{"product_id":"9781554902866","title":"Wrestling Babylon: Piledriving Tales of Drugs, Sex, Death, and Scandal","description":"\u003cp\u003eIrvin Muchnick — a widely published writer and nephew of the late, legendary St. Louis wrestling promoter Sam Muchnick — has produced a book unlike any other on the astonishing growth of professional wrestling and its profound impact on mainstream sports and society. In \u003cem\u003eWrestling Babylon\u003c\/em\u003e, he traces the demise of wrestling’s old Mafia-like territories and the rise of a national marketing base thanks to cable television, deregulation and a culture-wide nervous breakdown. Naturally, the figure of WWE’s Vince McMahon lurks throughout, but equally evident is the public’s late-empire lust for bread, circuses, and blood. As this book demonstrates, the more cartoonishly unreal wrestling got, the more chillingly real it became.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat truly distinguishes \u003cem\u003eWrestling Babylon\u003c\/em\u003e, however, is Muchnick’s ability to show how professional wrestling has become the ur-carnival for a culture that feeds on escapist displays of humiliation, revenge, fantasy characters, and sex. His \u003cem\u003ePeople\u003c\/em\u003e magazine article on Hulk Hogan blew the lid off the drug abuse of the sport’s signature superstar. His award-winning \u003cem\u003ePenthouse\u003c\/em\u003e profile of the ill-starred Von Erich clan was the first to connect the dots between wrestling, televangelism, and MTV-style production values. His never-before-published investigation of the death of Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka’s girlfriend suggests the cover-up of a murder. The book’s appendix — a comprehensive listing of the dozens of wrestlers who died prematurely over the last generation, with little or no attention — is both a valuable resource for wrestling historians and a shocking document of the ruthless way sports entertainment eats its own.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ECW Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47132686909680,"sku":"9781554902866","price":10.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781554902866_p0.jpg?v=1763753579","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781554902866","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}