The sound of glass breaking is poetry to the ears of a wrestling fan. To anyone who loves the sport it means one thing-"Stone Cold" Steve Austin is about to come rumbling down that aisle to open a can of whoop ass on an unfortunate foe.
Austin was a once-in-a-generation act in the wrestling business. WWE built the Attitude Era around his beer-swilling, ass-kicking, anti-corporate character, unique in the history of wrestling. Austin defined a decade and led to the largest business boom the industry has ever seen.
How did it happen?
Stunning: The Wrestling Artistry of Steve Austin
, dives into the art of Austin as a performer to uncover the answers. Many books tackle professional wrestling as a business or a spectacle. Here, author Zack Heydorn views it through a different lens-as a compelling and diverse art form.
Something
made Austin standout from the pack and Heydorn delves deep into the weeds to figure out what Stone Cold did and said that resonated so strongly with fans.
From the early days inside the Dallas Sportatorium as "Stunning" Steve, to the raucous ECW arena, all the way to the bright lights of WrestleMania, Stunning dissects Austin's artistic choices in the ring and on the microphone. Heydorn, an editor at the ground-breaking Pro Wrestling Torch, offers in-depth, frame-by-frame match analysis, promo examination, and provides a historical framework to understand the world in which that work took place.
Stunning
is the definitive study of the artistic development and progression of the most influential pro wrestler in history. With art by the legendary K. Thor Jensen, the book is sure to be destined for the shelves of anyone serious about wrestling as an art form.