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43 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The 'Fast Food Nation' of Professional Wrestling, May 25, 2008
This review is from: Ring of Hell: The Story of Chris Benoit and the Fall of the Pro Wrestling Industry (Hardcover)
Attempting to explain to non-wrestling fans just how shocking the news that Chris Benoit had brutally exterminated his immediate family shortly before, in a gesture pregnant with symbolism, strangling himself on his weight bench is more or less an impossible task, mostly because it requires people to explain the appeal of wrestling in the first place. After all, the story arc of Benoit's entire professional career - if not his entire life - is one of the redemptive power of professional wrestling, the vector he exploited to overcome his physical and charismatic shortcomings and become a genuine favorite among fans despite decades of conditioning to reject wrestlers like him on first sight. For fans of Benoit's no-nonsense, give-%110 approach to their beloved form of entertainment, the news of his family's fate was almost Shakespearian in its tragedy; it was as if Paul McCartney were to admit to have killed his first wife Linda and eaten her corpse for Christmas dinner.
Matthew Randazzo's "Ring of Hell" is simultaneously both the best possible introduction to that world for outsiders and the most intimidatingly thorough reckoning for fans yet put out. The stories it contains are wild beyond belief, but Randazzo documents his sources extensively, attributes quotes whenever possible, and demonstrates a willingness to question his own sources' credibility if journalistic responsibility demands it. The end result is a ruthlessly compelling read which nevertheless leaves the reader feeling like they've learned something - namely, that contemporary professional wrestling is a soberingly cannibalistic industry driven on the willing suicides of its stars.
"Ring of Hell" is the story of a love so absurd normal folks probably haven't ever even considered its existence - an all-consuming love for pro wrestling. As the book exhaustively documents, this singular love motivated Benoit to endure nightmarish training regimens all over the world, poison himself with performance-enabling (not, the book stresses, "-enhancing") drugs, and willingly subject himself to degenerative brutality with a regularity so reliable as to defy comprehension. Worse, Benoit's tragic compulsions are mirrored over the course of the book by dozens of figures, from functionally insane billionaires to palpably good-natured, kind-hearted fellow wrestlers. All are punished.
Randazzo explains how a climate for such behavior could even exist, let alone flourish, by relying on an treasure trove of source material, much of which comes to light for the first time in this book's pages. While the notion that pro wrestling is a dangerous, sleazy place shouldn't really be news to anyone, literally every page of "Ring of Hell" brings revelations about the depth and wicked creativity of the professional wrestling industry's inherent amorality with the potential to drop your jaw. Sometimes, these stories are cartoonishly hilarious (Japanese icon Antonio Inoki buying "Inoki Friendship Island" on the assurance of treasure being buried therein by Fidel Castro springs to mind), particularly when Randazzo lets his gift for vituperative phrase-turning loose. Others are salacious enough to stagger even the most hardened wrestling adherent; senior WWE writer Dave Lagana's sexual improprieties (and correlating abuses of power) practically cry out for a book of their own. Most, however, are just sad, all-too-believable tales of former World Champions working at Target, or speaking to sincere desires to try and fill "the empty hole in my heart with wrestling" - a bafflingly inappropriate urge even without being preceded by two hundred pages of supporting exposition.
But really, the value of all the garishly ghoulish anecdotes is dwarfed by the context Randazzo steadfastly refuses to ignore for all of the respect Benoit received - earned - over the course of his career. In laying out, in gruesome detail, the hows and the whys of Benoit's rise to prominence, Randazzo fearlessly cites contemporary accounts of not just praise for Benoit's efforts as a wrestler, but stinging critiques of behind-the-scenes forces disinterested in (or outright dismissive of) his televised death spiral. Randazzo also never neglects to remind the reader of Benoit's character, widely considered among the most unimpeachable in the history of wrestling before that weekend in June. Even in the book's first chapter, Randazzo makes a point to mention how, despite "unprecedented pressure to close ranks and demonize Benoit so as to exonerate the wrestling industry of all responsibility", the wrestler's colleagues were a unified front of praise for the man, both in wrestling terms and in terms of the character they'd always only ever seen him exhibit.
"Ring of Hell" isn't without its weaknesses; since Benoit neglected to leave a note explaining his actions and the cyclical nature of the news media guaranteed a woefully short shelf-life for the story, investigations have hit a potentially-insurmountable wall, meaning there's precious little in the way of revelations about Benoit's actual crimes (a roadbump likely to prove particularly galling to readers approaching this book first and foremost as a work of true crime). To harp on those weaknesses, however, would mean missing the point of the entire book, which announces itself as a revelatory work rather than a supplementary one from the first page. Its outspoken intent - boldly couched, relentlessly revisited - is to impress upon the reader the sheer impossibility of justifying the tunnel-visioned love for pro wrestling Chris Benoit worked his whole life to embody, and its greatest triumph might be its conclusion that he never really managed to do so until his last few hours on earth.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
If you've ever been a fan of pro wrestling, this will probably be a difficult book to read, September 14, 2008
This review is from: Ring of Hell: The Story of Chris Benoit and the Fall of the Pro Wrestling Industry (Hardcover)
First, this is where I'm coming from: In the late '80s and early to mid-'90s, I was a pro wrestling fan. My brother was interested in it, and I started watching because I wanted to see what interested him about pro wrestling. I found it to be fun, and he and I started going to shows and conventions together. I even wrote up a couple of indy shows for a pro wrestling newsletter. I stopped watching as pro wrestlers started dying, and their deaths were increasingly linked to steroid abuse. I was never so naive as to believe that the matches were free and fair bouts, I knew they were pre-determined, I even knew there was a certain level of physical risk in pro wrestling. But over the years, the more I watched, saw, and learned, the more I came to believe that my support of pro wrestling was tantamount to participation in a profoundly immoral business. And I could not continue to support a form of entertainment that left so many of its participants dead or physically disabled.
So I write this review as a former fan. By the time, Chris Benoit reached national prominence in the pro wrestling world, I had stopped watching. That said, I believe that in writing and publishing Ring of Hell, Matthew Randazzo V has performed a valuable service to pro wrestlers and their fans. The book has its flaws, chief among them being poor copyediting and a few too many f-bombs for my middle-aged tastes, but these are far outweighed by the rocks he turns over in the world of pro wrestling. Under those rocks are some dark and festering creatures, not the least of which is Vince McMahon, Jr., the man who currently has an effective monopoly on pro wrestling in the USA. Anyone with any aspirations in the world of pro wrestling will have to work for McMahon and his organization, the WWE.
Ring of Hell looks at the world of pro wrestling during the past 30 years through the lens of the rise and horrific fall of Chris Benoit, a small-sized wrestler who was obsessed with achieving success in the industry during a time when gigantic, musclemen ruled in the squared circle. As a result, if a man the size of Chris Benoit was ever to gain a foothold in this fiercely competitive, unforgiving business, he was going to have to rely on artificial enhancements and an obsessive drive to succeed. This meant taking enormous doses of steroids, and even greater physical risks in the ring. Chris Benoit dosed himself with mind-boggling quantities of drugs of all kinds and endured literal beatings in the ring on a daily basis. The demands of the WWE and other organizations he wrestled for seldom allowed him any time to adequately recover from his injuries, so he ended up taking even more steroids and pain-killers. As a result he wound up a barely functional, profoundly brain-damaged, drug addict. After years of watching his friends die, in and out of the ring, he ended up murdering his wife and child and taking his own life. A postmortem study of his brain revealed extensive damage to all four lobes, plus the brain stem. This was due to his having sustained an estimated 1,000 concussions over the course of his career. The doctor who studied his brain compared it to that of an 85 year old Alzheimer's patient.
Although I deducted a point for the lackadaisical copyediting, I highly recommend that anyone who loves pro wrestling, or has a child who watches pro wrestling, read this book and absorb the lessons of Chris Benoit's career and tragic fall from grace. Then decide for yourself if this is a form of entertainment you can continue to support with a clear conscience.
As for me, I'm glad I stopped watching all those years ago. And I wish I had never watched to begin with.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, though Disappointing, August 6, 2008
This review is from: Ring of Hell: The Story of Chris Benoit and the Fall of the Pro Wrestling Industry (Hardcover)
A year after the Benoit murders, the media circus has forgotten and moved on. Now is a great time to make a book that reinforces what went wrong and help other wrestlers. Unfortunately, this is not that book.
Lance Storm called this the "Jerry Springer" of wrestling books. I'd rather think of it as the "Rush Limbaugh" of wrestling books. If you are a wrestling fan, this book would more likely insult you into staying one. It seems to be written for the folks that say "Yeah, you stick it to `em, Randazzo!"
The book chronicles the life of Chris Benoit and what changed him over his career. You get an idea of each organization that he wrestled for and how each atmosphere may have affected him. If you weren't already knowledgeable, this book can teach a lot about the industry and its history.
That is, if the book didn't seem like it was written by a high school student that didn't know Word had a spell check option (exactly how much is "tenty"?). There are odd phrases like "finding the hell out of Jesus". There is a mountain of curse words and f-bombs. This is book is so well researched, it's just a crying shame that all that great info couldn't be compiled in a less insulting way, either to wrestling fans or to the reader's intelligence.
As for the truth in this book, who lets the truth get in the way of a good wrestling book anymore? Many say it's full of lies, though not many specific statements have been challenged. From the stories I've heard over the years, I'd say at least 80-90% of this book is true. Some statements do seem do seem far fetched: When Randazzo says "[Stu] made Helen Hart feel like a brood mare", did she specifically say she felt this way or is this speculation? When Kevin Sullivan suplexed Tazz, did Dean Malenko say "I'll have what he's having"? (You'd have to read the book to get THAT one...) But hey, controversy is what wrestling, much less wrestling books, are all about!
The one thing missing: Benoit is painted as a driven man, no dispute there. This drive is only explained by "he was smaller than the others". If a child is brought up well, that one fact doesn't lead putting yourself through anything to be accepted. The father gets a free pass, here.
As a long time fan, I enjoyed reading about the atmosphere of the sport I once enjoyed, although everything is painted in the most negative light possible. Almost every character is displayed as despicable. Sure, wrestlers are a dysfunctional bunch, but I know there are plenty of happy and enjoyable stories. They just aren't here.
Maybe they shouldn't be. The book does give you an excellent insight into the stress that Chris went through. Drug use, dying friends, locker room politics and physical abuse eat away at Benoit until he spirals out of control. You get a pretty clear understanding why the tragedy happened.
This book could save lives, sure. But it would have had a better chance if it was written more professionally.
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