Wrestling’s Underbelly: From Bingo Halls to Shopping Malls

By James “Jimmy Van” VanderLinden

Publish America

www.PublishAmerica.com

$21.95

Reviewed by Joe Babinsack

I did a quick look for Jimmy Van’s web site, and found it, but there hasn’t been much activity on it for two years. Just a few questions about where everyone went.

The potential of the James VanderLinden book was apparent to me when I requested it from Publish America. A book about the insides of an indy level promoter and all the crazy stuff experienced as VanderLinden attempted to get a job as a writer with the WWE.

On the other hand, my experiences with self-publishing have gone from bad to worse. As bad as wannabe pro wrestling writers, commentators and journalists can be on the internet, the difference between those types and book writers who bankroll their books is one thing: an amount of money necessary to get the books published.

Publish America has some detractors and some benefits. Of course, being able to self-publish is a good thing. But self-publishing almost invariably means no editorial guidance, not enough feedback and criticism before publishing, and more often than not, a divergence from credibility.

But, the opportunity to self-publish means that stories like VanderLinden’s can be read, and can be used for positive purposes.

There are very few books out there that delve into the realms of promoting, even on the small scale. I’m reading Gary Howard’s “The Rassler from Renfrew” and it gets into the nuts and bolts of promoting. I’ve read Jimmy Hart’s “Mouth of the South” and it is an excellent book on learning what it takes to succeed in the business (PROMOTION!)

But sometimes reading about failure can be far more insightful than success or hints on success.

Not to say that Jimmy Van’s efforts were always failures, but when he details his expenditures on one of his promotional efforts, and explains (in a list) what he spent for a pilot TV show, one readily realizes that priorities are not in order. Actually, when you realize that the promoters spent $3000 for a taping company to put the action on film, but did not bother to check out the services, did not have a realistic schedule and did not do a ‘dry run’ of the process, you realized the reason why they blew $17,000 on expenses, and didn’t get near half of that back.

Jimmy Van is an energetic, creative and passionate personality. But he’s also a solid stereotype of the modern day promoter – shifty, ready to blame failure on the efforts of others, and conveniently moralistic despite obvious flaws in judgment.

As for the last remark, consider Jimmy Van’s involvement with Dale Gagner’s AWA “scheme”

At the height of pro wrestling’s popularity, Gagner preyed upon the popularity by first making use of the AWA initials (and trademarks, it would seem) and proclaimed himself a “Gagne.”

He also did a lot of questionable tactics in promoting, using names and likenesses, and of course, offering little opportunity to refund money to those who felt ripped-off.

Jimmy Van enters the picture as a web site creator and maintainer, and had jumped from one low-level indy promoter to the next, seemingly looking for the good job, but almost invariably jumping from one scheme to the next.

He distorts, if not ignores, any sense of timeline as he explains how he was happy with the monthly paydays. Only after it begins to unravel (and conveniently, this is unclear when his radar picked up the terrible tactics of the AWA) does Jimmy begin to question the unethical practices of trading on other names, and turning a blind eye Gagner’s shady operations.

Jimmy admits to creating web site support for much of those practices.

But then justifies himself by making a few contacts, and helping the Ultimate Warrior put forth a lawsuit.

The facts and stories are in the book, and they are actually interesting.

What is fascinating as well is Jimmy’s life-long goal to become a WWE writer.

What is dismaying is a particular passage, written after a particularly convoluted angle gets played out, and a small amount of profitability is netted:

“Moments like that are what made (and continue to make) me so passionate about the wrestling business. I lost money doing the work, and I traveled long distances to tiny venues for non-televised shows. But hearing a wrestler cut a promo that I’d written and having a crowd react to it or seeing a match play out the way that I’d designed it and watching the fans get sucked into the story is a felling I just can’t describe. It’s the reason that I stayed motivated to produce unprofitable shows for as long as I did, and it’s the reason that, years later, the dream of contributing creatively to a televised wrestling product is still alive in my heart and in my mind.”

Do I have to point out the flaws in that logic?!?

Well…yes, I must, because I’m seeing the flaws played out on bigger stages, and it’s the main cause of the rot and problems in the industry.

At some point, people decided that creativity in professional wrestling must be equated with absolute control of the product. It doesn’t matter that talented wrestlers and their ability to connect with the fans, should be at the heart of the matter. It doesn’t matter that we’re now in the middle of several generations of wrestling rosters removed from the responsibility of acting and reacting to emotions (not to the scripts put in front of them.) It doesn’t matter that, well, profit, should be the factor for which business exists, and for which a measure of success is gauged.

Nope.

For Jimmy Van, the fact that he wants to be a professional wrestling writer trumps it all.

Don’t matter that his promotions aren’t drawing! Even the slightest pop is the reason for him to persist.

Now, VanderLinden goes on about how the WWE may have grabbed some of his ideas from his web site. Most of us who write have those experiences. Part of it may be that the WWE is so devoid of creativity that they snatch a good thought here and there and run with it. Part of it may be that the WWE over the past half-decade or more has been so predictable that it’s hard not to guess what could come next. And part of it may be the coincidence of creativity – for every dozen ideas put in print, one may seem really close to what actually gets produced by the WWE.

Do we ignore the 11 that never came close?

Jimmy regales us with close to a 100 pages of scripts he sent to the WWE.

The sad fact that this industry is looking for samples of what the wrestlers should say, what should motivate them and how this should be produced on TV is a symptom of obliviousness to what professional wrestling has been.

Top talents of the past decades did not thrive on words put in their mouths, but the connections they made with their fans, over weeks, months and years of performances – performances that they themselves honed, crafted and built into a repertoire that could be understood, reacted to and appreciated.

Other than that glaring criticism, the book ain’t all that bad. If you want to get into the mindset of a participant in indy level promoting, or want to see the extent of business interactions and cons that go on, this is an excellent book for all that.

Joe Babinsack can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Lots of indy DVDs to review, comments to make and people to annoy. But that’s what younz should expect from me!

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