Customer Reviews

Wrestling's One Ring Circus: The Death of the World Wrestling Federation

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

 

 

Wrestling's One Ring Circus is a solid overview of the WWE's fall from grace to 2001 to 2003. Prior to this, the WWE was a crossover phenomenon creating mainstream stars such as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and The Rock. However, their descent was brutal and swift and Scott Keith does a great job of profiling their downfall. In actuality, you don't realize the magnitude of the company's failures until you read this book as Keith touches on everything, whether it's career ending injuries, the company's failure to push their most talented performers, or failed storylines. Like his previous book Tonight...In This Very Ring, Keith inserts his internet rants detailing important matches from the era throughout the text. The rants are still very good although they could be long winded, hence the term "rants." To his credit, he has revised his match ratings upon further review. As a long time wrestling fan and reporter, Keith displays his unbiased opinions about the failure of the WWE product and while many of his views come across as bitter, most of the time he has a valid point (ex....not giving a bigger push to popular performers Booker T and Rob Van Dam, the continued push of bigger and less talented athletes). In particular, Scott does a great job of the WWE's biggest failures such as the WCW Invasion angle, the gay wedding between Billy and Chuck, and the formerly wildly popular NWO. He also gives credit where it's due to the great performers from this era such as Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, and Brock Lesnar. However, he knocks Triple H and Shawn Michaels frequently throughout the book, to the point where it makes you wonder if it's more of a personal vendetta, particularly with Michaels since he was in on the Montreal screw job which took the World title off of Bret "Hitman" Hart, who like Keith is Canadian. Nevertheless, this is a very good read and a thorough review of the WWE's decline.

...the material is nothing that hasn't already been rehashed and re-rehashed by the author on 411mania.com and insidepulse.com. If you already read the author's work on 411, then you've already read the book, since 95% of the material is taken from his PPV recaps. As good as the writing is, the material's already available for free online. Save your money.

Of the three books by Mr. Keith, this one is the most disappointing, even as a "smart" wrestling fan. I was drawn to Mr. Keith's work originally because of the humor and the keen observations he brought to the wrestling community, as well as his rich knowledge of wrestling lore. While the knowledge remains, the humor is hard to find, and the keen observations have been replaced by tiatribes and biased reviews (which he admits to in the book!). Most of all, he just needs to get over the Montreal screwjob of Bret Hart (much like Hart himself), and admit that Shawn Michaels maybe--just maybe--is a better person these days. He crows in the book that Michaels has only put over Ric Flair and Triple H (when he had the information on hand that Michaels put over Randy Orton at Unforgiven, someone who COULD use that win, and chose to omit it from his book).
Add to this sloppy spelling and continuity errors, and the fact that he ends the book at WrestleMania XIX, which was a year and a half ago, and I was thoroughly underwhelmed. Perhaps Mr. Keith is running on the same fumes he accuses WWE of running on.

I thougtht the book was pretty good. I actually read it at a Barnes and Noble, as I had gone there for the Death of WCW but it wasn't in. I didn't read the match reviews, as I had read the originals in his rants, and skipped a few minor parts. I thought it was a detailed look at a bad period for the WWE. Though things have picked up (at least on the Raw side), the company is still making the same mistakes, such as keeping the belt on Triple H. How they could screw up having Goldberg and the invasion is beyond me. Even if you've read all his rants, you can still learn a few backstage things.

I am already a fan of Scott Keith's weekly columns on the Inside Pulse website, and I consider him to be one of the most honest and insightful wrestling writers out there. This book is an in-depth look at a year or so of recent WWF/WWE history. Keith is certainly biased and opinionated, but that is what makes his books and his columns so fun to read. Even if you don't agree with him, Keith can make you laugh and make you think about North American corporate wrestling in new ways. If you are at all interested in Vince McMahon's wrestling shows, then this book should be near the top of your reading list.

This book is interesting to read once because it is the only book yet to exclusively document the 2001-2003 WWE era, which saw a change in name, change in stars, and a downfall in success that the WWE has arguably never recovered from.

When it sticks to strictly facts, it's fascinating, particularly the behind the scenes material involving Steve Austin, Vince McMahon, and others.

However, the author is mean-spirited and, worst of all, completely unwilling to adjust his clearly pre-set opinions. A few points:

- In this author's mind if a wrestler is older, they're bad; if they're new, they're good, and nothing at all changes that. While points can be made for guys hogging the spotlight, the author is unwilling to give credit even when the guys on top do have excellent matches. (HIAC with Taker-Lesnar, Michaels-HHH).

- His attitude during the entire book can be summed up by his ridiculous analysis of the HHH-Michaels Summerslam match, where he manages to accuse HHH of sponging off Michaels (as if anyone could have a great match with someone who hadn't wrestled in 4 years), insult Michaels for not jobbing to a younger man (as if the fans wanted to see Michaels come back simply to lose), and then criticize both men for putting on too good a match (??).

- This book has aged very badly. Considering the years following its publication have produced the botched Goldberg WWE run, JBL's title run, and the endless John Cena era, in hindsight Hogan VS. Rock and a couple of bad Undertaker-Austin matches don't come off so terribly. Also, the author's endless praise of Brock Lesnar now seems stupid considering Lesnar's (deserved) reputation now as a wrestling flash-in-the-pan.

An interesting read, it would be nice to have an updated book written by an author less rigid and hateful.

This book is somewhat of a letdown if you are a regular reader of his "rants". Mr. Keith *still* seems to have a different style when in the publishing world as compared to his online escapades because much of the humor and wits that he shows in his rants are almost non-existant in this book. As a previous review stated, most of what is in this book he has already stated numerous times online at various websites (but this time without wit). And while it is always enjoyable to hear some HHH-bashing, Mr. Scott Keith makes it the theme of the whole book and it really runs tired and ragged after awhile. HHH hasn't gotten this much face time since this week's episode of Raw! Definitely not worth the $19 price tag, but if you can find it once discounted, it's worth a casual read as it is more focused and a step above his first two books. Overall, a 3-star effort because even if this does seem like a "copy and paste" job, the content is worthy of being read about.

The book suffers because it is written for a "smart" wrestling audience familiar with the internet. Unfortunately, if you are in this category you're no doubt familiar with SK and his "rants," and the book adds no new information to them.

I was looking forward to the new, redone rants but it's more of the same cut and paste jobs, with slightly adjusted star ratings. This is just one big compilation of the past 3 years worth of "Wrestling Observers." I was expecting so much more.

The content is hardly worth a star, unless you don't regularly frequent the Internet Wrestling Community. In which case, the content will be way over your head anyway. "You can't win for losing." The only saving grace is the fact that Keith really is a good writer, and it does flow well.

Scott Keith isnt everyones ideal voice of wrestling .
Many can rightly point to his onesided and often jaded view of the business and claim he'd alway look at the pro wrestling glass as being forever half empty .
But personally i like his no frills approch to the subject , even if he does tend to droan on a bit after having made his point .
WWF/E wasnt painted in a very good light by Keith and no surprise there , just got to read the title to figure this.

Could of done without all his star ratings , but reading his net columns over years it was exspected .

Still good to read if read The Death Of WCW

Summer of 2005, I remember it like it was yesterday. I was about to enter 9th grade and my mom decided to get my brother and I two books from Barnes and Noble as little 'end-of-summer' gifts (my parents really got us both hooked on reading). I was a big wrestling fan at the time and I had just discovered the "Internet Wrestling Community", aka where the smart fans (or smarks as they are so lovingly called) who were very much aware of how professional wrestling is scripted and supposedly knew all the ins and outs of what goes on behind the curtain backstage at wrestling events. They thrived on discussing the dirt on wrestlers, the politics that went on between the storyline writers, etc.

So naturally, I wanted this book being the ignorant teen I was and I was sucked into Scott Keith's angry rants against World Wrestling Entertainment, especially his disdain for WWE head honcho Vince McMahon and some of their most famous wrestlers like Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Hulk Hogan and many others. Like other reviewers have mentioned however, most of the information Keith has compiled is available online on the many wrestling forums on the internet. At the time, I did not have internet so most of this information and dirt was simply fascinating. While most of the book is Keith's hatred for these wrestlers (or any older wrestler whose name isn't Ric Flair for that matter), he also mindlessly praises newer wrestlers at the time like Brock Lesnar, John Cena and even Matt Hardy, who at the time was a lower mid card singles wrestler and really wasn't (and still isn't ) doing anything revolutionary (Keith even manages to compare Hardy to the great Macho Man Randy Savage, blasphemy I say).

Keith also dishes out some rare praise for many of the mid carders at the time though he does not expect any of them to have much of a future, whereas some wrestlers like Brock Lesnar did leave the WWE after only two years to pursue other endeavors. Many of the mid card wrestlers that Scott Keith described as "underused" or "held down by Triple H's backstage politics" like Chris Benoit, Kane, Rob Van Dam or Eddie Guerrero all won world titles and received main event runs in later years.

Keith's bitterness is very evident in the final chapter where he compares Vince McMahon to famous circus promoter PT Barnum. One point really stood out to be when he mentions how Bret Hart was "humiliated" by McMahon and Shawn Michaels in the infamous "Montreal Screw job" back in 1997. This seems to be the root of Keith's hatred for McMahon and Michaels. His hatred even gets personal where in one chapter he questions Michaels faith as a born again Christian and claims that he worships Triple H, not God to get all of his wins during his comeback in 2002. I found this unnecessary criticism of Michaels to be insulting on many levels and going a bit too far when it comes to hating someone Keith doesn't even know personally. Also, why would Michaels lose when he has to come back and prove himself to many new fans who may not even know who he is? Yet this too seems dated after 2010, when Hart made his return to WWE and even embraced Michaels in the ring, ending their long, real-life feud. Another reason the book will not age well at all. If Hart can forgive McMahon and Michaels, then maybe there's still hope for a jaded, bitter fan like Scott Keith to enjoy professional wrestling once again.

As for me, I stopped going to all the wrestling forums and reading the dirt sheets and stopped caring about what backstage politics are going on in WWE as I got older. I realized I just needed to enjoy wrestling without thinking about what happens off camera and just enjoy the product. Like many things in life, you can't always get everything you want, and this is especially true in wrestling and you can't hate a company just because of what went on backstage with one's favorite wrestlers and how they were booked.

The book isn't all terrible however, Keith is generally funny at times and there are a few parts in the book that will give most fans a good chuckle. And WWE was certainly not perfect, especially from 2001 to 2003. Some storylines that Scott Keith criticized definitely deserve the criticism, like a lot of the silly angles from fall 2002, like the HLA angle, the Billy and Chuck gay wedding and the Al Wilson storyline. But for the most part, Wrestling's One Ring Circus reeks of bitterness, so some jaded internet wrestling fans who hate everything WWE has done since the "Attitude" era may enjoy this, but a general fan of wrestling should stay away from all the negativity presented in the book.