shipshirt Posted September 18, 2007 Share Posted September 18, 2007 I just finished reading Jim Wilson's [I]Chokehold[/I]. I liked it and thought it was actually pretty timely with all that is going on in wrestling now (the book was published in 2004). I did have some issues with it though, the first being that I don't think he ever really had any respect for wrestling in the first place. He calls it a "phoney sport" quite often. Others: ** He's hung up on the fact that Ray Gunkel told him to go with the program and he'd probably get the belt someday. He takes this as gospel and as if Gunkel had promised him on the life of his kids. It's just something people say to hopefuls...you might be CEO one day, you might win the Cy Young one day...etc. ** There are a lot of hypocrisies throughout the book. On one hand he laments that true shooters have to lose to people with lesser actual wrestling talent (totally ignoring the fact that just because someone can win in a shoot doesn't mean they can put asses in the seats). Later in the book he rails against the injustice that Thunderbolt Patterson never got a World Championship. He talks about Patterson not being great in the ring and unable to bump. So which is it? He then goes on to talk about Sable and how she was demeaned sexually by her role in wrestling (in the same chapter he goes on to talk about how she chose to do Playboy twice) and how he supported her because the promoters had the audacity to ask her to lose the Women's title in the ring on TV. Sable!?!?! Somehow this would hurt her marketability? He's really hung up on the fact that people are told to lose. I know, back in the day, it was a much bigger deal to your marketability to lose a match but hell, if you were working for me and bitched about everything I asked you to do in the context of a storyline I probably wouldn't want to work with you either. I'm not talking about anything demeaning...I'm just talking about putting people over. If Wilson had his way, all title changes would take place in Rio De Janero like the mythical Intercontinental Title tournament that Pat Patterson won. No one would ever have to job. ** Lastly, the use of [I]italics[/I] for any [I]wrestling related[/I] terms. And man, does he overuse the terms. Vince then made a [I]babyface to heel[/I] turn during the [I]angle[/I] of the trial. He thought his [I]scriptwriters[/I] could [I]work[/I] the crowd. It's like a kid with a new toy. It's just awkward. Oddly enough, I did actually enjoy the book and think he raises some valid points. I just wanted to get a discussion going with anyone else who might have read the book... Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irabowman Posted September 18, 2007 Share Posted September 18, 2007 Just out of curiosity what charter did this Mr Wilson play? I don't know real names vs charter names. Just curios is all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shipshirt Posted September 18, 2007 Author Share Posted September 18, 2007 I don't think he really played one. He went by "Big" Jim Wilson and "The All American Kid". He worked mainly in Georgia for the NWA in the 70's but I had never heard of him other than him being the guy on 20/20 that revealed that wrestling was predetermined. He claimed he was blacklisted because he turned down a sexual advance from NWA bigwig Jim Barnett. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irabowman Posted September 18, 2007 Share Posted September 18, 2007 Thanks for the info, Hopefully local libary will have the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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