Alan Wojcik Reviews NWA Untold Story Book
Please credit Alan J. Wojcik of http://alanwojcik.com if used, thank you.
For most of the 20th century, the National Wrestling Alliance was the only ruling body in professional wrestling. They ruled the entire country with one world heavyweight champion and one junior heavyweight champion, dictating their own terms even with people who resisted their ideas. They were so powerful that they got the attention of the US Government and were nearly shut down with an anti-trust lawsuit, the United States vs. the National Wrestling Alliance. Thanks to author Tim Hornbaker you can now learn that story and thousands of others by reading National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly That Strangled Pro Wrestling (ECW Press, 372pp, $19.95).
Just a glance of the chapter listings makes you realize Tim Hornbaker probably spent years working on this book. He chronicles the rise of the group from the years after World War II from offices across the Midwest cities like St. Louis, Chicago and Minneapolis. He spends chapters on who is regarded as the founding fathers of the group: promoters Sam Muchnick, Fred Kohler, Joe “Toots” Mondt and former ring stars Lou Thesz and Ed “Strangler” Lewis. He delves deep into the word by word bi-laws of the outfit; the tactics used by the NWA as they handled issues with the rivals the American Wrestling Alliance and National Wrestling Association, plus how the board of directors also handled internal battles over territorial claims, who was the president of the outfit to who even wore the coveted world title. One of the most intriguing chapters concerns the all the documents from the 1956 Department of Justice and FBI investigation which is only coming to light now thanks to the Freedom of Information Act. The other intriguing chapter is about how Vince McMahon Sr. and Mondt used their collective powers to establish Capitol Wrestling; you know it today as the World Wrestling Entertainment promotion run by Vince McMahon Jr.
Don’t read this review wrong. This book is not a total indictment of the ways the NWA did business. It is an exhaustive researched chronicle of the inner workings of what at one point was called a “wrestling mafia.” But it is also a tribute to the wrestlers who paved the way for the men who compete for the same championship in a tournament which began this June after the NWA stripped the belt from the control of Total Nonstop Action (TNA Wrestling seen on Spike TV on Thursday nights). Hornbaker walks the reader through each and every title change going from Orville Brown to Christian Cage. Bottom line for people: if I were to teach a course on the history of professional wrestling, this would be the text book.
National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly That Strangled Pro Wrestling is now available in bookstores across America and major online shopping sites. For more information on other books by the publisher log onto www.ecwpress.com
For most of the 20th century, the National Wrestling Alliance was the only ruling body in professional wrestling. They ruled the entire country with one world heavyweight champion and one junior heavyweight champion, dictating their own terms even with people who resisted their ideas. They were so powerful that they got the attention of the US Government and were nearly shut down with an anti-trust lawsuit, the United States vs. the National Wrestling Alliance. Thanks to author Tim Hornbaker you can now learn that story and thousands of others by reading National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly That Strangled Pro Wrestling (ECW Press, 372pp, $19.95).
Just a glance of the chapter listings makes you realize Tim Hornbaker probably spent years working on this book. He chronicles the rise of the group from the years after World War II from offices across the Midwest cities like St. Louis, Chicago and Minneapolis. He spends chapters on who is regarded as the founding fathers of the group: promoters Sam Muchnick, Fred Kohler, Joe “Toots” Mondt and former ring stars Lou Thesz and Ed “Strangler” Lewis. He delves deep into the word by word bi-laws of the outfit; the tactics used by the NWA as they handled issues with the rivals the American Wrestling Alliance and National Wrestling Association, plus how the board of directors also handled internal battles over territorial claims, who was the president of the outfit to who even wore the coveted world title. One of the most intriguing chapters concerns the all the documents from the 1956 Department of Justice and FBI investigation which is only coming to light now thanks to the Freedom of Information Act. The other intriguing chapter is about how Vince McMahon Sr. and Mondt used their collective powers to establish Capitol Wrestling; you know it today as the World Wrestling Entertainment promotion run by Vince McMahon Jr.
Don’t read this review wrong. This book is not a total indictment of the ways the NWA did business. It is an exhaustive researched chronicle of the inner workings of what at one point was called a “wrestling mafia.” But it is also a tribute to the wrestlers who paved the way for the men who compete for the same championship in a tournament which began this June after the NWA stripped the belt from the control of Total Nonstop Action (TNA Wrestling seen on Spike TV on Thursday nights). Hornbaker walks the reader through each and every title change going from Orville Brown to Christian Cage. Bottom line for people: if I were to teach a course on the history of professional wrestling, this would be the text book.
National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly That Strangled Pro Wrestling is now available in bookstores across America and major online shopping sites. For more information on other books by the publisher log onto www.ecwpress.com
Labels: Alan J. Wojcik, Books, National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly That Strangled Pro Wrestling, NWA, Review
posted by Art Shimko at 6/08/2007 04:32:00 PM
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