I’ve watched professional wrestling for a long time. I was shocked one day, shortly after I got Internet access for the first time in my life, to go on-line and type in “pro wrestling” into a search engine and see so many results. After about a week or two of reading through thousands of pages, I was exposed to professional wrestling like never before. I found out what a “blade job” was. I now knew how wrestlers bleed during their matches. I learned about backstage talk, political games in wrestling, and a whole lot more that goes on behind the scenes. If I wanted to, I was even able to read about what will happen on the next show because there were these things called “spoilers.” That was in the very late 1990s when the boom of the Internet hit us all for the first time.
However, by far the most intriguing things I learned “about the business” came from a book my friend, TBLWrestling.com columnist Trevor Hunnicutt, let me borrow and read. The book was CHOKEHOLD: Pro Wrestling’s Real Mayhem Outside the Ring. It was written by a guy named Jim Wilson, a name that I knew very little about initially.
Jim Wilson was a former University of Georgia All-American football player. He talks about his football career in the book, reminiscing about his college days. He went on to play for the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL. He was introduced to pro wrestling in the off-seasons and made good money working matches. The Falcons didn’t appreciate his “wrestling” at one point in time, and he was eventually sent to Los Angeles. Eventually he started wrestling full-time. His career went down the drain, when he went to Australia in the 1970s to work for Jim Barnett, a gay promoter who made an advance on him. When Wilson refused to sleep with his boss, he was blackmailed and couldn’t find work as a result for years. His bitterness about wrestling and life turned him into one of the most prominent men with a good cause in pro wrestling’s recent history, as he tried hard to unionize wrestlers. His appearance in 1985 on ABC’s 20/20 is historic and groundbreaking, exposing the wrestlers’ lifestyle and backstage struggle. He went on to form strikes and protests against promoters that blackmailed him (Barnett especially), and talked to other wrestlers about forming a union. In the book, he discusses selling out to the cause for money, trying again, and shares stories of other wrestlers who have suffered with the business in other ways. I never did finish the last chapter of the book, and there was probably a reason for it. I couldn’t take more knowledge at the time. I remember being skeptical about reading the book, but on Trevor’s recommendation, I did so and I’m glad.
CHOKEHOLD, which every wrestling fan should read, exposed the business to me like the Internet couldn’t. The book is a negative portrayal of the industry, and is quite controversial, as was Wilson. It follows the history of the National Wrestling Alliance, as well as that of Wilson’s own career. It ends with Vince McMahon’s now infamous government trial. While it explained things to me I already knew from the Internet, it also told me things I didn’t want to know. It exposed the life of a wrestler, and how wrestlers were often times pawns used by promoters. It was obvious that Wilson was bitter. I also knew from reading The Wrestling Observer Newsletter and other historical sources that he exaggerated a couple of times in the book. It really doesn’t matter. There’s no such thing as an honest pro wrestling book. There’s no such thing as an honest pro wrestler, or an honest pro wrestling promoter. The book tells you what professional wrestling really is like outside the ring, and it’s captivating. It is definitely one of the most important books ever written about professional wrestling.
If you get a chance, look at this video, which features Jim Wilson and Thunderbolt Patterson trying to be realistic in what will seem to you as a surreal world. Watch all five parts (further links are on there), think about how pathetic all of this is now, and realize what battle Jim Wilson was fighting. Then ask yourself, is today’s pro wrestling world any different?
Jim Wilson lost a battle with cancer this past Monday night, and left us at age 67. I extend my condolences to his family and close friends, as well as to all his fans. He is, to me, a key figure in the history of professional wrestling.
Eddie T. has been a columnist for TBLWrestling.com since 2002. You may read his personal blog — filled with more content — by clicking here!
