Exclusive Details On The Final Days Of Axl Rotten

The tragic tale of Axl Rotten's final months.

€œI have been hounded for the past ten years to put my outrageous life in book form. I have no knowledge of how to get published. My book and story involves child abuse, drug addiction, recovery, homelessness, paralysis, and losing a contract with WWE. It's a story that needs to be told but I need someone to do it interview style over the phone. When I tell the stories you get the full picture. I firmly believe with the way pro wrestling books sell this will be a hit. I have NY Times Best Sellers Mick Foley and Chris Jericho on board to write a forward for this project. My working title is Wrestling with Heroin - Axl Rotten's Struggle to Survive Pro Wrestling. Thanks, Brian Knighton aka Axl Rotten€ That email above was the first contact I had with Brian Knighton, sent exactly three months to the day before he died. To be honest, I was not all that interested in his proposal at first. I already had a number of other book projects underway, including another wrestler€™s autobiography, so I did not really have the time. Nor, if I am honest, did I have the inclination. I had seen Axl Rotten wrestle before in ECW and I remembered his brutal matches with the likes of storyline brother Ian Rotten, but that was all. I knew very little about Axl Rotten and assumed him to be nothing more than a blood, guts and violence wrestler with no substance. What could he possibly say in his autobiography that would be of any interest? Nevertheless I decided to talk with him anyway to see what he had to say so I could make a more informed decision. After the first time we spoke I can honestly say I have never been so excited about a writing project. Brian was as engrossing to listen to as any wrestler I had talked to in my thirteen years involved in the business. His story was not only interesting, it was fascinating. The tale of the tragedies and tribulations of a man who had fought for acceptance practically since the day he was born. Brian was an open book, he poured his heart out to me, and I was so motivated by what he was telling me that two days later the first chapter of his book was finished. I sent him the draft to read over and he was so thrilled to see his story on the page that he yelled excitedly, €œLet me go read this right now and call you right back!€ then he hung up the phone. Thirty minutes later he called me back in floods of tears. €œI just finished reading the entire thing that you wrote. I€™m choked up. I€™m sitting here crying like a baby. It€™s so good. I€™m sorry, it€™s just, everything came back, y€™know? The way it was all condensed just hit me real hard. But it is good. What I want to come through is coming through. People just think of me as this tough, violent dude who beats people up, and they need to know where that came from.€

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The author of the highly acclaimed 'Titan' book series, James Dixon has been involved in the wrestling business for 25 years as a fan, wrestler, promoter, agent, and writer. James spent several years wrestling on the British independent circuit, but now prefers to write about the bumps and bruises rather than take any of them. His past in-ring experience does however give a uniquely more "insider" perspective on things, though he readily admits to still being a "mark" at heart. James is the Chief Editor and writer at historyofwrestling.co.uk and is responsible for the best-selling titles Titan Sinking, Titan Shattered, and Titan Screwed, as well as the Complete WWF Video Guide series, and the Raw Files series.