Professional wrestling is a strange beast, full of contradictions-it's part live soap opera, part hyper-masculine violent spectacle. It's an indelibly American pastime enjoyed by millions and leads a select group of wrestlers to international fame. It's also a sport that leaves many of its athletes broken and battered, at serious risk of addiction, poverty, and early death. Body Drop looks deeply at the nuances of professional wrestling and its strange place within American culture from the perspective of fandom. Brian Oliu offers deeply personal meditations on such topics as disability, chronic pain, body image, masculinity, class, and more, all through the lens of American professional wrestling. Wrestling is a sport that is gleefully fake, but the people who love it are very real. In holding up this particular part of American culture to scrutiny, Oliu acknowledges that wrestling, like our world, is one that has been crafted, but by showing readers the scaffolding that holds everything up, he invites us to figure out what holds our own realities upright.

Professional wrestling is a strange beast, full of contradictions-it's part live soap opera, part hyper-masculine violent spectacle. It's an indelibly American pastime enjoyed by millions and leads a select group of wrestlers to international fame. It's also a sport that leaves many of its athletes broken and battered, at serious risk of addiction, poverty, and early death. Body Drop looks deeply at the nuances of professional wrestling and its strange place within American culture from the perspective of fandom. Brian Oliu offers deeply personal meditations on such topics as disability, chronic pain, body image, masculinity, class, and more, all through the lens of American professional wrestling. Wrestling is a sport that is gleefully fake, but the people who love it are very real. In holding up this particular part of American culture to scrutiny, Oliu acknowledges that wrestling, like our world, is one that has been crafted, but by showing readers the scaffolding that holds everything up, he invites us to figure out what holds our own realities upright.

"The fighter's life is not an easy one. No one knows that more than Michael Bisping. But few have done it better." --Thomas Gerbasi, UFC.com Britain's own Rocky Balboa, Michael Bisping tells the incredible story of how he went from rough and humble beginnings and then on to a legendary career capped by winning the Middleweight Championship. "If I quit the first time I tasted defeat, I wouldn't be here now," Bisping once said. The ultimate UFC underdog, Bisping fought his way to Number One contender status three times, only to be knocked back. But he refused to give in, clawing his way to his first World Title shot at the age of 37--when he finally became champion in one of the greatest upsets in UFC history. Loaded with the humor and brutal honesty that first won him a following and made him one of the sport's biggest stars, Bisping recounts his record setting 13-year fight career battling the likes of Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre, and Dan Henderson. "The Count" tells his story in a way that only he knows how. "[An] unprecedented look at one of the most incredible--and most entertaining--careers the UFC has ever seen." --John Morgan, lead staff reporter for MMA Junkie, host of The MMA Road Show