Best Pro Wrestling Books

My hope is that these principles will ring true to wrestlers who need them the most.

Champions who need help in life.

My other hope is to bring homage to a sport that when all the accounting is complete has given to me more than I gave to it. And I gave it everything I had. And in return, it gave me everything that I am.

I am a wrestler.

I’ve lived 6 years on the mat. And a lifetime off the mat.

“Wrestling Rules For Life” are the principles that have been so valuable to me.

Nitro is a story about much more than WCW and the Monday Night Wars. It is a story of an era, a time in which the media and cultural landscape precipitated – and later supported – pro wrestling’s mainstream popularity. It is a story of how a company made in the image of an intuitively brilliant risk-taker betrayed its original promise. It is a story of how a handful of men, each struggling with their own limitations, facilitated a public obsession that changed television forever.

Wrestling’s leading drill book is back. With new chapters, drills, coaching advice, and practice planning, The Wrestling Drill Book, Second Edition, is bigger, better, and more comprehensive than ever.

The Wrestling Drill Book features match-tested drills from the top high school and college wrestling coaches in the sport. From takedowns, escapes, and reversals to riding and pinning combinations, each contributor breaks down a technique, tactic, or facet of wrestling for which he is renowned.

Chapters unfold sequentially, moving from simple to more complex drills, each including setup requirements, descriptions of the action, and key coaching points for maximizing the value of every drill. Detailed descriptions provide thorough instruction for the proper execution of each move.

With more than 700 detailed photographs illustrating moves and countermoves, this book shows how to handle any opponent in virtually any situation. Winning Wrestling Moves provides high school and college wrestlers and their coaches with all the fundamentals and latest refinements in wrestling techniques. Never before have so many wrestling moves been described and illustrated in one volume.

A walk-through of wrestling history, starting with the founding fathers such as Ed “Strangler” Lewis and the incomparable Lou Thesz, to modern-day masters such as Daniel Bryan and Kurt Angle. The Wrestlers’ Wrestlers spotlights elite performers and analyzes exactly what made them your favorite wrestler’s favorite wrestlers. Authors Dan Murphy and Brian Young interviewed more than 40 in-ring veterans, historians, referees, and promoters to get a unique insider’s look at the people who have made a lasting impact on the world of professional wrestling.

It offers a special peek “behind the curtain” and a rare look into the top stars’ thoughts on their peers, their influences, and their personal favorites. The Wrestlers’ Wrestlers is a history of professional wrestling but also a tribute to the frequently misunderstood art itself. Featuring stars of the 1920s to today, this essential read deserves a prominent spot on the bookcase of every fan and historian.

Certain people, events, organizations, and storylines in wrestling history have gotten a bum rap. Some writers have presented overtly critical comments and outright lies as fact, and others have followed suit. Well no more! “In Defense of…” has one reason: to bring the truth to the wrestling fan!

This was part of the opening lines to every issue of the classic anthology series In Defense Of…, a 64-part exposé that fought to dispel the myths surrounding the Internet Wrestling Community’s (IWC) most hated targets. Now, all 29 cases have been brought together under one title, edited into a streamlined format, and buoyed with rare and never before seen bonus material!

FINALLY… it’s the wrestling biography every WWE fan and the millions… and millions of Rock fanatics around the world have been waiting for! Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson: The People’s Champion charts the career of ten-time WWF/WWE/WCW Champion and movie megastar Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in-depth for the very first time.

In the 1950s, in Las Vegas, a businessmen’s conglomerate dominating a $25 million-a-year sports industry hid their illegal practices from the U.S. Department of Justice until they were caught. The sport that privileged cold hard cash over the honest competition was professional wrestling, and the conspirators were members of the famed National Wrestling Alliance. National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly that Strangled Pro Wrestling examines the NWA promoters’ overwhelming success, and the relationships to influential politicians and writers that protected their financial interests for over 50 years.

Breaking the façade of sports production, it shows how promoters actually twisted arms to edge out their opponents. Hornbaker documents the life of the NWA, from its humble beginnings in the Midwest after World War II, to its worldwide expansion. He chronicles the Department of Justice’s investigation, providing sports fans with a never-before-told side of wrestling’s legacy. The most noteworthy exploits of the National Wrestling Alliance were behind locked doors. Now, the conspiracies of a century-old brand of entertainment will finally be revealed.

You may have cheered him. You may have booed him out of the building. But until now, you’ve never really known “The Most Dangerous Man in Wrestling.” For the first time, Jerome “New Jack” Young opens up about his rise to stardom in Extreme Championship Wrestling.

From his crazed dives off balconies and scaffolds to his bloody weapons matches that trampled the line between reality and entertainment, this candid memoir reveals the man behind the infamy, with new disclosures about the Mass Transit incident, the brutal beat-down of Gypsy Joe, and the stabbing of a fellow wrestler in Florida. Beyond the gimmicks that united white supremacists and the NAACP against him, New Jack discusses the violent youth that nearly led him to a life of crime, his career as a bounty hunter, a near-fatal drug addiction, the last months of ECW, and his place in wrestling history.

Lex Luger, wrestling mega sensation and three-time world heavyweight champion, ruled the ring for years as “The Total Package.” Whether he was making a dramatic entrance from a helicopter, defeating champ Hulk Hogan, or sculpting a near-perfect physique, Lex was on top of his game. Yet backstage, he was wrestling with addictions to sex, drugs, and alcohol―things he clung to even when his mistress died suddenly of a drug overdose and Lex went to jail.

There, Lex faced the truth: he was losing the fight for his life. And still awaiting him was his most brutal opponent yet, when the wrestling champ found himself helplessly paralyzed from the neck down. In Wrestling with the Devil, Lex Luger reveals never-before-told stories from his career, his struggle with personal demons, and how, through unexpected faith, grace, and redemption, he overcame all odds to fight the only battle that really matters.

Print length 160 pages
Language English
Publisher Let’s Win! International
Publication date January 1, 2013