Fall Guys

by Marcus Griffin

Fall The Barnums of Bounce. The inside story of the Wrestling Business, America's most profitable and best organized professional sport. Originally published in 1937, this well-researched book exposed the wrestling game and showed it to be a cutthroat business of fixed matches, shady promoters, and show wrestlers. Discusses the early days of Frank Gotch before delving into the conglomeration of the business with the rise of the Gold Dust Trio (Strangler Lewis, Toots Mondt, and Billy Sandow) and its version of slam bang wrestling.

215 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1937

Reviews

[an infinite number of monkeys · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only thing that has changed in the world of professional wrestling since 1937 is the quality of prose it inspires. Marcus Griffin profiles the characters, exposes the scams and throws in a few "nudge-nudge, wink-wink" stories to tell the tall tale of the early days of grappling. Using prose slightly less purple than some of his contemporaries, Mr. Griffin steers us through the formation of the cabals that controlled the sport, the various ways they conspired to put out quality entertainment, if not fair contests, and the large (probably exaggerated) amounts of money that passed into and out of the promoters' and wrestlers' hands. Griffin shows the fakery, and exhorts wrestling fans to not take it too seriously, but all with a light touch that suggests that watching a wrestling card still isn't a bad way to spend an evening. Vince McMahon needs a Marcus Griffin.