Alan J. Wojcik Reviews The WrestleCrap Book Of Lists

Courtesy of (shock-of-shocks)Alan J. Wojcik:

Just when you thought it was safe to watch professional wrestling on TV or at your local arena, RD Reynolds & Blade Braxton (tagging in from author Randy Baer) are in your face again, this time with The WrestleCrap Book of Lists (ECW Press, 357 pp. $19.95 US, $21.95 CDN).

If you read the original WrestleCrap book or have been to the website www.wrestlecrap.com you are ready for what is coming in the pages that follow. If not let me give you some background and some current pop culture references that will make sense (at least I hope). Reynolds, Baer and Braxton are major wrestling fans, more like junkies but instead of smack or dope, their drug is WWE, TNA, ROH and any wrestling promotion mixed in between going back decades. But as you can guess from the title of the book, in addition to liking stuff they also hate stuff. Like really hate stuff to the point they came up with the two books and website where they address bad angles, storylines, characters and gimmicks used in matches. Now for a pop culture reference: have you read or seen Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity? If not let me explain why I reference it, in this project Rob Gordon owns a record shop and his pals sit around creating top 5 lists of things from songs to wake up with to songs to shower to. I am not sure if Reynolds and Braxton have read the book or seen the flick, but they took that idea and brought it to professional wrestling in several chapters: A Question of Character; Mirror, Mirror on the Wall…What’s the Crappiest Look Of All, Tell Us A Story Uncle Vince, Employee of the Month: The Dog-Faced Gremlin, Those Poor, Poor Promoters; The Pornotastic World of Pro Wrestling, Wrestling: You Know Actual Pro Wrestling, Can You Believe It? Someone Bought This and So It Comes To This: The 25 Worst Characters in Wrestling History.

No one and I mean no one is safe from ridicule in this book. Everyone from WWE Chairman Vince McMahon to anyone who has stepped in a wrestling ring (wrestler, family member of a promoter or celebrity) or called a match on TV is in the target sight. Reynolds and Braxton go through lists like: the worst wrestler character names, the dumbest concepts for matches in wrestling history, the worst wrestling champions in history, the worst drag queens, the most distasteful exploitations and my personal favorite; the top 4 excuses for not wanting to do a job (wrestling speak for losing to someone.) In the introduction the authors say this book was not designed to be read in one sitting, more to be read in sessions so you can go and discuss it with fellow wresting fans. I agree because reading this will create conversations just like the original book did the first time I read it. In fact I am going to read it again in a couple of months to let it sink in. This is a great late Christmas gift for that someone in your life.

This book is available in stores nation wide in the US and Canada or by logging onto www.ecwpress.com