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Ring of Hell: The Story of Chris Benoit and the Fall of the Pro Wrestling Industry
by: Matthew Randazzo V

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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 364
EAN: 9781597775793
Format: Illustrated
ISBN: 1597775797
Label: Phoenix Books
Manufacturer: Phoenix Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: June 17, 2008
Publisher: Phoenix Books
Sales Rank: 38142
Studio: Phoenix Books

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
In the notoriously crooked and exploitative world of professional wrestling, WWE legend Chris Benoit was supposed to be the exception. Chris was universally recognized as the best pro wrestling had to offer: a decent, humble, and devoted family man loved and admired by all who knew him. Nobody could have predicted the horrific events of June 22-24, 2007 when Chris strangled his wife and seven-year old son before committing suicide. RING OF HELL is the true story of Benoit's journey through the destructive, dysfunctional, and bizarre pro wrestling industry and the catastrophic physical and mental breakdown that led to his grisly end.

One of the best books ever written about professional wrestling certainly the best ever written by a non-wrestler. (Shelton Hull, Columnist for Folio Weekly)

Were it not for fact that pro wrestling is the redheaded stepchild of American society, Randazzo would likely be up for a Pulitzer Prize for the journalism contained in this book.... This book sets a new standard for exposing the truth about pro wrestling, one that may never be topped and certainly won't be anytime soon. (Rick Morris, Sports Talk Network radio host and McGraw-Hill business journalist.)

While dissecting what made Chris Benoit tick, Matthew Randazzo takes a scathing look at the sleazy manner in which the pro-wrestling business operates. Randazzo adroitly exposes the elements that contributed to Benoit's demise. So much sordid behavior is described from Benoit's time in WWE and the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling that hard-partying rock stars seem like choirboys in comparison. (Alex Marvez, columnist for Fox Sports and Scripps-Howard News Service.)

I know [Matthew Randazzo V], and he is legit. For an outsider to the industry, if that's the correct term, he seemed to have more access to inside info than all but a few people. No matter what the book says about this period [in wrestling], it's a viewpoint that should be looked at and thought about. (Dave Meltzer, Yahoo! Sports and Editor of The Wrestling Observer.)

It's an amazing story well-told and an honest look inside a brutal and backwards business. (Jon Snowden, author of Total MMA and editor of the Total MMA Newsletter)

Randazzo takes a scalpel to the dark underbelly of the wrestling business and slices away with a butcher's intensity and surgeon's skill and carves out a tale of desperation, frustration, misplaced loyalties and heartbreak. (Dan Madigan, former World Wrestling Entertainment writer, and author of Mondo Lucha a Go-Go and the 2006 feature film See No Evil.)

Matthew Randazzo has written a great pro wrestling book that requires no knowledge of the business. But if you are a fan, there's a deeper experience to be gained. Ring of Hell challenges your perception of these heels and high-flyers and confronts you with the flesh-and-blood price paid for your precious childhood memories. (Chad Damiani, former World Championship Wrestling announcer.)

Ring Of Hell is an unfiltered, unbiased look into the world of professional wrestling and sheds light upon the shortcomings of an industry that has shrouded itself in paranoid secrecy for years. A must-read book for anyone. (Domenic Cotter, former World Wrestling Entertainment producer.)

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Bably biased against professional wrestling
The Benoit story is a very sad episode. But I can't blame professional wrestling for it. These guys can make a lot of money and there are costs for those opportunities. Look at all professional athletes. Most of them end up with injuries that affect the rest of their lives.

This author presents a case against the McMahon family that is seriously one-sided and hateful. Vince is a great entertainer and he has some bad ideas every now and then, but a lot of folks really enjoy his shows. And a lot of athletes end up making plently of money because of the extraordinary opportunities given to them by the McMahons.

I thought the material about Benoit in Japan was facinating. That was probably worth the price of the book.

The author's obvious dislike of the business, the McMahons, the wrestling fans and most of the wrestlers make this an unpleasant read.

Rating:

- If you like Rolling Stone or New Yorker, read this -- entertaining and intellectually gripping!
Do you know why Hulk Hogan wears a fanny pack everywhere he goes? Do you know who Hulk Hogan really is off camera? Did you know that the President of one of the biggest promotions in wrestling history was hired off a gig selling meat off the back of a truck -- possibly in an attempt by TV execs to sabotage the show? Did you know one of the biggest names in wrestling now works at a Target? What does Vince McMahon reveal to those who work with him the closest? How does the hard line between real life and fictional play on TV fade away for some wrestlers? And when is what you see on TV really a reflection of reality? The answers to these questions and so much more will be answered in this book.

Outrageous and hilarious, disturbing and revealing, Ring of Hell reads like a New Yorker piece, proving to be entertaining, well-written, and relentlessly probing. You will not find such brutally honest and unrefined ... Read More

Rating:

- A poorly-written, questionably-sourced, interesting book
Ok, first ... this is an absolutely awful book. It's littered with hyperbole, and redundancy, as Randazzo works overtime in his attempt to prove he can write. The editing is also terrible, as the work is filled with violations of the rules of basic grammar, and spelling errors -- some of which are typos that should have been caught and others that look like neither the writer nor the editor really knew the meaning of the word they used.

Second, Randazzo does a terrible job of sourcing the book. Sure, there are long lists of sources, but those sources provided the information anyone could have gotten. What Randazzo doesn't source nearly enough, are the accusations against McMahon, Hart, Sullivan, Bischoff, etc.; the details of Benoit's descent into insanity, etc. Yes, there are a couple of people - WWE writers, if memory serves - who are quoted. But I suspect there are varying degrees of bias and grudges in ... Read More

Rating:

- Great Service
The book met my expectations, and is quite informative (as well as being controversial). I was impressed by Amazon's quick delivery of the product; their superlative service is the reason that I turn to them first when I am seeking a product.

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