Full of revealing interviews with the sport's past and present stars and candid shots from the world's foremost wrestling photographers, this book celebrates the game at its very strangest Culled from 100 years' worth of mat mayhem, this collection reveals the pseudo-sport's oddest bouts--from the contest in which a tag team lost their championship belts six days before they won them, to the match that took place in an exploding swimming pool. With a cast that includes Hulk Hogan, Kendo Nagasaki, Muhammad Ali, Andy Kaufman, a wrestling robot, and a monkey, this book takes fans well beyond the accepted canon of headlock history.

Sports and Society examines the role that sporting traditions have played in human society from primitive cultures to the present day. Did sports begin simply for practical reasons such as training soldiers for war, or do humans have a less practical need to play active, physical games? How have different sports migrated around the world, and what effect have new cultures had on these imports? Exciting and varied case studies are used throughout this book to illustrate issues and concepts.

History of Wrestling presents a bumper pack featuring all of the reviews from Volume 1 & 2 of their highly successful Complete WWF Video Guide series. This no-frills super guide breaks down the books into the tapes and the scores, nothing more. No bios, artwork or awards, just raw ranting and raving about the best and worst of the WWF from 1985-1993, in no less than HALF A MILLION words. Read about the all-time classic matches and revel in the despair the writers go through covering some of the very worst. All of the major stars from the WWF's boom period are featured, and all three writers (James Dixon, Arnold Furious and Lee Maughan) have plenty to say about all of them. For a fun mixture of facts, opinions, previously unknown information and a host of interesting points and debates, look no further. If you loved wrestling in the 80s and 90s, you have come to the right place.

From the host of the critically acclaimed pro wrestling podcast Straight Shoot, this graphic novel history of wrestling features the key grapplers, matches, and promotions that shaped this beloved sport and form of entertainment. As a pop culture phenomenon, professional wrestling--with its heroic babyfaces and villainous heels performing suplexes and powerbombs in pursuit of championship gold--has conquered audiences in the United States and around the world. Now, writer/podcaster Aubrey Sitterson and illustrator Chris Moreno form a graphic novel tag team to present wrestling's complete illustrated history. Featuring legendary wrestlers like Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, and The Rock, and modern-day favorites like John Cena, Kenny Omega, and Sasha Banks, the book covers wrestling's progress from the carnival days of the Gold Dust Trio to the dominance of the WWF/WWE to today's diverse independent wrestling scene, and it spotlights wrestling's reach into Mexico/Puerto Rico (lucha libre), the U.K. (all-in), and Japan (puroresu).

'An entertaining new book… which looks back at the most bizarre sporting activities ever devised by mankind' Daily Mail 'Perfect book for the Christmas stockings of adults and curious children' Wall Street Journal For those who enjoyed the quirkiness of Schott's Miscellany, the erudition of The Etymologicon or the extremes of The Dangerous Book for Boys, this is the ideal read. From Flagpole Sitting to Hot Cockles, Edward Brooke-Hitching has researched through piles of dusty tomes to bring vividly back to life some of the most curious, dangerous and downright bizarre sports and pastimes ever devised, before we thought better of it and erased them from the memory. After all, who would ever want to bring back Fox Tossing, a popular sport for men and women in 17th-century Germany? The sport involved dozens of couples pairing up and standing 20-25 feet apart in an enclosed field, each holding one end of a net, and then they would pull hard at both ends as the fox ran past, sending it flying high into the air. There are many other sports revealed within these pages that are unlikely ever to make an appearance on our TV screens, such as Firework Boxing, which is just as dangerous as it sounds. Meanwhile, Ski Ballet may not have been so risky, but Suzy 'Chapstick' Chaffee's signature move - the Suzy Split (a complete forward split while balanced on the tips of her skis) - was probably not one to try at home. An intriguing, entertaining and occasionally shocking insight into the vivid imaginations of humanity across the years, Fox Tossing, Octopus Wrestling and Other Forgotten Sports is an unforgettable read and a perfect gift.

In a prose that is so beautiful it is poetry, we see the world of growing up and going somewhere through the dust and heat of Fresno's industrial side and beyond: It is a boy's coming of age in the barrio, parochial school, attending church, public summer school, and trying to fall out of love so he can join in a Little League baseball team. His is a clarity that rings constantly through the warmth and wry reality of these sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic, always human remembrances.

What Is the What is the story of Valentino Achak Deng, a refugee in war-ravaged southern Sudan who flees from his village in the mid-1980s and becomes one of the so-called Lost Boys. Valentino’s travels bring him in contact with enemy soldiers, with liberation rebels, with hyenas and lions, with disease and starvation, and with deadly murahaleen (militias on horseback)–the same sort who currently terrorize Darfur. Eventually Deng is resettled in the United States with almost 4000 other young Sudanese men, and a very different struggle begins. Based closely on true experiences, What Is the What is heartbreaking and arresting, filled with adventure, suspense, tragedy, and, finally, triumph.