RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Sports and Wrestling TIto Santanas book

Finally got around to reading this.

A very short read indeed!

Titos childhood is dealt with in 15 pages.

The book undergoes a format change, with everything coming under a subheading - basically it's just a book about anecdotes!

Everything seems ok until towards the end of his WWF career where in the book, Tito goes a bit Hulk Hogan. Apparently, McMahon was looking for a new wrestler to carry the World title after Flair - according to Tito, it was between Bret Hart and himself! He goes on to say that Bret didn't have much ability but a lot of charisma and that he should have dropped the title to Michaels at Survivor series. Bret has apparently taken offence at this.

Tito also fine tuned Randy Savage into the superstar he later on became after wrestling him.

The problem with these books released through this company(they did the Terry Funk, Steve Williams, Harley Race & Dusty Rhodes) is that they don't go into too much detail, no depth to them at all and factually wrong! My Golden Age of Wrestling is 86-91 - the time where I relgiously watched and for Tito to say he was a top guy was wrong.

There are a few interesting little titbits!

Tito didn't like Dick Murdoch, Ole Anderson or Bill Watts.

Tito worked 58 nights in a row, he was looking forward to his 2 days off but Vince called him up and said that he would have to work them because the Junk Yard Dog had gone AWOL! Tito refused and when he returned to work, he was demoted down the card! Sounds like the sort of thing Vince would do!

Marty Jannetty took a shit of some passed out drunks lap on a plane.

Tito sucks Hogans dick.

Worth a read if you see it for a few bucks

there is no way that Tito was going to get the belt in '92. after his "Matador" gimmick repacking the prior year, he'd pretty much returned to being "jobber to the stars."

there's also no way Michaels was ready to become the World Champion that year. he'd only just started wrestling singles that same year. yes, he'd gotten really good, really fast, but he was not ready for the World title. he was also still very immature by most people's accounts (though that didn't change for a long time apparently), there's no way Vince would've put the belt on him while dealing with people like Warrior and Savage while also trying to recover from the steroid trial and the deteriorating relationship with Hogan.

I enjoyed the Race, Funk, & Rhodes books, despite the errors. Hell, most wrestling books and dvds have errors in them, it's just something you have to deal with. but I felt they did have some depth to them, especially in regards to the earlier years.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book and the others you mentioned but come on, Funk, Rhodes and Race should have all put a lot more work into their books - each of their books are under 200 hundred pages of large text.

As I've said before, Bret Harts, Foleys first book and Jerichos are the model example of a wrestling autobiography - if you haven't got much to say then you what's the point of writing some half-arsed book? Harts book may be long winded but Race & Funk had longer careers and should have easily cross the 300 page mark.




It really depends on the errors - you're making me sound very pedantic! But thoughtless errors like Wrestlemania 3 attendance, results from Wrestlemanias and dates he held titles - he didn't hold that many.

Another thing I would add about Titos book is that it's written in the same style as Arn Anderson in places - We all know wrestling is worked, Chico!

Interestingly enough, whilst there's plenty of McMahon cock smoking, there's also examples of his ruthlessness - Demoting Tito down the card, promising Tito a big push with El Matador(I don't think he ever said that he would be World Champ, I thinks that's Titos delusion) and Titos retirement - he goes to McMahon saying that he wants to retire, expecting him to get all emotional and all Vince says to him is that's probably a good idea!

Foleys book was the real starting point of how wrestling books should be, and since then, a lot of wrestling books have taken note.

I think we all realise that a lot of them are ghost written, but that should help give you more time to make sure your facts are correct rather than end up with a mistake ridden book.

I have to say the WWE produced books that I have read, tend to be quite strong, and surprisingly, do not always paint Vince in the best lights sometimes, but I think thats where you start to see that facts are generally more important.
I also think that its one of the reasons they usually focus a lot more time on their early years.

Of course the Jericho one bucks that trend as it has no connection to WWE, and is easily my fave wrestling book.
I look forward to his second one.

I'm not disagreeing with you. it's a valid point. there are a lot of things from various books that I would've liked to have read more on. Piper's book comes to mind as one that while it was enjoyable, it was very disjointed and lacking in a lot of things I wanted to know about. I just probably got more out of the other books (Race, Funk, etc.) than you did as I wasn't as familiar with the earlier periods of those guys careers.





not my intent at all! just trying to acknowledge that as fans it's something we all struggle with determining what's fact from what's fiction.

it would be interesting to see mick foley write a book when he has no conenction to either WWE or TNA.

Mick Foley's books I'd love to read
But A is for Apple is more my speed

This was a poem by Heidensikk

I think that's my point - I don't know that much about Race or Funk either and I would love to have learned more, which I didn't!

Did you watch the Saturday nights main event dvd?

I'm now reading the WWEs take on ECW and Bischoffs book!

not yet! money's been tight.

I found Bischoff's pov in his book very interesting, especially regarding comments he made about not wanting to deal with Hogan at times.

Scott Williams also wrote an ECW book that covers a lot more of certain things than Mahon's version. such as the fact that one time Heyman was being paid by both Mahon and WCW!

I forgot, before starting Uncle Erics book I read McMahon Biography, Sex, Lies & Headlocks.

Reading all these books, you read some of the same stories but from different perspectives!

Paul Heyman scamming WCW on plane tickets.

Larry Zbyszko was scamming away also.

I'll be reading the Williams book next!

I mention in another thread that Bischoff keeps on going about how fresh his approach to WCW was - seems to be the complete opposite of his approach to TNA!

I've read part of Sex, Lies, & Headlocks. I need to finish it!

Bischoff did do a lot to help WCW. mostly in production.