Highspots is the company that presents WrestleCon but since that went under, they are in need of some money. Therefore, they are offering a CRAZY sale on everything they sell at the moment, which includes everything from wrestling gear to rings to authentic pay per view banners to DVDs to videos on demand to memorabilia and more. Right now, everything on their site is 36% off and all DVDs/video downloads are 50% off. Some of their DVDs and videos are $5 and under, meaning you can get full wrestling DVDs for $2 each and under in some cases.
As a result, I’ve dropped almost $200 and picked up:
12 Downloads (8 PWG, 2 Pro Wrestling Superstars, 1 Five Dollar Wrestling, 1 WrestleCon Supershow, 1 New England Wrestling, all full shows)
2 Documentaries
1 DVD Set
You need to check this stuff out and, as you might have guessed, you’ll be seeing a lot of PWG stuff in the near future (and all of the other DVDs I’ve gotten in the Wrestling Loot Crates/from Jim Cornette’s site as I’m running out of space for them). This is perhaps the best sale I’ve ever seen and you would do yourself a favor to check some of them out.
New Book: KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews
Oh it’s a dark time. WWE loves to talk about the history of Monday Night Raw. With over 1,300 episodes, it’s hard not to brag about it just a bit. There are some times you don’t hear about though, and that includes 2003. It’s considered one of the lowest points ever of the show’s history so of course I felt the need to watch every single episode. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
In this book, I’ll be looking at all fifty two episodes of Monday Night Raw 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 340 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 Raw 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 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
You Know What Would Make A Good Christmas Present?
An e-book (Or a paperback book. Or both.) about wrestling. Say by someone who watches a lot of it. Even if it’s late, it’s the thought that counts.
I’ve got nearly thirty different subjects to pick from so there must be something you’ll like.
Pre-Network Era NXT Added to WWE Network
As in the stuff at Full Sail from 2012 to just before Arrival.
It would be nice if there was a guide for something like that. Say in paperback. Maybe on Friday. Like this Friday. Which will be available on Amazon. Along with a sequel that covers from Arrival to Dallas. Which will be on sale too. Just in time for Wrestlemania season.
That would be nice wouldn’t it?
KB’s Reviews Now Available in PAPERBACK
You’re all familiar with the Big Four WWE pay per views. Well now you can be even more familiar with them by picking up my collections of reviews, which are now available in PAPERBACK. After years of only having these as e-books I’ve gone through all of them, polished them up, and turned them into actual, physical books.
All four are ready to go from Amazon and are full on paperbacks. The Royal Rumble is $9.99, Summerslam and Survivor Series are 10.99 in the USA and all three are £ 9.99 in the UK. Wrestlemania is $12.99. They are available worldwide (only in English) from any country’s Amazon page but here are the US and UK links:
I hope you like these and please shoot me any questions you might have.
KB
Coming to Amazon For Royal Rumble Weekend
Remastered (as in I went through and edited them all to make them a bit more readable), with page numbers, chapter titles (if I can figure them out), About the Author and some rather snazzy covers (not exactly what you see here).
These are actual, physical paperback books with the most up to date reviews available, as in material not in the e-books.
So These Now Exist
And they still make my head spin.
Some More Wrestling Books
Ok so I might be cheating on one of these but three sounds better than two.
First up we have “Accepted” by Pat Patterson, which came out earlier this year and is obviously the autobiography of one Pat Patterson. This wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for as the big hook, which is Patterson being a gay wrestler, isn’t really a major issue. Basically it’s “yeah I was gay and other than a few times, it didn’t make much of a difference”. It’s a pretty standard autobiography with some cool stories and a timeline of Patterson going from one territory to another. The book is fine but really not worth going out of your way to get, at least not at full price.
Next is Bill Apter’s “Is Wrestling Fixed? I Didn’t Know It Was Broken!”, which is another odd one. For those of you who don’t know who Apter is, go look up almost any old wrestling magazine and you’ll see his name. Apter is pretty easily the biggest wrestling journalist of all time and he’s been around FOREVER. You’ll occasionally see him on the WWE Network as a talking head in history pieces and he fits there perfectly.
This isn’t your standard autobiography as Apter jumps around all over the place, though to be fair he says that’s what he’s trying to do. The book is less than 300 pages and has nearly 60 chapters, mainly comprised of a bunch of short stories from Apter’s life. It’s good stuff and an entertaining read if you don’t mind something that’s pretty light for the most part. That being said, there’s always something interesting about someone who has been around since the early 70s and has covered everyone from Bruno to Cena. It’s a very quick read and you can probably knock it off in one to two sittings.
Finally we have the one where I cheat a bit with “Scooter” by Mick Foley. This was probably my favorite of the three as it took awhile to get into the story but eventually I wanted to see where it was going. I’ve read better novels before (and many far worse) but it’s an entertaining read and, if you’re an old baseball fan, an entertaining enough read.
All of them are worth reading but there are better wrestling books worth going out of your way to read.
Some Quick Wrestling Book Recaps
So I was at the Half Price Bookstore (praise be its name) and four a nice selection of reasonably priced wrestling books earlier in the week. Five days later and I’ve read them all so it’s time for some quick recaps.
The first three are all by my, for lack of a better word, mentor Scott Keith, who has been doing what I do for about 20 years now. He wrote a bunch of books back in the day and here are a handful of them.
First up we have The Buzz On Professional Wrestling from 2001, which is more like a textbook for newcomers. It maps out the basic ideas of the major wrestling companies and professional wrestling in general. This was about 99.9% recaps for me and would be for most people reading this, but it’s designed to be mainly the basics, which is an interesting concept.
Second was Wrestling’s One Ring Circus from 2004, which is much more focused on a single period. In this case, the focus is on the time period from the InVasion up through Wrestlemania XIX, breaking down each time period and all major points in between. This was a quick read and is meant as more of a mockery of HHH and Stephanie during this period, but there are definitely some valid criticisms of a time period that not a lot of people are fans of. It’s also interesting to see John Cena mentioned as a young potential star without the tongue planted firmly in cheek.
Finally from Mr. Keith we have 2006’s Wrestling’s Made Men, which is the same concept as One Ring Circus but focusing on post Wrestlemania XIX up through mid 2005. In this case it’s a collection of pay per view recaps with extra details filled in. This isn’t as interesting of a time but there is definitely a lot of stuff worth checking out in it.
Finally overall we have a more traditional wrestling book with Bill Watts’ The Cowboy and the Cross. Watts is one of the more controversial figures in wrestling history as he’s a very old school guy who pushed Mid-South to a very impressive place in wrestling. He’s one of the few bookers who was destroyed by a force completely outside his control (the collapse of the Texas oil industry), but that style didn’t exactly work well in WCW.
The problem with Watts is he comes off as someone who has almost never been wrong in his entire life and seemed to have every great idea in the history of the business. If someone disagreed with him as a talent, it was time to throw hands and no one ever beat Watts. Like ever, including Verne Gagne, who would rather back down that fight him.
He also loved Danny Hodge at a level that is probably unhealthy. Don’t get me wrong: Danny Hodge is one of the toughest men to ever live and probably the only wrestler who could defeat Kurt Angle in a shoot (note that I said could, not would), but you would think he cured cancer, invented pizza and single handedly got the Kardashians off TV and Justin Bieber deported to Mars.
Overall though, Watts is definitely someone whose story is worth reading, though you should take some of it with a grain of salt. He comes off as one of those guys who was successful, but I have some issues with a few of his stories. Also, there are some moments where he doesn’t do himself any favors shaking the stereotypes of being a bit of a chauvinist and racist, but it’s not the worst in the world.
One final note: a lot of his book is dedicated to talking about his Christianity. I have zero issue with that and always enjoy hearing someone talk about it, but there comes a point where even I was thinking “good grief man, we get it already.” The book is worth checking out for some of the details on stuff, but like I said, some of the stuff he takes full or even majority credit for sound a bit shaky.
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of Complete Monday Nitro Reviews Volume III at Amazon for just $3.99 at:
Mine would probably be Have A Nice Day. It’s a great way of telling Foley’s story which is fascinating and having him do the writing was a great touch as he personalizes things so well. It’s a fell good story too as it ends with him winning the title which was his dream growing up.
