Rating: 
Summary: A missed opportunity.
Review: Anyone who has visited the Wreslecrap website and is expecting more of the same will probably be disappointed with this book. While it does cover a lot of the silly angles and gimmicks over the years, most of them are only given a cursory glance, and there are many others that are completely overlooked. Instead, the author(s) seem more interested in presenting their halfassed wrestling history of the past 20 years, liberally colored with their own "smark" predjudices (you know what I'm talking about - Hogan, Nash, and Triple H are the devil, Ric Flair is a god, Stephanie McMahon should be burned at the stake, etc.)For example, in one chapter the author blames Kevin Nash for nearly destroying the WWF due to his title run in the mid-90s, but two chapters later he's running down all of the lame gimmicks the WWF tried to pass off on the wrestling audience during the same time, which had a FAR greater effect on the poor wrestling business of the mid 90s than the guy who held the big belt for barely a year. There's an entire book that could be written about all of the bad gimmicks WCW threw out there in their last two years, but most of these are glossed over in an attempt to recap the Nitro/Raw war (which most people who would be interested in this book are already very famililar with). Basically, they should've stuck with the "wrestlecrap" and left out the pseudo-insider commmentating completely. Another gripe I had was despite the authors' attempt at historical perspective, they managed to get several dates wrong and juxtapoose events... for example, "Santa with Muscles" came out over two years after the TV series "Thunder in Paradise" began, contrary to what the book claims. This book would be a keeper had the author attempted to get interviews with those involved with "wrestlecrap" over the years. But aside from John Tenta, there's virtually no opinion from the wrestlers themselves. Oh, and I counted at least four variations of "an enemy most vile" - time to invest in a thesaurus, I believe. Between the errors and the emphasis on "history" over simply describing lame angles and gimmicks, I cannot recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A truly crappy review...
Review: As a long-time fan of wrestling, I've seen my share of crap. (I was at the Providence Civic Center when the Undertaker "rose from the dead" at the Royal Rumble '94, and actually know one of the guys who lifted him - actually, Marty Jannetty - up to the rafters - it's my "sixth degree" of Wrestlecrap, if you wiiiiill). Wrestlecrap.com brought all that nonsense together for me onto the World Wide Web so that, in between insulting people with a fake online identity on message boards and downloading porn (God bless America, BTW), I could marvel and gawk at it and wonder just why the F I was ever a wrestling fan. And now WrestleCrap: The Very Worst of Pro Wrestling merely transfers that crap onto the printed page. So now I can finally say that on the shelf where I keep the Holy Bible, Alan Moore's Watchmen and "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" (just for reference purposes!!!!), I have a book that features (amongst many luminaries) Doink the Clown, El Gigante, Kwang, GI Bro and Kevin Nash. And worry not, true believers, the tall tales of folks like Chris Benoit, Kurt Angle, Bret Hart and Bruno Sammartino are NOWHERE to be found within the confines of this book. Because this finely crafted creation of R.D. Reynolds and Randy Baer is pure absolute........crap. And that, folks, is the point. :)
Rating:
Summary: A truly crappy review...
Review: As a long-time fan of wrestling, I've seen my share of crap. (I was at the Providence Civic Center when the Undertaker "rose from the dead" at the Royal Rumble '94, and actually know one of the guys who lifted him - actually, Marty Jannetty - up to the rafters - it's my "sixth degree" of Wrestlecrap, if you wiiiiill). Wrestlecrap.com brought all that nonsense together for me onto the World Wide Web so that, in between insulting people with a fake online identity on message boards and downloading porn (God bless America, BTW), I could marvel and gawk at it and wonder just why the F I was ever a wrestling fan. And now WrestleCrap: The Very Worst of Pro Wrestling merely transfers that crap onto the printed page. So now I can finally say that on the shelf where I keep the Holy Bible, Alan Moore's Watchmen and "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" (just for reference purposes!!!!), I have a book that features (amongst many luminaries) Doink the Clown, El Gigante, Kwang, GI Bro and Kevin Nash. And worry not, true believers, the tall tales of folks like Chris Benoit, Kurt Angle, Bret Hart and Bruno Sammartino are NOWHERE to be found within the confines of this book. Because this finely crafted creation of R.D. Reynolds and Randy Baer is pure absolute........crap. And that, folks, is the point. :)
Rating:
Summary: Total crap... WRESTLECRAP, that is!!!
Review: As a wrestling fan for 15 years, it was real treat to take a trip down memory lane with this book. I was a big fan of the Wrestlecrap web site, but since it has been cut down, it was great to read these stories again. The book had me laughing and often finding the nearest person to me to read sections to. If you've been a wrestling fan for any period of time and there have been times when you have said "that was quite possibly the dumbest thing I ever seen on wrestling", trust me. There have been far dumber and they are all in this book. A great read.
Rating:
Summary: The Good, The Bad, and The Wrestlecrap!!!
Review: Did Robert Ebert ever make a movie? Did R.D. Reynolds or Randy Baer ever wrestle a match? The stories about the absurd story lines which are sometime associated with professional wrestling are funny. Really, stories involving a one eyed evil midget named Cheetum and the Huckster are first rate. However, the book itself reads like a critics review of everything wrong with professional wrestling. And much like every other critic, they don't appear to have the testicular fortitude to attempt greatness, they can only attack from the safety of their computer. They neglect the thing that makes wrestling the entertainment that it is, it is the over the top characters and the soap opera qualities that their lives portray. Sure I.R.S. was a cheesey gimick, but was it really more absurd than the Undertaker? One got over and the other didn't. The buisness of professional wrestling is a crapshoot at best. It is impossible to please everyone, even some of the time. So professional wrestling tries. And this book does little more than attack the failures.
Rating:
Summary: Its Craptacular. . . and that ain't no Bull (Buchanan)
Review: Dude, I am loving this book. Some of the information is repetitive of what was on the original site (which is LONG gone), but most of the info is great, and gives you a good idea of what things were like in the forefront, as well as backstage. A great story, perfectly put together, and with some kick ass color pictures.
Rating:
Summary: An honest review
Review: First of all, I am a big fan of Reynolds's web site. For the record, Reynolds each week features examples of "wrestlecrap," i.e. story lines and gimmicks from the world of professional wrestling that seem particularly lame. (For example, a guy whose gimmick is that he's a wrestling plumber qualifies as wrestlecrap.) The Wrestlecrap site has a large, devoted following, due in part to Reynolds's peerless knowledge of the sport, but mostly to his wicked, dead-on sense of humor. Numerous times on his site, Reynolds promised that the book would NOT simply consist of rehashed examples from his web site. Unfortunately, that's exactly what at least 95% of this book is. A true fan of the site will recognize almost all the material here. Compounding the problem is that Reynolds's trademark wit is absent. Except for a few bright spots, he seems to be holding himself back, adopting a lamer, more "proper" writing style than the funnier, freer one found on his site. So not only is the reader presented with old material, but it's not even presented in as amusing a fashion as it has been before. Also, the "exposé" material promised by Reynolds on the site is rather weak. His account of the fall of the WCW is accounted more thoroughly and better elsewhere - Shaun Assael's solid yet unspectacular "Sex, Lies, and Headlocks" is one such example. I am a Reynolds fan, and I wanted to like this book. For the reasons given above - which, I believe, anyone will recognize upon an open-minded reading of the book - I could not. If you're not a fan of wrestling, you probably don't care about the myriad ridiculous wrestling angles from throughout the years. If you are a fan of the site, skip it entirely. You've seen it all before, only better. This leaves the wrestling fan who is not familiar with the site. This might actually be a good book for such a reader. It's sure to conjure up some hilarious moments that you forgot about long ago. There is, after all, a rich history of material to work with here. For everyone else, I would recommend a pass. Reynolds certainly has it in him to crank out an excellent book. This one just isn't it.
Rating:
Summary: I give this a five for humor, for information, it is lacking
Review: First of all, this book is hilarious, mostly because all of the facts in it are wrong. The author had some very shoddy sources on this book. One claim he makes is that Mick Foley wrestled under the name Cactus Jack. Rest assured, Mick Foley is most well known for portraying the Ultimate Warrior shortly after the death of the original Warrior, Glenn Jacobs. Cactus Jack was none other than Jim Hellwig. He also states that Hulk Hogan was the star of several movies that were nowhere near the blockbuster hits that announcers hyped them to be. Trust me, I went to see Santa With Muscles, and the line was going around the block to get into the theater. He mentions that Kamala hailed from Africa, blatantly false. Kamala originated in South Dakota, where he trained at Stu Hart's dungeon. He has many other nationalities mixed up as well. He lists Roddy Piper as being from Scotland, when everyone knows that he is Irish. I have heard that he is working on a second book about the death of WCW. I have news for you Mr. Reynolds, WCW is still alive after WWF went bankrupt. WCW then changed their name to WWE and took over WWF's old shows.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive!
Review: First off, I have never visited the Wrestlecrap Website. That said, when I heard about the premise of this book, I was expecting a slightly amusing look at bad gimmicks like "The Red Rooster." I was surprised to find that this book gave more than lists and photos of outrageously horrid characters. "Wrestlecrap" is so much more. This book ponders the thought process of the higher-ups in WCW and WWF. It describes gimmicks that were created for personal satisfaction rather than business savvy, gimmicks that were created out of desperation rather than creativity, and bad gimmicks that the promoters honestly thought were brilliant. Best of all, I found this book to be more than just slightly amusing; this book is hysterical! Wrestlecrap primarily focuses from the mid 1980s to the present, when Vince McMahon Jr gave pro wrestling a brand new paint job, and how folks like WCW's Jim Herd tried to "outcamp" the WWF with disastrous results. While I've read countless articles presenting icons like McMahon as everything from innovative to cutthroat to no-nonsense maverick, it's not very often you get to read a detailed report on the many blunders that go on amidst the successes, in the ring and behind the dressing room curtain. Yes, we know multiple Doink the Clowns were lame, how embarrassing the fake Razor Ramon & Diesel was, or how we cringed at WCW's "Wonderful World of Oz." But Wrestlecrap goes into great detail about the geniuses who dreamed these angles up, why they expected them to work, why they didn't work. We read about backstage politics, and how some promoters created bad gimmicks specifically to make the wrestlers they disliked personally look bad. The author is also humble enough to point out a gimmick that, considering how way-out it was, should have failed, but instead became one of the most successful pro wrestling personas of all time: The Undertaker. Early on in the book, Reynolds and Baer appropriately take the heat off the wrestlers for performing these gimmicks, since they are performing a job at the booker's request. The point of wrestlers following the orders of the promoters is driven home in the book's forward, which is written by John "Earthquake" Tenta. Tenta was a Sumo and legit tough guy long before he became Earthquake. Even with that reputation, he did not hesitate, when asked, to dress up like "The Shark" or as Golga of The Oddities (confession time---I think we all have at least one "Wrestlecrap Guilty Pleasure"...mine is The Oddities!). In a business where big egos and dressing room hissyfits can make headaches for promoters, Tenta is a breath of fresh air. He stresses that wrestlers have to make do with the personas given them, and give it their best shot, and that for every "Stone Cold" Steve Austin created, there are a hundred "Sharks." He is able to laugh at the bad gimmicks he did, as well as laugh at himself. John Tenta, despite being a Sumo, obviously never thought that the wrestling business was "beneath him" unlike many folks in the biz. For this, I take my hat off and salute John Tenta. This book is a shockingly wonderful book, and highly recommended for anyone who wants to see the rationale behind bad decisons!
Rating: 
Summary: Crappy Fun
Review: For those who think wrestling is bad now,you should have seen what it used to be like. Whether you're a die hard wrestling fan or just barely got into it you'll enjoy this book. It makes you wonder what the people in the creative side of wrestling were thinking of. The characters were goofy and stupid. Read this and you'll agree that at least we don't have wrestlers like this existing today.
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