Fake is a four letter word.

Sounds like a good title for a book on professional wrestling, and maybe I’ll have to make use of it in the future. The phrase came to mind earlier this past week, talking to Bruno Sammartino, hearing him reminisce about the old days, and exchanging words about the current product, or at least what we know about it and quite frankly, don’t appreciate about it.

So Hulk Hogan’s back in TNA, and the bounce already took place?

I’ve already read and reviewed Hogan’s followup opus of dubious quality and veracity, but it remains fun to hear the distortions and lies trickle forth. I smile widely when I read Dave’s take on the various ‘facts’ presented in the book, and even wider when Bruno relays information received by Chris Cruise or Georgiann Makropoulos.

Hogan? Hogan in TNA? Bringing Bischoff and the gang? Two weeks ago, the first thought that popped in my head was, if they bring in Kevin Sullivan, the gang’s all there. Two days later, rumors had Sully coming in.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Said George Santayana.

I’m pretty sure Mr. Santayana didn’t have professional wrestling in mind when he penned that sentence. And I’m more certain that there’s a dozen or so ‘masterminds’ at TNA that would scoff at the notion, but how well did Hogan/Bischoff/Russo/Sullivan do with “Ted Turner’s Money”, with a roster of greats, that not-so-ironically, included: Booker T, Sting, Kevin Nash and Jeff Jarrett, and assistance in the ‘writing’ portion from Ed Ferrara.

Ok, so maybe Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe will make the difference.

But AJ Styles is in no better position than Billy Kidman, and we’ve already got a roster being treated like two-year olds, likely being set up for internal swerves and promises and assorted nonsense, and a holding pattern already established and impossible to ignore.

Is George Santayana a Professional Wrestling Intellectual?

Kinda hard to argue against that.

And just to get back to Bruno Sammartino, let’s look at a few angles and a few situations in recent topics. Bruno owned the Pittsburgh promotion from 1965 until 1971. Anything that happened in Pittsburgh happened because Bruno called the shots.

More so, anything that happened in the WWWF, either happened because Bruno called the shots, or happened because he brought in the talent, agreed to the framework, or executed the angles …. with perfection.

We can look back at the Koloff title change with awe, but let’s not forget that the deafening silence of that title change wasn’t a fluke, wasn’t some expression of spontaneous weirdness, wasn’t some result of anything other than decisions made by the Champion.

It was the culmination of a title run eight years in the making, and the inherent connection created between one of the all-time greats and his fans.

I’ve been reading far and wide how Vince Sr. called the shots. But at every point of interest, I’m hearing where the ideas came from, who identified the talent to come in, and more so, who it was involved with the psychology and the presentation and the dynamics.

Kevin Eck out of Baltimore took care of Hogan’s pathetic claim to being the man who built MSG, and I don’t think it’s any less than a calculation that Hogan never mentioned the name of the man whom he stole most of his concepts, but often failed to deliver upon.

But enough about Hogan, and well, there can never be enough about Bruno.

One other subject I wanted to touch upon was the approach to journalism in this industry, and the reactions to the same. Apparently, there’s been a lot of traffic on this site, and others, about Irv Muchnick’s book, “Chris and Nancy”.

Now, I’ve reviewed the book, and I’ve been public in my appreciation for the effort, and some hesitation on the focus, but I’d never question the integrity of Mr. Muchnick, nor the approach he took in sniffing out the truths involved in the horrific and arguably scandalous events of that weekend when Benoit murdered his family.

I’m not sure what the mentality is of the internet fanbase.

But I’ve been around the internet since the mid 1980’s, and I’m equally Old School in wrestling as I am the ‘net. You ain’t seen nothing like the flamewars of the Usenet, or the pre-website internet’s classic battles and classic name-calling and classic trolling. I’ve been there in the early 1990’s when mainstream fans exploded on the scene (via AOL, and you should appreciate the irony of that, today) and we dealt with the issues of “fake”, the issues of disdain for anything but what was on cable TV, and the issues of shallow minded individuals dominating the subject.

I’m sure I’ve seen worse than what’s going on with the chatter these days.

But what’s odd these days is people’s knee-jerk approach to journalism. I’m also seeing some strange and incongruous approaches in ECW’s SLAM! Anthology. Bottom line is that journalism isn’t about pleasing the fans, or catering to the whims of the promotions, but uncovering truths, and often perceptions of the truth.

If you want to talk about the depths of professional wrestling, let’s talk about the various approaches to the industry.

Phil Mushnick is a reporter in the real world, and always seems to have bad things to say about pro wrestling. Can I challenge him on that? Nope, and more often than not, I agree. I just love the industry more than its warts, and struggle with certain aspects of it – the ones that cause death and abuse and vulgarity.

Irv Muchnick is a renowned reporter who wrote several insightful articles about professional wrestling, uncovering some damning truths and some scandals that none of us would like to talk about. On one hand, Irv may not have the passion about the industry that I have, or you have, but that doesn’t change things.

It shouldn’t change things.

If you’re one of these people who only want to read good things, only want to see slavish devotion to the WWE, only want to be reinforced with your points of view, then we’re never going to see eye-to-eye, and you’re likely to never appreciate the time and effort and talent it takes to doggedly pursue a story.

The internet is filled with a wide range of journalists who happen to cover professional wrestling, from the best, like Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer, who has the contacts and the insight and the ability to cover the sport like no other; to the legions of fanboys who want nothing more than to pretend that Vince McMahon will shine favor upon them and give them a job.

I know which approach I want to read.

While you may consider this one more rambling and meandering column, desperately seeking a point, let’s get to that point.

This week, I’ve release, with the help of Brian Trammel’s publishing house, a book of my writing, called “Professional Wrestling Intellectual”.

It is available at www.btpress.net, www.rasslinriotonline.com and www.amazon.com, and retails for $19.95.

It is a book of my various pieces, some of which have appeared on this site, but others have appeared in various publications in Western Pennsylvania and elsewhere. I’ve provided some uncut pieces, some proposals I’ve pitched, and a variety of insights in the world of professional wrestling intermixed with reviews of books and DVDS and other commentary.

Why Professional Wrestling Intellectual?

Well, learning from Eric Bischoff, I know that “controversy creates cash” and I know that I’m seldom anything but bland in my opinions, and wanted to stir up a reaction to that title.

I also wanted to present a book title that captured my fascination with the industry of professional wrestling, and my appreciation of the depth of the artform that it represents.

We live in an era where the industry has been morphing away from what it once was.

It is inevitable, but still a sad commentary on the WWE, and its great pretender at TNA, that wrestling has become more and more removed from being a talent based, fan participatory, family oriented and arena focused business.

But when mainstream and casual fans have left the industry in droves, there comes a need for analysis and for understanding of the concepts, and especially those that are becoming lost to time.

Professional wrestling, to the mainstream, is a simplistic endeavor: one lacking in any redeemable qualities, attended by idiots and devoid of intellectual or artistic merit.

Those of you reading this know that I have a much different approach on the definition of Professional Wrestling.

And to that end, my efforts were to put together a compilation of my writing that supports the depth of the business, explored the talent and artistic endeavors of the participants, explained how fan’s are an important aspect of the events, and presented the history and analysis of the business – warts and all – without the simplistic mindedness of too many of the mainstream, and unfortunately, some of my peers as well.

So let me take a moment to publically thank the people who have allowed this book to be published.

Thanks first to Dave Meltzer, who opened the door to writing on his site, and has graciously allowed me to review, rant, respond and write to my heart’s content about an industry we share an uncommon passion for.

I continue to appreciate the opportunity, as I maintain that this site is always at the forefront of honest, passionate and informative news about the industry, and hope to write as long as I can here.

Thanks also to all the promoters, publishers and talent that have provided me with subject matter to feed my columns.

Thanks to the people who provided me with photos for the book, especially Ed Russino at www.wrestlingphotos.net, Bob Barnett (www.bobbarnett.com), Jason Deadrich at Chickfight, Full Impact Pro, Ring of Honor, MsChif, Big Vision, Steven Johnson and most notably, the Champ, Bruno Sammartino, for allowing me to use one of his least favorite pictures on the cover!

Thanks to the people who have supported me with encouragement, exchanges of email and words of advice. There are likely far too many to list, and forgive me if I’ve overlooked you, but as a start: Chris Cruise, Georgiann Makropoulos, Larry Matysik, Irv Muchnick, Dan Madigan, Gabe Sapolsky, Sal Hamoudi, Dave Prazak, Lenny Leonard, Leonard Chikara-son, JR Benson, Bryan Alvarez, Dr. Keith Lipinski, Kevin Kleinrock and many others.

 And thanks much to all of you who have been reading my stuff, sending me emails (good or bad) and who have been the reason why I do this. Above all, I love professional wrestling, and I always strive to entertain and inform and participate in this odd industry that we all make happen.

Joe Babinsack can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . I promise WSU is next, as I watched the first ½, and it is awesome. Other than that, DVDs and ECW published books are on deck.