Ken Patera: Weight of the World

by Ken Patera, Kenny Casanova, George Luse

Ken Patera crushed competition and broke records everywhere. He hurled Track & Field shot putters to the side. He pushed to the top of the weightlifting world winning countless medals in the Nationals, Pan Am Games and the Olympics – and was the first American to ever clean & jerk over 500 pounds. In pro wrestling, he main-evented for the AWA as one of Andre the Giant’s biggest foils and held the WWF Intercontinental Title concurrently with the NWA Missouri Championship. These accolades were the results of hard work, but it wasn’t an easy road. With obstacles, injuries, and an intense pressure to succeed, witness the fitness of the “World’s Strongest Man” and just how he handled bearing the “Weight of the World.”

459 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2023

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is hilarious for a wrestling book. It takes forever for Patera to get into wrestling, past the halfway mark, but his drunken shenanigans while being a power lifter make up for it. There are lots of fun road stories and his stint in prison for beating up cops with Mr Saito is touched upon. It's not a top tier wrestling book but it's worth a read.

[Jason Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

I really liked this book!
I’m old enough to remember Patera in the early 80s, but I definitely learned a lot of things from Patera’s early days.
The authors do a really good job telling Patera’s story, and I’m always a fan of short(er) chapters.

I think I’ve read all of the books that Kenny Casanova has had a part of. They are all worth checking out if you haven’t done so.

[Lance Lumley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book isn't just wrestling and weightlifting, which Patera succeeded in, but an underlining theme of someone who strived to represent his country in sports from high school to the Pan Am and Olympics.
Sure there are great stories about Billy Graham (both of them) , Andre , and Wahoo McDaniel, but also a friendship Patera had with Ric Flair, who was responsible getting Flair into the business.
This is a book that just isn't a normal wrestler telling his story, which gives it the appeal that readers should look for, who want more than just a list of matches and win/loss results like some of the others out there in the indy publishing world.
For an in-depth review, visit my blog at : https://lancewrites.wordpress.com/202...

[Vincent T. Ciaramella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic book. Bravo, Mr. Patera for a job well done. If you love peaking behind the curtain, than you'll dig this. I think my favorite part was about the Olympics and the Pan-American Games. I love weightlifting and have been doing it since 7th grade. I should mention that I am almost 48. But I love anything to do with weightlifting and strength training.

I'll definitely read this again sometime down the road.

[Robertgravlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

3&3/4 stars