Review: The Road Warriors: Danger, Death and the Rush of Wrestling By Joe "Animal" Laurinaitis

Road Warriors: Danger, Death and the Rush of Wrestling
Joe "Animal" Laurinaitis w. Andrew William Wright and "Precious" Paul Ellering (Foreward)
Medallion Press, 2011
Hardcover, Paperback, Ebook

Author Joe "Animal" Laurinaitis was one half of the revolutionary pro wrestling tag team The Road Warriors. Along with his late partner, Mike "Hawk" Hegstrand and (more often than not) their manager "Precious" Paul Ellering, The Road Warriors/Legion of Doom dominated the 1980s pro wrestling tag team scene. Their hard as nails personae, along with leather spikes and face paint impressed promoters and fans alike as the team were awarded championships in every major promotion during their career. Laurinaitis' book chronicles the team's life in and out of the ring.  The Road Warriors: Danger, Death and The Rush of Wrestling is his first book.  It is co-written by Andrew William Wright (Booker T: From Prison to Promise and Booker T: My Rise To Wrestling Royalty.)

Review: Drawing Heat by Jim Freedman

Drawing Heat
Jim Freedman
Crowbar Press (Re-release) 2010 / Black Moss Press, 1988
Paperback, Ebook

In the early 1980s Jim Freedman, a college professor at the University of Western Ontario, began working on a book about professional wrestling. Unlike many others who had a specific subject to cover or personality to profile, Freedman allowed his book to be shaped by his experiences rather than pick and choose events that meshed with a pre-determined theme or thesis. The majority of Freeman's piece revolves around a series of tours run by Ontario based wrestler/promoter "Wildman" Dave McKigney.  McKigney, best known as the trainer of Terrible Ted the Wrestling Bear, allowed Freedman to be a part of some tours he ran in Ontario and to write about his experiences. The result of his gradual immersion into the world of professional wrestling is Drawing Heat.  

Review: Justice Denied: The Untold Story of Nancy Argentino's Death In Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka's Motel Room by Irvin Muchnick

Justice Denied: The Untold Story of Nancy Argentino's Death In Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka's Motel Room
Irvin Muchnick
Amazon Digital Services, 2013
Ebook

Irvin Muchnick has been one of professional wrestling's foremost critics since the late 1980s.  This book is a short collection of his writings dating back to 1992 regarding the death of Nancy Argentino in 1983. Argentino - the girlfriend of WWF Star (and later Hall of Famer) Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka - died after suffering a severe head injury while touring with Snuka. While some claim it was an accidental fall, others have speculated that Argentino was the victim of abuse at the hands of Snuka and that the grappler was directly responsible for her death. Muchnick's works include: Pro Wrestling Babylon: Tales of Drugs, Sex, Death and Scandal (2007), Chris and Nancy: The True Story of the Benoit Murder-Suicide and Pro Wrestling's Cocktail of Death (2009) and Concussion Inc: The End of Football As We Know It (2015.) Muchnick operates the website http://concussioninc.net/