The Buzz on Professional Wrestling [Paperback]

Scott Keith (Author), John Craddock (Author), Rusty Fischer (Author)

Book Description

Series: Buzz On... | Publication Date: February 1, 2001

The Buzz on Professional Wrestling is your ticket inside the squared-circle and to everything you need to know about the hottest thing in sports entertainment.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Lebhar-Friedman (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0867308664
• ISBN-13: 978-0867308662
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,503,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Yikes, January 31, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Buzz on Professional Wrestling (Paperback)

What happened. I have always enjoyed Scott Keith's entertaining, though opinionated, rants on his website. The writing style used in "The Buzz on Wrestling" is COMPLETELY different. It is stilted, contrived, and excessively verbose. Much like this review. On his site, his style is natural and easy to read. Maybe the authors were trying to impress someone with their mastery of the English language. Unfortunately, this does not happen. The impression I got was that the book was rushed, as their are glaring errors of style and grammar. This type of sloppiness should never have made its way into a professional publication. You would think that a professional editor would have tidied it up, as the mistakes stick out like Doink the clown at a funeral

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Smart" Fans Read Buzz on Professional Wrestling, February 26, 2001

By 

Jason, Professional Wrestling Simulator Enthu... (NE Oklahoma, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Buzz on Professional Wrestling (Paperback)

Anyone knowing of Scott Keith (Netcop) from Rantsylvania will know what to expect of this book, as he covers a lot of the "inside" intricacies of the pro wrestling scene, from a historical perspective, to extensive wrestler profiles covering the major aspects and backstories of each individual's career, to the modern-day "sports entertainment" angle that has proven so popular. Almost being an unofficial "idiot's guide" to the behind-the-scenes goings-on for people who are fascinated with terms such as "workrate", "selling", "heat" and "kayfabe", The Buzz on Professional Wrestling is a great "primer" for those not familiar with the "fake" aspects of wrestling, and also a very good reference on wrestling in general, without becoming too pedantic. "Favorite move" hounds will enjoy Mr. Keith's treatement of standard and finishing maneuvers, though like me, they will probably wish it were longer.

From a critic's point of view, although the book *IS* informative, those who are "in the know" (or think they are) may think "Buzz" doesn't focus enough on this or that aspect of the business. While this might be a valid argument to purists, to accurately portray, perhaps even dissect professional wrestling and its history which stretches back hundreds of years, would take FAR more than one single volume - it would end up being an encyclopaedia (which, I'm sure most fans would agree, we'd happily buy); the Buzz on Professional Wrestling does its job quite efficiently, providing a very entertaining and nostalgic read, allowing you to see previous years of wrestling in a whole new light.

At the risk of sounding "markish", following Scott's lead, as a longtime fan of wrestling in all its forms (TV, PPV, games, books, collectibles), I would say The Buzz on Professional Wrestling deserves **** (four stars), with the only element really missing being one-on-one interviews with the primaries (wrestlers, bookers, managers) themselves.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A decent summary of the wrestling world, May 3, 2002

By 

Michael J. Gelfand - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Buzz on Professional Wrestling (Paperback)

I see that two of the negative reviews featured on the front page were written by people who have not even read this book. It seems at least several people decided to sound off their opinions on Keith's internet rants under the guise of reviewing the Buzz on Pro Wrestling.

For those that are unfamiliar with him, Scott Keith is most well-known for his "rants" on the internet, in which he reviews WWF Pay-Per-Views and television shows. Several reviewers have argued that Keith never writes anything positive about pro wrestling, that he just doesn't "get it" (a slogan the WWF has not used for at least a year). Obviously, such reviewers have not read Keith's review of WM X-7 (he called it perhaps the greatest PPV of all-time) or his glowing reviews of just about every PPV the WWF released in 2000.

Admittedly, Keith has been highly critical of the WWF's direction for the past year or so. Not coincidentally, however, the WWF has seen a major ratings decrease during that period. This week's episode of Smackdown! received a 2.9, a lower number than Raw put up at times when it constantly being trounced every week by WCW Monday Nitro. It appears that the fans who blindly defend the WWF against any criticism of the product are the ones who don't "get it."

Keith has shown an insight into Pro Wrestling that few exhibit, as can be seen by reading this book. After introducing the reader to basic wrestling concepts and "inside" terms, the author takes us through the early history of the sport, leading up to the 1980's, which begins the modern era that is Keith's major focus.

Keith separates the last twenty years into several distinct periods, providing biographies of the wrestlers that contributed most to the evolution of the sport and its popularity. Rather than simply a laundry list of wrestler stats and short stories, the book is actually a running narrative of the last two decades, conveyed by the stories of the wrestlers who stood out the most. He starts in the 1980's with Rock 'N Wrestling and Hulkamania, moving on to the WWF's down period in the mid 1990's and the corresponding rise of WCW. Finally, we meet the major players who contributed to the WWF's current (waning?) run of greatness from 1998 until the present.

There seem to be two major criticisms running through the negative reviews of this book. First are the grammatical errors. I had actually heard that the grammar was pretty bad before I read the book. However, whatever grammatical errors were present did not detract from my enjoyment or education while reading. There definitely are some errors, but not nearly enough to distract the reader or to merit (with no other reasons) a negative review.

Secondly, at least one reader argued that this book is "obsolete" because of the changes the industry has undergone since the summer of 2000. Since most of the book focuses on wrestling's history, I fail to see the reasoning behind this argument. Nothing Keith has written has been rendered factually inaccurate by recent events. While WCW no longer exists, of course, it is still both valuable and entertaining to learn about the careers of some of its performers, especially Ric Flair, who is still in the business. In addition, Bill Goldberg, also covered by the book, recently was released from his Time Warner deal, rendering it likely that he too will wrestle for someone in the near future. This book does a better and more objective job of covering the last twenty years in wrestling than any I know of. That it was written in 2000 does not change that.

I do have several criticisms, though. Firstly, I think Keith could have done a much better job documenting his information. He gives credit to Wade Keller's Pro Wrestling Torch and Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter as sources for most of his information, but never makes clear exactly what information was obtained from which source. It is impossible for the reader to independently verify much of what Keith writes, especially from the period before the rise of the internet. Even after that point, it is unclear what separates documented fact from unfounded internet rumor.

Secondly, this book was too bland. Scott Keith's greatest strengths as a writer are his sarcasm and wit. This book utilizes neither to anywhere near their full capacity, and this was a huge disappointment to me. The book is mostly just bland storytelling, which is especially unsatisfying for someone who is so used to Keith's wonderful humor. I highly recommend looking up his rants on the internet, especially if you enjoy this book.