"The World of Lucha Libre" is an insider's account of "lucha libre," the popular Mexican form of professional wrestling. Heather Levi spent more than a year immersed in the world of wrestling in Mexico City. Not only did she observe live events and interview wrestlers, referees, officials, promoters, and reporters; she also apprenticed with a retired "luchador" (wrestler). Drawing on her insider's perspective, she explores lucha libre as a cultural performance, an occupational subculture, and a set of symbols that circulate through Mexican culture and politics. Levi argues that the broad appeal of lucha libre lies in its capacity to stage contradictions at the heart of Mexican national identity: between the rural and the urban, tradition and modernity, ritual and parody, machismo and feminism, politics and spectacle.

Levi considers lucha libre in light of scholarship about sport, modernization, and the formation of the Mexican nation-state, and in connection to professional wrestling in the United States. She examines the role of secrecy in wrestling, the relationship between wrestlers and the characters they embody, and the meanings of the masks worn by luchadors. She discusses male wrestlers who perform masculine roles, those who cross-dress and perform feminine roles, and female wrestlers who wrestle each other. Investigating the relationship between lucha libre and the mass media, she highlights the history of the sport's engagement with television: it was televised briefly in the early 1950s, but not again until 1991. Finally, Levi traces the circulation of lucha libre symbols in avant-garde artistic movements and its appropriation in left-wing political discourse. "The World of Lucha Libre" shows how a sport imported from the United States in the 1930s came to be an iconic symbol of Mexican cultural authenticity.

Jeff Gorman grew up dreaming of a career as a sportscaster, but he never imagined that he would land in the pro wrestling ring. Join Jeff on a bizarre trip through the minor leagues of wrestling and follow his rise up the ladder. Learn about the inner workings of a business filled with bikers and bullies, heroes and hillbillies. It's more real than you would think. Find out what it was like to be a part of the early days of Ring of Honor, one of the hottest promotions in wrestling. Discover what happens when you chase one dream and find another. You've heard the wrestlers talk on TV, now find out what it's like on "THIS SIDE OF THE MIC."

John Lister is one of Britain's most respected wrestling journalists. Mixing travelogue, humour, fiction, history and opinion, this collection brings together the best of his work from the past fourteen years. The first section of this book features three epic accounts of voyages to see wrestling in the United States, from the ECW Arena to the Dallas Sportatorium by way of WWF pay-per-views and Memphis television. The second section comprises more than 40 articles, some previously unpublished, including histories of British and American wrestling, the statistics behind WCW's collapse, and a disgraceful allegation about Tommy Rich. Note: This is a revised 2nd edition, with a new cover design, new page design, lower page count and a lower retail price. However, the content of the book is unchanged from the first edition.

He travelled the world applying his trade, he travelled to far off places as Hawaii, Japan, Korea, and India he entertained Millions of people all over the world with his wrestling. His name is Johnny Kincaid, now he has written his own Amazing life story. He writes about his child hood, born and brought up in Battersea "Not Barbados," how he spent half his child hood in a children's home. How he was in trouble with the police in his teens and spent time in a detention centre. He joined a fair ground and travelled with them after leaving his first wife of six months. Johnny learnt his trade as a wrestler whilst he was boxing in a fair ground boxing booth. He became a lady's man on entering the paid ranks of professional wrestling and becoming, European Champion 1981 1986. Enjoy this exciting journey with a ring side seat through the career of Johnny Kincaid you will laugh out loud as his family and friends do when he tells these stories and many more.

A competition of strength, endurance, and strategy, wrestling is one of the world's oldest sports, boasting such famous participants as Plato, Henry VIII, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln. The author provides a compelling look at the different styles and maneuvers of wrestling. Vibrant photos and informative writing bring this sport to life for the reader.

At the age of eighteen, Chad Rowan left his home in rural Hawaii for Tokyo with visions of becoming a star athlete in Japan's national sport, sumo. Five years later, against the backdrop of rising U.S.-Japan economic tension, Rowan became the first gaijin (non-Japanese) to advance to sumo's top rank, yokozuna. His historic promotion was more a cultural accomplishment than an athletic one, since yokozuna are expected to embody highly prized Japanese values such as hard work, patience, strength, and hinkaku, a special kind of dignity thought to be available only to Japanese. Perhaps the defining moment of the gaijin's unique success occurred at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, when Rowan, chosen to personify ""Japanese"" to one of the largest television audiences in history, performed a sacred sumo ritual at the opening ceremony. ""Gaijin Yokozuna"" chronicles the events leading to that improbable scene at Nagano and beyond, tracing Rowan's life from his Hawaii upbringing to his 2001 retirement ceremony. Along the way it briefly examines the careers of two Hawaii-born sumotori who paved the way for Rowan, Jesse Kuhaulua (Takamiyama) and Salevaa Atisanoe (Konishiki). The author shares stories from family members, coaches, friends, fellow sumo competitors, and of course Rowan himself, whom he accompanied on three Japan-wide exhibition tours. The work is further informed by volumes of secondary source material on sumo, Japanese culture, and local Hawaii culture.

The Ultimate Guide to Weight Training for Wrestling contains over 80 descriptions and photographs of the most effective weight training, flexibility, and abdominal exercises used by wrestlers worldwide. The wrestling-specific weight training programs in this book can be used all year and are guaranteed to increase your quickness, build power, and prevent injuries common to wrestlers.

"Adam Copeland on Edge" is what the author describes as "a mental picture." It's also a dream -- "one of many" -- that he decided to realize while at home convalescing from potential career-ending neck surgery. And it's a journey that explores not only his life but also his innermost thoughts.
In the small town of Orangeville, Ontario, Copeland was raised by a loving mother who, while working multiple jobs just to pay the rent, nurtured her son's passion for Spider-Man comics and KISS albums. When a family tragedy created a void in Copeland's life, that void was soon filled by the wrestling legend Hulk Hogan, who "made me feel like I could accomplish anything."
For Copeland, "anything" meant becoming a wrestler, an ambition shared by his friend Jason Reso, who would eventually form the indie tag team Suicide Blondes with Copeland, then join him in WWE as Edge's "brother," Christian. Winning a newspaper essay contest earned Copeland free wrestling training from independent veterans Sweet Daddy Siki and Ron Hutchinson. The author shares his vivid, often outrageous memories of wrestling throughout Canada and the midwestern United States and befriending future WWE Superstars like Terry Richards (Rhyno), Sean Morley (Val Venis), and Chris Jericho. Hard work and persistence brought Copeland to World Wrestling Entertainment. But his "inauspicious" "Raw" debut -- during which he accidentally knocked out his opponent -- supports his claim that "I had no idea" how to make the transformation to Edge.
Copeland retraces the steps he took to "Edgeucate" himself, from his goth days with the Brood's Christian and Gangrel to ushering in the "E&C Dynasty," which in turn revitalized WWE's Tag Team division (with the aid of the Hardy Boyz, the Dudley Boyz, and countless tables, ladders, and chairs).
With vivid detail and sincerity, Copeland offers his thoughts about not only fulfilling his goals but also building upon them. He shares his actual surprise over winning the Intercontinental title for the first time; the anxiety he felt while splitting up with Christian; his eventual determination "to grab the damn ball out of someone's hands and take off"; the distress of almost losing his long blond hair to Kurt Angle; his wonder over enjoying a brief Tag Team title reign with the icon who first inspired him; the simultaneous pain of a broken marriage and two ruptured discs in his neck; and the nervous energy of returning to Raw in March 2004 and setting his sights on the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
You think you know Edge? Then read on....

Based on the proven training methods of championship fighters and martial arts masters, such as Bruce Lee, this advanced guide will help you develop superior speed and reflexes. Regardless of your martial arts style or method...you cannot apply it successfully unless you can react quickly and respond instantly. Speed is critical for success in competition and self-defense. Razor-sharp reflexes are often the sole difference between winning and losing. J. Barnes, a mixed martial artist with more than 20 years experience, details how to use the innovative Speed Loop[ training system to breakdown and master the 7 keys to martial arts speed for self-defense and mixed martial arts fighting. You can double or triple your speed by using world-class training drills to isolate, transform, and integrate every component of Speed Loop[, including: [Visual Reflexes Improve your ability to spot openings and track movements. Exceptional visual reflexes allow you to recognize, track, distinguish, adapt to, and counter movements with precision and confidence. [Tactile Reflexes - Learn to instantly feel what the opponent is attempting to do by quickly interpreting the direction of his body force. Ninety-five percent of all fights end up in close range. Be prepared! [Auditory Reflexes - It is important to react quickly to what you hear. You can improve your auditory reflexes by enhancing your perceptive listening skills. [Adaptation Speed Learn to instantaneously select the perfect action in response to an attack or opening. Highly developed adaptation speed will allow your reflexes to carry out the movement selection process automatically. [Initiation Speed - It's not how fast you move, but how soon youget there that really counts! Train yourself to make your movements felt before they are seen by developing a flawless poker face and the ability to relax at will. [Movement Speed - Dont be concerned with demonstration speed. Your training should focus on developing the applied speed that will help you overwhelm and subdue an opponent in seconds. [Alteration Speed - Alteration speed involves the ability to quickly change directions in the midst of movement. Through mastery of body mechanics, you can develop the ability to stop your movement instantly]just in case you initiate a wrong move. [Hampering Speed - Speed Hampering is the ability to effectively slow down the opponents reaction time to your attacks. Skill in speed hampering can help compensate for what you may lack in movement speed. By focusing on the maximum development of each individual speed component, your training will be more efficient and effective. This will help you develop superior speed and reflexes in the shortest possible time. Use the proven Speed Loop[ training system found in this acclaimed guide and you will see a significant improvement in your total speed and reflexes.

The antagonists-oiled, shaved, pierced, and tattooed; the glaring lights; the pounding music; the shouting crowd: professional wrestling is at once spectacle, sport, and business. Steel Chair to the Head provides a multifaceted look at the popular phenomenon of pro wrestling. The contributors combine critical rigor with a deep appreciation of wrestling as a unique cultural form, the latest in a long line of popular performance genres. They examine wrestling as it happens in the ring, is experienced in the stands, is portrayed on television, and is discussed in online chat rooms. In the process, they reveal wrestling as an expression of the contradictions and struggles that shape American culture.The essayists include scholars in anthropology, psychology, film studies, communication studies, and sociology, one of whom used to wrestle professionally. Classic studies of wrestling by Roland Barthes, Carlos Monsivais, Sharon Mazer, and Henry Jenkins appear alongside original essays. Whether exploring how pro wrestling inflects race, masculinity, and ideas of reality and authenticity; how female fans express their enthusiasm for male wrestlers; or how lucha libre provides insights into Mexican social and political life, Steel Chair to the Head gives due respect to pro wrestling by treating it with the same thorough attention usually reserved for more conventional forms of cultural expression. Contributors. Roland Barthes, Douglas L. Battema, Susan Clerc, Laurence de Garis, Henry Jenkins III, Henry Jenkins IV, Heather Levi, Sharon Mazer, Carlos Monsivais, Lucia Rahilly, Catherine Salmon, Nicholas Sammond, Phillip Serrat, Philip Sewell

This meticulously crafted and searing critique of pro wrestling is unlike any wrestling book published: Chokehold is a penetrating description of pro wrestling's dark side, a secret underworld of deception, exploitation and greed. The storyteller is "Big Jim" Wilson, All-American football player and survivor of seven years in the NFL, who was promised wealth and the world championship as pro wrestler. Instead, Jim Wilson found a surprisingly lucrative sports entertainment industry built on a pyramid of secrets that included abusive control of its performers and a long history of illegal business practices and corruption of politicians and state athletic commissions. Chokehold describes and documents the abuses that Jim Wilson witnessed and endured - blacklisting, strong-arm tactics, homosexual blackmail, defiance of the U.S. Justice Department and bribery of TV executives and arena managers. Chokehold is an explosive indictment of the pro wrestling industry's business practices as well as a thoughtful proposal for pro wrestling's reform. This book is not a conventional expos' of pro wrestling's orchestrated stunts, gimmicks and blade jobs. Instead, it is an unprecedented examination of pro wrestling's less visible cons outside the ring -- its hidden manipulation of wrestlers with broken promises and broken bones and a backstage power of the pencil that writes scripts for wrestler stardom or extinction. Chokehold describes a secret slice of the wrestling life where traveling troupes of heels and babyfaces understand how they got into the game, but cannot find a way up or out. This is the story of why and how the big guys almost always lose. Chokehold is part autobiography and part pro wrestling history. Written in wrestlespeak (the industry's insider argot), it is dedicated to the memory of "the older boys whose broken bodies and shattered lives should have taught us something." In addition to Jim Wilson's experiences in The Bus

On 23 May 1999 in the midst of a World Wrestling Federation stunt, wrestler Owen Hart plummeted eight stories from the top of Kansas City's Kemper Arena to his death on the hard canvas of the wrestling ring. His death, witnessed by 16,000 live audience members and millions more on TV lead to a brutal seventeen-month legal battle of finger pointing for responsibility. In this book, Owen's wife speaks poignantly about her days by Owen's side, the life that they created for their two children, and the tremendous loss that she has been confronted with every day. From their days as high school sweethearts to Owen's performances in sold-out stadiums, she illuminates the tragic story of this modern gladiator and his horrific demise brought on by the neglect of the professional wrestling world.

Spanning the "Roaring Twenties," Prohibition and The Great Depression, Pile Driver is set in one of the most colorful periods of United States history. The story of Charles Berthold Fischer reveals hardship, humility and honor. Wrestling honestly in a dishonest era, Fischer, standing but 5'3," simultaneously held middleweight and light heavyweight world titles. Despite national sports figure status, Charlie was never ashamed to declare Butternut, Wisconsin, as his home. A man to whom many taller men looked up, Pile Driver is the untold story of an exceptional individual: Charles "Midget" Fischer.

"This searing confessional reads like a novel and is just as suspenseful...Any female athlete would be interested in this story." -- Library Journal Lisa Whitsett grew up in Cedar Falls, Iowa, where she began the first of 27 years dedicated to sports and athletics. Her experiences as a mental health counselor and her adventures as a business consultant motivated her to write about development, change and transformation. Beneath the Armor of an Athlete was inspired by her own experiences of personal growth as well as her clients'. While many sports books contribute to a reader's athletic development, this book also focuses on the private, personal development of the athlete. Beneath the Armor of an Athlete is the story of a female Olympic Freestyle wrestler. Her love for the sport and striving for success expose her to rare challenges, all of which introduce new experiences in her life. From all-male wrestling camps and tournaments to the competitive ranks of national and international women's freestyle wrestling, this athlete learns that her sport is the gateway to learning more about who she really is and what she is capable of becoming.

"How do you like me now?" In the ring and behind the scenes with Hardcore Holly Long before he became "Hardcore Holly," Robert Howard was a fighter. From humble beginnings -- a boy dominated by his disciplinarian stepfather but fueled by an unquenchable passion for pro wrestling -- Bob grew up struggling to make ends meet. As an adult with a family of his own to provide for, Bob fought in bars for money before finally following his dream of wrestling. From regional promotions all the way to the bright lights of the WWF, from false starts as Thurman "Sparky" Plugg and "Bombastic" Bob to fame as an internationally known superstar, The Hardcore Truth tells the story of Bob's life including his 16 years working for Vince McMahon. In this rollercoaster tale of success and frustration, replete with missed opportunities, broken promises, and a broken neck -- a story of fast bikes and faster cars, lost loves and wrestling bears, bar fights and betrayal -- Bob shares his uncompromised views on the present wrestling landscape with fascinating insights into the world leader in sports entertainment.

A wildly popular form of mass media and live entertainment, professional wrestling makes a spectacle of violent acts. With its long history of working contemporary events into storylines and commenting upon cultural and military conflicts, professional wrestling is also intrinsically political. Its performance-theatricalities, machinations and conditions of production, figurations, and audiences-arises from and engages with the world around. Whether flowing with the mainstream of popular culture or fighting at the fringes, professional wrestling shows us how we are fighting, what we are fighting about, and what we are fighting for. This edited volume asks how professional wrestling is implicated in the current resurgence of populist politics, whether right-wing and Trump-inflected, or leftist and socialist. How might it do more than reflect and, in so doing, reaffirm the status quo? While provoked by the disruptive performances of Trump as candidate and president, and mindful of his longstanding ties to the WWE, this timely volume looks more broadly and internationally at the infusion of professional wrestling's worldview into the twinned discourses of politics and populism. The contributors are scholars from a wide range of disciplines: theater and performance studies; cultural, media, and communication studies; anthropology and sociology; and gender and sexuality studies. Together they argue that the game's popularity and its populist tendencies open it to the left as well as to the right, to contestation as well as to conformity, making it an ideal site for working on feminist and activist projects and ideas.

A destiny chosen, a destiny squandered, and a champion's relentless pursuit for redemption. Growing up in a small village in Ayrshire, Scotland, Drew dreamed of becoming WWE Champion and following in the footsteps of heroes Stone Cold Steve Austin and Undertaker. With his parents' support, he trained and paid his dues, proving himself to tiny crowds in the Butlin's circuit. At age twenty-two, McIntyre made his WWE debut and was touted by none other than WWE Chairman Vince McMahon as "The Chosen One," who would lead WWE into the future. With his destiny in the palm of his hands, Drew watched it all slip through his fingers. Through a series of ill-advised choices and family tragedy, Drew's life and career spiralled. As a surefire champ, he struggled under the pressure of expectations and was fired from the company. But the WWE Universe has not seen the last of this promising athlete. Facing a crossroads, this powerful Scotsman set a course to show the world the real Drew McIntyre. Buoyed by the support of his wife, Kaitlyn, and the memory of his beloved mother, Drew embarked on a mission to recharge, reinvent and revitalise himself to fulfil his destiny. It is a story of grit, courage and determination as a fallen Superstar discovers who he truly is and storms back to reclaim his dream.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Some people are born to be a certain thing. And I was a born fighter. At the age of eight, Michael Bisping began his training in martial arts. By the time he was 15, he was fighting in his first no holds barred competition. When he turned professional and joined the UFC he was sure about one thing: only a world championship title would do. A British underdog in the greatest fighting championship on earth, he spent the next decade winning some of the championship's most sensational contests to achieve his dream, becoming the first ever British UFC world champion in 2016. From his boyhood years learning to fight in the gyms of Lancashire to his most shocking clashes in the cage, in Quitters Never Win Bisping tells the raw and unfiltered story behind his legendary career for the first time, including his greatest wins, his fiercest rivals and the harrowing injury that forced him into retirement. As audacious, entertaining and as candid as the man himself, it's a backstage pass to one of the world's most extreme sports and an unbridled account of what it really takes to become a champion, from sleeping in his own car to reaching the summit of the world's fastest growing sport.

There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and the awesomeness of Dwayne The Rock Johnson. Sporting a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 100%, Certified Fresh, the Rock embodies everything we want from our Hollywood superstars and everything we admire in those who so boldly pursue the American Dream. But how did it all happen? How did a loathed professional wrestler become the most famous person in the world? Was it just good timing? Years of trial and error? Countless hours in the gym? A winning smile? Or his total mastery of Instagram Stories? For Your Consideration: Dwayne The Rock Johnson looks at the distinct phases of the legend s career, examining the ways in which he has become both an onscreen heartthrob and an off-screen hero. Also included are a ranking of his movies from Awesome to More Awesome, a theoretical road map to EGOT, a breakdown of his seven-meals-a-day diet, and much, much more.