Confessions of a 'Smart' Wrestling Fan - The Book

[liamnardo]

Hello,

 

A couple of years ago I did a show at the Edinburgh Fringe festival about my life as a pro wrestling fan. I've now written a follow up book. The main source of inspiration is probably Nick Hornby's 'Fever Pitch' in that it's a potted history of wrestling from Hogan onwards, and a personal memoir of my own life growing up in Birmingham, from a seven year old boy playing with his cousin and beating up his pillows and younger brothers, to the thirty year old - as of today - man with daily worries who uses wrestling (whether it be WWE, NJPW, CHIKARA or what else is on YouTube) as a release and fun, with the angry teenage and young adult years in between.

 

I think you'd probably be the sort of people that would find this book interesting, so if you fancy dropping

[wrestlingmad]

Second sentance in the sample...

 

"His has written two acclaimed solo shows.."

[Chest Rockwell]

Happy Birthday, Liam.

 

I remember reading good things about this show at the time on here..

[liamnardo]

Second sentance in the sample...

 

"His has written two acclaimed solo shows.."

 

Thank you for that one. I added that 'About the Author' page very late last night. I promise you the rest of the book has been drafted and redrafted far too many times to be healthy.

 

And now that page will be too.

[wrestlingmad]

Second sentance in the sample...

 

"His has written two acclaimed solo shows.."

 

Thank you for that one. I added that 'About the Author' page very late last night. I promise you the rest of the book has been drafted and redrafted far too many times to be healthy.

 

And now that page will be too.

Just finished the sample, enjoyed it mate. Might give it a purchase ready for my flights to Mania next year.

[liamnardo]

Happy Birthday, Liam.

 

I remember reading good things about this show at the time on here..

 

Thanks a lot, mate. The ultimate hope is that if I sell a decent number of copies on e-book then I'll print off a couple of hundred and then tour the show around the UK with the chance for people to buy copies before and after.

[JNLister]

Just finished reading this. I'll be honest and say I didn't hold out much hope when I read the description, but it's actually tremendous.

 

I don't know how many non-wrestling fans would actually stick with it all the way through (as opposed to seeing a one-hour show version), but I genuinely can't imagine anyone reading this forum not enjoying it. You'll either enjoy the nostalgia, learn about being a fan "back in the day", repeatedly recognise yourself in the book, or some combination of the three.

 

There's enough of the "here's what happened in wrestling/here's what happened in my life" to make it more interesting that a bunch of old Scott Keith reviews, but not so much that it becomes clunky. The best way to describe it would be like when we have one of those "post a memory of wrestling when you were a kid" threads and somebody makes a great post that is immediately quoted in the awards thread, but if that post was 250+ pages long.

 

It covers everything from Hogan-Warrior to Cena-Punk, but it's a "moments in a fan's life" selection rather than a history of wrestling, so it's got all those milestones like the first time you see an IWA/FMW tape advert, or that time Jacqueline got her tits out at Capital Carnage, with pretending to be HHH in a WWE AOL chatroom and realising how much the crowd stinks at ROH in Liverpool along the way, plus the whole mark>smark>realising you were being a dick progression.

 

Big thumbs up.

[liamnardo]

Just finished reading this. I'll be honest and say I didn't hold out much hope when I read the description, but it's actually tremendous.

 

I don't know how many non-wrestling fans would actually stick with it all the way through (as opposed to seeing a one-hour show version), but I genuinely can't imagine anyone reading this forum not enjoying it. You'll either enjoy the nostalgia, learn about being a fan "back in the day", repeatedly recognise yourself in the book, or some combination of the three.

 

There's enough of the "here's what happened in wrestling/here's what happened in my life" to make it more interesting that a bunch of old Scott Keith reviews, but not so much that it becomes clunky. The best way to describe it would be like when we have one of those "post a memory of wrestling when you were a kid" threads and somebody makes a great post that is immediately quoted in the awards thread, but if that post was 250+ pages long.

 

It covers everything from Hogan-Warrior to Cena-Punk, but it's a "moments in a fan's life" selection rather than a history of wrestling, so it's got all those milestones like the first time you see an IWA/FMW tape advert, or that time Jacqueline got her tits out at Capital Carnage, with pretending to be HHH in a WWE AOL chatroom and realising how much the crowd stinks at ROH in Liverpool along the way, plus the whole mark>smark>realising you were being a dick progression.

 

Big thumbs up.

 

 

Thank you so much for the kind words. It really means a lot to me as I worked on this book for a really long time and it felt like it was something that people like us could relate to. Basically what you said the book was for you reading it is exactly what I wanted to achieve when I was writing it!

 

The fact that it's John Lister, a man who's own writing back when I started picking up PS from mid-98 was a major influence on me as a burgeoning fan, makes me slightly delirious (BAA!) with delight too.

 

Please recommend it to your mates! Particularly one Mr. Martin...

 

Thanks again!