ECW Press has announced a March 2007 publication date for Irvin Muchnick’s book WRESTLlNG BABYLON: Piledriving Tales of Drugs, Sex, Death and Scandal.
The Spring 2007 ECW catalogue calls WRESTLING BABYLON the place where “closet fans meet closet intellectuals.”
A nephew of Sam Muchnick, the late legendary wrestling promoter, Irvin Muchnick has written about pro wrestling behind the scenes for more than 20 years for publications as diverse as The New York Times, The Washington Monthly, and an online magazine published by the Museum of Sex.
Muchnick’s People magazine article on Hulk Hogan blew the lid off the drug abuse of the sport’s signature superstar. His award-winning Penthouse profile of the ill-starred Von Erich clan was the first to connect the dots between wrestling, televangelism, and MTV-style production values. His never-before-published investigation of the death of Jimmy (Superfly) Snuka’s girlfriend suggests the cover-up of a murder.
The book’s appendix – a comprehensive listing of the dozens of wrestlers who died prematurely over the last generation, with little or no attention, all for our guilty pleasure – is both a valuable resource for wrestling historians and a shocking document of the ruthless way sports entertainment eats its own.
Publishers Weekly recently recognized ECW Press (http://ecwpress.com) as one of the fastest growing and most diversified independent publishers in North America.
For information on how to pre-order an autographed copy of WRESTLING BABYLON, go to http://muchnick.net/order.html.
Follow news about the book on the WRESTLING BABYLON Blog, http://muchnick.net/babylon.