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JESSE VENTURA DOC HITS PBS APP, FRANCINE LOOKS AT RETURN OF TNA AND MORE

The new documentary Jesse Ventura Shocks the World is now streaming on the PBS App.  The doc looks back at the 25th anniversary of Ventura being elected as Governor of Minnesota and goes into his professional wrestling documentary, including teaming with Adrian Adonis and his on screen persona being inspired by Superstar Graham.  Journalist and former ring announcer Eric Eskola is featured talking about that era of Ventura's life and there were a lot of photos and clips from the 70s and early 80s with wrestling presented as this very unique, improvised artform.  They credited Ventura with changing the business by being a strong heel announcer for the WWF and also goes into his acting exploits.  The 60 minute documentary is very good and teases the idea of Ventura running for President in the future.  Ventura is interviewed and there are lots of archival clips and comments from Ventura, his wife Terri and many others.

The latest edition of Francine's iHeart Podcast looks at the return of TNA and more at this link.

Ricky Banderas - Mil Muertes (AAA, Lucha Underground, IWA, WWC) is now available for wrestling/appearance bookings through Bill Behrens showbis@aol.com.  

The new book Ballyhoo!: The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling will be released on 1/29.  Promotional material for Jon Langmead's book notes:

Ballyhoo! The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling is a history of professional wrestling’s formative period in the U.S., from roughly 1874 to 1941, and the contested interplay of wrestlers and promoters who built the “sport” as we know it. During this period, the major conventions that would define wrestling to the present day were perfected and codified, as wrestling morphed from a rough sport practiced on farms and at town gatherings to melodramatic mass entertainment that reliably drew large crowds in cities across the nation.

The narrative uses the life and career of Jack Curley—a boxing promoter whose fortune took a turn for the better when he began promoting wrestling matches—as a compass as it charts the development of wrestling. By the late 1910s, Curley’s shows were selling out Madison Square Garden monthly. Ballyhoo chronicles his competition with the other promoters, as well as the lives of colorful athletes like “Strangler” Ed Lewis, Frank Gotch, the “Masked Marvel,” Jim Londos, “Gorgeous George” Wagner, “Farmer” Martin Burns, and “Dynamite” Gus Sonnenberg.

 

 

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