PDF Ebook WWE Legends, by Brian Solomon
Simply for you today! Discover your preferred book here by downloading and install and also getting the soft data of guide WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon This is not your time to traditionally go to the book stores to buy an e-book. Below, varieties of e-book WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon and collections are offered to download and install. Among them is this WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon as your recommended book. Getting this book WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon by on-line in this website could be understood now by checking out the link page to download. It will be very easy. Why should be right here?
WWE Legends, by Brian Solomon
PDF Ebook WWE Legends, by Brian Solomon
WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon. Negotiating with reviewing routine is no demand. Reading WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon is not kind of something offered that you can take or otherwise. It is a point that will transform your life to life much better. It is the important things that will make you several things around the world as well as this cosmos, in the real world and below after. As exactly what will certainly be made by this WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon, exactly how can you haggle with the thing that has several advantages for you?
Why must be publication WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon Book is one of the very easy resources to try to find. By obtaining the writer and theme to obtain, you can discover numerous titles that offer their data to obtain. As this WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon, the impressive publication WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon will certainly provide you what you should cover the job target date. And also why should remain in this website? We will ask initially, have you much more times to go for going shopping guides and also search for the referred book WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon in book establishment? Many people might not have adequate time to locate it.
Hence, this web site offers for you to cover your trouble. We show you some referred publications WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon in all kinds and styles. From common author to the famous one, they are all covered to give in this website. This WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon is you're hunted for book; you simply should go to the link web page to receive this site and then go for downloading. It will not take often times to get one publication WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon It will certainly rely on your internet connection. Merely acquisition and download and install the soft documents of this publication WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon
It is so easy, right? Why don't you try it? In this website, you could likewise locate other titles of the WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon book collections that may have the ability to help you discovering the very best remedy of your work. Reading this publication WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon in soft documents will additionally alleviate you to obtain the resource quickly. You may not bring for those books to somewhere you go. Just with the gadget that always be with your anywhere, you can read this publication WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon So, it will certainly be so quickly to finish reading this WWE Legends, By Brian Solomon
WWE Legends gives fans an inside look at more than fifty of the greatest wrestlers ever to slip between the ropes and enter the “squared circle.”
They were World Heavyweight Champions: Bob Backlund, Superstar Billy Graham, and Bruno Sammartino. They were fan favorites: “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka, Chief Jay Strongbow, and Andre the Giant. They were the villains everyone loved to hate: Killer Kowalski, Ernie Ladd, and the Fabulous Moolah. They were ethnic heroes, someone just like you that you could cheer for: Ivan Putski, Pedro Morales, Peter Maivia. They were the stars that shined the brightest, and left an indelible mark on the memories of countless fans.
In a time when professional wrestling was divided into territories, no place created bigger Superstars than World Wrestling Entertainment. From the company's centerpiece in Madison Square Garden, legends were born.
WWE Legends is the every fan's guide to the legends of the ring. They are all in here, from Andre the Giant to George “the Animal” Steele, with quick stats and descriptions of their most famous matches. No true wrestling fan should be without this book.
- Sales Rank: #1444620 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Gallery Books
- Model: 2408461
- Published on: 2006-02-21
- Released on: 2006-02-21
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.07" h x .80" w x 5.31" l, .50 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 272 pages
Features
- Used Book in Good Condition
About the Author
Brian Solomon is a lifelong wrestling fan and works for the WWE.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Antonino Rocca
Height: 6'
Weight: 226 lbs.
From: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Years in WWE: 1953-62; 1975-77
Career Highlights: U.S. Tag Team Champion (1957, w/Miguel Perez); 1995 WWE Hall of Famer
Finishing maneuver: Argentine Backbreaker
Nickname: Argentina
- Famed maestro Arturo Toscanini, a rabid wrestling fan, was good friends with Rocca.
- Rocca was depicted wrestling Superman on the cover of an August 1962 comic book.
- The 1976 horror film Alice, Sweet Alice, featuring child actress Brooke Shields, includes Rocca in a bit part.
In the 1950s, there was no bigger wrestling star on the East Coast than Antonino Rocca. With the exception of Gorgeous George, he was the greatest box-office attraction of his era. During the infancy of Capitol Wrestling, the company that would become WWE, Rocca was the key to the success of upstart promoter Vincent J. McMahon. For the first decade of Capitol's existence, he was the undisputed king of the ring. His amazing acrobatic feats made him the forerunner to innovative performers like Mil Mascaras, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, and Rey Mysterio.
Rocca was born Antonio Biasetton in 1923 -- along with a twin sister -- in the Italian town of Treviso, near Venice. At fifteen, with the threat of war looming in his Fascist-controlled homeland, he and his family immigrated to the city of Rosario in the South American nation of Argentina, a popular destination for expatriate Italians.
During his lifetime, Rocca had a penchant for outrageous exaggeration and outright fabrication, so what is known of his prewrestling career is shrouded in doubt. What's for certain is that he was a remarkable athlete, excelling in rugby and soccer. He nearly became a successful soccer player in Argentina, but a knee injury ended that.
In 1947 Biasetton began wrestling professionally in Argentina, where Stanislaus Zbysko, a famous World Champion wrestler of the early twentieth century, was running the local promotion. Biasetton changed his name to Rocca, playing up his Italian heritage, and adapted the incredible flexibility and agility he had used on the soccer field to the wrestling ring. Former American wrestler Nick Elitch spotted the high-flying Rocca while vacationing in Argentina in 1948.
Elitch convinced the twenty-five-year-old, who barely spoke any English, to make him his manager and come with him to the United States. In June 1948 he arrived on American soil and went to work for Houston promoter Morris Sigel, an associate of Elitch. He had his first matches in Galveston and Houston, where he defeated Lord James Blears.
An immediate success, Rocca wowed fans who had never seen an athlete of his type in a wrestling ring. In an era when wrestlers never left the mat and often clinched in holds for minutes at a time, Rocca brought a new, fast-paced excitement. He couldn't wrestle very much -- and this often made him unpopular with his peers -- but his flashy repertoire of aerial maneuvers like dropkicks, hurracanranas, and victory rolls dazzled spectators and made up for any lack of grappling technique. This was unprecedented, and literally changed what pro wrestling was for the generations that have followed.
Before long, other promoters were requesting Rocca, and Sigel began lending him out. In 1949, while competing in St. Louis, he was approached by veteran wrestler Kola Kwariani. The grizzled Russian convinced Rocca that New York was where the real money was, and stole him away from Elitch and the entire Houston contingent.
Kwariani became Rocca's manager and brought him to the Big Apple to work for Joseph "Toots" Mondt, a longtime promoter who was struggling to resurrect the wrestling business in the New York area. With a unique performer like Rocca, Mondt knew he could finally accomplish that.
Rocca agreed to an exclusive deal with Mondt's Manhattan Booking Office and took a three-room apartment on West Fifty-seventh Street. He made his area debut in Brooklyn at the Ridgewood Grove with a victory over Benito Gardini. On December 12, 1949, Mondt brought Rocca to Madison Square Garden, where he defeated "Mr. America" Gene Stanlee. A crowd of 17,854 witnessed the match, the largest Garden crowd in eighteen years. Just like that, wrestling in New York was back in business.
"He was the star of the Manhattan Booking Office," remembers longtime referee and wrestler Dick Kroll. "A very nice guy, very flamboyant, given to great exaggeration. He would claim he'd never been defeated; he would claim that he killed a man in South America. He was a braggart, but a fun braggart to be around."
In addition to his groundbreaking wrestling style, it was Rocca's ethnicity that brought in the masses. An Italian from Latin America, he had tremendous drawing power among both populations in the New York area. Not only did he become the greatest New York attraction since 1930s World Champion Jim Londos, but his agent, Toots Mondt, began booking him for promoters all over the country -- and raking in a hefty chunk of the profits. Inspired by his client's limber acrobatics, Mondt once remarked, "Rocca has done more for legs than Betty Grable."
Lesser promoters throughout the Northeast area were given access to Rocca on a regular basis. One of these was Vincent J. McMahon, whose Capitol Wrestling Corporation had begun presenting matches in Washington, D.C., at the start of 1953. Rocca was a fixture on the earliest McMahon cards, and helped the fledgling promoter carve out a successful territory for himself.
"Who could forget him?" asks WWE chairman Vincent K. McMahon. "In the old Madison Square Garden, I used to see Rocca perform. Oh my God, what an unbelievably charismatic and athletic performer. The stuff he could do was incredible. All kinds of aerial stuff."
When Vincent J. McMahon secured a national television deal with the Dumont Network in the summer of 1956, he persuaded Rocca to leave Mondt and work for him. An old-school promoter, Mondt had never had much faith in TV, which proved his downfall. Rocca became McMahon's attraction, and by the fall of 1956 Capitol's stock had raised to such a degree that McMahon had the leverage to move Mondt out of the Garden.
On November 26, the first McMahon-promoted event was held at the Garden, and featured Rocca beating Dick the Bruiser. Over the course of the late 1950s, McMahon's power in the Northeast grew, and Rocca became a bigger star than ever. He bought a $6 million textile mill in Argentina and was given his own daily radio show. Eventually McMahon and Mondt set aside their differences and, with Rocca as their top star, joined forces to become the most powerful promotional force wrestling had seen since the Gold Dust Trio of the 1920s (of which Mondt had been one).
"I used to tag team with Rocca," says veteran WWE wrestler and manager Arnold Skaaland. "He was a great guy. Good talker. He liked to b.s. a lot. I'd say, 'Rocca, where you been?' And he'd say, 'Arnie, you wouldn't believe it, but these Navy pilots took me over Cuba!' He'd come up with a lot of stuff like that. But he had a good heart."
"He was a great bullshitter," adds Vince McMahon. "But half his stories were true, and you didn't know what to believe. 'I'm working for the CIA down in Ecuador....' I think that was true. He would go on these missions and shit. What was fact, what was fiction? You never knew with Tony."
In 1957 Rocca entered a new chapter of his career, forming a legendary partnership with Puerto Rican Superstar Miguel Perez. They would be a regular Tag Team for the next four years. In March 1957, they defeated Jackie Fargo & Don Stevens to become the first holders of Capitol's first title -- the U.S. Tag Team Championship. Their feud with Dr. Jerry Graham & Eddie Graham would go down in wrestling history. From 1958 to 1960, Rocca & Perez headlined the Garden against the Graham Brothers on seven different occasions.
By 1960, Capitol Sports had become the uncontested ruler of wrestling in the Northeast. But it was just about that time that Rocca's star began to wane. Buddy Rogers was overtaking him as the company's top draw, and a new ethnic hero, Bruno Sammartino, was swiftly gaining steam. By the end of 1962, with McMahon and Mondt planning on breaking away from the NWA, starting World Wide Wrestling Federation and making Sammartino their top star, Rocca walked out on the promotion in bitterness.
Feeling vindictive toward his former employers, Rocca allied himself with Mid-Atlantic promoter Jim Crockett Sr., a leading member of the NWA -- whose members also had an axe to grind. With the Argentine as its top star, Crockett Promotions attempted an invasion of McMahon territory in the mid-1960s, running shows in places like Long Island, Brooklyn, and New Jersey. They even got television coverage, but it was still a resounding failure.
Rocca had not managed his money very well during his heyday -- preferring to live the high life -- and was now feeling the effects. Not only his financial status suffered, but his health as well, as years of heavy boozing took their toll.
"The poor bastard only got a third of every nickel he ever made," recalls Vince McMahon. "A tremendous draw, but he didn't get what was due him financially. He had his demons as well. Tony was the kind of guy, when you're having a good time, he was the greatest guy in the world to be around, but when you were having a bad time, you didn't want to be around him."
Rocca continued competing in obscurity into the 1970s, and in 1975, an amazing thing happened. Choosing to let bygones be bygones, McMahon, now the sole kingpin of WWWF, hired Antonino as a television announcer. Recognizing he still had appeal to the area's Italian and Latino populations, Vince Sr. paired him up with his son, future WWE chairman Vincent K. McMahon, as a regular broadcast team.
In early 1977 Rocca took time off from announcing to briefly come out of retirement in Puerto Rico. He returned to the Stat...
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
GREAT NOSTALGIA
By COOL JEWEL
WWE LEGENDS IS A GREAT READ FOR ALL FANS, BUT MOSTLY FOR FANS OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER THE 1960'S TO PRESENT DAY. MANY MANY PERFORMERS ARE COVERED IN A SHORT CHAPTER OF THEIR OWN. IT COVERS THE WRESTLER'S REAL NAME, A BIT OF BIOGRAPHY, TITLES HELD IF ANY, A BRIEF BUT DETAILED SUMMARY OF THEIR CAREER AND WHERE THEY ARE TODAY. (IF STILL LIVING) IT COVERS ANDRE, NATURE BOY, IRON SHEIK, SARGE AND MANY MANY MORE. IT BROUGHT BACK SOME GREAT MEMORIES WHEN AS A CHILD, I THOUGHT IT WAS ALL FOR REAL. I RECOMMEND THIS IF YOU WANT A GREAT READ FOR OLD TIME WRESTLING, WWE STYLE.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Great book
By Securitydog
really good book does not focus on the wrestlers of today but also talks about a lot of old time wrestlers we all grew up with. Fun book to read and really tells some good storys.
See all 6 customer reviews...
WWE Legends, by Brian Solomon PDF
WWE Legends, by Brian Solomon EPub
WWE Legends, by Brian Solomon Doc
WWE Legends, by Brian Solomon iBooks
WWE Legends, by Brian Solomon rtf
WWE Legends, by Brian Solomon Mobipocket
WWE Legends, by Brian Solomon Kindle
^^ PDF Ebook WWE Legends, by Brian Solomon Doc
^^ PDF Ebook WWE Legends, by Brian Solomon Doc
^^ PDF Ebook WWE Legends, by Brian Solomon Doc
^^ PDF Ebook WWE Legends, by Brian Solomon Doc
