About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

If you are looking to add a true piece of wrestling history to your collection this will make for an interesting conversational piece. Fans of history, whether it be wrestling, language, or the publishing industry will love this look back from another era. If you are a fan that only cares about the current era of professional wrestling or are expecting a modern-style wrestling book, this is not the book for you.

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Pros

• An authentic piece of wrestling history

Cons

• Can not be compared to wrestling books of the modern era

Description

• This is a republication of a book that was written in 1908.
• Frank Gotch was the World Champion at the time he wrote this.
• The soft-cover book is 122 pages long and measures 5.5" x 8.5".
• The book costs $18.

Guide Review - Review of Wrestling by Frank Gotch

This is an interesting piece of wrestling history. At the time this book was originally released, Frank Gotch had recently won the World Championship from George Hackenschmidt. This book is part biography, partly an explanation of wrestling, and partly a training manual.

The biography piece wasn't written by Gotch. However, it is an interesting read to see how both the coverage of wrestling and the use of the English language has changed in the past century.

The next chapter has Frank describing the different variations of wrestling. It is quite mind-boggling to read his description of the science of wrestling in today's environment.

Frank then gives his hints on training and that is followed by illustrations and explanations of 29 different moves. Many of these moves were popular during that era but would surely result in "Boring" chants if used today.

The book is loaded with pictures of wrestlers from this era and it is great to be able to place faces with these legendary names. I was shocked by the physique of George Hackenschmidt and can only say that if performance enhancing drugs were available in his day that he would have been accused of using them.

Perhaps my favorite part of the book is the section with the ads for the other books of the era by the original publisher. It made me feel like I was visiting a sports museum.

Important Update: Since writing this review, I was contacted by Kirk Lawson, who has this book legally available for free via download of a .pdf file at his website.

Publisher's Site