Author | Brian Shields Kevin Sullivan |
---|---|
Illustrator | Doug Wilkins |
Cover artist | Eli Zigdon |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Series | World Wrestling Entertainment |
Subject | Professional wrestling |
Genre | Encyclopedia |
Publisher | Dorling Kindersley |
Publication date | 2009 |
Published in English | 2008 |
Pages | 366 pages |
ISBN | 0-7566-4190-X |
OCLC | 244419109 |
The WWE Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to World Wrestling Entertainment is a reference book featuring in-depth knowledge surrounding the leading organization in professional wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
The book covers the 45-year history of WWE and features a comprehensive A-Z listing of nearly 1,000 former and current wrestlers from as early as the 1960s to the present day. The book also contains official listings for title histories, television and pay-per-view events, most notably, a detailed history of WrestleMania.
More updated reissues of the book were released in 2012, 2016, and 2020.
The WWE Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to World Wrestling Entertainment contains profiles for past and present WWE personalities, as well as event and title histories. While providing information primarily about the personalities career in WWE, information is also present about their careers in other companies. People who portrayed separate characters are often given separate profiles for each character. [1]
People who left the company on bad terms were given favorable profiles, including Alundra Blayze and The Ultimate Warrior. [1] Chris Benoit has a profile in the encyclopedia, however there is no mention of the double murder and suicide. [1] [2]
Brian Shields and Kevin Sullivan (not the wrestler) created the book together. [2] WWE was given final say over who would be included in the book. [2] Overall, the book took over one year to create. [2] Sullivan and Shields divided some of the work load, dividing the research for championship title histories in half. [2]
The book debuted at No. 10 on The New York Times Hardcover Books Bestsellers List and climbed as high as No. 8.[ citation needed ]
It received mostly favorable reviews. Bob Kapur of SLAM! Wrestling was favorable toward the book, saying that it "is just the ticket for fans looking for a trip down memory lane". [1] He praised the book for including lesser known personalities, but also criticized the absence of notable tag teams such as Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon. [1]
Paul Michael Levesque, better known by the ring name Triple H, is an American business executive, actor, and retired professional wrestler. Regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he currently serves as the chief content officer and head of creative for WWE.
Christopher Michael Benoit was a Canadian professional wrestler. He worked for various pro-wrestling promotions during his 22-year career including most notably the World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment (WWF/WWE), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in the United States of America, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in Japan and Stampede Wrestling in his native Canada.
The WWE Championship is a men's professional wrestling world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, defended on the SmackDown brand division. Since April 2022, the title has been jointly held and defended with the WWE Universal Championship as the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, but both titles have maintained their individual lineages. It is one of three world titles in WWE, alongside its companion Universal Championship on SmackDown, and the World Heavyweight Championship on Raw. The current champion is Roman Reigns, who is in his fourth reign. He won the title by defeating Brock Lesnar in a Winner Takes All match at WrestleMania 38 Night 2 on April 3, 2022, subsequently becoming the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion.
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Robert Deroy Windham, better known by his ring name Blackjack Mulligan, was an American professional wrestler and American football player. He was the father of wrestlers Barry and Kendall Windham, father-in-law of Mike Rotunda, and the maternal grandfather of Bo Dallas and Bray Wyatt.
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WWE Books is a subsidiary of World Wrestling Entertainment, a division of TKO Group Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings, created in 2002 to publish autobiographies of and fiction based on WWE personalities, behind-the-scenes guides to WWE, illustrated books, calendars, young adult books, and other general nonfiction books. The majority of WWE Books are published by Pocket Books, part of the Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group. Simon & Schuster UK and Simon & Schuster Australia are the publishers of WWE books in the United Kingdom and Australia. Simon & Schuster publish multiple titles yearly, based on the personalities, programming, storylines, and other topics of interest to WWE and its fans.
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