My Life in Wrestling

My Life In Wrestling by Gary Hart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My Life In Wrestling is the biography of wrestling personality and booker Gary Hart.

One of my measuring sticks for a good wrestling book is how quickly it gets to the wrestling business. I think Gary was balls deep by the three percent mark.

I mostly know Gary Hart from his managing days in WCW and World Class so I was surprised at how many territories he worked, a lot of the time as the booker. Gary goes into detail about working for Jim Herd, Jimmy Crockett, the Funks, Jim Barnett, and Fritz Von Erich.

I had no idea how much booking Gary did, like him being the one to turn Dusty Rhodes face and consequently into one of the biggest attractions of his day. Like a lot of other wrestling books, he goes into what a shit show WCW was under Jim Herd.

The book is told in a matter of fact tone. Gary is up front about everything that happened, like threatening to cut a promoter with his straight razor to get his money to calling Jerry Jarrett a hillbilly bastard every time his name comes up. Gary admits to making some mistakes along the way as well as when he got the rug jerked out from under him. The most emotional parts of the book are when Gary saved Austin Idol and some others from a plane crash but couldn't save Bobby Shane and pretty much everything involving the Von Erichs.

Once his last run with Crockett was over, Gary gradually faded away while promoting occasional shows in Texas. It's kind of a shame the way things ended because he had a great mind for the business.

It took me a long time to finally read My Life in Wrestling and it was worth the wait. Five out of five stars.

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