Don't Call Me Fake: The Real Story of "Dr. D" David Schultz

by John Cosper, David Schultz (Contributor)

Ask anyone who watched wrestling in the early 80s who the most dangerous man in wrestling was and they will tell you it was Dr. D. Trained by Herb Welch, the Tennessee native terrorized fans in Tennessee, Memphis, Florida, Calgary, Japan and Minnesota before being recruited into the WWF at the request of Hulk Hogan. Dr. D was a singles and tag team champion for multiple promotions, and he faced some of the most dangerous men in the business: Antonio Inoki, Abdullah the Butcher, Bruiser Brody, and Johnny Rodz. Yet he is remembered to this day for taking down a very different opponent: ABC reporter John Stossel, who dared to utter the words, "I think this is fake." While the Stossel incident precipitated the end of his wrestling career, but it's hardly the end of the story. Dr. D turned babyface in real life, finding an even greater calling as a professional bounty hunter. Working out of Connecticut, Dr. D traveled the world and brought back hundreds of "skips" who had fled from justice. Dr. D tracked fugitives from New York to California to Puerto Rico and even Egypt with a 100% capture rate. If he couldn't coax you into coming back of your own free will, he still possessed the skills taught by Herb Welch that could turn even the biggest thug into a crybaby. Call him a wrestler. Call him a bounty hunter. Just don't call him fake! Dr. D David Schultz is the real deal, a hero in the wrestling locker room who became an even greater hero in his post wrestling career, clearing the streets of dangerous men and women with his Southern charm and a shooter's grip.

470 pages, Paperback

Published January 23, 2018

About the author

John Cosper is an award-winning writer from Southern Indiana and the founder of Righteous Insanity. He has written more than 2000 sketches and produced over 100 short films. He is the author of several science fiction novels, short story collections, and even kids stories.

John's film credits include the Fluffy trilogy, the Clive the Zombie puppet films, The Hauss Show, and award-winning short films Out of My Mind, The Telemarketer, Tolerance, and Bots. He's dabbled in noir, horror, and other dark realms, but for the most part he prefers humor and space opera to dystopian societies filled with moody teenagers.

Never one to stay stuck in one genre for long, John also writes about professional wrestling. He is the author of several wrestling histories and biographies, and he writes about wrestling's past and present on his blog www.eatsleepwrestle.com.

John's official website is www.johncosper.com.

Reviews

[ReadinRasslin · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Dr. D" David Schultz' 2019 autobiography follows a much different path than most of the wrestling books I've read, only covering his highly controversial wrestling career for the first 150 pages; the rest follows his equally interesting bounty hunting career. On paper, I'd normally be turned off by a wrestling book that is mostly not wrestling-centric, but the bounty hunting stories are so captivating and actually interesting that this surprisingly works. Schultz's writing style is decent but is pretty heavily sanitized by a ghostwriter, you can tell which bits are his and which are definitely not. This is also one of the longer wrestling books out there, clocking in at 470 pages, which goes by much quicker with the addition of picture-only pages. Schultz ends the book by saying he promised an exposé on the business years prior and apologized for not delivering on that. I'm glad he strayed away from it, you can find a lot of Dr. D shoot interviews already on that, and I think a straightforward biography from a guy who is infamous for keeping kayfabe works a lot better.

[James Passaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean the book was an enjoyable read and for what it is it is acceptable but its not a thrilling work of literature and actually is a bit long. The stories about Bounty Hunting were interesting but kind of all started to feel the same

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 5 out of 5]

only perhaps 150 pages or so of this very thick book are dedicated to Dr D's short wrestling career, but the bounty hunting bits are interesting. you may not want to dig much deeper if you've watched the Dark Side of the Ring ep on Dr D, as it covers much of this