ANNOUNCEMENT: Greg Oliver and Stephen Johnson‘s third, and most hefty Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame book, The Heels will soon be available in stores and online.Â
 The villains, the bad guys, the rule breakers. These are the characters featured in Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Heels (June 2007, ECW Press), the most comprehensive look at the wrestlers whose job it is to make us mad. Critically acclaimed authors Greg Oliver and Steven Johnson take readers on a thrilling ride of mat mayhem with their signature mix of interviews, original research, and anecdotes with and about the meanest pro wrestlers ever to get in the ring.
The Heels describes the rise and development of the bad guys, from their times raising riots in small-town arenas in the 1920s, to the mega-PPV events today. Casual fans and wrestling historians will both enjoy reading about the lineages and history of wrestling’s bad boys, finding out how someone like Nature Boy Flair traces his roots back to Gorgeous George, and about the little-known Ohioan that George himself emulated.
Of course, no conversation about Oliver and Johnson’s book is ever complete without a debate about their lists — in this case who’s on and who’s off the list of the most influential heels in history.
The Heels features more than 100 rarely and never-before-seen photos of the most despicable characters ever to stalk the ring.
Greg Oliver is a writer and editor from Toronto. He has covered wrestling for 20 years through the Slam! Wrestling site, the Canadian Wrestling Report newsletter, magazines, and newspapers.
Steven Johnson has a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. He has received the Virginia Press Association’s highest award for investigative journalism.
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The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame
The Heels
Greg Oliver and Steven Johnson
ISBN:Â 978-1-55022-759–8
6.75 x 9.75’’, 400pp, paper
150 b&w and colour photos throughout
$19.95 U.S./ $22.95 CDN
Sports/Entertainment
Distributed by Independent Publishers Group
Available at bookstores and online.