Wrestling books = WIN!

Thank goodness for wrestling books. In the times of numerous DVD releases, many fans are dropped into the world of one particular performer or team's professional career. Whether it be from their respective promotion, a compilation of matches, or someone allowing access to an old library, there are numerous ways to see some of the most beloved stars in the biz at their best.

But what about when those DVDs leave some to be desired? Don't get me wrong, many times WWE DVDs are more than worth the money I put out, but for every person comes different tastes. ROH also has some great DVDs in my opinion, as do older TNA ones. But for example, say I want to hear more about the life of Bret Hart, but wasn't quite satisfied with just the great matches on his DVD set?

This is where books come in. To me, as a wrestling fan, nothing beats just hearing about the road stories and history of my favorite performers. Bret Hart is one of those. His book filled in the gaps where the DVD gave me visuals. Between those great matches, sure there were some perspectives from the Hitman himself, but as with Hollywood, no book can truly be fit into one 2 hour movie. Nor can a wrestling book of 800 some-odd pages fit into an 8-9 hour DVD including over twenty matches.

The point being, any wrestling fan who is longing for more from their DVDs should really look at the library of books that are available on certain stars. Sure, many don't have their on, but we can hope can't we? Daniel Bryan comes to mind as someone who I think must have fantastic stories from all over the globe to put into print. This way after seeing a plethora of awesome matches, narrative can be put in between in the form of reading a book by the man I just saw in the ring.

Segway to examples...

A few great reads I've had from wrestlers are, in no particular order;

*Bret Hart- The Best There Is, The Best There Was, And The Best There Ever Will Be.

*Chris Jericho- Lion Tales

*Mick Foley- Have a Nice Day

*On Edge- Adam Copeland

*Ted Dibiase- The Million Dollar Man


Those are just to name a few. Currently, I'm tackling Eric Bischoff's Controversy Creates Cash. So far it's great, and fills in a lot of what is shown on numerous DVDs based on WCW's rise and fall.

A couple others to mention are the History of Stampede Wrestling, which I hope can be a nice link to the recent Hart and Soul DVD, one I've got on my radar for sure. It's another case of how a book can really fill in the void left after watching some great wrestling matches. Many times I leave DVDs that are nothing but matches with a feeling of "Man, that was great. But what was the build up to this? Were there difficulties getting this match agreed on? Thankfull, few books have failed in answering those questions.

The recent "My Journey" DVD on Shawn Michaels is another example of wanting more than the interview segments from Mr. Wrestlemania and Michael Cole. I hope to add his book to my library to compliment this as well in the near future.

There are a ton of future DVD releases that have caught my eye, specifically Ricky Steamboat. However my hopes are never too high for these in terms of real insight from the performer in question. If they give it, fantastic. If not, that's fine too. That's where I'll go to a book like Ric Flair's and read up on some of his matches with Ricky if I so desire (Just an example as I haven't read his book yet). Again, it'd be great if everyone had a book available, but for the time being I'm happy with the material at hand. Nothing beats having a passion for something that has no shortage of material or entertainment value. Whether it be from the good ol' PW Torch, books, DVDs, or the internet (In some cases). There is so much available that I feel I haven't even stratched the surface. Of course there are a lot of fans who hate to read, which still puts pressure on DVD releases to be worth it. Either way though, how about everyone else? Do you get enough wrestling? That's certainly the million dollar question and thankfully my answer is yes, and than some.