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I finished My Life In Wrestling by Gary Hart last night, and it's without a doubt one of the best wrestling books ever written. It's 440 pages of quality content, with normal sized font and no filler. I honestly wouldn't have minded even more pictures because there are some that capture eras of Hart's career of which there isn't a lot of video footage. While some of the chapters are on the short side, including one particular chapter that is one of the more hilarious of any book I've ever read, this is still the most thorough and info-packed wrestling autobiography I've read next to Hitman. Without giving too much away (this is really just scratching the surface), some highlights include:

-Abdullah the Butcher regularly dipped his pizza in milk before eating it.
-Paul Boesch once wanted to book the finish to an Andre / Race match where Andre slipped on a pencil and got counted out, and he'd exclaim on commentary something like "Who would have thought a mere pencil could fell a mighty giant?!" This idea was of course shot down by everyone involved.
-David Manning was a gambling addict who once lost something like $10K in WCCW cash in a briefcase in his trunk most likely due to loansharks breaking into his car.
-Rick Hazard getting stabbed 17 times by the Yakuza when he was along for the ride with Kevin Von Erich for some Japan dates.
-Jim Hellwig was originally going to be proposed the "Big Van Vader" gimmick but it was right at the time he signed with the WWF, so Leon White got it instead.

I mean you could go on and on, Hart had a mind like a steel trap and recalls each part of his career with impressive detail. He does recall some stuff incorrectly, such as the finish to the Kerry / Flair steel cage match (he states it was a pinfall instead of a ref stoppage), but I'd be inclined to believe the majority of the stuff in this book because Hart comes off like a straight shooter and one of the few legitimately decent guys in the business from his era. Which is especially impressive when you consider he was a punk kid from a broken home, who grew up on the streets of Chicago and ran with the mafia as a young man.

He does have it out big time for Ken Mantell, giving him absolutely no credit for his run as booker after Hart left Texas in 1983. Based on what I've seen and what Hart writes here, I would agree he's a better booker than Mantell, but he also trashes some stuff that Ken did that I liked a lot. Sunshine managing Kabuki during his face turn, and the Dynamic Duo wearing masks after having their heads shaved, I thought were both good angles but Hart writes them off as much because Mantell booked them as anything. The latter was was reused by CM Punk quite effectively, and Hart himself mentions similar stuff he booked a few different times. And while Hart does credit Garvin & Sunshine as being a good duo Mantell used during his tenure, he gives Mantel no credit for the feud between Garvin and Chris Adams centered around Sunshine, which is one of my all-time favorites and was exceptionally booked.

These are really the only things I didn't agree with in the book, and Hart does make lot of good points about Mantell and the guy sounds like he was a real dick. Either way, this has dethroned "A Lion's Tale" to become my favorite wrestling book of all-time and I highly recommend anyone who is interested at all pick it up while it's back in print.

This could be really good.

Kassius Ohno has arrived in FCW:


OH NO! I actually love that name. And his bum fluff beard has been trimmed. Chris Hero was a right piss poor name, I thought. Kassius Ohno and Antonio Cesaro sound fucking class.




Britani Knight got a new name too.



Was hoping they'd leave Britani as Saraya, Paige seems like it needs a last name to go with it.

If they are going with it though, they should bring in DDP as her Dad (they should change the spelling on "Paige" first though). Say DDP was in the UK back in late 1991 trying to flog his WrestleMania pink Cadillac during the wrestling boom period over here and had a love child to some lass in Norwich. Imagine how cool would that be:

Paige: "I'm in the WWE in tribute to my Daddy ... Diamond Dallas Page"

Page: "You gotta be jacking me off, bro!"

(R-Truth is shocked at this revelation also)

not when it's a stupid disco dance gimmick.

jesus, dude...

The Brutus Clay gimmick is horrible. Yeah he was talked about, mostly how bad the gimmick is. Who was he over with? Kids perhaps but I can bet the majority, not all but the majority of adults felt like I did every time he came on, and that was to either see what else was on or grab a snack until it is over.

Pushing a wrestler is not lame of course but this particular character was and they can say all they want that he wasn't "ready" but they most likely realized this isn't going well so they put it on hold until they can repackage him or if they do bring him back add something.

Not every idea is going to be a homerun and this one is a perfect example of it.

I thought the Funkasaurus gimmick was fucking aces, but to be fair, I was always gonna love Dick Murdoch's kid no matter what he did.

As for the who was he over with, I use 3 wrestling boards, and Brodus is pretty much universally loved on all 3, so it's definitely NOT just the kids that love him. Also his segments had better ratings than the WWE Champion, although to be fair, who hasn't since Punk won the Belt back?


Ignoring all that though, The situation is completely retarded.

He's been with the company (in FCW and before that Deep South) for years. He signed up in 2006. They've had 5 years to evaluate his wrestling, never mind the fact that he wrestled most weeks on TV on NXT and was a regular on Superstars for a while. How the hell can they book him that often and think he's ready for a big new gimmick, and then decide he's not ready just a few weeks later?

It's a bit like the Hade Vansen situation, except this time it got to TV and lasted a month before someone went "Nah, he's not ready".

Idiots.

Also working with wrestlers on a daily basis not one had a bad thing to say about the Brodus gimmick, so not only marks liked him off all ages, but so did fellow workers.

Jesus Dudes...

I like it

Not that I mind seeing Chelsea back in TNA, but it's great how TNA remembers who she is, but won't reference guys with past gimmicks in the company.

Like when Alicia Fox came to ECW with DJ Gabriel and they talked about how Alicia went to marry Teddy Long then flew to Europe and found Gabriel. Love when writers pick and choose to keep for the gimmicks!