50
Rumble Road: Untold Stories
From Outside The Ring
A WWE-produced book from 2010 that presents incredible, hilarious and often unbelievable road stories among WWE competitors such as Randy Orton, The Bella Twins, Chris Jericho, Mark Henry and Hornswoggle. There's a better book in this series; see lower down on the list for Rumble Road's predecessor volume.
Believe it or not, there are hundreds upon hundreds of wrestling books out there... including but not limited to an e-book by yours truly. In fact, many of the books on this list are fully reviewed on Bulldog's Bookshelf.
Strangely enough, there were hardly any books about the squared circle until twenty-odd years ago when former NWA World Champion Lou Thesz published his autobiography "Hooker" in 1995. The Attitude Era brought about a brand new series of wrestling authors -- several of whom even made the New York Times Bestseller List.
Of course, there aren't just wrestling personalities publishing books; everyone from former announcers to current journalists have come up with unique and innovative ways to tap into the still-active genre.
In ranking the Top 50 Wrestling Books, we looked at a variety of factors, including:
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How much impact did the book have on the professional wrestling community?
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Is the book still cited today by wrestling fans and historians?
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Does it appear to be a fairly accurate account of their career (as opposed to being written in kayfabe, which some are, or largely ficticious accounts of history)?
We also excluded books that I, personally, haven't read before (it would be hard to judge, otherwise) and books by wrestling personalities that have nothing to do with their wrestling career (Mick Foley, for example, has written fiction novels).
Ready? Here we go!
The 2013 biography of controversial former WWE star "Hardcore" Bob Holly, this book covers everything from his humble beginning to his racing background (Sparky Plugg, anyone?) to his WWF/E career that included him gaining a reputation as a backstage bully. Still, Bob's story is surprisingly straightforward.
49
The Hardcore Truth:
The Bob Holly Story
Any picks missing or misplaced? Leave your feedback in the Comments section below...
The 2015 sequel to "From Prison To Promise" (which featured very little wrestling commentary), the second book written by Booker and Andrew W. Willliam Wright takes a look at Booker's legendary career, including stops in WCW, WWF and all points in between. The former King Booker has a lot to say in this volume.