Lou Thesz (1916–2002)

An Authentic Wrestler's Adventures Inside the bizarre World of Professional Wrestling.

For at least my generation of wrestling fans...and, for us, there was always just one heavyweight wrestling champion of the world...Lou Thesz was the personification of dignity, toughness, wrestling acclaimed world champion at age 21 and was still winning such acclaim at age 50, holding the undisputed championship of the world, as recognized by the National Wrestling Alliance, six times. with an arsenal that included almost every possible maneuver within the ring, and every imaginable portion of aplomb outside it, Thesz was the embodiment of a world champion.

In his prime years, Thesz was a celebrity of the first order. Had a program like "Entertainment Tonight" existed in those times, Thesz would have been a regular subject , posing with movie stars like Alan Ladd and Yvonne DeCarlo, or trading mock grips with former heavy-weight boxing king Joe Louis.

Catlike in the ring, blessed with rugged good looks, a charmer with people from all walks of life and-most importantly-the consummate wrestler in a hippodrome world full of "performers" and never done before and not ever likely to be achieved by others. In an age when wrestling "champions" were a dime a dozen, Thesz was the ultimate barometer of a man who could literally wrestle his way out of any situation...and proved it often enough to earn the highest accolades of all-those from his colleages on the mat, the promoters who created one of the more amazing chapters in the history of American culture: professional wrestling.

His biography , "Hooker," crafted in association with Kit Bauman, stands as still another testimony to Thesz' impact on the sport. Never before, in the more than 125 years that professional wrestling has occupied the american public, has anyone authored a more knowledgable, more articulate and more revealing portrait of this remarkable form of human athleticism. It is, like the man, a classic.… (meer)

Easily the best and most important of the wrestling autobiographies that seem to abound these days. Thesz was unique for being a top hand as both a worker and shooter, and as he wrestled in seven different decades (and was a top star for most of them), nobody is in a better position to tell the story of wrestling's journey from sport to circus. Sadly, he died not long after this book finally saw publication, but it's very fortunate he was able to finish this project; a great memoir of a great man.… (meer)