ASSASSIN: The Man Behind the Mask

by Joe Hamilton, Scott Teal

The Man Behind the Mask by Jody Hamilton, with Scott Teal Excerpt from " The Man Behind the Mask" Copyright — Joe Hamilton and Scott Teal   When Barnett told (Ric) Flair that (Rick) Rude was really angry, Flair didn’t want to go. He tried to talk his way out of it until Barnett just about pushed him into the dressing room. We were in the room next door and heard everything that was said. When the door shut behind him, we could hear Rick Rude cussing and calling Flair everything but a human being. "Don’t just sit there with your head down, you gutless mother fu—er! Get up out of that chair and do something about it, you yellow son-of-a-bitch!"   The abuse went on for several minutes, with Rude relentlessly screaming at Flair, telling him to stand up. Flair just sat on the chair with his head down. Of course, if Flair had done as Rude asked, Rude would have killed him.

  Get behind the mask and into the head of one of professional wrestling's most famous masked men. This autobiography of Joe "Jody" Hamilton takes the reader behind the scenes for a personal glimpse behind the mask of one of pro wrestling’s hottest

The Assassin

  When Joe Hamilton was just 19 years old, he and his brother, Larry, headlined a show at Madison Square Garden, drawing a record 20,335 people to see them wrestle Antonino Rocca and Miguel Perez. To this day, Joe remains the youngest wrestler to ever headline a main event in the Garden.   In 1961, Joe hooked up with veteran wrestler Tom Renesto to form a team called the Assassins, and for the next eleven years, they were considered to be one of wrestling’s hottest attractions, drawing sellout crowds to arenas in California, Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, in addition to foreign countries like Japan and Australia.   Joe takes readers on a journey as he tells about life both in and out of the wrestling ring—being attacked, stabbed, and shot at by angry wrestling fans; wrestling under a mask and trying to keep his identity a secret; legitimate fights and confrontations behind the scenes in the dressing rooms; a war between two wrestling promotions in Atlanta, Georgia; and never-before-told stories about legends like Ric Flair, Andre the Giant, Giant Baba, Toyonobori, Pedro Morales, Bill Goldberg, Ray Gunkel, and their biggest rivals, the Kentuckians.

404 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2006

Reviews

[ReadinRasslin · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most important wrestlers and bookers of the '60s and '70s, Assassin is a great read with tons of stories from the territory days. Having worked in primarily every major promotion up until the early 2000s, Jody Hamilton covers his rise, his tag career alongside Tom Renesto, and the territorial wars of the mid-to-late '70s in great detail. Unlike most wrestling autobiographies, this hardly ever derails into the personal aspect of the author and is almost entirely purely stories from the road and Jody giving his two cents on legends he's worked with. This absolutely felt like a passion project and the attention to detail shows. Being a Crowbar Press book, it'll take you a little longer to get through than most wrestling autobiographies, but this never felt like it dragged on. There's some points where Jody gets a little full of himself but he at least fully acknowledges that he does, and I probably would be too if I had the career he had. Good read from a legend who's seen just about everything.

[Jason Presley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book from yet another major player from the 1960s-80s. Hamilton's story is very much like Ole Anderson's, only less grumpy. Both gained stardom mainly as parts of hugely popular tag teams, both could seriously go on the mat, and both were successful bookers in a lot of the same territories in the same time period. Hamilton gets in to a little more of the history of the territories he worked in, which gives his stories a little more color, and with fewer rants than Anderson.

[Chris Goodwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read that gives you all about not only his career but a lot of the others and the crazy side of a lot of wrestlers.

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid account of an important wrestling career. Jody Hamilton was one of the big names in 60s-70s wrestling, particularly in Georgia and North Carolina, and he does a good job here of recapping the highs and lows of his life in the ring.