Ringmaster : : Vince Mcmahon and the Unmaking of America

Locations
Call Number: 796.812 Re, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Sports / McMahon, Vince
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Pittsfield Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	796.812 Re	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Sports / McMahon, Vince	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Overture: Shoot -- Part one: Faces -- Fall (1945-1957) -- Juice (1957-1970) -- Play-by-play (1970-1982) -- Get over, Act I (1982-1984) -- Get over, Act II (1984) -- Get over, Act III (1984-1985) -- Get over, Finale (1985) -- High spot (1985-1987) -- Part two: Turns -- Push (1987-1990) -- Heat, Act I (1990-1991) -- Heat, Act II (1991-1992) -- Heat, Act III (1992-1993) -- Heat, Finale (1993-1994) -- Suck it, Act I (1994-1996) -- Suck it, Act II (1996-1997) -- Suck it, Act III (1997-1999) -- Suck it, Finale (1999) -- Coda: The job.
Featuring never-before-seen research and exclusive interviews with people who witnessed, aided, and suffered from his ascent, this unauthorized investigative chronicle of the media mogul, defining cultural force, and one of Donald Trump's closest friends uses his story as a new lens for understanding contemporary America.
In his four decades as the defining figure of American pro wrestling, McMahon was the man behind Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, John Cena, Dave Bautista, Bret "The Hitman" Hart, and Hulk Hogan, to name just a few of the mega-stars who owe him their careers. For more than twenty-five years, he has also been a performer in his own show, acting as the diabolical "Mr. McMahon"--a figure who may have more in common with the real Vince than he would care to admit. Just as importantly, McMahon is one of Donald Trump's closest friends--and Trump's experiences as a performer in McMahon's programming were, in many ways, a dress rehearsal for the 45th President's campaigns and presidency. McMahon and his wife, Linda, are major Republican donors. Linda was in Trump's cabinet. McMahon makes deals with the Saudi government worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And for generations of people who have watched wrestling, he has been a defining cultural force. Accessible to anyone, regardless of wrestling knowledge, Ringmaster is an unauthorized, independent, investigative chronicle of Vince McMahon's origins and rise to supreme power. It is built on exclusive interviews with more than 150 people, from McMahon's childhood friends to those who accuse him of destroying their lives. Far more than just an athletics or entertainment biography, Ringmaster uses Vince's story as a new lens for understanding the contemporary American apocalypse.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation
Table of Contents
Excerpt
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

An underbaked account of Vince that fails to live up to promise outlined in the dust jacket submitted by nbonham on November 29, 2023, 11:25am This book promises to be a lens about the unmaking of America and rise of Trump through the telling of Vince McMahon, detailing his rise to dominate professional wrestling.

This is a super intriguing premise as wrestling is a great metaphor for politics. Smarts, marks, kayfabe, playing up bombastic storylines, blurring fiction and fact, etc.

Unfortunately the author never delivers. The first part is about Vinces youth and ascension, which all reads as a decent biography. But the second half of the book basically just narrates a lot of Raw or Smarkdown episodes and it never amounts to anything.

Moreover, there's nothing new in here for Wrestling fans, and there is way too much insider jargon for a non Wrestling fan to follow along.

Just listen to the Behind the Bastards series on Vince and watch some episodes of Dark Side of the Ring instead of reading this book.