Irvin Muchnick -- a widely published writer and nephew of the late,
legendary St. Louis wrestling promoter Sam Muchnick -- has produced a
book unlike any other on the astonishing growth of professional
wrestling and its profound impact on mainstream sports and society. In
Wrestling Babylon, he traces the demise of wrestling's old Mafia-like
territories and the rise of a national marketing base thanks to cable
television, deregulation and a culture-wide nervous breakdown.
Naturally, the figure of WWE's Vince McMahon lurks throughout, but
equally evident is the public's late-empire lust for bread, circuses,
and blood. As this book demonstrates, the more cartoonishly unreal
wrestling got, the more chillingly real it became.What truly
distinguishes Wrestling Babylon, however, is Muchnick's ability to show
how professional wrestling has become the ur-carnival for a culture that
feeds on escapist displays of humiliation, revenge, fantasy characters,
and sex. His People magazine article on Hulk Hogan blew the lid off the
drug abuse of the sport's signature superstar. His award-winning
Penthouse profile of the ill-starred Von Erich clan was the first to
connect the dots between wrestling, televangelism, and MTV-style
production values. His never-before-published investigation of the death
of Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka's girlfriend suggests the cover-up of a
murder. The book's appendix -- a comprehensive listing of the dozens of
wrestlers who died prematurely over the last generation, with little or
no attention -- is both a valuable resource for wrestling historians and
a shocking document of the ruthless way sports entertainment eats its
own.
