roheblius's Full Review: Steve Austin, Dennis A. Bryant, Jim "J.R." Ross - ...
This book is mistitled, however when I clicked on the buy it links, it went to the correct product, so I will post it here and try to see if I can get the title changed on the product. If there's another product with the correct title on the site, I'll pull it here and repost it there.
Steve Williams, better known as Stone Cold Steve Austin was originally supposed to be one of the first WWF/WWE superstars to write a tell all story about his life in professional wrestling. He was riding so high at the time, he not only didn't have enough time, but there wouldn't be an end to his story. He was the hottest star wrestling had ever seen in such a short period of time. Sure, guys like Hulk Hogan had been on top for much longer, but no one had seen someone take over the wrestling industry like Austin had in such a short amount of time. He passed on writing his story and that gave way to Mick Foley's first autobiography, Have A Nice Day, Tales of Blood and Sweatsocks. That book became number one on the New York best seller list and as I saw first hand, was a tough find for a couple weeks in the book stores.
Fast forward five years later, and Austin's story has come full circle. No longer the top industry dog, as injuries and WWE political ramifications have taken it away from him, he's now at the tail end of his career in wrestling, going from every night in ring performer, to a General Manager in the storylines which equates to not much more than someone who cuts a few promos every Monday Night. This book, The Stone Cold Truth is supposed to be Austin's final chapters on what goes on outside the wrestling ring.
As a Stone Cold fan, I anticipated a second coming of Mick Foley's intrinsic look at what professional wrestling is all about, but it's not. It's more about his remembrances of his career, with a few tidbits about the industry itself.
When I heard the book was finally coming out, I thought what the book could be. I envisioned Austin embracing his childhood and how his family might've helped shape his young self into what he had ultimately become. I thought it would be great to learn more about Austin's days as a young wrestler, making only enough money to make it to the next show, and then doing it over again and wondering how he mentally did it. And lastly, I wanted to read about what was going through his mind while he was transforming the wrestling business in just a matter of months. I thought those were the important things that not only regular wrestling fans wanted to read, but also those like myself who wanted to learn more and more about the business itself, who already researched so much on the subject that a regular book about in ring experiences wouldn't suffice. I'll compare it to a book about any sport, but I'll use baseball as an example. I'm a huge baseball fan, not only one of the professional teams, but also one who has played the game with regularity since I was 7 years old. If I'm going to read a book about baseball, I not only want to know the rush players get when they step on the field, but also what runs through their minds, what goes on when the cameras are off, and what makes them different from other people. With Austin's book, there are inklings of all these things I wanted, but done too much by summarization or what seemed to be simply him recalling events in his life to his co-writer, Dennis Brent.
One of the reasons Austin didn't think he could write a book was because his memory wasn't great. He could remember the big things in his career, but didn't remember the intricate details of everything that he went through like Foley did. But he had help. He gets help from one of his best friends and as you read in this book he doesn't have many and really does live with the DTA (Don't Trust Anybody) mentality. That best friend is Jim Ross, also known as Good Ol' JR to those who watch wrestling. Ross is one of the best play by play men in the history of the wrestling industry. While he's not calling true sport where not much can be predicted, he's basically helping the wrestlers get over (making everything they do seem important) by calling the match with the intensity of a sporting event. As someone who has seen most of Stone Cold's career in front of his eyes, he was probably an instrumental help in putting the stories together.
While I was disappointed as a die hard fan, and someone who lived through the Stone Cold era, there are places where he gives me what I want, but again, it's not enough. The book starts off tremendously as he takes you back only 6 months ago. Regular fans wouldn't know that he almost had a heart attack before this past March's Wrestlemania. He describes what he was feeling before going into what he knew as probably his last match in great detail, making your heart race as his was that Wrestlemania eve. And while he made it through the match, you could feel his sadness as he let on that he knew he was finished as a wrestler before anyone else knew.
One specific topic that seemed to get a rise out of him was when the late Owen Hart misjudged a piledriver maneuver (think of dropping a dart into the ground from 6 feet in the air straight down, and that was Austin's head into the mat) that nearly left Austin paralyzed. It was really the beginning of his injury problems as neck problems have been the only thing to slow him down and seemingly now end his career. It's an uneasy subject to read about as Owen Hart was known as one of the good guys in wrestling and you can't believe Hart could've been as callous as Austin describes. Austin seems broken hearted in telling a story where he and Hart were going through the finish to the match and Austin was telling Hart how to give him the pile driver while Hart argued back on how he was going to do it his way. And in the end, his way was wrong. Austin does come back at the end of the chapter to say that Owen Hart died a horrible death and even though Owen had a part in his career coming to a short end, he never wished any harm on Owen and said that it was an accident, although one that could've been prevented.
The part of the book the WWE is trying to sell as the must read chapters are from the time he left WWE by taking his ball and going home. They did an expose story on it when it happened in 2002, and when he came back, he wrote a magazine article in their Raw Magazine which basically is the same story written in this book, but he talks about his injuries being the main reason for his absence, rather than the fact that he didn't want to lose to up and comer Brock Lesnar, which was their story at the time.
Near the end of the book, you're left wondering how you went through some 300 pages and didn't really learn about what he thinks wrestling is and how his career really took off. It's there, but it's almost in outline form, where I wanted it to be an in depth analysis on his career. In the last three chapters, the story picks up to where I wanted it to be in the preceding 300 pages. He talks about what is wrong with the industry and how he would right it to get it back to where it was when he was in his prime. He talks about storyline writers and how they are ruining not only the product, but the future of many of the young stars by limiting their own creative processes. And then he talks about how his own trials as a bad husband, bad father, and alcoholic (without really calling himself one) all helped him shape his career. He gives himself an out by comparing wrestling to any other form of entertainment, or athletic competition, but where he's wrong is that in wrestling there is no off season. They don't take time off. It's year round. Bruce Springstein may go on a two month tour, but he's home after those two months, until he does something else. But Austin and the rest of the guys are basically working 4 days a week, with a few days left for their family. You can't stick up for the business in that aspect, but he still tries.
Stone Cold Steve Austin's career ascended so quickly, that maybe he didn't have the same stories that Mick Foley did. He went from young wrestler, to being on TV every week, to being one of the biggest stars ever, in a matter of less than ten years. Maybe the ride to the top was so fast, that if he ever took a chance to look back, it would've slowed down his pace. But whatever the reasons were why this book is not what it could've been, you get a feeling that it's the real Austin. You get a feeling that he's not one to wax poetic about a wrestling career like Foley did. He'd rather just unlace his boots, have a few beers, and ask someone how their career was rather than talk about his. For regular wrestling fans this book should be enough for me to recommend. But for the 10 percent of wrestling fans who are like me and need more, they'll be left slightly unfulfilled.
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