 |
Keith Elliot Greenberg | |
|---|---|
| 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 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 The Sheik book was cancelled.[ citation needed ] Those who read it have called the book the greatest unpublished treasure in wrestling journalism.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, in 1985. He also co-authored a number of biographies of professional wrestlers, including Freddie Blassie, Ric Flair, [5] and Superstar Billy Graham. [6] [7]
A father of two children, he currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. [8] Keith's oldest child is underground, New York filmmaker Dylan Greenberg. [9]
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.
Terrance Dee "Terry" Funk was an American professional wrestler. Widely considered one of the most influential and greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Funk was known for the longevity of his career – which spanned more than 50 years and included multiple short-lived retirements – and the influential hardcore wrestling style he pioneered in the latter part of his career.
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".
The Four Horsemen is an American professional wrestling stable who originally consisted of Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson, and Tully Blanchard.
Sherry Schrull was an American professional wrestler and manager, better known by her ring names, Sherri Martel and Sensational Sherri.
Virgil Riley Runnels Jr., better known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, was an American professional wrestler, booker, and trainer who worked for the National Wrestling Alliance and the World Wrestling Federation, later known as WWE. Rhodes was considered a star wrestler and presented the persona of an American everyman, the American Dream personified. Rhodes is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time.
William Matthew Sierra, better known by his ring name Bill Alfonso, is an American former professional wrestling referee and manager, currently performing for Major League Wrestling (MLW), where he serves as the manager of Matthew Justice. He achieved his greatest success in Extreme Championship Wrestling in the mid-to-late 1990s. He is well known for the whistle that was almost always hanging around his neck, which he blew constantly during his wrestlers' matches.
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.
James Herd is a former television production executive, Pizza Hut manager, and professional wrestling executive. Herd was the Executive Vice President of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from 1988 to 1992 following Turner Broadcasting's acquisition of the National Wrestling Alliance-affiliated Jim Crockett Promotions in 1988.
Have a Nice Day!: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks is an autobiography of former wrestler Mick Foley. It details his life all the way from his upbringing in New York to winning the WWF Championship from The Rock in December 1998. Foley had originally wanted the book to be called simply Blood and Sweatsocks, but this was eschewed in favor of his long-time catchphrase Have a Nice Day!, with the former being worked into the sub-title. The book debuted at #3 on the New York Times Best Seller list on November 7, 1999, and reached #1 on December 5.
Hazem Ali is a Palestinian American professional wrestler and manager. He is best known by his ring name Armando Alejandro Estrada or Armando Estrada, who works for WWE.
WrestleMania XXIV was the 24th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions. The event took place on March 30, 2008, at the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida and was the first WrestleMania to be held in the state of Florida. It was also the second WrestleMania to be held outdoors. American socialite Kim Kardashian served as the hostess of the event.
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 1993 Royal Rumble was the sixth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on January 24, 1993, at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California. It centered on the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time.
Vengeance: Night of Champions was the seventh annual Vengeance as well as the inaugural Night of Champions professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown!, and ECW brand divisions. The event took place on June 24, 2007, at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. It was the final Vengeance event until 2011, as Night of Champions continued in its place. Per the theme of the event, every match on the card was contested for one of WWE's nine then-active championships; only one person won a championship and the others were retained.
The Anderson family is a family of professional wrestlers, largely consisting of brothers, cousins and children.
Starrcade '83: A Flare for the Gold was the first annual Starrcade professional wrestling event, produced under the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) banner by Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). The event took place on November 24, 1983, at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex in Greensboro, North Carolina and was broadcast on closed-circuit television around the Southern United States.
Conrad Channing Thompson is an American mortgage broker, professional wrestling promoter, and podcast host who presents and co-hosts numerous wrestling oriented podcasts, and promotes the Starrcast wrestling convention.
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.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
