My last post covered the battle between investors over a comic book company in the 1990's. I was planning to cover a book that could be considered to be the companion book, even though it covers a different industry. I was thinking of showcasing the book The Death Of WCW by R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez, which chronicled the battle between wrestling shows WWE and the WCW. The reason why I changed my mind was because I came across a book that was better aimed at the youth market. The book I will be covering is WWE Official Annual 2018 with no discernible author. It contains 80 pages. I cannot tell who the audience is and will go into more detail as the blog progresses. When I picked up this book I was hoping it would help me understand televised wrestling in its current state. I went as far as hoping it would get me interested in the show much like Death of WCW got me interested in the show during the 90's. This did not. I have trouble figuring out who this book is aimed at. Many of the activities appear to be aimed at younger audiences. There are crossword puzzles, mazes and spot the difference pages. I would think that this is aimed at a younger audience. I also see that the writing has big words such as "igniting, supremacy and underhanded." One set of words that really jumped out to me was the description of Charlotte Flair where her bio has the words "Genetically Superior Athlete" which may be a title but comes off as being in very poor taste of words. Even though it is mostly pictures I found myself overwhelmed by how many facts and bios and different leagues and champions are going on. It may show the problems of televised wrestling even better than it does being a gateway to wrestling or an activity book for young fans. One book that I can compare it to is the book Ultimate Fighting: The Brains and Brawn of Mixed Martial Arts by Patrick Jones, published by Millbrook Press and is 64 pages in lenght. This book established right away why people enjoy MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) by asking the reader what would happen if a boxer fought a wrestler. After establishing the concept of MMA it goes into the history of the sport. It starts with ancient Greek art of "pankration" then brings up fighting legends like Bruce Lee and the Gracie family. It even covered a fight between Antonio Inoki and Muhammad Ali, which could technically be considered the worlds first MMA match but explained how the lack of structure made the match confusing and boring. I was impressed by how Patrick Jones would bring up moments steeped in controversy but would not take a side. For example, Jones brought up how the Jean Claude Van Damme movie Bloodsport provided inspiration but did not go into detail about the controversy over the movie claiming to be a biography about the martial artist Frank Dux while many people believe Dux was, and still is a fraud. If you would like to know more, I posted a video from a youtuber who goes into detail about the many things wrong with Fran Dux's story. The book continues by showcasing the most celebrated fighters and a summary of the best matches. I will admit I found myself glossing over these, but would go back to it when my father watches a fight and I would like to pay attention, even though I know very little about it. So my only criticism of the book is that I wish it had more photos. All in all, I feel this was a superior book to WWE Annual 2018 where the other felt like it was trying too see what sticks, I felt that Patrick Jones knew he was going for a pre-teen audience who knew nothing or little about MMA and would teach them about it.
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