Wrestling is real, and books are too! 📚

Welcome back to Reading the Ring, the New to Wrestling Podcast book club! Life has been life-ing, so Kelsey and I are taking a break from our regularly scheduled shenanigans this week. But don't worry, I'm not leaving you empty-handed.

This time, I'm diving into We Promised You a Great Main Event: An Unauthorized WWE History by Bill Hanstock, a book that reminded me why I love professional wrestling while also reminding me just how ridiculous, complicated, and occasionally shady this business can be.

We're going all the way back to wrestling's carnival roots, where some of the traditions we still recognize today were born, before making our way through Vince McMahon's rise, the Monday Night Wars, the Attitude Era, and the evolution of WWE into a billion-dollar entertainment empire.

And because this is wrestling, things get weird.

We're talking about outrageous gimmicks, questionable business decisions, larger-than-life personalities, and some genuinely uncomfortable chapters of WWE history that don't always get the same attention as the company's greatest moments.

One of the things I appreciated most about this book is that it doesn't ask you to stop loving wrestling. It just asks you to look at the whole picture. The incredible stuff, the absurd stuff, and the things we'd probably rather not think about.

For longtime fans, there's plenty to revisit and reconsider. And for anyone who's newer to wrestling, I think this is a fantastic way to understand how this strange little world became what it is today.

So grab a book, get comfortable, and join me for a little wrestling history, some questionable characters, and probably more Vince McMahon discussion than any of us really need.

📚 This episode's book: We Promised You a Great Main Event: An Unauthorized WWE History by Bill Hanstock.

🎙️ Watch or listen to the full episode of Reading the Ring on the New to Wrestling Podcast!

Wrestling is real, and books are too.

The New To Wrestling Podcast follows two friends who enjoy wrestling but are in different stages of their fandom. Xavier Cruz serves as your guide through generations of professional wrestling while Kelsey Silva experiences these matches for the first time. Climb into the ring weekly to relive the famous matches beginning with the Attitude Era!