Wrestling's One Ring Circus: The Death of the World Wrestling Federation

Rating:
Summary: The Death of Scott Keith?
Review: Of the three books by Mr. Keith, this one is the most disappointing, even as a "smart" wrestling fan. I was drawn to Mr. Keith's work originally because of the humor and the keen observations he brought to the wrestling community, as well as his rich knowledge of wrestling lore. While the knowledge remains, the humor is hard to find, and the keen observations have been replaced by tiatribes and biased reviews (which he admits to in the book!). Most of all, he just needs to get over the Montreal screwjob of Bret Hart (much like Hart himself), and admit that Shawn Michaels maybe--just maybe--is a better person these days. He crows in the book that Michaels has only put over Ric Flair and Triple H (when he had the information on hand that Michaels put over Randy Orton at Unforgiven, someone who COULD use that win, and chose to omit it from his book).
Add to this sloppy spelling and continuity errors, and the fact that he ends the book at WrestleMania XIX, which was a year and a half ago, and I was thoroughly underwhelmed. Perhaps Mr. Keith is running on the same fumes he accuses WWE of running on.

Rating:
Summary: Good writing, but...
Review: ...the material is nothing that hasn't already been rehashed and re-rehashed by the author on 411mania.com and insidepulse.com. If you already read the author's work on 411, then you've already read the book, since 95% of the material is taken from his PPV recaps. As good as the writing is, the material's already available for free online. Save your money.

Rating:
Summary: Scott offers nothing new, but offers something to consider
Review: First of all Davy Goldberg, if you're who I think you are, did'nt you and Keith collaberate with Bill Goldberg on the biography of your worthless brothers' life, "I'm Next?", if so, your opinion cannot be taken into an unbiased account of it's own, that book as far as I can tell, was a critical bomb.

On another note, "Wrestlings' One Ring Circus" is indeed, nothing that you hav'nt seen on 411mania, but it offers plenty of insight to anyone else who has'nt visited that site into what a professional wrestling fan thinks regarding the product, think of the diversity it brings to the table.

Aside from the better written structure, Keith also changes his ratings on some of them atches he reviews, giving us reasons as to why he changed his mind in small caption boxes which also house little annicdotes regarding any other subject he touches in passing.

His rant on the hatchet job that was the RAW tenth anniversary special was quite funny as a matter of fact, as it was only a showcase for the WWE's present product and in hardly any way a testiment to it's past.

His opinions on Shawn Michales are also semi-valid, despite Michales allegedly "putting over" talents like Jericho and Orton, when you look at it ONJECTIVLY, you realise it took interferences and cheating to put him down, not overall clean wins (and don't give me that "they were heels, they had to win that way" rubbish, Snitzky beat Kane in a chain match, by all rights that match was as clean as it was given the rules), Michales has only "cleanly" laid down for Triple H

Although, to be fair on his critics, this book only going up to Wrestlemania 19 is a dissapointment, suprisingly he lists Guerrero as WWE Champion in Febuary 2004 but does'nt tell us Benoit won the belt in Match 2004 at Wrestlemania 20.





Rating:
Summary: An honest look at the ups and downs of one wrestling company
Review: I am already a fan of Scott Keith's weekly columns on the Inside Pulse website, and I consider him to be one of the most honest and insightful wrestling writers out there. This book is an in-depth look at a year or so of recent WWF/WWE history. Keith is certainly biased and opinionated, but that is what makes his books and his columns so fun to read. Even if you don't agree with him, Keith can make you laugh and make you think about North American corporate wrestling in new ways. If you are at all interested in Vince McMahon's wrestling shows, then this book should be near the top of your reading list.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad at all
Review: I thougtht the book was pretty good. I actually read it at a Barnes and Noble, as I had gone there for the Death of WCW but it wasn't in. I didn't read the match reviews, as I had read the originals in his rants, and skipped a few minor parts. I thought it was a detailed look at a bad period for the WWE. Though things have picked up (at least on the Raw side), the company is still making the same mistakes, such as keeping the belt on Triple H. How they could screw up having Goldberg and the invasion is beyond me. Even if you've read all his rants, you can still learn a few backstage things.

Rating:
Summary: A few good points but an overall disappointment
Review: I'd heard so many good things about Scott Keith and his writings that I was willing to give him a try. I really hope this was the worst thing he's ever written and that his other 2 books were better, because this one totally blows. Although I did agree with him about: why Triple H is not as good as he used to be; Owen Hart's senseless death; and that Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle (among others) are awesome wrestlers--I strongly disagree with his assessments of Shawn Michaels (who is my favorite wrestler EVER) and other wrestlers too numerous to list here. I agree with another reviewer who said he really needs to get over the Montreal screwjob and realize that Michaels has really changed for the better. You may be seeing this book up for sale from me fairly soon; even my roomie hated it and she's not too fond of Vince McMahon either but said it was a pure hatchet job on some of her favorite wrestlers too. Get a clue, Scott.

Rating:
Summary: Well worth the money
Review: If you've been watching WWE the last few years, and you're wondering why they've made the decisions they have, you need to check out Keith's book. He sorts through all the crap and tells you straight up what was going on. And that's not a common thing in wrestling literature.

I found "One Ring Circus" to be a much better read than Keith's previous offering, "Tonight, In This Very Ring". It's better structured, better written, and more original. That's not to say the previous book is bad - but the new one is his best work. "One Ring" doesn't cover nearly the ground as its prequel, but in a way that's good because it's more focused. And most wrestling fans have only been watching for the last few years anyway.

All in all, the book is great for the wrestling fan who doesn't want to visit wrestling websites everyday and wade through all the b.s.

Rating:
Summary: Another terrible book by a bitter fan
Review: It is hard enough for wrestling to get credibility when its fans are often labeled as morons but Scott Keith makes us look idiots everytime these publishers let him produce yet another disgrace.

Writers like Dave Meltzer and Brian Alvarez are a credit to the wrestling doing a great deal for the business through their literally work because the snobby media looks down upon wrestling. People like Keith help their anti-wrestling. This is the third of a series of books that make wrestling look bad.

It is written by not an expert, not a even a decent writer, but some bitter person who complains about bad matches and angles. You actually expect people to pay for that when they can read that online for free. The man provides nothing for the fan. Most of the books even the worst in autobiographies provided some kind of insite that would help fans build on a wrestling library.

I am proud to say I never bought any Scott Keith's book. I sat read and them at Barnes and Noble and yes that is wasted time I will never get back. To charge fans money to read an uneducated fans rantings in blasphemy and urinates on everything Dave Meltzer has worked for and only supports bad stereotypes of the fans. Thank you so much Mr. Keith for your continued attempts to make wrestling fans look bad and releases of bad literature.

One star is generous. If Amazon allowed me, I would have started going into the extreme negative numbers. I only hope this is the last of the awful Keith books. He should stick to coloring books.

Rating:
Summary: An improvement , but...
Review: This book is somewhat of a letdown if you are a regular reader of his "rants". Mr. Keith *still* seems to have a different style when in the publishing world as compared to his online escapades because much of the humor and wits that he shows in his rants are almost non-existant in this book. As a previous review stated, most of what is in this book he has already stated numerous times online at various websites (but this time without wit). And while it is always enjoyable to hear some HHH-bashing, Mr. Scott Keith makes it the theme of the whole book and it really runs tired and ragged after awhile. HHH hasn't gotten this much face time since this week's episode of Raw! Definitely not worth the $19 price tag, but if you can find it once discounted, it's worth a casual read as it is more focused and a step above his first two books. Overall, a 3-star effort because even if this does seem like a "copy and paste" job, the content is worthy of being read about.

Rating:
Summary: A solid overview of the WWE's downward spiral
Review: Wrestling's One Ring Circus is a solid overview of the WWE's fall from grace to 2001 to 2003. Prior to this, the WWE was a crossover phenomenon creating mainstream stars such as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and The Rock. However, their descent was brutal and swift and Scott Keith does a great job of profiling their downfall. In actuality, you don't realize the magnitude of the company's failures until reading this book as Keith touches on everything, whether it's career ending injuries, the company's failure to push their most talented performers, or failed storylines. Like his previous book Tonight...In This Very Ring, Keith inserts his internet rants detailing important matches from the era throughout the text. The rants are still very good although they could be long winded, hence the term "rants." To his credit, he has revised his match ratings upon further review. As a long time wrestling fan and reporter, Keith displays his unbiased opinions about the failure of the WWE product and while many of his views come across as bitter, most of the time he has a valid point (ex....not giving a bigger push to popular performers Booker T and Rob Van Dam, the continued push of bigger and less talented athletes). In particular, Scott does a great job of the WWE's biggest failures such as the WCW Invasion angle, the gay wedding between Billy and Chuck, and the failure of the formerly wildly popular NWO. He also gives credit where it's due to the great performers from this era such as Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, and Brock Lesnar. However, he knocks Triple H and Shawn Michaels frequently throughout the book, to the point where it makes you wonder if it's more of a personal vendetta, particularly with Michaels since he was in on the Montreal screw job which took the World title off of Bret "Hitman" Hart, who like Keith is Canadian. Nevertheless, this is a very good read and a thorough review of the WWE's decline.