The WWE Championship: A Look Back at the Rich History of the WWE Championship [Hardcover]

Reported by Earnest Aguilar Zevallos

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 was quite excited when I read the WWE was putting out a book on the history of the WWE Title, as I am very interested in the storied history of it. However, the end product was little more than a cursory look back, and the "Rich History" promised in the title of the book is sorely lacking.

I understand the WWE is currently marketing to younger views. Thus they would want to make the book accessible to a wide audience, but at a price of nearly $30.00 I was expecting a lot more than I got. For example Bruno Sammartino's eight year reign is glossed over in about three pages of text, most of which was about his childhood (information cribbed from his book or old interviews no doubt). Pedro Morales, Bruno's second reign, and Bob Backlund receive a little more coverage, but not much more. Antonio Inoki's disputed title reign is mentioned but is quickly dismissed, and the incident between Valentine and Backlund where the title is held up is ignored.

Other, short Title reigns are dismissed in a few sentences. For example "The Rock's fourth WWE Championship reign was much like his previous three-short. Less than one month in, he lost the title back to Triple H in a grueling sixty-minute Iron Man Match at Judgment Day. Luckily for The Rock, he was able to to regain the gold from The Game just one month later at King of the Ring."

Here the author goes through two title changes and doesn't mention that Shawn Michaels was the guest referee for the Iron Man Match, that Undertaker's interference cost Rock the title, mentions nothing that happened on the Raws in between, and doesn't even explain that the King of the Ring match was a 6 Man Tag where the title could change hands pitting Triple H, and Vince and Shane McMahon against The Rock, The Undertaker and Kane. The book is full of these omissions.

Once again, when I pay $30 for a book on the "Rich History" of the WWE Title I don't expect to get less history than a Wikipedia page on any given former champion. Finally, my biggest complaint is that there is not one citation in the whole book. The author just cuts and pastes quotes and basically plagiarizes from other wrestler's books, former interviews and televised interviews and leaves the reader the reader hanging as to where he got them from. I know he had to have done a little research, so where are the citations? I understand that this is not an academic book but this level of laziness and literary dishonesty is unacceptable.

On the up side there are a lot of pictures, and for someone (like a kid) who just wants the basic history of the WWE Title I could mildly recommend it. However, anyone who has a serious interest in this topic should not waste his or her money. You can find pages more of information at Wikipedia alone.

Each year, the WWE puts out a handful of items that true fans must have ... this is one of those items. I received it in the mail a few days ago and read it cover to cover in just two days (and I'm starting it again tonight ... not joking).

It's a very easy read and manages to take the reader through the entire history of the WWE. In fact, the book actually starts a few years before there ever was a WWE. It talks all about how Buddy Rogers' NWA title win in the early 1960s helped form WWE. That part was a lot of fun because you rarely get that type of history from a WWE product.

Another fun part was Sgt. Slaughter talking about how his life changed for the negative after he won the gold. There's a lot of good stories like that in there.

As a fan of the WWF/WWE going on sixteen years now, I found this book to be extremely informative and intriguing. It gives a great history lesson on the roots of the WWE title, and great stories told by past champions themselves. Though the quotes from past champions are small. Most of the book is told by Kevin Sullivan. Which I thought did a nice job of talking about the WWE title. There isn't a ton of information, but its a page turner. And when I was done reading it, I just wanted more. They go through every champion since its inception in May 17, 1963. Think about that...the WWE title is almost fifty years old! All in all I thought this was a great book for the price I paid for it. Which wasn't very much. Thank you Amazon! Buy this book if its really cheap.