Awesome Truth: A Wrestling Book Club

There's no love lost between Awesome Truth and WWE Network's Chronicle series, but a Becky Lynch episode has to turn everything around, right? Right?! "The Man" might be the hottest character in WWE, but this 'documentary' series from the Network seems beyond saving. We dissect WWE's 24-minute recap of Lynch's rehab from a Nia Jax punch and rant about their insistence on keeping kayfabe in the mid...

"Mean" Gene Okerlund died on January 2, 2019, but he'd already been granted eternal life in the hearts and minds of wrestling fans everywhere. There will never be another interviewer like Gene, beloved by all and perfect at telling the stories that make wrestling so great. To celebrate his remarkable life and career, we gathered to discuss all our favorite Okerlund interviews and analyze his legac...

Mick Foley's first book changed the wrestling literature game. Before its release in 1999, wrestling books were mostly lame tales penned by ghostwriters, but Foley showed the world that stories about WCW, ECW, WWF, and life on the road could be well-written and entertaining while also selling like hotcakes. For our last episode of 2018, we sat down with this lengthy literary gem and revisited all...

Awesome Truth is going to the movies! Or, more accurately, renting one through a streaming service. We invited a very special guest from the In Reel Deep Podcast to discuss the latest entry in The Marine franchise, starring Mike "The Miz" Mizanin, Shawn Michaels, and "The Man" Becky Lynch. Was it worth our $4 and 85 minutes? And how do "The Heartbreak Kid" and Lynch fare on the somewhat-silver scr...

Anyone who grew up on the Attitude Era knows Good Ol' JR, but there's more to Jim Ross than being the voice of WWF/WWE. He was a fixture in Mid-South Wrestling, Crockett Promotions, and WCW, all of which he outlines in his 2017 autobiography  Slobberknocker . Though Ross ends this tale at WrestleMania XV, there are still plenty of Vince McMahon stories and crazy wrestling anecdotes to keep you com...

From starring as Razor Ramon to co-founding the nWo, very few wrestlers have a more legendary resume than Scott Hall. But he also has one of the most unique and depressing tales in pro wrestling history, a story the WWE captures perfectly in this 80-minute documentary. What drove Scott Hall down such a dark hole, and how did he climb out of it? And what made him arguably the best wrestler never to...

From Frank Gotch and Ed "Strangler" Lewis to Giant Baba, El Santo, and Vince McMahon's modern-day WWE, the history of pro wrestling is colorful, detailed, and always fascinating. So it makes a surprising amount of sense that The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling would be the best way to tell the story of the squared circle. Co-creators Aubrey Sitterson and Chris Moreno join us to discuss...

One episode about  NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW just wasn't enough! After talking to Guy Evans and reading his 590-page WCW retrospective, we're back to discuss what made World Championship Wrestling special and what ultimately killed it. Do we blame Eric Bischoff? Vince Russo? WCW Thunder? Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash? And what was the company's ultimate ach...

The pro wrestling world can't stop talking about  NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW , Guy Evans's 590-page magnum opus that covers all things World Championship Wrestling. And because we are the best wrestling literature podcast there is, we've brought Guy himself on to discuss what killed WCW, his favorite WCW wrestlers, and how it feels to receive rare praise...

For our 30th episode, we're returning to the world of WWE Network documentaries via this inside look at Samoa Joe. Joe has defied expectations and become a WWE star after years of toiling in ROH and TNA; does this doc capture what makes Joe a special talent and terrific heel, or is it another example of WWE telling its version of the story while toying with breaking kayfabe? And what makes WWE Chr...

The WWF in the 1980s had its fair share of crazy characters: Jake "The Snake" Roberts, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, and the subject of today's podcast, Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake. To provide even more insight into Beefcake's autobiography,  Struttin' and Cuttin' , we've brought on coauthor Kenny Casanova to share Brutus stories both from the book and beyond. We talk about Beefcake's relationship with Hu...

You've heard us praise  Crazy Like A Fox: The Definitive Chronicle of Brian Pillman 20 Years Later ; now hear more Pillman stories directly from the author. The wonderful Liam O'Rourke joins us to tell some wild and crazy Brian Pillman tales that didn't make the book; he also shares his thoughts on Vince McMahon, the recent Eric Bischoff controversy, WWE's role as custodian of wrestling history, a...

The first season of GLOW might've been Netflix's best; now Liberty Belle, Welfare Queen, Zoya the Destroyer, and the rest of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling are back for a second season. As such, we're breaking down the Mother of All Matches, cameos from Chavo Guerrero Jr. and Carlito, and everything else pro wrestling from this show. The creators may not watch modern day WWE but they sure know h...

There's more to the story of Brian Pillman than you think you know. In Crazy Like A Fox , Liam O'Rourke's detailed retelling of Pillman's life, we find out how the Loose Cannon went from Cincinnati Bengal to pro wrestler to extremely tragic cautionary tale. There's plenty of Eric Bischoff and Vince McMahon to go around, not to mention some Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin. We do a deep dive into O'Rour...

Matt and Jeff Hardy went from devoted jobbers to tag team champions, and then it all came tumbling down. But now the Hardys are back in WWE, with Jeff still putting on high-quality matches and Matt bringing the Woken Universe to life. In The Hardys: Woken, this latest episode in the WWE 24 series offers a surprisingly unflinching look at Matt's meltdowns, Jeff's disaster of a match against Sting i...

For the last five years, NXT has been the home of arguably the best wrestling on the planet, beloved by indie enthusiast and WWE Network subscriber alike. But did we really need a whole book on how WWE's developmental system came to be? Your best buds at Awesome Truth welcome special guest Matt Reis to the podcast to discuss NXT: The Future is Now , a Triple H-loving look at the rise of the black-...

Bruno Sammartino, one of the most beloved and successful pro wrestlers of all time, died in April of 2018. In response, WWE released a documentary recapping his life, which you can find on the WWE Network. Is this Bruno retrospective worth a watch, or just the extended version of a four-minute video package that they've labeled a 'documentary'? On the latest episode of Awesome Truth, we revisit Br...

Eric Bischoff's new podcast 83 Weeks has been a smashing success, which means it's time for Awesome Truth to capitalize on Bischoff-mania and discuss his book Controversy Creates Cash . Eric pulls no punches in revisiting what led to the death of WCW, but can we really trust his memories? Are his assessments of Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, and Bret Hart honest or self-serving? We debate WCW's demise and...

The latest documentary in WWE Network's WWE 24 series offers up never-before-seen footage of Monday Night Raw's 25th anniversary, a classic WWE celebration that featured Steve Austin, Vince McMahon, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, and a cavalcade of (briefly) returning stars. But it also highlighted how lazy WWE can get with its nostalgia efforts. And why is a documentary about the show better than...

The New Day are no longer just the longest-reigning tag champions in WWE history; they're also authors. Their big, bright, beautiful Book of Booty  sums the trio up perfectly; it also highlights how they've been used (and misused) since becoming stars in 2015, including zero WrestleMania wins. Is their ceiling "tag team champions" or is there more that WWE can do with Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xav...

We interrupt your regularly scheduled podcasting to present a special bonus episode on HBO's Andre the Giant documentary. Produced by Bill Simmons and WWE, it's a detailed look at the life of André Roussimoff, one of the biggest (pun intended) wrestlers of all time. Featuring Vince McMahon, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, and a bevy of other bombastic personalities, it's a huge mainstream moment for pro wr...

Happy WrestleMania week! We're celebrating by discussing a hidden WWE documentary:  The Mania of WrestleMania . This behind-the-scenes look at WrestleMania XIX gets deep into the personal lives of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock, Kurt Angle, and Brock Lesnar as they prepare for main-event matches at The Showcase of the Immortals. It's brutally honest about Austin's impending retirement and Ang...

Many people consider Shawn Michaels the best worker in the history of pro wrestling; some will go as far as to say "the greatest wrestler of all time." One of those superfans is an Awesome Truth cohost! His second book, Wrestling for My Life , covers not only Shawn's WWE comeback but his belief in Jesus Christ. How does the Heartbreak Kid link faith and wrestling? And what's it like to read the Sh...

"Classy" Freddie Blassie holds a unique place in wrestling history as one of the most despised and beloved personalities of all time. It was a no-brainer for Awesome Truth to tackle his autobiography Listen, You Pencil Neck Geeks , especially since it was cowritten by our friend Keith Elliot Greenberg. After a brief introduction, Keith returns to the podcast for a conversation on Blassie's in-ring...

In 1989, Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan had a dream: Bring the World Wrestling Federation to the silver screen. What we got was No Holds Barred , a remarkable mess of a movie that's barely about pro wrestling. Rather than return to the written word, the Awesome Truth boys watched Rip take on Zeus for the very first time. In the process, they found out why McMahon's WWE Studios decided to focus on di...