REVIEWS

"What a refreshing take! Very honest and humorous. And I was never a fan of the sport until I finished this."
Kristina U.

"Life Imitates Fight is such an appropriate title. (The author) brilliantly placed the entire industry under a thorough microscope and what a vision we see."
Minn W.

"I met (the author) and he gladly signed my copy! In that one meeting, he was so humble and friendly that I could immediately tell just how real this book was!"
Scarlett E.

"A must-read for sports fans, self-help gurus and people who actually want to smile when reading. A celebration of the genre."
Ricardo J.

"For the unversed, every aspect of the game is explained and tailed by such endearing personal stories. A joy from start to finish."
Toni R.

"So good! Needs a sequel then a trilogy! Forget a 3 count...I want a 3 piece!"
Malcolm T.

They say death is the second greatest fear of humanity. Strangely enough, public speaking is the first. I didn’t conduct the study so don’t hold it against me. But I’ve met several highly respectable individuals who committed laser focus to tasks. They would annihilate every obstacle. They wouldn’t take “NO” for an answer. And then…their sweaty palms would involuntarily shake just moments before having to address a team of 12 people in an office meeting. I could never understand it. Now I’m not saying that I never once suffered stage fright. I would assume that everyone has, at least one time in their life. But in my case, emulating what I saw in the world of professional wrestling didn’t just have to take a physical nature. Every legend from before Hogan and Flair to after Austin and Rock were masters of the microphone. Not just in their realm. But also in practically every public setting. You could take the most linguistically expressive representative from every sport and line them up beside a pro wrestler and 9 times out of 10, the “meat head” wrestler stands far and above as the best spoken. Heck, line up celebrities, movie stars and even politicians and the pro wrestler will verbally decimate all of them. If you’re still skeptical, there’s a common reason why the biggest star in all of Hollywood is a former pro wrestler and several others are political candidates, such as Jesse Ventura who was Governor of Minnesota or Glenn “Kane” Jacobs who currently sits as a Mayor in Tennessee. It wasn’t because of their physical intimidation or athletic prowess. It was because of their high intellect and verbal eloquence. Even the Greatest Of All Time, Muhammad Ali, admitted that his gift of the gab was heavily inspired by the legendary Gorgeous George and his witty jabber during his ascent in the 1940’s professional wrestling ranks. But speaking of the first People’s Champion all the way to the next, just as nobody could match Ali on the microphone or in the boxing ring, there’s never been anybody who could electrify on the mic and in the ring like The Rock. Going back to the point about being the biggest star in Hollywood, Dwayne Johnson didn’t exactly get into filmmaking by having the best wrestling matches. Instead, The Rock was living evidence of being forced to evolve in front of millions of fans to achieve ultimate success. Dwayne Johnson was a standout college football player. Being a member of the national championship winning Miami Hurricanes in 1991, Johnson expected to be drafted directly into the NFL. He wasn’t. Instead he played for the Calgary Stampeders in the CFL. The very league that his cousin, Roman Reigns played in as part of the Edmonton Eskimos after he went undrafted to the NFL several years later. Roughly a decade apart, both turned to their family heritage with deep roots in professional wrestling. Johnson’s grandfather, Peter Maivia, was regarded as the High-Chief in the family and performed not so much as a character but more so as a representative of his culture. A large man with a bigger smile and covered in tribal ink from knees to mid torso. Most people in the wrestling business hadn’t a clue as to what Samoan culture was in the 70’s and Maivia became their biggest lone symbol. Maivia’s daughter, Ata, would eventually marry the late African-Canadian wrestler, Rocky Johnson. Johnson was 1 member of the first-black tag-team champions. By the early 90’s their son, Dwayne, was dipping his feet into the wrestling waters but was about to swim with sharks. Instead of focusing on Dwayne Johnson – the national championship football player – the WWF creative focused entirely on Dwayne carrying his family’s lineage into the next century. He was christened “Rocky Maivia” – a blend of both his father and grandfather’s ring names and dressed in seemingly traditional Polynesian garb with a huge smile and ridiculous hair. The problem was that the audience had grown very different and were also evolving in the mid 90’s. The smiling babyface that Johnson was in 1996 surprisingly received negative crowd reactions. And instead of changing course, he was continuously forced down the throats of fans, until chants of “Rocky Sucks” and signs reading “Die Rocky Die” followed him across the entire United States. In a twist of fate, Johnson was injured and taken off television to heal. The curse would eventually become a blessing as Johnson was off TV for an extremely pivotal few months where the usual cartoonish characters of the WWF were taking much grittier turns. When he returned, Johnson was easily turned into a villain. He wasn’t a caricature of his culture or a hybrid of his ancestors any longer. Instead, Johnson was paired with a legit badass crew of all-black wrestlers headed by another football standout, Ron Simmons. They were called the Nation and played off the very real racial tensions experienced by the very real Nation of Islam. Finally…Johnson wasn’t smiling and most importantly, he didn’t seem fake. Coincidentally, just as his grandfather did decades prior, Johnson wasn’t so much playing a character any longer. He was himself. He carried some of that Miami-swagger. He exuded his natural charisma to match his very legitimate athletic prowess. And most of all, Johnson began talking with his own words and in his own voice. Once the audience – and also the WWF brass – heard Johnson commandingly dictate to the crowd that he “didn’t suck” and that he was better than having signs read “Die Rocky Die”, the entire world experienced his true, raw authenticity. And The Rock was born. Johnson demonstrated that he was more than just brawn as his verbal articulacy was displayed whenever he touched a microphone. Within mere months of changing his persona and completely altering his approach, The Rock was one of the biggest stars in the WWF. By 1998 – just 2 short years after debuting to negative crowds – the villainous Rock was slowly being cheered by fans because he became the coolest character in professional wrestling. The crowd would eat from the palm of his hand and chant along with him. Even when he would admonish them as a villain, arenas of fans would still sing-a-long with The Rock. In November ’98, The Rock would become the WWF champion. But this era of professional wrestling was truly an anomaly. Prior to and ever since, the WWF/E would generally hinge their business on their champion because he was the biggest star. Sometimes not just in their own company but across the entire industry. But in 1998, The Rock was remarkably 1 of 2 legends in the making standing across the ring from Stone Cold Steve Austin. From a prior chapter, we covered the tumultuous rise of Austin into a megastar. Matched up against the ultimate antihero, The Rock found his all time greatest rival as millions (and millions) of fans tuned in to see the ever evolving feud between 2 of the greatest stars in professional wrestling history. Recollecting the anomaly of the Attitude Era could be an entirely different book, but we can safely say that The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin were unquestionably the faces of the WWF during that period and would become 2 or the 4 faces on professional wrestling’s all-time Mouth Rushmore! After reaching new revenue heights and setting both live gate and pay-per-view records for their battles at WrestleMania, Johnson’s charisma propelled him into Hollywood to begin his acting career and now in 2020, The Rock is undeniably the biggest action star in the world! And it all started once Johnson used his own voice on a live microphone. The lesson to learn here is vast, especially considering who we’re discussing. Explicitly, overcoming your fear of public speaking could literally open doors for you and do wonders once you discover your own voice. For most, speaking up for yourself and voicing your opinions is quite enough. But for the rare few, their tone can set them leagues apart from the rest. And The Rock clearly demonstrated that standing out was far more beneficial than just fitting in. But just as importantly, Dwayne Johnson transforming into The Rock displays the advantage of accepting change. Modifications of your initial approach, to any dire situation, could possibly lead to your greatest successes. And after all, isn’t that your objective?