Wrestling's One Ring Circus: T [Paperback]

Scott Keith (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Citadel (October 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080652619X
• ISBN-13: 978-0806526195
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,500,068 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A solid overview of the WWE's downward spiral, January 29, 2005

By 

John Alapick (Harveys Lake, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wrestling's One Ring Circus: T (Paperback)

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.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good writing, but..., October 5, 2004

By 

Ron - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wrestling's One Ring Circus: T (Paperback)

...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.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Death of Scott Keith?, October 3, 2004

By 

Jeff E. Clarke "Jevan" (Santa Cruz, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wrestling's One Ring Circus: T (Paperback)

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.