[.ca] Professional Wrestling: Sport and Spectacle (ISBN 1578060214)

Grapplers in the Mist:
Like Dian Fossey living among the apes, Sharon Mazer sought to live among pro wrestlers and learn their ways. In the process, she takes what could be an interesting subject and makes it boring. She observes training at a small wrestling school. But alas, there is little information about how the training is done or who these people are who are involved. To Ms. Mazer, everything is an outworking of some kind of gender or ethnic dominance. Worse yet, this book was reseached at a time when pro wrestling was turning out a lot of poor characters and story lines. It was painful to read Ms. Mazer's attempts to uncover the deep meanings of matches involving Tatanka, Sensational Sherry, Brutus Beefcake, and other very forgettable characters. I will not say that the book is completely worthless. Almost by accident, Ms. Mazer occasionally gives a tidbit of information about the life of an aspiring pro wrestler. One has to feel a bit sympathetic for the men and women who are pouring their time and money into training, yet obviously have no chance of getting to the top of the business. There is nothing in the book about the big-time wrestlers, except what she picked up from watching tapes. Instead of this book, read Mick Foley's books and watch _Beyond the Mat_. Those will give you a much better "inside" look at pro wrestling.