The Buzz on Professional Wrestling

Rating:
Summary: The book that turns Marks into Smarts
Review: As a big fan of Scott Keith's rants, I was eagerly anticipating this book for quite some time. For those of you who aren't aware, Scott runs www.rantsylvania.com . To all the new fans to wrestling, this is the book to buy! Keith takes you behind the scenes, going into details on most major wrestling occurances in the last 20 years. This book does have a few errors and typos, but it is much more accurate then The Complete Idiot's Guide To Pro Wrestling. Most of them can't even be attributed to Keith, as I'm 100% sure he knows how to spell Curt Hennig's name. Keith does talk differently in the book then he does on the website, however, this is his first book. Some of his writings are a bit harsh with hard language, and you don't want to alienate the publishers or fanbase the first time thru. He's working on two more books, one about the WWF, and one about the fall of WCW. Those both promise to be more candid and frank, as Keith doesn't pull punches, but gives you the straight version. This is probally the best outsiders book ever written about wrestling, and Scott Keith is just beginning...

Rating:
Summary: AUGH!@#$%
Review: Highlights for Children is a more intellectual read than the book Scott "I'm the biggest mark around" Keith put together.

Rating:
Summary: A decent summary of the wrestling world
Review: I see that two of the negative reviews featured on the front page were written by people who have not even read this book. It seems at least several people decided to sound off their opinions on Keith's internet rants under the guise of reviewing the Buzz on Pro Wrestling.

For those that are unfamiliar with him, Scott Keith is most well-known for his "rants" on the internet, in which he reviews WWF Pay-Per-Views and television shows. Several reviewers have argued that Keith never writes anything positive about pro wrestling, that he just doesn't "get it" (a slogan the WWF has not used for at least a year). Obviously, such reviewers have not read Keith's review of WM X-7 (he called it perhaps the greatest PPV of all-time) or his glowing reviews of just about every PPV the WWF released in 2000.

Admittedly, Keith has been highly critical of the WWF's direction for the past year or so. Not coincidentally, however, the WWF has seen a major ratings decrease during that period. This week's episode of Smackdown! received a 2.9, a lower number than Raw put up at times when it constantly being trounced every week by WCW Monday Nitro. It appears that the fans who blindly defend the WWF against any criticism of the product are the ones who don't "get it."

Keith has shown an insight into Pro Wrestling that few exhibit, as can be seen by reading this book. After introducing the reader to basic wrestling concepts and "inside" terms, the author takes us through the early history of the sport, leading up to the 1980's, which begins the modern era that is Keith's major focus.

Keith separates the last twenty years into several distinct periods, providing biographies of the wrestlers that contributed most to the evolution of the sport and its popularity. Rather than simply a laundry list of wrestler stats and short stories, the book is actually a running narrative of the last two decades, conveyed by the stories of the wrestlers who stood out the most. He starts in the 1980's with Rock 'N Wrestling and Hulkamania, moving on to the WWF's down period in the mid 1990's and the corresponding rise of WCW. Finally, we meet the major players who contributed to the WWF's current (waning?) run of greatness from 1998 until the present.

There seem to be two major criticisms running through the negative reviews of this book. First are the grammatical errors. I had actually heard that the grammar was pretty bad before I read the book. However, whatever grammatical errors were present did not detract from my enjoyment or education while reading. There definitely are some errors, but not nearly enough to distract the reader or to merit (with no other reasons) a negative review.

Secondly, at least one reader argued that this book is "obsolete" because of the changes the industry has undergone since the summer of 2000. Since most of the book focuses on wrestling's history, I fail to see the reasoning behind this argument. Nothing Keith has written has been rendered factually inaccurate by recent events. While WCW no longer exists, of course, it is still both valuable and entertaining to learn about the careers of some of its performers, especially Ric Flair, who is still in the business. In addition, Bill Goldberg, also covered by the book, recently was released from his Time Warner deal, rendering it likely that he too will wrestle for someone in the near future. This book does a better and more objective job of covering the last twenty years in wrestling than any I know of. That it was written in 2000 does not change that.

I do have several criticisms, though. Firstly, I think Keith could have done a much better job documenting his information. He gives credit to Wade Keller's Pro Wrestling Torch and Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter as sources for most of his information, but never makes clear exactly what information was obtained from which source. It is impossible for the reader to independently verify much of what Keith writes, especially from the period before the rise of the internet. Even after that point, it is unclear what separates documented fact from unfounded internet rumor.

Secondly, this book was too bland. Scott Keith's greatest strengths as a writer are his sarcasm and wit. This book utilizes neither to anywhere near their full capacity, and this was a huge disappointment to me. The book is mostly just bland storytelling, which is especially unsatisfying for someone who is so used to Keith's wonderful humor. I highly recommend looking up his rants on the internet, especially if you enjoy this book.

Rating:
Summary: The only thing this book needs is a sequel :)
Review: If you're tired of being treated like an idiot when it comes to wrestling, then this is the book for you. Scott Keith sheds new light on wrestling and doesn't insult your intelligence by claiming it is real--nor does he sneer at you for enjoying this magical form of entertainment which so many people love. I often like to think I know a lot about wrestling but I have learned stuff I didn't know from reading this book and I would recommend it to anyone who wanted a GOOD book about wrestling. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's the best wrestling book ever written by someone not named Foley :) I look forward to a sequel or more books by Scott and anyone wanting to read more of Scott's stuff need only go--right there--to TheSmarks.com! *thumbs up, cheap pop*

Rating:
Summary: Where Does One Even Begin?
Review: People either love this book or hate it, not because of the book, but because of petty Internet feuds with the author. Notice, however, that only Scott Keith has written this book, and no one else. It is the only one of its kind in the field, and it's a great primer on the last 20 years of pro-wrestling. Yes, it's filled with spelling mistakes, but blame the publisher for that, not the author.

Rating:
Summary: Unfairly maligned
Review: Scott Keith is very controversial on the internet wrestling scene, and many of these "one-star" reviews are from people who have not read the book, and are instead airing their personal biases against Scott Keith in this public forum.

That being said, this book does not offer the hardcore wrestling fan very much, as that person would already be familiar with all of the related information. However, if you are a new fan, or a casual fan who does not follow all the news on the internet, this book is a great way to get caught up on all the major points of interests in recent wrestling industry. Get Foley's books and Dynamite Kid's book if you're a hardcore fan, get Scott Keith's book otherwise. And then get those books. :)

Rating:
Summary: Something to read while you aren't watching Nitro
Review: This book was very well written. I am familiar with theauthor's writing from .... I really enjoy reading his retro rants of old shows. This book is the same type of quality work. I have been watching wrestling for 15 years. Wrestling was very different when I first started. The business was very protected and a lot of the behind the scenes stories were difficult to come by. This book fills readers in on behind the scenes stuff dating back to the mid-80s to the present day. It is fascinating to see how the sport and its stars have evolved in the last couple of decades. The only down side is the author is too much of a WWF mark. I would highly recommend this book to any fan.

Rating:
Summary: A great behind the scenes look...
Review: Unlike many people who moaned and groaned over the spelling errors in the book, I took them to be the fault of the editors, because there are many wrestler's names that commonly get misspelled including Bret Hart and Curt Hennig. Scott Keith does suerve up a different style of writing than his usual rants on WrestleLine and thesmarks.com, but that was the intent. For some of the newer fans this book may put the pieces together and for some older ones it might fill in the missing void while taking us back to the glory days and wondering just why the Honky Tonk Man held the IC belt for so long. I recommend it to any wrestling fan who wants to know "The Buzz", and read a very entertaining book.