The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing . . . More Like Wrestling is the magnificent debut novel by one of the most acclaimed music journalists of her generation. It tells the story of Pinch and Paige, two sisters coming of age in Oakland, California, in the 1980s, a time when that beautiful, crumbling city is being transformed by tectonic shifts, both literal and figurative. The novel unfolds through the alternating narration of the two sisters: Pinch, quiet and observant, and Paige, louder and wilder but faltering under her facade. The sisters are teenage refugees from a violent home, living alone in a faded Victorian mansion where they survive by creating a closed world centered around each other and their new friends—a rowdy makeshift family of castoffs, dealers, and drama queens on the periphery of the burgeoning drug game, some looking for a way out, some looking for a way deeper in. As the sisters grow from girls into women, they are confronted with a series of surprising reversals—death, imprisonment, and, just maybe, love—that force them to come to grips with the truth about their choices, their friends, and their tangled roots. More Like Wrestling takes readers into fresh and surprising terrain, bringing a complex set of characters to vivid life with bracing honesty and sophistication. With a journalist’s eye for detail and a poet’s ear for language, Danyel Smith has written an unforgettable tale about memory, forgiveness, and love in a world built on fault lines.

Part sport, part performance art, professional wrestling's appeal crosses national, racial and gender boundaries--in large part by playing to national, racial and gender stereotypes that resonate with audiences. Scholars who study competitive sports tend to dismiss wrestling, with its scripted outcomes, as "fake," yet fail to recognize a key similarity: both present athletic displays for maximized profit through live events, television viewership and merchandise sales. This collection of new essays contributes to the literature on pro wrestling with a broad exploration of identity in the sport. Topics include cultural appropriation in the ring, gender non-comformity, national stereotypes, and wrestling as transmission of cultural values.

This meticulously crafted and searing critique of pro wrestling is unlike any wrestling book published: Chokehold is a penetrating description of pro wrestlings dark side, a secret underworld of deception, exploitation and greed. The storyteller is Big Jim Wilson, All-American football player and survivor of seven years in the NFL, who was promised wealth and the world championship as pro wrestler. Instead, Jim Wilson found a surprisingly lucrative sports entertainment industry built on a pyramid of secrets that included abusive control of its performers and a long history of illegal business practices and corruption of politicians and state athletic commissions. Chokehold describes and documents the abuses that Jim Wilson witnessed and endured blacklisting, strong-arm tactics, homosexual blackmail, defiance of the U.S. Justice Department and bribery of TV executives and arena managers. Chokehold is an explosive indictment of the pro wrestling industrys business practices as well as a thoughtful proposal for pro wrestlings reform. This book is not a conventional expos of pro wrestlings orchestrated stunts, gimmicks and blade jobs. Instead, it is an unprecedented examination of pro wrestlings less visible cons outside the ring -- its hidden manipulation of wrestlers with broken promises and broken bones and a backstage power of the pencil that writes scripts for wrestler stardom or extinction. Chokehold describes a secret slice of the wrestling life where traveling troupes of heels and babyfaces understand how they got into the game, but cannot find a way up or out. This is the story of why and how the big guys almost always lose. Chokehold is part autobiography and part pro wrestling history. Written in wrestlespeak (the industrys insider argot), it is dedicated to the memory of the older boys whose broken bodies and shattered lives should have taught us something. In addition to Jim Wilsons experiences in The Business, this book reviews significant but forgotten episodes in the wrestling industrys long history of gangland tactics. The industrys infamous blacklist is revisited by revealing the dozens of wrestlers from the past whose names were on it. The industrys history of predatory promotional wars in California, Georgia, Texas and Virginia is told with FBI reports obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. From court documents, this book names compromised state athletic commissions, TV station managers and local politicians from wrestlings viewpoint, the best that money could buy. There are many famous wrestling names in this book --Gorgeous George, Lou Thesz, Jack Brisco, the Funk brothers, Dusty Rhodes, Bruiser Brody, Bill Watts and others. Another is The Sheik (Eddie Farhat), who says: There aint no nice guys in this business. There aint no people theres dollars! Another is Jim Wilsons tag team partner Thunderbolt Patterson who warned Jim, The wrestling business takes advantage of anybody who has any notoriety or ability. You got to understand that wrestlers are worse than whores. They are pimped. They use you as long as they possibly can or as long as you dont complain. When you complain, they get rid of you. Another is Jim Wilsons friend The Magnificent Zulu (Ron Pope) who summarizes his career this way: Its such a crooked business. The guys [wrestlers] are a bunch of crooks. They steal from the marks and the promoters steal from them. The guys [wrestlers] want to be stars! Theyll do anything theyll cut throats for it. Actually, wrestlers dont have to be paid. All they need is a couple of six packs of beer a night and a nice looking ring rat with a good body. Or, drugs and a ring rat. Its not the money. Its being a star! Its the glory and the pussy! This book confronts the wrestling industrys traditional practice of punishing wrestlers who refuse

Few sports are as intense as wrestling. The physical training demands total dedication. The mental side requires focus, anticipation and resilience. No letup. No excuses. Wrestling Tough, Second Edition, will inspire and guide you to achieve the mind-set of a champion. Whether you need to identify the flaws of an opponent, get optimally psyched for a big match, or overcome the adversity inherent in participating in the sport, Wrestling Tough will prepare you to excel and win. Mike Chapman, known for his unique expertise, analysis, and insight into the great sport of wrestling, has had the privilege of rubbing shoulders with many of America’s greatest amateurs and professional wrestlers. In the second edition of Wrestling Tough, he shares his insights to take you beyond the physical attributes needed to succeed on the mat: • Explore the attacking mind-set and the importance of psyching up for competition. • Gain perspective on the increasing popularity of the sport among women and girls and how female participants are proving their toughness on the mat at all levels. • Examine the rise and importance of funk-style wrestling, through which an individual’s personality is allowed—and encouraged—to shine. • Glimpse the key moments in the careers of many great wrestlers and the training methods they used to break through barriers and achieve ultimate success. Wrestling Tough is loaded with stories, insights, and coaching philosophies from legendary coaches and wrestlers such as Cael Sanderson, Dan Gable, Lee Kemp, John Smith, Tom Brands, and Steve Fraser, and even coaches from other sports such as basketball’s John Wooden and football’s Vince Lombardi. These stories will captivate wrestlers, coaches, and fans of wrestling alike. Make your mind a key weapon in your wrestling arsenal. Wrestling Tough provides you the ammunition to develop the mental firepower to win and dominate on the mat.

Throughout the new millennium, the number of women interested in amateur wrestling has skyrocketed. From grade school to college, girls and women have been strapping on their head guards and singlets to grapple with their dreams of success on the mat. However, the sport and its participants have not always had an easy time. This book documents the growth of female amateur wrestling in America, and the difficulties and victories it has faced, from removal from the 2013 Olympic Games, to missing the 2020 Games altogether due to Covid-19. The work chronicles the bravery of the women who have led the sport and sets out their performances in the 2021 Olympic Games. With 50 photographs, it also features interviews with the female wrestlers who continue to challenge an often-suppressed field, hoping eventually to leave their mark on the American sports world.

In the do-whatever-it-takes world of the WWE, there has always been a system that guarantees happy audiences and successful careers-there's the good guys, and there's the bad guys. Over time, wrestlers may fade away, but this theme remains the same, with grudges, long-standing feuds, and an ever-changing roster of colorful characters driving the action. Until now. In this revealing look at the decline of the world's most popular sports entertainment franchise, Scott Keith uncovers a growing trend of favoritism and stagnation within the WWE that gives an elite group of stars a free ride-for as long as they want-with no worries of being retired. Ultimately the fans are the big losers because waiting in the wings is a group of talented young wrestlers eager to prove themselves in the ring. But getting to the top in the WWE takes more than good moves, because if you want to have it made-you have to be made. Book jacket.

The legendary storytellers worthy of a spot in the pro wrestling hall of fame You can’t escape pro wrestling today, even if you want to. Its stars are ubiquitous in movies, TV shows, product endorsements, swag, and social media to the point that they are as much celebrities as they are athletes. Pro wrestling has morphed from the fringes of acceptability to a global $1 billion industry that plays an everyday role in 21st-century pop culture. In this latest addition to the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame series, Greg Oliver and Steven Johnson explain how the sport’s unique take on storytelling has fueled its remarkable expansion. Hundreds of interviews and original accounts inform this exploration of the imaginative ways in which wrestlers and promoters have used everything from monkeys to murderers to put butts in seats and eyes on screens. From the New York City Bowery in the 1890s to a North Carolina backyard in 2017, readers will encounter all manner of scoundrels, do-gooders, scribes, and alligators in this highly readable, heavily researched book that inspires a new appreciation for the fine (and sometimes not-so-fine) art of storytelling.