Shooters. The definition of shooter tends to differ depending on who you ask. Often the person asked is mistaken in thinking that a shooter is a modern term for a hooker. This is not the case though, a shooter doesn’t necessarily have to be able to hook (Use catch style submission wrestling). You also have a ripper, that is someone who takes a sadistic pleasure in hurting others, normally by hooking. A shooter is simply someone who is legitimately tough and can really hurt you if necessary if the situation calls for it. Jonathan Snowden, well, what hasn’t he done? He currently works for the Department of Defense. He has been a radio DJ and a T.V. producer and somewhere within all that he has manged to co-author The MMA Encyclopedia and is the author of the best selling Total MMA. To top it all off he is the lead combat sports writer for the Bleacher Report.
We get right into the introduction no messing about with a foreword, one isn’t needed anyway. The introduction is kept short and sweet, getting to the point of the book and explaining how long the history of wrestling is and that we would be starting at, in his opinion, the dawn of professional wrestling. Then it’s straight into the thick of things. 1880 and William Muldoon is the first main focus of the book. With this opening chapter the tone is set for everything that is going to come after. There is a biography of William and as with the rest of the book another man, in this case John L. Sullivan, is also give a portion of the chapter. Naturally the two men are linked as is the case when this is done later on. Tying into the next chapter the first is ended and the next begins pretty much where the previous finished. This continues for the following twenty-seven chapters as we cover the history of wrestling all the way up to present day (Late 2011/Earlyl2012) with Josh Barnett, along side mentions of Daniel Bryan, Chael Sonnen, and the work being done by ScientificWrestling.com with Jake Shannon and Billy Robinson. Some of the names featured through-out the book are Karl Gotch, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Kazushi Sakuraba, Tom Jenkins, Jack Brisco, Dory Funk Jr., Lou Thesz, Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, Martin ‘Farmer’ Burns, Danny Hodge, and Masahiko Kimura. Not only that you get a look through the influence of professional wrestling on the rise of mixed martial arts in both Japan and America following some of the major promotions in that field of sports. There are many other names featured also, all put together in an enjoyable read from the beginning to the conclusion.
As I mentioned each chapter is linked into the next, which is a nice touch even when sometimes the link is somewhat forced. I want to get the negative out of the way with before we move on. So, my only quibble was the claim that the dawn of professional wrestling was in the 1880’s. It is mostly believed to have actually dawned in the 1830’s, either way though, it would be wrong to give a definitive answer on something that does not have one. Other than that though it really was a fun read. For fans who already know the history of the sport it is still an interesting read with insight taken from wrestlers books, interviews to give perspectives on both sides of a story or from notable wrestling figures such as Dave Meltzer and Wade Keller. For fans who are not familiar with the history it’s a must have starter read, it is not a complete work of each wrestler, but it is not meant to be either. It does exactly what it says on the tin…it provides a damn good run down of some of the toughest shooters to have ever stepped foot on the stage that is professional wrestling. I’m hesitant to say it is a must have book for all historians out there in both pro-wrestling and mixed martial arts, but it is real close to being so. The only reason it is not is because I can see how for some people it could be quite long winded as sometimes there is a slight repetitive, however, for me I was glad of it as my short term memory is not the best.
By Jonathan Snowden
Published by ECW Press
Released May 8, 2012
320 Pages, Paperback
– By Jimmy Wheeler