Headlocks and Dropkicks - by Ted Kluck (Hardcover)

About the Book

Is it sport or is it entertainment? As presented by World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., the most well-known promoter of professional wrestling, it is hard for the uninitiated to tell. A refuge for the very athletic, and often a breeding ground for the highly dysfunctional, professional wrestling is, in the truest sense, life on the fringes.
Headlocks and Dropkicks: A Butt-Kicking Ride through the World of Professional Wrestling chronicles sportswriter Ted A. Kluck's effort to become a professional wrestler at a popular wrestling school in the suburbs of Chicago. In training to become a wrestler, Kluck was able to delve into the traveling-circus elements of the sport and talk to the people who make it work--promoters, bookers, and the wrestlers themselves.

Wrestling has weathered manifold changes in American taste to survive and thrive as it does today. Kluck examines the tension between the good vs. evil tales that permeated wrestling in the early to mid 1980s, along with the seamy soap opera storylines that seem to drive it today. He also takes time to catch up with the biggest stars the sport has produced--some of whom have parlayed their fame into financial security and others who are currently looking to reclaim their past glory.

• 15 illustrations

Book Synopsis

Is it sport or is it entertainment? As presented by World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., the most well-known promoter of professional wrestling, it is hard for the uninitiated to tell. A refuge for the very athletic, and often a breeding ground for the highly dysfunctional, professional wrestling is, in the truest sense, life on the fringes.

Headlocks and Dropkicks: A Butt-Kicking Ride through the World of Professional Wrestling chronicles sportswriter Ted A. Kluck's effort to become a professional wrestler at a popular wrestling school in the suburbs of Chicago. In training to become a wrestler, Kluck was able to delve into the traveling-circus elements of the sport and talk to the people who make it work--promoters, bookers, and the wrestlers themselves.

Wrestling has weathered manifold changes in American taste to survive and thrive as it does today. Kluck examines the tension between the good vs. evil tales that permeated wrestling in the early to mid 1980s, along with the seamy soap opera storylines that seem to drive it today. He also takes time to catch up with the biggest stars the sport has produced--some of whom have parlayed their fame into financial security and others who are currently looking to reclaim their past glory.

Review Quotes

". . . [A] fascinating history and engaging personal account of pro-wrestling's background figures, center ring personalities, and day-to-day realities. Informed and informative, Headlocks and Dropkicks will prove to be a popular addition to academic and community library Sports & Athletics reference collections, and is especially commended to the attention of non-specialist general readers with an interest in the colorful and raucous world of professional wrestling." --Midwest Book Review - Wisconsin Bookwatch

"Kluch is a sports writer and columnist who previously tackled boxing, professional football and college football, and he underwent his own training program to become a professional wrestler in order to provide general readers with insights into the industry, the personalities and the "tricks of the trade." The author interviews wrestlers, promoters and bookers to detail the workout regimens, politics and the still popular themes of good vs. evil that define most competitions. Appendices include a glossary of wrestling terminology as well as a critique of modern wrestling publications." --Reference & Research Book News

About the Author

Ted A. Kluck is the author of Facing Tyson: Fifteen Fighters, Fifteen Stories (2006), Paper Tiger: One Athlete's Journey to the Underbelly of Pro Football (2007), and Game Time: Inside College Football (2007). His work has appeared in many of the most prominent sports publications, including: ESPN the Magazine, Sports Spectrum Magazine, ESPN.com, and several small literary journals. A bi-monthly column for Sports Spectrum Magazine entitled Pro and Con won the Evangelical Press Association award for best standing column.