Review: Kayfabe: Stories You're Not Supposed To Hear From A Pro Wrestling Production Company Owner By Sean Oliver

Kayfabe: Stories You're Not Supposed To Hear From A Pro Wrestling Production Company Owner
Sean Oliver
Amazon Digital Services, 2017
Paperback, Ebook, Audiobook

Author Sean Oliver is the co-owner of Kayfabe Commetaries where he also serves as host of the majority of the company's releases. The "face" of the shoot interview standard bearer, Oliver offers his experiences at the forefront of a growing company in a relatively new off-shoot of the pro wrestling industry. In Kayfabe, Oliver relates his thoughts and memories of dealing with some marquee names in the pro wrestling industry as well as promoters, producers, promoters and fans of the product. This is Oliver's first book.

The Kayfabe Commentaries family of releases are polished, well researched, in depth looks at the pro wrestling industry. Whereas many of the "competition" appear rushed, cheaply made or amateurish, Kayfabe Commentaries productions present a slicker and more aesthetically appealing product. This is also very much true of Oliver's Kayfabe. The book, presented very strongly in a chronologically thematic format, tells the story of Oliver - and company's - astounding growth and constant evolution. Oliver, who is unabashedly proud of his work and accomplishments, takes the reader through the company's expansion via addition and subtraction of show formats, scope of ready, willing and able talent and overall popularity. Fans of Kayfabe Commentaries will be pleased that Oliver's wit, as seen in most of the company's releases, is as present in the written word as it is on screen. Most importantly, the book is a very entertaining and insightful introspective look at the growth of a company that operates on the fringes of the professional wrestling industry. Sean Oliver is neither a wrestler nor a promoter and Kayfabe Commentaries, while it works with wrestlers, is not a wrestling promotion. The story told in Kayfabe is unique and well crafted.

In a sense, there are two halves to this book. On one hand, it is a very well written primer on how to succeed in a business operating on the fringes of the pro wrestling industry. With so many blogger, podcasts and vendors having cropped up in the last number of years, Kayfabe could be a key source of what to do in the niche-market. On the other hand, the book is a very entertaining tell-all from behind the scenes of the company's shoot interviews. While both are well done, at times these elements are very much at odds with each other. On a smaller scale, it is as if a doctor is writing about how to practice medicine while interlacing his professionalism with potentially humiliating stories about his patients. Certainly there is no implied Shoot Interviewer - Shoot Interviewee confidentiality and Oliver is under no obligation to adhere to any degree of discretion, however there are many instances where the book highlights the pathetic, tragic or dangerous underbelly of the pro wrestling industry via Oliver's interactions with some of the company's (planned) interview subjects. Whether or not Oliver's decision to tell these stories compromise his or his company's professionalism, is entirely at the individual reader's discretion. 

The degree to which people will enjoy this book may depend greatly on their interest in Sean Oliver, Kayfabe Commentaries, the shoot interview and/or independent wrestling journalism industries. Oliver's story is one of a host, creator, producer who is proud enough of his experiences to publish them in written form. Many readers will greatly enjoy and some may benefit immensely from this. Those who enjoy the above, are very likely to enjoy Kayfabe. As this book is - in essence - "a shoot on shoots," readers who are not familiar with Oliver or Kayfabe Commentaries or are uninterested in pulling the pro wrestling curtain further back, may want to pass.