The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pro Wrestling (2nd Edition) [Mass Market Paperback]

Bert Randolph Sugar (Author), Captain Lou Albano (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 12, 2001 | Series: The Complete Idiot's Guide

Written by Captain Lou Albano, the "godfather of wrestling," this book tells you the history of the stars, leagues, and moves of pro-wrestling. It includes updated coverage of WCW and WWF, of wrestling as a business, and of today's hottest stars and biggest promoters. If you want to be a wrestler, this book tells you how to get started in the business.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Written by Captain Lou Albano, the "godfather of wrestling," this book tells you the history of the stars, leagues, and moves of pro-wrestling. It includes updated coverage of WCW and WWF, of wrestling as a business, and of today's hottest stars and biggest promoters. If you want to be a wrestler, this book tells you how to get started in the business.

About the Author

Captain Lou Albano is one of the most legendary figures in pro wrestling today, having been a former wrestler and managing 17 champions Bert Sugar is an experienced sportswriter specialising in boxing in wrestling. He has over 50 books to his name. Michael Benson is a writer and editor-in-chief of several top professional wrestling magazines.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Alpha; 2 edition (October 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0028639618
• ISBN-13: 978-0028639611
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,230,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A 4-star book ruined by glaring textual/factual errors., July 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pro Wrestling (Paperback)

I'm a total wrestling fan, been following it since the late 80s explosion, through the early 90s recession, and into it's current media frenzy. This guide gives some great historical information and facts on the subject of wrestling. What ruins it are multiple (almost one per page) errors about relatively simple subjects, like wrestler's names and moves. An extra day of editing, by true blue fans, would have totally made this book worth owning. As it is, I only recommend it for the young and stupid who don't know any better. So basically, if you're a fan of Konnan, David Flair, or WCW in general, this is the book you'll want to worship. For you WWF fans, who know what wrestling is, try reading it yourself, and circle the errors. You'll learn some things, but the constant mistakes just ruin the whole experience.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Consider the title to be a WARNING:, February 8, 2002

By 

Stopheles (Ridgewood, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pro Wrestling (2nd Edition) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is so badly-written as to make me wonder exactly who the market audience would be. The only person I could really see benefitting from Albano's and Sugar's frequent factual errors and glossing-overs would be someone who has seen wrestling on TV a few times, found it to be less awful than they expected, and want to know more about what they're watching. Anybody with more than a passing interest in this form of entertainment will be left sorely disappointed.

So many things about this book bugged me: the fact that half the time, the authors act as if wrestling is real (especially Albano, when he is recounting his days in the WWF)...the fact that they suggest that the reader only follow one federation (so we don't bite off more than we can chew, supposedly)...the fact that their description of "the moves of pro wrestling" don't explain that the moves for the most part DON'T hurt the opponent...the fact that they consistently refer to Real Life in wrestling as "real-real" (when any mark or carny knows it's "shoot") and to the bad guys as "villains" (not "heels," as they're known to wrestlers). A thousand factual errors share pages with a thousand typographical errors.

Basically, this is a book which purports to be an "insider view" of professional wrestling, but which is written by two people from the outside who feel the need to keep the illusion of "wrestling as real-life violence." There's some interesting information about the earliest days at the turn of the 20th century, but it's hard to believe it as gospel when ten pages later the authors are telling you that Kane and the Undertaker are really brothers, that the first ladder match was in ECW, that Onita's barbed-wire cage uses real live electricity, and not just fireworks.

Rather than really explain what goes on in the industry (from backstage to in the ring), they try to get the reader to choose one of the two major companies (now, of course, there's only one) and believe that it's real. This may have been the way fans were in the 70s, but by now, for some reason, we are all in on the gag. All of us, apparently, except Albano and Sugar.

If you are in fact a Complete Idiot, and you need to spend 19 bucks to have someone tell you that you can look up a favorite wrestler on search engines for more information, then go ahead and buy this book. Otherwise, steer clear or get it at a Salvation Army like I did.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Filled with errors, and a poor overview to boot, December 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pro Wrestling (Paperback)

There aren't that many books about pro wrestling to start with, so when you come across something in the mainstream press, you have to hope for the best. Unfortunatly, The Complete Idiot's Guide is filled with factual errors concerning the history of the sport, not the least of which is poor coverage of the 'fake versus real' issue.

If you are seriouis about the history of wrestling, pick of Have a Nice Day or the new Dynamite Kid book instead.