Best products from r/SquaredCircle

I don't know how far back you want to go. You mentioned WCW but that would have very little impact on any current storylines. It could be really fun to get a good feel from each era. The Main Event DVD set has a ton of matches and vignettes from the late '80s and early '90s, including Macho Man's official heel turn to set up WrestleMania 5. Similarly, the In Your House DVD set has a ton of matches from that PPV series, which would give you a feel for the mid-'90s. You can also go in-detail with the Montreal Screwjob with Wrestling With Shadows, which is on Netflix.


Moving to the late '90s, there's an nWo documentary on Netflix watch instantly. Also, The Very Best of Monday Nitro is also on Netflix. That should cover WCW. Meanwhile, The Attitude Era DVD should cover the goings-on in WWF/E.


To bridge the gap from the Attitude Era to modern day stuff, I would try to track down some old PPVs from 2002 and 2003. This was a pretty big year for WWE with a lot of modern-day implications. This year included Randy Orton's debut AND John Cena's debut. This year also, I believe, introduced the Raw/Smackdown brand split. No Mercy 2002 has an incredible tag match - Edge & Eddie vs. Benoit & Angle that introduced the WWE Tag Team Championship Belts to compete against Raw's World Tag Team Championship Belts. It's a solid show. Royal Rumble 2003 is also incredible, with an amazing Benoit vs. Angle match. 2002-2003 was also kind of Hogan's swan song in WWE, the last year he was consistently part of the weekly television shows. 2002's King of the Ring had a Hogan vs. Angle match and Wrestlemania 19 had a Hogan vs. Vince street fight (which may have been Hogan's last good match). WrestleMania 19 is also one of the best WrestleManias, IMO. Hogan's last real 'Mania match, the last Stone Cold vs. Rock match (also last Stone Cold match), a great Angle vs. Lesnar match, AND Jericho vs. Shawn.


For much more recent stuff, I'm pretty sure The Best of Raw and Smackdown for 2011 and 2012 are both on Netflix watch instantly.


I think that's a decent scope of things with a great mix of eras and about a 50/50 Netflix/DVD split (with most DVDs really cheap on Amazon). I got a little carried away with this...


TL;DR:

• Late '80s to Early '90s
  
  
  
• Mid-'90s up to The Montreal Screwjob
  
  
  
• WCW, nWo, and the Attitude Era.
  
  
  
• Bridge to modern times with 2002-2003 including Randy Orton's debut, John Cena's debut, No Mercy 2002, Royal Rumble 2003 and WrestleMania 19.
  
  
  
• Modern stuff with The Best of Raw and Smackdown for 2011 and 2012.

finally!!!

really long story, it's in the book http://www.amazon.com/Hardbody-How-One-Ryan-Nemeth-ebook/dp/B018RFX4PC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1448917855&sr=8-3&keywords=ryan+nemeth

but! it seemed to me that dusty often paired me up with people to get the best out of them, and i was happy to do so. in this case, sakamoto became more fun and entertaining when paired up w me. we tagged together for a while actually, although nxt tv does not reflect that. we pitched nonstop stuff, and we loved wrestling together...

i also had a talk show pitch going that we filmed a few episodes for calling "briley and yoshi: good morning universe!" hahaha . oh man. you have to read this book. all of these questions and more will be answered!

> secondary look alikes to the WCW championship

Well, it's not a look alike, it's literally the same belt. The "Big Gold" was first used as the NWA World Championship from 1986-1991. After Flair went to WWF and took the belt with him in 1991, there was a new belt made for the WCW World Championship and for the first time, WCW and the NWA recognized different champions. When the belt went back to WCW after they sued WWF for showing it on WWF TV, they had both a WCW Champion and an NWA Champion in the company at the same time. When WCW broke off from the NWA in 1993, they just changed the name of the NWA World Championship to the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship (it's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the simple version of what happened). WCW unified the two world championships in 1994 and just used the "Big Gold" belt from then on. That is, until Dec 2000, when then champion Scott Steiner started wearing a solid gold colored replica belt. The replica is the one WWF got when they bought WCW. Steiner kept the original belt, and it's now in the hands of a private collector. There's actually a good book detailing the history of the belt.

He wrote two--the first one is called 'Wrestling's Bad Boy Tells All':

https://www.amazon.com/Bobby-Brain-Wrestlings-Bad-Tells/dp/1572434651/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537208985&sr=8-1&keywords=bobby+heenan

The second one is 'Chairshots and Other Obstacles:

https://www.amazon.com/Chair-Shots-Other-Obstacles-Wrestling/dp/1582617627/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1537208985&sr=8-4&keywords=bobby+heenan

As you can see, you can pick them up for cheap on Amazon. The first one came out shortly after he was fired by WCW and he doesn't hold back on blasting most of the people in charge there. He rips into Schiavone pretty well, because he believed at the time Tony had prior knowledge of Heenan's firing and didn't tell him.

Later, they reconciled. Tony admits he screwed up--Craig Leathers called to tell him Bobby had just been fired and HR recommended that Tony didn't have any contact with him because of possible litigation. Tony now says he should have ignored them and called Bobby, but he didn't.

On the Bobby Heenan episode of the What Happened When podcast, Conrad read some of the putdowns Bobby wrote about Tony. Even though some of them were pretty mean, Tony couldn't help laughing at them.

Ric Flair said it best one year ago today: " Bobby Heenan... The Greatest Manager, One Of The Greatest Announcers, And One Of The Best In-Ring Performers In The History Of The Business "

​

Full Story - I thought it was really ridiculous that there's a tag team called "The Authors of Pain" and they've never actually written a book called Pain, so I got a bunch of my friends together to write it for them. Originally it was just a digital book, but you guys really dug it so I formatted it for paperback and it's now available on Amazon for $4.

https://www.amazon.com/Pain-Authors-collection-literary-powerhouse-ebook/dp/B074SFN64R

You can still download a free pdf of it at http://supercolliderpress.com/

It's a book of bad poetry from the perspective of Akam and Rezar and with a foreword by Paul Ellering. This thing took several months to put together and I could not be more proud of this. Former WWE writer Matt McCarthy, the head writer of Kayfabe News, the creator of Botched Spot and RD Reynolds of Wrestlecrap.com and a bunch of other really funny writers even contributed pieces. Now it's a literal, physical book which is insane to me.

Edit: Regarding all of the comments about the legality of this, I have a few friends that are parody book publishers that I talked this over with. I'm certainly in a legal grey area, but I doubt this thing is going to set the world on fire sales wise and it's available as a free download at the previously posted Supercollider Press page so I'm definitely not trying to get rich off of it. I mainly created the paperback because a bunch of people in the old thread asked for copies. If I'm asked to take it down, I will but until then I'm not super worried about it. Regardless, the heads up is appreciated.

I've collected a few guides and stuff over the years and bookmarked them, here they are if you want them...

Guide to different Japanese styles - https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/2xzbgx/guide_to_japanse_wrestling_styles/

A really great video on the rise of Puro in Japan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLyqDSXgYQI. I'd say this is honestly the best direct answer to your question.

Another great video on how puro fits into Japan nowadays, another great watch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7fZTuR5bgU

How to sign up for New Japan World (Puro's biggest promotion's streaming service - https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/2nxb1q/how_to_sign_up_for_njpw_world_compliments_of/

Recommended viewing for NJ World - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZsZCBTpKjHzdbCpKZ1No1KAdpmOd2OcgSMfC1-oa7pI/edit?pli=1#gid=0

A book on the history of NJPW - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lions-Pride-Turbulent-History-Wrestling/dp/4990865812

A couple of podcasts on puro/New Japan...

• http://lawradio.proboards.com/thread/2187/japanese-audio-wrestling - Japanese Audio Wrestling, two westerners living in Japan, talking about puro (and one of them wrote the aforementioned book!)
  
• http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/phoenix-plex-review - Another good 'cast
  
• http://newjapanpurocast.com/
  
• http://wrestlingwithwords.com/podcast/puro-in-the-rough-2716/ - a podcast on more indie style puro.
  
  Both Wrestling With Words and Voices of Wrestling are great sites who do reviews and occasional features on puro. In particular, check out Voices Of Wrestling's features on how to understand Dragon Gate(Dragon Gate is the no.2 promotion in Japan right now.)
  
  A guide on four of Japan's biggest wrestlers ever, from the All Japan Pro Wrestling promotion - https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/4ebhia/the_four_pillars_of_heaven_mitsuharu_misawa/
  
  And another legend from puro/AJPW, Jumbo Tsuruta - https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/3iqsgy/jumbo_tsuruta_an_introduction/
  
  I could go on longer, but lastly, the r/NJPW and r/PuroresuRevolution are great subs for more info.
  
  

It's cool to hear of academic papers being written about wrestling. There aren't a lot of them, especially in academic journals. I once wrote a paper in my communications class entitled: "Pro Wrestling as an Empowering Text for the Working Class", built around the notion that on TV most scripted shows generally focus on upward mobility and middle class families, and how in wrestling if you're rich, you're generally an asshole/bad guy (Ted DiBiase, McMahon).

Anyway, here's a link to the trailer for a documentary based on these cholita wrestlers, called Mamachas Del Ring:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8CbhUww3hU

And here's an article about the documentary:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cynthia-ellis/imamachas-del-ringi-a-wre_b_661417.html

I saw the documentary on the Indie Crush channel on Roku for free. So you have Roku, definitely check it out. Hope it helps.

Don't know how extensive your paper is , but this book is also worth looking into: Steel Chair to the Head. It's a collection of essays focusing on different cultural aspects associated with wrestling.
http://www.amazon.com/Steel-Chair-Head-Professional-Wrestling/dp/0822334380

Good luck!

All of Tim Hornbakers work is a must read. The man is the best Wrestling Historian around and goes into great details about events and people plus he has his own website where you can learn from and buy his books.

If you really want a hidden gem then you need Fall Guys: The Barnums of Bounce.

It is a detailed account of the wrestling buisness written in the 1930's and is the best source for the old Gotch and carnival days of wrestling.

• The World According To Dutch and Tales from a Dirt Road by Dutch Mantel are both great
  
• Swimming with Piranhas: Surviving the Politics of Professional Wrestling by Howard Brody - not a wrestler, but a prolific promoter and former NWA President
  
• The Professional Wrestler In The World Of Sports-Entertainment and The Somebody Obession by Matt Murphy are really good to give insight into the business in the indies.
  
  
  BONUS:
  
  
• Ringside: A History of Professional Wrestling in America - By Scott Beekman

https://www.amazon.com/NXT-Future-Now-Jon-Robinson/dp/1770413251/ref=sr_1_1?s=instant-video&ie=UTF8&qid=1505455554&sr=8-1&keywords=this+is+nxt

Either you're being a troll, or just an idiot, but there's a nice source. Maybe reading past a few sentences on the internet isn't your thing, though. If you need the video version just check out Triple H's last DVD, or if it's better in audio (pictures probably scare you) for you then I'm sure Dave Meltzer has mentioned it on WON a couple thousand times before.

If you'd like a good idea of how New Japan was formed, the Inoki/Baba booking styles and a general guide to boom and bust periods for Japanese wrestling, I'd highly recommend reading Chris Charlton's Lion's Pride; I think it's $5 on Amazon (Kindle). Was a good three day read.

Here you go. Fall Guys was released in 1937 originally. It breaks Kayfabe and give an insider history of wrestling. The opinions when it comes to guys like Gotch might be a bit questionable, but overall it's pretty good.

Hey guys. I wrote the book in question and wanted to let you know its up live now.

​

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HX1LBVL
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07HX1LBVL

​

I'm hoping to do an AMA on it as well so if any admin wants to contact me that would be great.

I'm not sure, but I'm waiting for my Amazon purchase of Chris Charlton's book on the history of NJPW. It's supposed to be awesome, and I know it does into your question in depth.

Here! https://www.amazon.ca/Lions-Pride-Turbulent-History-Wrestling/dp/4990865812

I highly recommend Lion's Pride by Chris Charlton, it covers the history of NJPW up to the time of writing in mid-2015, covers everything in a nice amount of detail, as close to a definitive history as we have right now. It's sometimes a bit odd in terms of writing, he tends to jump around from chapter to chapter (one will be chronologically following the last, the next is about the best gaijin in NJPW history) and repeat points across chapters, but it's well worth a read if you're into the history of New Japan

Watch the match and judge for yourself.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x481v1j

Chris Charlton also made special mention of it in his book which is a great way to get educated on NJPW.

https://www.amazon.com/Lions-Pride-Turbulent-History-Wrestling/dp/4990865812/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523824175&sr=8-1&keywords=lions+pride

You should buy this book:

Ringside: A History of Professional Wrestling in America https://www.amazon.com/dp/027598401X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_bJ5kxbHKX6P8F

It wasn't overnight, but for a shorter read here's a good look at perhaps the most important change agents in wrestling:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Dust_Trio?wprov=sfsi1

Everyone thinks it looks better than the monstrosity they have now. The current belt was designed for marketing purposes and looks like a gaudy ass, oversized hood ornament. The Big Gold belt was designed for Ric fucking Flair. It's the greatest title belt design of all time.

There's also a book about the real, original belt. which went missing towards the end of WCW. Nobody knows who currently has it (as in, their identity hasn't been revealed). But the owner got it cleaned up and the author brought Ric Flair to look at it, and he himself confirmed it was the legit one. He thought Hogan had it.

Japanese wrestling has such a storied history that it would be a fool's errand to try and write about it in an all encompassing manner. You're better off going company by company.

But the closest thing there is is the book Lion's Pride: The Turbulent History of New Japan Pro Wrestling, which you can buy on Amazon. But it mainly focuses on the biggest company in Japan today, though there are small bits of other companies where they're relevant.

https://www.amazon.com/Lions-Pride-Turbulent-History-Wrestling/dp/4990865812/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468814708&sr=8-1&keywords=Lion%27s+Pride

In 1937, this book: https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Guys-Barnums-Marcus-Griffin-ebook/dp/B00RKMYUSO

"Fall Guys: The Barnums of Bounce. The inside story of the Wrestling Business, America's most profitable and best organized professional sport.

Originally published in 1937, this well-researched book exposed the wrestling game and showed it to be a cutthroat business of fixed matches, shady promoters, and show wrestlers.

Discusses the early days of Frank Gotch before delving into the conglomeration of the business with the rise of the Gold Dust Trio (Strangler Lewis, Toots Mondt, and Billy Sandow) and its version of slam bang wrestling."

You might want to try Lion's Pride: The Turbulent History of New Japan Pro Wrestling as a book its not only going to possibly expand your vocab but also expand your knowledge on Japanese culture.

Go buy this book if you want a great history about NJPW and his role in this as well:

https://www.amazon.com/Lions-Pride-Turbulent-History-Wrestling/dp/4990865812

Hey, they really are great authors.

Just read it , that's good one buddy !
Also you convince me to read this one : http://www.amazon.com/Lions-Pride-Turbulent-History-Wrestling/dp/4990865812

u/Just_Joey released the PDF for free (and the audiobook narrated by Colt Cabana) and a hardcopy on Amazon for $4.

https://soundcloud.com/user-857414650/pain-by-the-authors-of-pain-narrated-by-colt-cabana

http://supercolliderpress.com/ (free PDF)

https://www.amazon.com/Pain-Authors-collection-literary-powerhouse-ebook/dp/B074SFN64R

As a start, I'd recommend having a read of Steel Chair to the Head and Performance and Professional Wrestling. They're both books full of academic writing about wrestling. There's a really pertinent essay by Sharon Mazer in Steel Chair that you could use as a foundation for your argument, and then have a look at what she's cited in her references and who else has cited her online to help branch your research out from there.

Also, I did my dissertation on wrestling last year, so if you need a hand at all, drop me a line.

All of these are ones that I own and would recommend:

https://www.amazon.com/Shooters-Toughest-Men-Professional-Wrestling/dp/1770410406/ref=sr_1_38?ie=UTF8&qid=1493334562&sr=8-38&keywords=pro+wrestling+books

https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Professional-Wrestlers-All-Time/dp/1770411046/ref=sr_1_55?ie=UTF8&qid=1493334635&sr=8-55&keywords=history+of+pro+wrestling

https://www.amazon.com/Ringside-History-Professional-Wrestling-America/dp/027598401X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1493334676&sr=8-4&keywords=history+of+professional+wrestling

https://www.amazon.com/Pioneers-Professional-Wrestling-Tim-Corvin/dp/1480804584/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1493334676&sr=8-8&keywords=history+of+professional+wrestling

Chris Charlton wrote the book on NJPW and is a really respected source that even Dave Meltzer regularly cites in the Observer.

https://www.amazon.ca/Lions-Pride-Turbulent-History-Wrestling/dp/4990865812

Pretty much the go to book right now.

I did mine about pro wrestling and Shakespeare.

This book was quite useful:

https://www.amazon.com/Steel-Chair-Head-Professional-Wrestling/dp/0822334380

Funny you say that...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074SFN64R/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_8J-MDb8K3ASNW

Clearly, you haven't read their book.

I assume you know about Steel Chair to the Head?

https://www.amazon.com/Steel-Chair-Head-Professional-Wrestling/dp/0822334380

If not, that will definitely be useful for any professional wrestling writing you do.

Steel Chair to the Head: The Pleasure and Pain of Professional Wrestling is a collection of amazingly insightful media studies essays of wrestling as a cultural form, and actually treats it seriously and respectfully.

There's this book

Steel Chair to the Head

Published by Duke University Press. Has an article by Henry Jenkins, who was at MIT for years, among others.

What? You haven’t read this? https://www.amazon.com/Pain-Authors-collection-literary-powerhouse-ebook/dp/B074SFN64R/ref=nodl_

https://www.amazon.com/Lions-Pride-Turbulent-History-Wrestling/dp/4990865812

https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Guys-Barnums-Marcus-Griffin-ebook/dp/B00RKMYUSO

You'd probably need to use a VPN to buy it.

https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Guys-Barnums-Marcus-Griffin-ebook/dp/B00RKMYUSO/

They can discuss this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Pain-Authors-collection-literary-powerhouse-ebook/dp/B074SFN64R

https://www.amazon.com/Pain-Authors-collection-literary-powerhouse-ebook/dp/B074SFN64R

https://www.amazon.com/Pain-Authors-collection-literary-powerhouse-ebook/dp/B074SFN64R

For those that don't know about it, here is the Book of Pain by the AOP:

https://smile.amazon.com/Pain-Authors-collection-literary-powerhouse-ebook/dp/B074SFN64R/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523325569&sr=1-1&keywords=Authors+of+Pain

https://www.amazon.com/Pain-Authors-collection-literary-powerhouse-ebook/dp/B074SFN64R

Because there are literally the authors of pain

It's available on Amazon!

Pain by The Authors of Pain: The debut poetry collection from WWE tag team and literary powerhouse The Authors of Pain.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074SFN64R/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_ykaZAbGJNERA0