National Wrestling Alliance:
The Untold Story of the Monopoly that Strangled Professional Wrestling
by Tim Hornbaker

This book examines the NWA promoters’ overwhelming success, and the relationships to influential politicians and writers that protected their financial interests for over 50 years. Breaking the façade of sports production, it shows how promoters actually twisted arms to edge out their opponents.

The author documents the life of the NWA, from its humble beginnings in the Midwest after World War II, to its worldwide expansion. He chronicles the Department of Justice’s investigation, providing sports fans with a never-before-told side of wrestling’s legacy. He is at all times careful to separate fact from hearsay, and he avoids the simple good and evil dichotomies that made classic wrestling storylines so popular. To a greater degree than any earlier book on wrestling, this book lets the historical evidence speak for itself.

The most noteworthy exploits of the NWA were behind locked doors. Now, the conspiracies of a century-old brand of entertainment have been finally revealed.

HOOKER
by Lou Thesz with Kit Bauman

The son of European immigrants, Lou Thesz discovered his love of amateur wrestling as a shy eight-year-old, scuffling with his father at night on the linoleum floor of the family’s kitchen in south St. Louis. He was a natural at the sport, blessed with lightning-fast reflexes and a determination to succeed. He was obsessive about conditioning and hungry to learn, and those qualities eventually led him, as a teenager, into the closed and secretive world of pro wrestling, the only place where he could continue to compete on the mat.

This is Thesz’ story — an adventure that took him to the heights of his chosen profession at a very young age and eventually into rings throughout the world. A devoted fan of pro wrestling, he won the respect and friendship of many of the legends. In the 1940s, when television demanded more action and a flashier style of wrestling, he became the transitional figure, the link to the past. Thesz decried the rise of “gimmick” performers like Gorgeous George and Buddy Rogers, who diminished the importance of the authentic style of wrestling he loved and practiced, but he adjusted because the bottom line of pro wrestling, as with any pro endeavor, was making money, and he could see where the future lay.

In the late 1940s and well into the 1950s, he was the world heavyweight champion of the NWA, its standard-bearer, and he carried those colors with dignity and class. “My gimmick was wrestling,” he said, and it was evident to anyone who ever bought a ticket to see Lou Thesz that he was the real thing.

This book was something of a sensation among wrestling fans when it was first published in the 1990s because it was among the first accounts ever published by a major wrestling star that discussed the business with candor from the inside. Academics praised the book, too, for its clear depiction of an era and the rise of a cultural phenomenon.

This is “no holds barred” material — far more open and truthful than anything ever written about professional wrestling.

History & Tradition:
Story of the National Wrestling Alliance

NWA is the oldest sanctioning and governing body in professional wrestling. Its world heavyweight championship has the most storied history in the sport dating back to the 1940s. Follow the history and Tradition of the most prestigious world title in wrestling from it’s creation to the modern era of the NWA today. Learn of the great athletes who held the title and the ones fighting to keep the heritage alive. The NWA World Title has had it’s highs and lows but it’s importance has never been tarnished.

Heroes Of World Class Wrestling

In 1983, World Class Championship Wrestling and its franchise stars, the Von Erich brothers, were known around the world. A small Dallas based promotion running out of the world-famous Dallas Sportatorium, World Class was one of the most syndicated television programs in America, making the Von Erichs household names.  Run by legendary wrestler Fritz Von Erich, World Class made his oldest sons, Kevin, David and Kerry, three of the biggest stars in the world of wrestling.  Little did anyone know that just as the Von Erichs and World Class were reaching worldwide stardom they would begin a downfall that would cast a full eclipse on their meteoric rise to fame. 

Ten Pounds of Gold:
A Close Look at the NWA World Championship Belt
by Dick Bourne & Dave Millican

In October 2008, Dick Bourne and Dave Millican had the rare opportunity to inspect and photograph the genuine NWA world heavyweight championship belt worn and defended in the 1970s and 1980s by Ric Flair, Jack Brisco, Harley Race, and others. Not long afterwards, Bourne decided to put together a book about the history and construction of the NWA belt, a chance to share with others the opportunity they had been fortunate enough to have. The result was “Ten Pounds of Gold”.

This 2012 full color Revised & Expanded Second Edition of the 2009 book contains 70 additional pages of photographs, memorabilia, and historical information, plus a new title history chapter with behind the scenes details, and an expanded chapter on the night the belt was first presented and defended.

Plus all the material in the original book including champion profiles, detailed and close-up photos of the belt itself and a detailed history of how it was made.

Swimming with Piranhas: Surviving the Politics of Professional Wrestling
by Howard Brody

In this memoir, the former president of the National Wrestling Alliance, Howard Brody gives a first hand account of how he’s been able to survive the world of pro wrestling politics, despite getting a few bloody noses along the way. Brody delves into the historical aspects of his time at the NWA, describing encounters – both good and bad – with some of professional wrestling’s most powerful and creative minds including Vince and Linda McMahon, Eric Bischoff, Paul Heyman, Tod Gordon, Antonio Inoki, Hiro Matsuda, the Funks, Dusty Rhodes, Jim Cornette, Hulk Hogan, and more. Brody describes how he got hooked on the business, how he raised money to shoot a ladies wrestling TV pilot, and how he finally ended up in the NWA, serving as its president from 1996 to 2001, and the controversy surrounding how and why he left. Delving into the inner workings of booking and promoting shows, from dealing with talent to building managers, radio and television stations, Brody explains the differences and similarities between small, medium and large promotions, and talks about the nature of negotiating and selling wrestling to television networks and sponsors. Swimming With Piranhas covers aspects of the pro wrestling business that have yet to be captured on paper. This book reveals the true war stories as Brody takes the reader into the boardrooms and back offices of the most exciting business in the world: professional wrestling.