Way of the Blade: 100 of the Greatest Bloody Matches in Wrestling History

Description

There's something about blood that can take a routine professional wrestling match and turn it into a work of art. Blood spilled, pooling on the mat or painting blonde hair red, immediately raises the stakes of any match. In the business, they used to believe red turned into green—when the blade emerged from its hiding place to scrap the forehead, box office receipts grew right alongside the scar tissue. It's visceral and inarguably real, a physical repudiation of the age-old heckling every fan has heard a million times—"it's all fake, isn't it?" In Way of the Blade, Segunda Caida's Phil Schneider, a leading wrestling critic and internet wrestling pioneer with the Death Valley Driver Video Review, looks at 100 of the best, bloodiest matches in the sport's history. Starting in the 1950s and spanning the decades and continents, Schneider tells the story of a very weird sport. You'll meet wrestling chickens, Nazi doctors of philosophy and Japanese death match specialists. You'll relive classics everyone knows and discover some hidden gems previously witnessed by a mere handful of fans lucky enough to have been in the building the night the carnage went down. Gorgeously illustrated by Chris Bryan, this book is destined to become a classic in the burgeoning field of wrestling criticism and a handy guide for fans looking for insight into their favorites and to be introduced to new matches, complete with the context necessary to explain why and how they became legendary.