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Keith Elliot Greenberg | |
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| Born | May 5, 1959 |
| Occupation(s) | Author, television producer |
| Children | Dylan Greenberg Summer Greenberg |
Keith Elliot Greenberg (born May 5, 1959) is a New York Times bestselling author and television producer. He went to Bayside High School in Queens, graduating in January 1977. He attended a number of colleges in the New York area.
His many books include Menudo,To Be the Man,Erik is Homeless, and Zack's Story. In November 2010, Backbeat Books released December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died, Greenberg's minute-by-minute account of the last day of John Lennon's life. [1]
He has written articles for WWE magazine, Playboy, Men's Journal, HuffPost , Maxim and The Village Voice . He previously was a producer Geraldo at Large , a prime-time television program on Fox News, America's Most Wanted and Forensic Files''. Since July 2023, he has worked as a producer at Dateline NBC.
In December 2010, St. Martin's Press released Love Hurts, the story of the Caffey family murder in rural Texas and Greenberg's second true-crime book for the publisher. His first was Perfect Beauty, about a murder in Ohio. In 2017, his third St. Martins true-crime book, Killing for You about a crime in Orange County, California, was released in 2017.
In 2015, two of his books were scheduled to be published, Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die, about the death of James Dean, and the cult that surrounds it (Hal Leonard/Applause Books), and an autobiography of former WWE Champion, the Iron Sheik (ECW Press). The Sheik book was cancelled.[ citation needed ] Those who read it have called the book the greatest unpublished treasure in wrestling journalism. [2]
In 2016, he co-authored the third edition of the WWE Encyclopedia of Sports Entertainment with Steve Pantaleo and Kevin Sullivan. In 2020, he co-authored the fourth version as well, leading to his boast, "You are looking at the man who literally wrote the book on professional wrestling."
In January, 2018, the Toronto Star listed "Best Seat in the House: My Life in the Jeff Healey Band," co-authored by Greenberg and former Jeff Healey Band drummer Tom Stephen, as one of its top five music book recommendations. The Toronto Globe and Mail described the book as "240 beer-soaked...and debauched pages." [3]
His 2019 book, "Where You Goin' With That Gun in Your Hand? The True Crime Blotter of Rock 'n' Roll," published by Backbeat, profiles 21 deaths related to the music industry. Milwaukee's "Shepherd Express" jokingly described it as a "bloody entertaining read."
Greenberg traveled to Stockholm, Sweden to interview Anna Wohlin, the former model and girlfriend of Brian Jones, who was the last survivor who had been present at his estate when he died in 1969. It was her final interview. She died shortly before the book's release.
His book, "Too Sweet: Inside the Indie Wrestling Revolution," was released in 2020 by ECW Press. Sports Illustrated praised the book's "elegant prose, and Library Journal wrote, "Professional wrestling fans and historians will be gratified."
While writing the "Colour Commentary" column in the British publication, Inside the Ropes Wrestling Magazine in 2021, he began writing his next book for ECW Press, "Follow the Buzzards: Pro Wrestling in the Age of COVID-19." According to a Forbes review after the book's 2022 release, "The wrestling industry has always been a microcosm of society at large, and I challenge anybody to find a book or publication that does a better job telling the story of pro wrestling in the COVID era than Keith Elliot Greenberg."
ECW is also publishing his book: "Bigger, Better, Badder: WrestleMania III and the Year It All Changed" in 2025.
He regularly appears on A&E's WWE Biography series, where he is listed as "WWE historian." [4]
| This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(December 2018) |
His first book, Menudo, was published in 1983 and was the story of Menudo, a 1980s pop band. In the mid-1980s, he began working for USA Today, and other news publishers as well.
In 1990, he wrote the PBS documentary The Blue Helmets, about United Nations peace-keeping.
After writing about professional wrestling for a number of newspapers and magazines, he became a regular writer, contributor, and reporter for WWE, known formerly as World Wrestling Federation. He also co-authored a number of biographies of professional wrestlers, including Freddie Blassie, Ric Flair, [5] and Superstar Billy Graham. [6] [7] In 2009, he co-wrote an unreleased biography of The Iron Sheik. [8]
A father of two children, he currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. [9] Keith's oldest child is underground, New York filmmaker Dylan Greenberg. [10]
Lawrence Wendell Pfohl, better known by the ring name Lex Luger, is an American retired professional wrestler, bodybuilder, and football player. He is best known for his work with Jim Crockett Promotions, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the World Wrestling Federation.
Richard Morgan Fliehr, known professionally as Ric Flair, is an American professional wrestler. Regarded by multiple peers and journalists as the greatest professional wrestler of all time, Flair has had a career spanning over 50 years in 6 decades.
Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, better known by his ring name the Iron Sheik, was an Iranian professional wrestler, amateur wrestler, and actor. He was the first, and so far only, Iranian champion in WWE history, having won the WWF World Heavyweight Championship in 1983.
Josip Hrvoje Peruzović, better known by his ring name Nikolai Volkoff, was a Croatian-American professional wrestler from Yugoslavia, best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation where he usually played a Soviet heel.
Steve Borden, better known by the ring name Sting, is an American retired professional wrestler. Borden is best known for his time spent as the face of two American professional wrestling promotions: World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from 1988 to 2001 and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) from 2006 to 2014, as well as his retirement run in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) from 2020 to 2024. Although the World Wrestling Federation purchased WCW in 2001, Borden did not sign with them at the time; he would later sign with WWE from 2014 to 2020. Prior to WCW, he wrestled for the National Wrestling Alliance's (NWA) Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP)—which became WCW in 1988—the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF), and the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA). Borden wore face-paint throughout his career, and in 1996, changed from the multi-colored paint of his "Surfer" persona to the monochromatic paint of the "Crow" gimmick; he also incorporated elements of The Joker in the later part of his time in TNA.
Martin Anthony Lunde, better known by his ring name Arn Anderson, is an American professional wrestling road agent, author, and retired professional wrestler. Although he is widely regarded as one of the greatest tag team wrestlers in history, he also had a successful singles career and became a four-time NWA/WCW World Television Champion, which he often called his "world title".
Sherry Schrull was an American professional wrestler and manager, better known by her ring names, Sherri Martel and Sensational Sherri.
The WCW International World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship that was contested in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) between 1993 and 1994. Although it was owned and controlled by WCW, the championship was presented as the highest accolade of "WCW International", a fictitious subsidiary. The championship was contested at WCW events and at several events in Japan under the aegis of New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).
Christopher Barton Adkisson was an American professional wrestler, best known under the ring name Chris Von Erich of the Von Erich family.
Irwin "Ernie" Jacob Roth, known by the ring names The Grand Wizard of Wrestling and Abdullah Farouk, was an American professional wrestling manager. Not a wrestler himself due to his small stature, he was noted for his flamboyant outfit of sequined jackets, wraparound sunglasses, and a brightly colored turban decorated with jewels and feathers. He was inducted into the WWE's Hall of Fame class of 1995.
Alan Robert Rogowski, better known by the ring name Ole Anderson, was an American professional wrestler, booker, and promoter.
Peter Joseph "PJ" Polaco is a retired American professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring name Justin Credible. He is also known for his earlier stint with the WWF under the ring name Aldo Montoya. Polaco is a one-time world champion, having won the ECW World Heavyweight Championship once.
Richard Wendell Morton is an American professional wrestler, currently performing on the independent circuit. For most of his career, Morton has performed with Robert Gibson as the Rock 'n' Roll Express, described as "the consummate babyface tag team". Morton has wrestled for multiple promotions in the United States including the Continental Wrestling Association, Mid-South Wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions/World Championship Wrestling, Smoky Mountain Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation, and Extreme Championship Wrestling, as well as the Japanese promotions All Japan Pro Wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and Wrestle Association R.
James Allen Crockett Jr. was an American professional wrestling promoter. From 1973 to 1989, he was part owner of Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), a wrestling company affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). From 1976 to 1987, Crockett and his family also owned the Charlotte Orioles, a minor league baseball team based in Charlotte, North Carolina as well as owning the Winston-Salem Polar Twins in the Southern Hockey League from 1974 to 1975.
To Be the Man is an autobiographical book written by professional wrestler Ric Flair and Keith Elliot Greenberg, and edited by Mark Madden. It was published by WWE Books and distributed by Simon & Schuster in July 2004. The book's title was taken from Flair's famous catchphrase: "To be the man, you gotta beat the man!".
The Anderson family is a family of professional wrestlers, largely consisting of brothers, cousins and children.
NWA Hollywood Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Los Angeles, California in the United States that promoted professional wrestling matches throughout Southern California. It was founded in 1958 as the North American Wrestling Alliance, a member of the National Wrestling Alliance. It broke away from the NWA in 1959 and was renamed Worldwide Wrestling Associates in 1961. In 1968, it rejoined the NWA and adopted its final name, remaining a member until closing in 1982.
Big Time Wrestling – also known as the American Wrestling Alliance (AWA) or National All-Star Wrestling, and sometimes referred to as NWA San Francisco – was a professional wrestling promotion headquartered in San Francisco, California, in the United States. Founded by "Professor" Roy Shire (1922–1992) in 1960, the promotion emerged as one of the most profitable in the United States thanks to its "red hot angles" and "good TV". The promotion's heartland was the San Francisco Bay Area, with the Cow Palace as its core venue, but it also ran regular shows in cities including Fresno, Las Vegas, Oakland, San Jose, and Sacramento. Shire folded the promotion in 1981.
The American professional wrestling promotion WWE has maintained several men's world championships since Capitol Wrestling Corporation seceded from the National Wrestling Alliance in 1963 to become the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), which was later subjected to various name changes, including World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)—in April 2011, the company ceased using its full name and has since just been referred to as WWE. The company's first world championship was the WWE Championship, which was established along with the promotion's creation in 1963 as the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship; it is still active today and is WWE's oldest active title. Whenever the WWE brand extension has been implemented, separate world championships have been created or allocated for each brand.
George Kosti was a Canadian professional wrestler and referee who spent his career in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) in Minnesota as George "Scrap Iron" Gadaski. Gadaski was considered the "jack of all trades" as he did ring set up, and later became a road agent.
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