Pain and Passion » (Revised)

Heath McCoy is a pop culture reporter and rock critic for the Calgary Herald. His coverage of Stampede Wrestling won a Western Canadian Magazine Award. He lives in Calgary, Alberta.

Established in the 1940s by the legendary Stu Hart, Stampede Wrestling was a founding wrestling company that was highly influential. This dramatic account follows Stampede’s blood-on-the-mat saga of more than 50 years, from its grassroots beginnings in Calgary to its rise and bitter fall. Despite hosting some of the biggest names in the sport and developing many modern day wrestling staples, such as ladder matches, the emergence in the 1980s of the wildly popular WWE ultimately doomed the Stampede league to closure. The Hart family crumbled along with the league, with son Owen dying in the ring and other members torn apart by begrudging feuds and internal strife. Full of violence, sex, and drugs, this is a gripping tale of the birth of professional wrestling.

411mania.com

An excellent read, well-researched, wonderfully written . . . and brutally honest, balanced and filled with real passion.