Elite Wrestling: Your Moves for Success on and Beyond the Mat


Book Description

Coach Tom Ryan gives you winning advice to improve your team's speed, power, and coordination. The book also includes essays by powerhouse coaches, champion wrestlers, and former competitors that demonstrate how to build a solid team and motivate young athletes, teach the fundamentals, and use drills for steady improvement.




Too Sweet


Book Description

Keith Elliot Greenberg chronicles the growth of indie wrestling from bingo halls to a viable alternative to the WWE and speaks to those involved in the Alternative Wrestling League with remarkable candor, gaining behind-the-scenes knowledge of this growing enterprise. As COVID-19 utterly changed the world as we know it, only one sport was able to pivot and offer consistent, new, live programming on a weekly basis: professional wrestling. In 2017, after being told that no independent wrestling group could draw a crowd of more than 10,000, a group of wrestlers took up the challenge. For several years, these gladiators had been performing in front of rabid crowds and understood the hunger for wrestling that was different from the TV-slick product. In September 2018, they had the numbers to prove it: 11,263 fans filled the Sears Center Arena for the All In pay-per-view event, ushering in a new era. A year later, WWE had its first major head-to-head competitor in nearly two decades when All Elite Wrestling debuted on TNT. Acclaimed wrestling historian Keith Elliot Greenberg’s Too Sweet takes readers back to the beginning, when a half century ago outlaw promotions challenged the established leagues, and guides us into the current era. He paints a vivid picture of promotions as diverse as New Japan, Ring of Honor, Revolution Pro, Progress, and Chikara, and the colorful figures who starred in each. This is both a dynamic snapshot and the ultimate history of a transformational time in professional wrestling.




Elite Wrestling


Book Description

Improve your team's performance with advice from grappling's greatest Coach Tom Ryan gives you winning drills from his playbook to improve your team's speed, power, and coordination. Also included are essays by powerhouse coaches, champion wrestlers, and former competitors that will show you how to build a solid team and motivate young athletes, teach the fundamentals, and use drills to improve speed, power, and coordination. Legendary coach and wrestler Dan Gable shows you how to gain toughness and strength from the rigors of wrestling; U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld explains how he used the challenge and discipline of the sport to propel himself into positions of power; and Olympic gold medalist Ben Peterson gives you tips on how to surround yourself with supportive people. Contributors include: John Irving, American writer and former prep school coach Terry Brands, U.S. Olympic freestyle coach Steve Fraser, U.S. Olympic Greco-Roman coach Dennis Hastert, U.S. Speaker of the House Stephen Neal, New England Patriots player Tricia Saunders, world champion wrestler




Glorious Wrestling Alliance


Book Description

"Step into the ring at Glorious Wrestling Alliance, the universe's least-professional wrestling company. Collected in colossal full color for the first time, this ... love letter to pro wrestling covers identity, anxiety, and leg drops"--




The American Nightmare Cody


Book Description

The son of pro wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes, Cody has wrestling in his blood. He wrestled for the WWE for many years before striking out as an indie wrestler. In 2019, he helped launch a new pro wrestling company, All-Elite Wrestling. His incredible story of pursuing a dream and working hard to make it happen will inspire readers. Lower-level text for a high-interest biography and full-color photographs from the span on Cody's career make this book a must-read for both sports fans and future entrepreneurs.




Wrestling Mindset Workbook


Book Description

The full curriculum for the Wrestling Mindset program




Under the Black Hat


Book Description

From legendary wrestling announcer Jim Ross, this candid, colorful memoir about the inner workings of the WWE and the personal crises he weathered at the height of his career is “a must-read for wrestling fans” (Charleston Post Courier). If you’ve caught a televised wrestling match anytime in the past thirty years, you’ve probably heard Jim Ross’s throaty Oklahoma twang. The beloved longtime announcer of the WWE “has been a driving force behind a generation of wrestling fans” (Mark Cuban), and he’s not slowing down, having signed on as the announcer of the starry new wrestling venture All Elite Wrestling. In this follow-up to his bestselling memoir Slobberknocker, he dishes out about not only his long career, which includes nurturing global stars like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, and John Cena, but also about his challenges of aging and disability, his split from collaborator Vince McMahon, and the sudden death of his beloved wife, Jan. The result is a gruff, endearing, and remarkably human-scale portrait, set against the larger than life backdrop of professional wrestling. Ross’s ascent in WWE mirrors the rise of professional wrestling itself from a DIY sideshow to a billion-dollar business. Under the Black Hat traces all the highs and lows of that wild ride, in which Jim served not only as on-air commentator, but talent manager, payroll master, and even occasional in-ring foil to threats like Paul “Triple H” Levesque and Undertaker. While his role brought him riches and exposure he had never dreamed of, he chafed against the strictures of a fickle corporate culture and what he saw as a narrow vision of what makes great wrestlers—and great story lines. When suddenly stricken with Bell’s palsy, a form of facial paralysis that makes it impossible to smile, he started down his greatest fear—being cast out of the announcing booth for good. Picking up where Slobberknocker left off and ending on the cusp of a new career in a reimagined industry, Under the Black Hat is the triumphant tale of a country boy who made it to the top, took a few knocks, and stuck around—just where his fans like him. Not only being one of the greatest wrestlers of the WWE, Ross is also “a master storyteller, and this book is the perfect forum for his forty years’ worth of tales” (Chris Jericho, former WWE champion).




Beginning Wrestling


Book Description

It's like playing chess with your body--moves and countermoves that outwit and overpower your opponent. Once you learn the basic rules of school-style wrestling, and the strategies for winning matches, you're on your way to being a champion. And, whatever your age, size, or athletic ability, there is a place for you in the sport. It's a matter of getting yourself physically and mentally fit. Find out the right equipment to buy, especially shoes and headgear. Then, practice starting positions, following the instructions and photos of each stance. Add the essential offensive and defensive strategies, including inside step series, level changes, takedowns, and common countermoves. Learn to move and feint to create proper angles of attack, and control your opponent at will. A master plan shows how to set and reach weekly, monthly, and season-long goals. Sidebars feature famous people who got their start in wrestling.




Young Bucks


Book Description

The electric and daring independent wrestling tag team share their inspiring story of how two undersized, ambitious athletes from Southern California became the idols of millions of popular sports fans, coveted among the ranks of AEW’s elite wrestling lineup. Featuring over 60 photographs and alternating between each brother’s perspective, this entertaining memoir is a complete portrait of what it means to grow into—and give back to—wrestling, the sport and profession they embody and love. Famous for their highflying moves, Superkicks, and viral videos, Matt and Nick Jackson are two of the hottest and most talented competitors in professional wrestling today. Known as the Young Bucks, this pair of ambitious brothers are an inspiration to both fans and aspiring wrestlers worldwide due to their message of resilience and determination. That they are also faithful family men devoted to their loved ones gives them additional appeal. Young Bucks begins in Southern California, where two young boys grew up dreaming of success and fame. Matt and Nick look back on the sacrifices they made to achieve their ambitions, from taking odd jobs to pay for their own wrestling ring to hosting backyard events with friends. They share their joy at being recruited into the independent California wrestling circuit and the work it took to finally make it professionally, and speak frankly about what it means to have the support of millions of fans cheering their talents in arenas nationwide. The Young Bucks talk endearingly about their sport, their faith, and their families, sharing personal reflections and behind-the-scenes anecdotes while paying tribute to the wrestling acts and inspirations that came before them. They also elaborate on this historical time in the evolution of wrestling, as the sport and its culture dramatically change day by day. Told with the brothers’ signature wit and charm, Young Bucks is warm, heartfelt story of hope, perseverance, and undying ambition.




MOX


Book Description

A vivid trip through the mind of the top professional wrestler in the business—a nobody from nowhere who achieved his ambitions and walked away with the gold and the girl of his dreams. Ride alongside Jon Moxley as he retraces some of the highways traveled on his remarkable journey. Revel in the never-before-told stories about his early life in Cincinnati, Ohio; the gritty independent wrestling scene where he cut his teeth; the complicated corporate landscape of the WWE where he bucked against authority; and the rebellious upstart AEW, where he won the championship in 2020 and was finally free to achieve the vision of the wrestler he’d always wanted to be. With plenty of pitstops and revelatory insights, including grisly ultraviolent encounters, crazy characters who became lifelong friends, and his unforgettable matches in Japan, MOX is the riveting account of the life of a brawler. It is a tale written in blood and soaked in debauchery, with a good dose of wisdom accumulated along the way. More than a backstage pass into the arena, MOX is a ticket into the ring. Once inside, you’ll never look at pro wrestling the same again.