Customer Reviews

King of the Ring: The Harley Race Story

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent autobiography for folks who are fans of Harley Race or the NWA World championship. Mr. Race tells the story of his career with both candor and respect to the people he works with in the wrestling biz.

Harley Race tells of his humble beginnings in the business; serving as chauffer for 800+ pound wrestler Happy Humphrey, learning how to market himself properly, from being a tag team mid-card wrestler to an individual main eventer. You'll read how he worked his way through several major injuries and tragic losses from his rookie years and past his career as an active wrestler.

For those of you who have never seen Harley Race wrestle, he is one of the most unique and talented of the classic NWA Heavyweight Champions. He looked like one of those old-movie whisky-voiced sailors you might see belting it out with Popeye, but in the ring he moved with the grace of a dancer. He could take just about anybody out in a fight, but was a true professional, always making his opponent look good in a match, always giving the wrestling fans a good show.

There are lots of great "On the Road" tales here, from his friendships with Humphrey, Ted DiBiase, Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith, his having to put folks like "Lawman" Don Slatton and Robot C3 in line, his plane flight sitting next to Boy George, to the friendships he acquired with fans throughout the years. Harley Race is one class act.

I don't know if I would recommend this book for somebody who is new to wrestling fandom; great as the book is, I think it might occasionally lose the reader who does not already have a decent understanding of old school pro wrestling.

If there is any other criticism of this book, it is only that it is too brief. I would have loved another hundred or so pages of Harley Race memories. That said, Mr. Race does an excellent job of compacting his story into just under 200 pages; he included the most pertinent, compelling, and moving stories into the mix. This is a must buy for fans of old school pro wrestling.

I started going to wrestling matches in Topeka, KS, in 1963. This was the home territory for "Handsome" Harley Race as they called him. The wrestling promotion here was called All-Star Wrestling, which was a major portion of the National Wrestling Alliance Central States division. Even though Harley's home town area was Kansas City, we really didn't see him in the ring around here nearly as much as the other All-Star wrestlers like "Bulldog" Bob Brown, "Texas" Bob Geigel, Mike George, and Rufus R. Jones. The reason seemed to be because Harley was forever traveling as one of the most famous wrestlers in the world. So when we did see him here he was always just back from some distant place where he accepted challenges from other wrestlers. Even then we realized Harley was a major star in the sport, too big to just wrestle in the Central States region.

Harley's book details all this: his rise to fame in our area, his world travels, and his frequent homecomings. It is very well written and nicely illustrated.

I am particularly interested in the reproduction of the cover of the program booklet for the first "Starcade" event which really was the first ever wrestling televised pay-per-view.

Harley's book also details the decline of the National Wrestling Alliance during the 1980s as the umbrella organization for locally owned and operated wrestling organizations around the U. S. and other countries. All these years later Harley writes as though he still cannot believe how massive the World Wrestling Federation became during that decade, and quickly, too, causing numerous local wrestling promotions, including our beloved All-Star Wrestling, to go out of business.

Earlier this year, I read Ric Flair's autobiography. In that book, too, I read an awful lot about the decline of the NWA as well as World Championship Wrestling in the wake of the WWF. I recommend that you read both Flair and Race's autobiographies in order to understand how drastically professional wrestling has changed since the 1980s. It is quite a story!

King of the Ring gives a basic insight into the wrestling world of Harley Race. He tells some good stories here and there about his mat wars and some of the people he met along the away. Based upon his long career in wrestling, Harley's bio does command some interest.

However, this book is a mere 178 pages. What it clearly lacks is some detail about some of the people in his lives. Little is mentioned about Harley's family. Who were his close wrestling comrades? Harley keeps that a bit of a mystery. Somehow you know very little about his personal feelings.

Also Harley's writing style is quite dry and run of the mill. Very little humor is shown and one just gets the impression that Harley was just a man's man who wants to add his two cents.

Don't get me wrong, Harley Race was a big player in the history of professional wrestling. Certainly his point of view is greatly valued. However, much more detail is needed to enhance Race's influence on the wrestling business.

We have seen Harley Race in person, so it was nice to read his story. This wonderful book tells of his life as he made his way to the top of Pro wrestling. Great book!

i have been waiting for this book for years , and it is as good as i hoped ,the book is a inside look at the man who controled the wrestling world for more then 10 years as world champion.harleys caring for his sport shows in this book. the chapter where he discribes the meeting and scuffle with vince jr is a eye opener.i call it a must read for any wrestling fan.the only draw back i would say is that the book is to short 200 pages.harley could have gone on for a 1000 pages about his wrestling. overall a great book ,ps harley thanks for the great memories gary,from buffalo

Great book must read if your fan of late 70's and 80's wrestling scene. Besides Flair, Race history and inner knowledge of pro wretling is worth 100times more than what I paid ($6) for the price of the book. Race and Flair traveled across USA overseas and into evry po-dunk dive hole in the wall u can think of. The stories and insights shared by Race made me feel priviliged and dam proud to have been a wrestling fan for my last 30+ yrs.

The book is like the man in the ring, good but not flashy. It is a short 178 pages but Race tells a fair number of stories throughout and gives a feel for his stellar wrestling career as well as a glimpse into his personal life.

I think books like these are better than some other wrestling books where the authors write a little too much and lose the readers interest.

Harley Race has done a good book and it is well worth reading.

I just finished reading Harley's book and I found that it was a must read for me since I'm not very far from where he lives. I reside in Topeka, Kansas and have been to his WLW productions on numerous occasions. I've gotten a few autographs from him and had my picture taken with him in the ring, so I felt it was about time I learned more about him than just watching some old footage.

The book is pretty cut and dry, and doesn't add a whole lot of humor or opinion. It seems to be just a recollection of past events that for some might have been researched. I often wonder as all of the citing the book does for sources if Harley himself actually recalled most of these events. The book is really almost at times like reading the back of a baseball card looking at stats. It reads well enough, and although it isn't exactly a page turner it stays clear of writing anything outlandish or otherwise B.S. stories that books like Hulk Hogan's is known for. I gave it a four on the scale because although it is sometimes dry, it gives you a good education at what wrestling once was before it was considered entertainment. The book is a little shorter than I'd like as it leaves many of his personal life details hidden and mysterious. Out of all the wrestling biographies, I'd recommend it to better understand wrestling's past and how it varies from today's "sports entertainment". I'd put this book behind Mick Foley's biographies, Dynamite Kid's: Pure Dynamite, Ric Flairs biography, and William Regals, but it still should remain in your wrestling collection. I appreciated what I took from it. I recommend.

I found this book to be a very worth while read. It flows well,and Harley is a good story teller. For anyone who remebers the 70's and early 80's,the glory years,will really enjoy this book.Not only is Harley the king of the ring he also comes off as a gentleman. God bless Harley Race.

Description: An enthralling look into the world of oldschool wrestling by a man who doesn't get any more oldschool. Read about Harley Race's journey from working from the very bottom to the very top of the wrestling world, pulling no punches along the way. There is no point of view more unique than Harley Race's.

Rating: I give this a high 9 out of 10 stars. Extremely well written, insightful, entertaining, funny and touching all at once. This book is a complete tribute to the life and career of Wrestling true "King of the Ring". I don't see how any fan of the Kayfabe wrestling era can call themselves a fan without reading this book. New fans could stand to read this as a lesson in what wrestling is all about.