Slammin': Wrestling’s Greatest Heroes & Villains
$18.95- A behind-the-scenes look at the spectacle of wrestling, its history, fans, and biggest names: from Gorgeous George to Hulk Hogan, from WWF mastermind Vince McMahon to “Stone Cold” Steve Austin — every slam, smash, and turnbuckle — it’s all here. How do you begin to describe the wacky world of professional wrestling? It's a sport. It’s entertainment. It's goofy. It's a secret pleasure. One thing's for sure: it’s very, very popular. World Championship Wrestling’s Monday Nitro is the most watched program on basic cable, and there are currently thirteen other action-packed hours on television. There are over a dozen monthly magazines devoted to wrestling, hundreds of wrestling Web pages, but very few mainstream books.
Slammin’ captures the fun, the spectacle, and the excitement of the sport (in over sixty photos) while also providing accurate and comprehensive information about its stars, both past and present. Wrestling history can be divided into two distinct eras — before Hulk Hogan and after Hulk Hogan. As the sport’s most recognizable superstar since Gorgeous George, Hogan has been the featured performer in almost every main event since the first Wrestlemania in 1984. However, the real pivotal figure in wrestling’s evolution is WWF president Vince McMahon, who has built up a national network of syndicated stations in 200 cities.
If your question is whether or not the matches are fake, you’re missing the point. Wrestling is not about athletic competition as much as it’s about escapism, loud music, colorful costumes, cheering the good guys and booing the bad guys.
David Hofstede lives in Las Vegas and has written nine other books, including Time Out Guide — Las Vegas, The Dukes of Hazzard Companion, and Hollywood Heroes from King Arthur to Zorro.
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Published: April 1999
ISBN: 9781550223705
Dimensions: 8 x 10 in.
Pages: 264
