The 411 Book Review: Between the Ropes: Wrestling’s Greatest Triumphs and Failures Posted by Larry Csonka on 07.24.2006
Are you ready to step “Between the Ropes?”
Between the Ropes: Wrestling's Greatest Triumphs and Failures
Authors: Brian Fritz and Christopher Murray
Pages: 302
Synopsis: Between the Ropes: Wrestling's Greatest Triumphs and Failures examines the last decade of professional wrestling, looking at how it transformed itself into a billion dollar business, and mistakes made by the WWE that have knocked them down a notch. The book discusses the birth of TNA, and it's current state as a national promotion. The book also discusses WCW, ECW and the evolution of the radios show from the beginning over 7-years ago, and how it changed and evolved as the business did.
The Introduction: Between the Ropes: Wrestling's Greatest Triumphs and Failures is one of the newest publications to hit the market. Authored by Between the Ropes co-host Brian Fritz and behind the scenes contributor Christopher Murray, the book examines the last decade of the professional wrestling business. The book gets off to a great start as former ECW, NWA and AWA Champion Steve Corino writes the forward. Corino is sometimes known as "the 4th host" of the show, making several in studio appearances on the radio show. Corino has a great relationship with the guys, and comes across an honored to be a part of the book. Corino holds the guys and show as a whole in high regard, so this was a perfect choice for the forward.
WCW: The opening as far as covering the promotions starts with WCW. They chronicle the complicated birth of WCW, the different regime changes and rise to power of Eric Bishoff. Intertwined in this are great quotes, including some by people like Randy Savage explaining how they never really knew who was in charge of the promotion. We take the ride to the rise of Nitro, the domination of the ratings, the decline and controversial sale to WWE. While it is far from The Death of WCW by: Bryan Alvarez it is a crash course covering all of the important points, and a quick education for the uneducated.
ECW: The ECW portion of the book is also done similar to the WCW portion, as they examine the roots of ECW from Eastern Championship Wrestling to "Extreme." The promotion is looked at from that beginning as Eastern, all of the trials and tribulations that the company faced, landing PPV, almost being closed down due to the Mass Transit incident and the eventual debut on PPV. They dive into the reasons ECW closed, the loans by McMahon, the bankrupting drama and eventual absorption by WWE. The important thing is they never claim ECW to be bigger than it was. They fully admit to it never being as big as WCW or WWE, but do praise the aspects that made ECW so special and how it changed wrestling as a whole.
WWF/WWE: The most important thing in this section is that the authors refuse to take what has become common place and trash WWE to be "cool" or to get themselves over. Instead, they praise the rise of the company to legit billion-dollar entity; followed by true and fair criticisms of the current day product. They also go rather in depth in the WWE decision making process, explaining why they made certain decisions and why they seemingly had no choice.
TNA: This portion of the book looks at the genesis of the TNA promotion, the Jarrett's knowledge to not try and go head to head with Vince McMahon, their attempt to revolutionize the business through the Wednesday night PPV's, the subsequent failure there, TNA's almost folding, and how they stayed alive through the corporate backing of Panda Energy. This is a very unbiased look at the birth and rise thus far of the company,
The Future: The future is just a nice and clean wrap up with some valid speculation. Discussing WWE's leap into the 24/7 project and how that can sustain them. They also speculate if TNA can bring back the magic of 1998, or if there could be another promotion step to the forefront.
Between the Ropes: This is the part of the book that weaves everything together. There are five sections entitled "Between the Ropes I-V" which are placed in between the sections noted above. This part of the book is also what brings the humor, as it is the writers truly coming through here, and expanding on some of the more humorous stories. It chronicles the struggle to get the show on the air as well as how it survived along with the business.
The 411: Between the Ropes: Wrestling's Greatest Triumphs and Failures is a breath of fresh air in regards to recent wrestling publications. It isn't totally focused on WWE bashing, more how they watched things rise and mistakes that they saw. Paralleling the wrestling business with the birth, rise and continued success of the radio show is done very well, and helps you connect with the authors on an emotional level.
If you are a long time listener of the radio show, you will enjoy it even more, since you'll probably have an emotional attachment to it, as there are a ton of quotes from the radios show. The added use of quotes from the many guests the show has had over the years is a great feature because it utilizes that resource to accentuate the points that they are trying to make through out. A very good book for any wrestling fan or even someone that just wants to learn about wrestling. This book gets a high recommendation from me.
Score: 8.5
To Order: The book can be purchased in bookstores, Barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com for $19.95. But you can also purchase the book through the Between the Ropes website for the same price, and you will receive a "Best of BTR" CD, featuring over one-hour of classic interviews from the Between The Ropes radio program. Included on the CD are classic discussions with Chris Jericho (1999), Vince McMahon (2000), Mick Foley (2005), and more. Also, if you request the authors will sign the book. A great deal for sure.
