10 Wrestling Books That Proved Seriously Controversial
These books divided the opinions of fans and wrestlers alike.
Though less frequent these days, for a time around the turn of the millennium it became common for wrestlers to produce a book detailing their lives, with the efforts that followed comprising various qualities, to say the least.
The massive success of Mick Foley's Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks, that saw the hardcore legend discuss his life and career, eventually reached number one on the New York Times Best Seller List, and led to a trend of wrestlers detailing their career experiences in literary form.
However, what made Foley's first effort so compelling was his talent as a writer, as he authored the entire book in longhand without the help of a ghostwriter.
Foley's epic debut set a bar that few titles that followed would even come close to matching, with some his contemporaries relying heavily on ghostwriters, and their memoirs often suffering as a result.
The often raw nature of autobiographies, with subjects laying bare their true feelings and opinions, means the books can prove highly controversial and draw the ire of fellow performers and fans alike. That is even truer in an industry famous for keeping its secrets.
10. Steve Williams - How Dr. Death Became Dr. Life
To newer fans, Steve Williams is primarily known for being something of a failed experiment in the WWF. He was brought in by Jim Ross, who was a huge admirer of Williams for his tenure as a collegiate football player at Ross' beloved University of Oklahoma, and for his time competing in All Japan Pro Wrestling.
Unfortunately, Williams was debuted in the ill-fated Brawl for All, and despite his amateur wrestling background making him one of the favourites to win the shoot fighting competition, he would be unceremoniously knocked out by eventual winner Bart Gunn.
After being diagnosed with, and recovering from, throat cancer in 2004, Williams wrote an autobiography chronicling his life in both wrestling and gridiron.
What makes Williams' memoir worthy of a place on this list, is a legendary story told by Luke Gallows, who details being chewed out for ostensibly refusing to take a test on the book by John Laurinaitis.