The Squared Circle

Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling

By: David Shoemaker

Narrated by: R.C. Bray

Grantland and Deadspin correspondent presents a breakthrough examination of the professional wrestling, its history, its fans, and its wider cultural impact that does for the sport what Chuck Klosterman did for heavy metal.

The Squared Circle grows out of David Shoemaker’s writing for Deadspin, where he started the column “Dead Wrestler of the Week” (which boasts over 1 million page views) - a feature on the many wrestling superstars who died too young because of the abuse they subject their bodies to - and his writing for Grantland, where he covers the pro wrestling world, and its place in the pop culture mainstream. Shoemaker’s sportswriting has since struck a nerve with generations of wrestling fans who - like him - grew up worshipping a sport often derided as “fake” in the wider culture. To them, these professional wrestling superstars are not just heroes but an emotional outlet and the lens through which they learned to see the world.

Starting in the early 1900s and exploring the path of pro wrestling in America through the present day, The Squared Circle is the first book to acknowledge both the sport’s broader significance and wrestling fans’ keen intellect and sense of irony. Divided into eras, each section offers a snapshot of the wrestling world, profiles some of the period’s preeminent wrestlers, and the sport’s influence on our broader culture. Through the brawling, bombast, and bloodletting, Shoemaker argues that pro wrestling can teach us about the nature of performance, audience, and, yes, art.

©2013 David Shoemaker (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Hard to listen to

Performance had horrible edits cutting into story that was very hard to overcome. Mainly about WWF\WWE wrestlers.

great book

it was a great book, the editing was a little iffy, but I highly recommend to any old school wrestling fan

Pretty good

There was tea nothing I haven’t heard before and some of the names weren’t even close. Besides the nitpicky stuff it was very good and entertaining. I would recommend giving it a listen.

Maj book, Repug recording.

Would you consider the audio edition of The Squared Circle to be better than the print version?

I really liked this book, but the piss poor editing of the audio can really take you out of it. additionally, the narrator is clearly a good older than the author, which makes some of the autobiographical details in the book sound extra strange, but that's just being knit picky. Truly awful sound quality though. This thing is audiobook adjace.

Technical Difficulties?

My only issue with this book was that it was very clear where edits were made as there was a definite drop in sound quality where these edits were made. In all my years of audiobook listening I’ve never come across this issue outside of old radio dramas from the 1930’s & ‘40’s.

Outside of these technical problems I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any fan of Pro Wrestling or anyone interested in it’s history.

This is a great book

It is a great book good detail good info great narration worth a listen for sure

Love this gem of a wrestling book!

A great book about pro-wrestling, its history and pro-wrestlers. It starts with a hilarious anecdote about the author's initiation to wrestling as a kid drawing on his experience to go see wrestling matches with his father. There he kind of learns that pro-wrestling is an intricate intermingling of reality and fakery. The book briefly describes how pro-wrestling came about along with its more legitimate cousin (as a sport), boxing, and then embarks on the introduction of various wrestlers in loosely chronological order. I was a pro-wrestling fan as a kid and, though I don't follow pro-wrestling anymore, this book's superb story-telling really packs tons of entertainment for me. This is an audiobook I want to come back to over and over. A real keeper in my book.

Could’ve used an editor

This book has been recommended to me for years and I finally decided to listen to it on a long road trip. There is some good research in here, but there are two big detractors:

First, Bix doesn’t seem to know his audience. Did he expect non-wrestling fans to be reading this? Some of the extra explanation of basic wrestling concepts could’ve been captured in an appendix.

Second, I think some of the later chapters are just his essays from Deadspin. Because of this, they don’t acknowledge the previous chapters and so concepts, events, and players get explained multiple times. It takes away from the book and makes it feel amateurish.

Eye opening

Will open your eyes to what professional wrestling is actually all about. Don't judge wrestling without listening to this.

Audio makes for unpleasant experience

Good information...audio engineering is questionable. Disrupts the flow of story...I'd probably buy the book.