Grappling with Grapplers
Despite what you might think, not all wrestling autobiographies are made equal. Most are not written by the wrestler (duh). Most sports bios (in fact, most autobiographies of famous folk) are usually ghost written. Some claim to be written by the star and the writer together. Usually what that means is the writer has to track down, hound, and harass said celeb to get the facts, and then pin them to a narrative that kinda, sorta sounds like the star. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't, and many times neither the star nor the writer are much good at any kind of storytelling.
Long screed ahead!
Wrestling bios are no different. The exceptions are rare, and great. Mick Foley and Bret Hart both spent a lot of time writing their own memoirs of their time in the ring. After trying to use a ghost writer, Foley asked for the opportunity to write it himself because it was too weird to have this guy write his lifestory and put words in his mouth. Foley has actually written four books on the various aspects of his career, and has a knack for good storytelling and a penchant for toilet humour that reads true.
Hart's memoir was bolstered with rich details of his career because he'd made tape recordings during his twenty plus years on the road, essentially creating an audio diary he could use as a reference. He could remember in specifics where he was, what he was doing, and his opinion in the moment. And that made for a very, very detailed and unflinching book. Hart's also a contemplative guy, and while he was always knowns for being "quiet" behind the scenes, he can write about wrestling with (believe it or not) a degree of depth and reflection that never came across in his interviews. I'm biased, but I think it's the gold standard for this biz.
But these bios are anomalies. Normally, a writer has to tag along with a wrestler and weasel the details of their life out of them.
Chris Jericho's bio was a hilarious and sometimes moving romp through a younger wrestler's rising career, and he claimed the "writer" who worked with him only helped organize the pieces, and likely typed everything up, but the words are Jericho's. Ric Flair's certainly sounded like him, and the details seemed spot on (Flair still has an awesome memory for his glory days and the biz). But he was also notoriously unreliable and countless folks tried to write his bio with him for years, and most gave up because he was too busy being Ric Flair. Thankfully, a team of writers managed to lasso Flair long enough to get his career on paper. And it reads like Flair's shoot interviews, which is cool. Ditto the bio of The Dynamite Kid, Tom Billington. I feel for the poor women who had to make sense of his thick accent, but the result was a bio that certainly read like Dynamite had wrote it: tough, mean, full of spite for others and high praise for himself. He was known as a first class jerk who worked magic in the ring, and that comes across.
Sadly, Sean Michael's bio has been the worst I've read thus far. Please note, I'm a fan. I hated him when I was a die hard Bret Hart fan, but he's one of the best performers of the past thirty years. But if there was ever a more "closed book" memoir of a wrestler, I have yet to find it. Defensive, vague, and filled with angry justifications for his backstage shenanigans, it's also littered with omissions that make him look better and his contemporaries look worse. There are some stunning revelations, his fights with depression were harrowing and I'm glad he never gave into them. But there's a coldness, an absence of involvement, that may come from his born again Christian sense of duty to not relive or revile in his past. In WRESTLE CRAP, a book dedicated to the worst of pro wrestling, the author made note that wrestlers mention "fighting personal demons" whenever they don't want to deal with the real subject of drug and spousal abuse. Michaels doesn't deny taking pain pills and being addicted, but there's little thought into how it impacted his day to day. It's not as vague as fighting "personal demons" but pretty close. The book is more like a stitching together of highlights and lows, filled with contradictory decelerations about his honesty and integrity even if he was a jerk, and then trying to be a leader but everyone was out to get him. Muddled would be putting it politely. For such an epic career, it sadly got a pretty shallow narrative.
Long screed ahead!
Wrestling bios are no different. The exceptions are rare, and great. Mick Foley and Bret Hart both spent a lot of time writing their own memoirs of their time in the ring. After trying to use a ghost writer, Foley asked for the opportunity to write it himself because it was too weird to have this guy write his lifestory and put words in his mouth. Foley has actually written four books on the various aspects of his career, and has a knack for good storytelling and a penchant for toilet humour that reads true.
Hart's memoir was bolstered with rich details of his career because he'd made tape recordings during his twenty plus years on the road, essentially creating an audio diary he could use as a reference. He could remember in specifics where he was, what he was doing, and his opinion in the moment. And that made for a very, very detailed and unflinching book. Hart's also a contemplative guy, and while he was always knowns for being "quiet" behind the scenes, he can write about wrestling with (believe it or not) a degree of depth and reflection that never came across in his interviews. I'm biased, but I think it's the gold standard for this biz.
But these bios are anomalies. Normally, a writer has to tag along with a wrestler and weasel the details of their life out of them.
Chris Jericho's bio was a hilarious and sometimes moving romp through a younger wrestler's rising career, and he claimed the "writer" who worked with him only helped organize the pieces, and likely typed everything up, but the words are Jericho's. Ric Flair's certainly sounded like him, and the details seemed spot on (Flair still has an awesome memory for his glory days and the biz). But he was also notoriously unreliable and countless folks tried to write his bio with him for years, and most gave up because he was too busy being Ric Flair. Thankfully, a team of writers managed to lasso Flair long enough to get his career on paper. And it reads like Flair's shoot interviews, which is cool. Ditto the bio of The Dynamite Kid, Tom Billington. I feel for the poor women who had to make sense of his thick accent, but the result was a bio that certainly read like Dynamite had wrote it: tough, mean, full of spite for others and high praise for himself. He was known as a first class jerk who worked magic in the ring, and that comes across.
Sadly, Sean Michael's bio has been the worst I've read thus far. Please note, I'm a fan. I hated him when I was a die hard Bret Hart fan, but he's one of the best performers of the past thirty years. But if there was ever a more "closed book" memoir of a wrestler, I have yet to find it. Defensive, vague, and filled with angry justifications for his backstage shenanigans, it's also littered with omissions that make him look better and his contemporaries look worse. There are some stunning revelations, his fights with depression were harrowing and I'm glad he never gave into them. But there's a coldness, an absence of involvement, that may come from his born again Christian sense of duty to not relive or revile in his past. In WRESTLE CRAP, a book dedicated to the worst of pro wrestling, the author made note that wrestlers mention "fighting personal demons" whenever they don't want to deal with the real subject of drug and spousal abuse. Michaels doesn't deny taking pain pills and being addicted, but there's little thought into how it impacted his day to day. It's not as vague as fighting "personal demons" but pretty close. The book is more like a stitching together of highlights and lows, filled with contradictory decelerations about his honesty and integrity even if he was a jerk, and then trying to be a leader but everyone was out to get him. Muddled would be putting it politely. For such an epic career, it sadly got a pretty shallow narrative.