Sex, Lies, and Headlocks

If you think you know the history of wrestling, think again.

Sex, Lies, and Headlocks: The Real Story of Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment

by Shaun Assael and Mike Mooneyham

Review by Mike Rickard II

In an industry built on illusion, a cursory opinion might be what’s the point of exploring the history of a make-believe sport? However a look at some of tell all books of Hollywood makes it obvious that there’s magic in make believe whether it’s the creators who develop fictional tales or the performers who act them out. The rich tableau of personalities in the wrestling business is a goldmine waiting for the right reporter to dig into.

Unfortunately no one has really challenged themselves and taken an in-depth look at professional wrestling. An easy 95% of wrestling books are either autobiographies or in-house biographies which mean the content could be all bullshit and no one’s the wiser since only a handful of people challenge the stories spun inside these supposed tell-alls (Sadder still, true wrestling journalists like Dave Meltzer are so below the radar of the general public that they might as well be writing on cave walls with the readership they have). The mainstream media seems oblivious to the existence of professional wrestling and I challenge anyone to show me anything the mainstream press has published about professional wrestling that isn’t filler or a rehash of every wrestling urban legend that’s been told so many times that lazy reporters accept it as gospel.

A good writer can make a humdrum subject compelling. I’ve read five hundred page books on the history of Coca-Cola (Constance Hays’ The Real Thing : Truth and Power at the Coca-Cola Company) that were fascinating because the writer knew how to keep things interesting. Imagine what someone could do with an industry full of colorful characters and personalities. Publishers and journalists continue to ignore a serious exploration of professional wrestling and there’s no excuse for it. Even if you believe that wrestling is a cult phenomenon, it wouldn’t be the first cult classic to be subjected to a tell-all book. The truth is that wrestling has been extremely popular and notorious, either trait making it a good subject to write about.

The only plausible excuse for not writing a well-researched book about professional wrestling is that it’s not an easy subject to find facts on. Until the advent of the Internet, wrestling history was not easy to look up nor did its operators often want to make it so. While a trip to the local library could help you find out which teams competed in the 1932 Stanley Cup Finals, it would be a completely different story were you to try and look up the bracket for the tournament in Rio de Janeiro where Pat Patterson supposedly won the first Inter-Continental Championship. Still, there are sources to be found. Dave Meltzer has covered the sport quite well over the last twenty years and while he’s the best, he’s not the only source of wrestling news. Besides, good reporters have uncovered much more secretive subjects than what goes on in wrestling locker rooms. Anyone remember a little book called All the President’s Men about the two reporters who uncovered Watergate?

People have praised books like Chokehold and Meltzer’s Tributes and rightly so. However I can’t recall any book that’s presented such a great history of the business as Sex, Lies, and Headlocks does. The book proves that wrestling books can be informative and entertaining. I consider the book to be a challenge to academics and journalists everywhere that it’s time for some true historical scholarship in the world of professional wrestling.

Don’t let the subtitle of Sex, Lies, and Headlocks fool you, this book is about much more than the story of Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), it’s about the evolution of professional wrestling from the regional stage to the national (and even global) stage. It’s a great overview of the entire industry because as the authors chronicle the WWE’s rise to supremacy, they also examine the competitors that Vince McMahon battled. It’s a thirty year journey that the authors manage to capture fairly well in just 262 pages (the book is all type and small type at that. This is no WWE Books production with more filler than a coloring book).

The book begins with the events leading up to the tragic death of Owen Hart and the World Wrestling Federation’s (WWF) response to it. It then steps back fifty one years to the birth of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and a quick overview of their major competition- the American Wrestling Association (AWA) and World-Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF). Right away you know you’re reading a well written book. In thirteen pages the authors explain the way the wrestling business was initially split up into regional fiefdoms, touch upon the lives of legends such as Ed “Strangler” Lewis, “Gorgeous” George, and Verne Gagne, and tease you about a young upstart named Vinnie who was determined to remake the wrestling industry.

As you read about Vince Kennedy McMahon’s childhood, you start to appreciate where he gets his unique worldview from. The term dysfunctional family has been overused but in Vince Jr’s case, it seems appropriate. His father was absent from his life until Vince Sr’s new wife forced him to bring his son back into the fold. Looking at the way that Vince Sr. treated his son, Vince may have been better off without his father, at least from the point of his emotional development. Then again, life with his mother does not appear to have been any walk down the primrose path either as Vince has hinted at physical or sexual abuse by his mother in recent interviews. The book adds to this with remarks from confidantes of McMahon who report he talked about his childhood being so bad that he contemplated suicide.

Sex, Lies, and Headlocks demonstrates that the road to success was not a quick or easy path for Vince Jr.. While McMahon thought outside the box, his innovations did not pay off at first. Before he bought the WWWF from his father, Vince McMahon promoted pay-per views on closed circuit television of Evel Kneivel’s failed jump over Snake River Canyon and the infamous Muhammad Ali/Antonio Inoki bout as well as owning a minor league hockey team. Despite his failures, Vince continued to try and get the big pay-off. Finally, in 1983, the combination of major loans and the financial help of WWWF mainstays Gorilla Monsoon, Arnold Skaaland, and Vince’s friend and treasurer Phil Zacko afforded McMahon the cash he needed to buy the WWWF from his father.

One has to have a certain amount of respect for the drive that fueled Vince McMahon’s rise to the top. Despite a troubled childhood and some spectacular flops, he persevered until he was able to cash in on his first big break-the acquisition of Hulk Hogan. From there, the wrestling world was McMahon’s for the taking. The book documents how he ruthlessly destroyed rival promotions by stealing their top stars, booking wrestling shows the night before competitor’s shows (so the fans would be burnt out and have no desire to see the second show), and sabotaging the pay per views. In a move of sheer genius, Vince McMahon destroyed rival Jim Crockett Promotion’s major pay-per view Starcade by telling pay per view companies that if they wanted to air Survivor Series (and any other WWF pay-per-views for that matter) they couldn’t air any competitor’s pay-per-views that night. Based on the phenomenal success of Wrestlemania, cable companies dropped Starcade in order to air Survivor Series (and more importantly get Wrestlemania). McMahon’s PPV coup was a turning point in his battle with Jim Crockett Promotions over which national wrestling promotion would be number one.

Despite his bold business strategies (and perhaps in part due to them), McMahon faced major setbacks as well as victories. The book documents McMahon’s setbacks such as the multiple federal indictments filed against him in the early 1990’s, his failed World Bodybuilding Federation (WBF), the renewed competition from Ted Turner’s purchase of the struggling Jim Crockett Promotions and its transformation into arch-rival World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the defection of Hulk Hogan to said rival WCW, the Monday Night Wars which drove the WWF to the brink of bankruptcy, and the Extreme Football League (XFL) which made him the laughingstock of professional sports.

The exploration of Vince’s climb to the top of the mountain provides life lessons as well as entertainment. Whether it’s what goes around comes around (Vince McMahon destroying rival promotions by buying up their talent only to fall to the same practices when Eric Bischoff rebuilt WCW with former WWF superstars) or don’t count your chickens until they’re hatched (Eric Bischoff’s failed prediction that the WWF was six months from bankruptcy while he failed to see his overspending was sending WCW into serious financial setbacks).

While I’m no wrestling historian, I think even the most knowledgeable wrestling fan will learn more about the sport’s history by reading this book. Obviously the amazing story of how Vince McMahon succeeded in putting his competition out of business is the centerpiece of this book. However you will also find a fascinating backdrop including the history of wrestling on Superstation TBS and the rise and fall of major promotions like the AWA and NWA as well as cult favorites like UWF and ECW.

Sex, Lies, and Headlocks doesn’t pull any punches. It doesn’t hold back in its scathing exposure of the seedy side of wrestling. While Vince McMahon was vocal about his effort to get rid of wrestling’s “smoke filled arena” image, far worse things went on behind the scenes such as sexual abuse and rampant illegal drug use. The book presents a balanced look at scandals like Dr. Zahorian, the accusations of ring boys being sexually abused, and the rape allegations made against Vince McMahon. It also explores drug and alcohol related deaths of many wrestlers and in my opinion, lays to rest any doubts about the true cause of Brian Pillman’s death.

The only thing that would improve this book would be if it used real footnotes to document where it derived its information from. If any wrestling book is going to be subject to true scrutiny, it will have to provide the sources for its information. Anyone can suggest that a wrestler’s world title reign was derived from sexual favors but until writers start documenting their research, it’s all just speculation.

Right now there are some really good wrestling books to choose from. Dave Meltzer’s Tributes, Ric Flair’s To Be The Man, Mick Foley’s Have A Nice Day and Bobby Heenan’s Bobby the Brain: Wrestling’s Bad Boy Tells All immediately come to mind as books that would entertain both fans and non-fans. However Sex, Lies, and Headlocks has to be your first choice if you really want an understanding of where the industry was and the journey to where it is today. You’ll get some amusing behind the scenes stories but more importantly, you’ll gain a genuine knowledge of the business and the men and women who built it.