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Ringmaster

Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
NPR's 2023 Books We Love

"Riveting, essential reading." —Rick Perlstein, author of Reaganland

The definitive biography of Vince McMahon, former WWE chairman and CEO, charts his rise from rural poverty to the throne of one of the world's most influential media empires—and features never-before-seen research and exclusive interviews with more than 150 people who witnessed, aided, and suffered from his ascent.
Even if you've never watched a minute of professional wrestling, you are living in Vince McMahon's world.

In his four decades as the defining figure of American pro wrestling, McMahon was the man behind Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, John Cena, Dave Bautista, Bret "The Hitman" Hart, and Hulk Hogan, to name just a few of the mega-stars who owe him their careers. For more than twenty-five years, he has also been a performer in his own show, acting as the diabolical "Mr. McMahon"—a figure who may have more in common with the real Vince than he would care to admit.

Just as importantly, McMahon is one of Donald Trump's closest friends—and Trump's experiences as a performer in McMahon's programming were, in many ways, a dress rehearsal for the 45th President's campaigns and presidency. McMahon and his wife, Linda, are major Republican donors. Linda was in Trump's cabinet. McMahon makes deals with the Saudi government worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And for generations of people who have watched wrestling, he has been a defining cultural force.

Accessible to anyone, regardless of wrestling knowledge, Ringmaster is an unauthorized, independent, investigative chronicle of Vince McMahon's origins and rise to supreme power. It is built on exclusive interviews with more than 150 people, from McMahon's childhood friends to those who accuse him of destroying their lives. Far more than just an athletics or entertainment biography, Ringmaster uses Vince's story as a new lens for understanding the contemporary American apocalypse.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from January 9, 2023
      This revelatory biography of Vince McMahon, the promoter who launched the careers of Hulk Hogan and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, argues convincingly that pro wrestling can explain contemporary America. Journalist Riesman (True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee) surveys McMahon’s life and career, touching on his abusive upbringing in North Carolina; reunion with his estranged biological father, the promoter for the Capitol Wrestling Corporation; and succession to the top of that organization, now the WWE. McMahon’s ambitious leadership of an enterprise built on its audience accepting a falsehood—that matches are not staged—cuts a chilling parallel to the political arena, Riesman notes, as antivax and election denial movements increase their influence. Longtime Donald Trump collaborator McMahon’s own political ties (his wife chairs a pro-Trump Super PAC) and checkered record running the WWE (allegations of rape and unfair labor practices, a partnership with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince) help Riesman’s thesis come down from the top rope: “There is no art form more intrinsically and blatantly American—in its casual violence, its bombastic braggadocio, its virulent jingoism, its populist defiance of respectability, and its intermittently awe-inspiring beauty—than professional wrestling.” It’s a knockout. Agent: Ross Harris, Stuart Krichevsky Agency.

    • Kirkus

      February 15, 2023
      An in-depth biography of the controversial pro-wrestling titan. Riesman, the author of True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee, opens with Ron DeSantis, who made an early exception to Covid-19 rules by allowing pro-wrestling productions to be filmed by any company that met certain criteria. Only one did, namely World Wrestling Entertainment, owned by Vince McMahon and his wife, Linda, the latter a major Republican player who "donated $7 million to pro-Trump super PACs" in 2016. In many ways, McMahon's backstory is a classic rags-to-riches tale, but as Riesman notes, it was fueled by an arsenal of resentments, with McMahon once declaring, "I'm going to be the guy that I despised when I was growing up." Becoming that guy involved both real-world nastiness and a healthy amount of kayfabe, carnival talk for the fictions that suppose that, for instance, Rowdy Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan were truly mortal enemies both inside and outside the ring. Kayfabe also describes the overall fabrication that the action in pro wrestling is real and unscripted. The "new status quo," writes Riesman, involves neokayfabe, where "the pleasure of watching a match has less to do with who wins than with the excitement of decoding it." It doesn't take much to integrate these terms into the Trumpian universe--and, according to some observers, McMahon is one of but two people from whom Trump will accept a call anytime. For her part, Linda McMahon was "a perfect example of kayfabe morality," heading the Small Business Administration under the Trump administration without apparent scandal--even as WWE was striking a lucrative deal with the Saudi government that now constitutes a large percentage of its revenue. Toppled from leadership by financial scandal, McMahon still controls the WWE as majority shareholder, and "his legacy is secure in the industry he remade. A vivid, warts-and-all portrait of the man behind WrestleMania--and much of the worst of contemporary politics.

      COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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