker's request.

The point of wrestlers following the orders of the promoters is driven home in the book's forward, which is written by John "Earthquake" Tenta. Tenta was a Sumo and legit tough guy long before he became Earthquake. Even with that reputation, he did not hesitate, when asked, to dress up like "The Shark" or as Golga of The Oddities (confession time---I think we all have at least one "Wrestlecrap Guilty Pleasure"...mine is The Oddities!). In a business where big egos and dressing room hissyfits can make headaches for promoters, Tenta is a breath of fresh air. He stresses that wrestlers have to make do with the personas given them, and give it their best shot, and that for every "Stone Cold" Steve Austin created, there are a hundred "Sharks." He is able to laugh at the bad gimmicks he did, as well as laugh at himself. John Tenta, despite being a Sumo, obviously never thought that the wrestling business was "beneath him" unlike many folks in the biz. For this, I take my hat off and salute John Tenta.

This book is a shockingly wonderful book, and highly recommended for anyone who wants to see the rationale behind bad decisons!