We recently had Carrie Dunn on The Wrestling Mania Show to discuss her book and the general landscape of British Wrestling at the moment. Following on from this, I decided to take it upon myself to sit down, read the book, and give it the review it deserves; Spandex Screw Jobs & Cheap Pops.
Carrie is a journalist, and the founding editor of The Only Way Is Suplex, a website dedicated to the wonderful sports entertainment form of professional wrestling. She has also written for publications including the Times, the Guardian, the Independent, the Daily Express, Cosmopolitan and Psychologies.
The book is presented in a very easy to follow format, each chapter taking us to a different corner of the wrestling business and explaining to us in great detail, with the help of interviews, many different aspects of the history, training, promotions and evolution of professional wrestling in Great Britain. This is not to say that the book is stubborn in its approach to discussing just the U.K scene, there are multiple discussions about the wrestling scene in the United States and Japan, among others.
From the beginning of the book, you can tell that Carrie spent many hours researching and interviewing to make it the most comprehensive overview of British Wrestling that she could possibly get. This would tempt any reader to want to further their knowledge on each subject and personally led me to spend many hours going back and forth between the Internet and the book.
Although Carrie stays impartial for the majority of the book, her personality shines through in the final chapter that she aptly named ‘Recommendations’. This chapter gives the author the chance to give her opinions on ways in which the British scene could be improved, and although it is a change of pace to the rest of the book; is a welcome and humorous addition.
This book lived up to my lofty expectations after interviewing Carrie; I had initially been worried that I would hold some bias towards the book due to us having such a pleasant experience during the interview with the author. My fears were quickly erased by the perfect mix of information from Carrie, and interaction with people within the business to back up her thoughts.
This book covers British wrestling in such a comprehensive way that I find it hard to believe that someone else will come along and try to do something similar with the same amount of success. We have jokingly named the book ‘The British Wrestling Bible’ when discussing it on the show, but after dedicating myself to reviewing it, I have come to the conclusion that it is every bit as good as we have been describing it.
You can purchase Spandex Screw Jobs & Cheap Pops; here!
– By Michael Owen