David Shoemaker (AKA The Masked Man)
Gotham, 2013
Hardcover, Paperback, Ebook, Audiobook
David Shoemaker (AKA The Masked Man) is known for his contributions to Deadspin - Dead Wrestler of the Week - and Grantland (Cheap Heat Podcast.) The Squared Circle: Life, Death and Professional Wrestling is his first book.
Shoemaker's book, which is essentially a spin-off of his Dead Wrestler of the Week article, is a well written and well researched book. Most chapters focus on the life and death of a deceased professional wrestler. Shoemaker does a very good job giving the reader a complete and concise picture of the wrestler's life and career. In all cases these become a microcosmic look at the culture of the professional wrestling industry.
Interspersed throughout the book Shoemaker inserts chapters focusing on a host of other wrestling themed topics that range from historic events to philosophical or political topics to bizarre concepts. A highlight of the book, and there are many, is Shoemaker's chapter on the Ultimate Warrior. Published less than a year before the Warrior's death and subsequent image rehabilitation this is one of the last prominent pieces to discuss the period of time between Warrior's departure from the industry and his Hall of Fame induction. Most fans images of the Ultimate Warrior are the frenetic 1980s superhero and the gracious Hall of Famer. For the better part the two decades between these two "highspots" Warrior was an obscure often uber-right-wing blogger who viscously criticised his former co-workers and the wrestling industry and almost seemed to take delight in the misfortunes of those with whom he had a personal grudge or a socio-political difference of opinion. Shoemaker's work on the subject of the Ultimate Warrior, though only a chapter, captures this image of the Warrior more completely than any other work on the market. It is a very interesting coincidence that Warrior, himself, would have been the subject of one of the "main chapters" rather than an interlude had the book been published a year later.
Shoemaker's book is divided into eras and sub-divided into related chapters. Some of the chapters feature inset "mini-chapters" that focus on topics that relate historically or thematically to the main subject of the chapter. It is questionable as to why Shoemaker chose to add these insets into the book rather than, as they are extremely well written and researched, expand on them in a follow up work. The insets , which are typically concerning important albeit random topics, at times overshadow the main topic of discussion and/or break from the theme and hinder the structure of the book. As they are very well written, this point may be a very minor one to most readers.
Shoemaker makes some tough decisions regarding what wrestlers to include and which to omit. While many of the high-profile main stream US performers of the last 30 years are listed, there is a lack of overall perspective of the whole wrestling scene (globally, historically or by prominence in the industry). If Shoemaker's goal was to feature the many of the prominent wrestlers who wrestled n the mainstream over the past 20-30 years and have died, he succeeds. This, however, comes at the expense of some variation of era, geographic location and, to be blunt, manner of death. There is a repetitive story that has plagued wrestling for the past few decades in that top name WWE/WCW/ECW wrestler goes to sleep and passes away from a heart attack due to either current drug use past drug use or the toll the industry has taken on the body. From a thematic standpoint - and not a human one as each wrestling death is mourned by fans the world over regardless of manner of death - the repetitiveness of the story could have been broken up by a few additions featuring wrestlers, perhaps even less prominent ones, whose passing were by other means or by featuring a more diverse cross section of performers from different times and places. Sadly, there are ample examples of names who have died in other ways who would have provided a more broad scope of the industry as a whole provided some variation to the story. John Tenta, Scott Irwin, Dino Bravo, Brian Ong, Chris Colt, Bobby Shane, Adrian Adonis to name a few. Oro and Mitsuharu Misawa are both mentioned, either could have been more prominently featured.
Regular readers of Shoemaker's Dead Wrestler of the Week may also find some redundancies between the book and the column, however, there is ample new information in the book to compensate for any repeated information.
Even die-hard wrestling history buffs are likely to find some new information in the book. There are very few noticeable errors and those that did jump out were relatively minor ones (i.e. referring to Giant Haystacks as Haystacks Calhoun in a passage about Davey Boy Smith.) The book is highly recommended for most wrestling fans especially those who are interested in pro wrestling history.
Shoemaker's book, which is essentially a spin-off of his Dead Wrestler of the Week article, is a well written and well researched book. Most chapters focus on the life and death of a deceased professional wrestler. Shoemaker does a very good job giving the reader a complete and concise picture of the wrestler's life and career. In all cases these become a microcosmic look at the culture of the professional wrestling industry.
Interspersed throughout the book Shoemaker inserts chapters focusing on a host of other wrestling themed topics that range from historic events to philosophical or political topics to bizarre concepts. A highlight of the book, and there are many, is Shoemaker's chapter on the Ultimate Warrior. Published less than a year before the Warrior's death and subsequent image rehabilitation this is one of the last prominent pieces to discuss the period of time between Warrior's departure from the industry and his Hall of Fame induction. Most fans images of the Ultimate Warrior are the frenetic 1980s superhero and the gracious Hall of Famer. For the better part the two decades between these two "highspots" Warrior was an obscure often uber-right-wing blogger who viscously criticised his former co-workers and the wrestling industry and almost seemed to take delight in the misfortunes of those with whom he had a personal grudge or a socio-political difference of opinion. Shoemaker's work on the subject of the Ultimate Warrior, though only a chapter, captures this image of the Warrior more completely than any other work on the market. It is a very interesting coincidence that Warrior, himself, would have been the subject of one of the "main chapters" rather than an interlude had the book been published a year later.
Shoemaker's book is divided into eras and sub-divided into related chapters. Some of the chapters feature inset "mini-chapters" that focus on topics that relate historically or thematically to the main subject of the chapter. It is questionable as to why Shoemaker chose to add these insets into the book rather than, as they are extremely well written and researched, expand on them in a follow up work. The insets , which are typically concerning important albeit random topics, at times overshadow the main topic of discussion and/or break from the theme and hinder the structure of the book. As they are very well written, this point may be a very minor one to most readers.
Shoemaker makes some tough decisions regarding what wrestlers to include and which to omit. While many of the high-profile main stream US performers of the last 30 years are listed, there is a lack of overall perspective of the whole wrestling scene (globally, historically or by prominence in the industry). If Shoemaker's goal was to feature the many of the prominent wrestlers who wrestled n the mainstream over the past 20-30 years and have died, he succeeds. This, however, comes at the expense of some variation of era, geographic location and, to be blunt, manner of death. There is a repetitive story that has plagued wrestling for the past few decades in that top name WWE/WCW/ECW wrestler goes to sleep and passes away from a heart attack due to either current drug use past drug use or the toll the industry has taken on the body. From a thematic standpoint - and not a human one as each wrestling death is mourned by fans the world over regardless of manner of death - the repetitiveness of the story could have been broken up by a few additions featuring wrestlers, perhaps even less prominent ones, whose passing were by other means or by featuring a more diverse cross section of performers from different times and places. Sadly, there are ample examples of names who have died in other ways who would have provided a more broad scope of the industry as a whole provided some variation to the story. John Tenta, Scott Irwin, Dino Bravo, Brian Ong, Chris Colt, Bobby Shane, Adrian Adonis to name a few. Oro and Mitsuharu Misawa are both mentioned, either could have been more prominently featured.
Regular readers of Shoemaker's Dead Wrestler of the Week may also find some redundancies between the book and the column, however, there is ample new information in the book to compensate for any repeated information.
Even die-hard wrestling history buffs are likely to find some new information in the book. There are very few noticeable errors and those that did jump out were relatively minor ones (i.e. referring to Giant Haystacks as Haystacks Calhoun in a passage about Davey Boy Smith.) The book is highly recommended for most wrestling fans especially those who are interested in pro wrestling history.
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