Sisterhood of the Squared Circle: The History and Rise of Women's Wrestling

Just got around to writing a review... Wonderful book. My husband, heck my whole household, loves to read, loves history, and we breathe wrestling. He literally said one day while I was looking at wrestling biographies, "I'd love if I could find a book on women's wrestling. I need that for my collection." I got him this as a present, no special occasion, just pure appreciation, and he was very happy. It was a thoughtful gift, and it was something everyone in the house enjoyed reading. A lot of work went into this, and it has a lot of note worthy knowledge in its pages. Love the title of this book as well... Much appreciation to the women in wrestling, and it's a tribute in its own right. It came in early, great condition, and definitely was and is still a loved addition to our bookshelves.

This is a superb book whose time is long overdue.Women wrestlers have been a part of the business dating back to the 1800's, but their contributions have almost always been ignored and trivialized. Conservative, sexist social strictures literally made the participation of women in wrestling criminal in many states, including New York, where it was not legalized until the 1970's. The toughness and courage of women in wrestling, as in other pugilistic sports, has been downplayed and ignored. This has not only robbed women of the respect they earned and the money they generated, but has also stolen from fans an important and fascinating part of wrestling history. This book, along with the excellent documentary 'Lipstick and Dynamite' by Ruth Leitman, corrects that injustice in an entertaining and informative way.Published by ECW Press authors Pat Laprade and Dan Murphy have made an excellent addition to the growing cannon of books chronicling professional wrestling.My own library has shelves of wrestling books but very few are about women’s wrestling. Jeff Leen’s “Queen of the Ring” (an excellent and engrossing book about Mildred Burke) is a notable exception. Prior to the very recent release of AJ Mendez Brooks ‘Crazy is My Superpower’, the only published wrestling biographies by women were those by Lita, Moolah, and the late Joanie Laurer (aka Chyna, whose pariah status in WWE is indefensible). Tammy Stych, Missy Hyatt, and Jeanie Clark also have books, but all three were valets, with only Stych having some experience as a wrestler/in-ring performer.Sisterhood offers a brief but enlightening section on the pioneers of women in wrestling in the 19th and early 20th century. Scott Beekman's 'Ringside: A History of Professional Wrestling in America' offers a detailed account of the full history of wrestling in the US for readers looking for more. The performers of the Billy Wolfe and Lilian Ellison (Moolah) eras are detailed next, before the 1980's Rock and Wrestling era is covered. There are nice breakout pieces throughout on topics such as the legalization of women's wrestling, the 'original screwjob' and the apartment wrestling phenomenon. For more on that particular topic, the Taschen photo book 'Exquisite Mayhem' juxtaposes the fetishistic apartment wrestling phenomenon with the LA Olympic wrestling scene of the 70's and 80's. The section on GLOW was also enlightening (there is a great documentary on that promotion available as well).The book contains well over 400 pages of brief, but detailed and illustrated career profiles of over 100 women wrestlers, organized chronologically, by era. From Minerva to Manami Toyota, from Mae Young to Sexy Star, and from Mildred Burke to Sasha Banks this book takes us across the globe and across time. The reference style and formatting of the book is similar to that of ‘The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame’ book series (also by ECW Press). There are excellent chapters on international women's wrestling (Japan, Mexico, Australia, and the UK are covered), SHIMMER, and the growing Indy scene.Sisterhood chronicles the ongoing, uphill battle for respect in and out of the ring by the cadre of brave and tough athletes. The book concludes with chapters on the women of NXT, the death of the diva's title/resurrection of the women’s title, the 'women's revolution', and the future of women's wrestling in consideration of Stephanie McMahon's push of the division. Ronda Rousey's impact on women in fight sports is discussed - women were denied the right to compete in the UFC by that company until 2011 - when that discrimination ended, in large part, due to Rousey, who is on the WWE women's division 'wishlist'.Sisterhood also contains an excellent introduction by Nattie Neidhart, whose work (including famous matches with Charlotte Flair) helped to demand the respect that modern women wrestlers are finally starting to receive. This is an excellent and much needed book on the history and evolution of women’s wrestling. It’s highly readable, packed with interviews, images and enlightening insights into a subject too long marginalized.Well done and highly recommended.

Awesome read! Made me appreciate even more women wrestlers. Now looking for books from when moolah and Mae Young started so I can read more about the ladies that were trained and the feuds with promoters and some male wrestlers. To me it is fascinating to read about ladies wrestling wish their were more books by women wrestlers, love to read MsChif story in her words or Cheerleader melissa or even a dream Saraya Knight, she a jack of all trades and her story would be great to read.

This book is a trip through a time machine. I didn't know women wrestling has been around since ancient times. Please read this book

When I entered my preteens, I finally found out the channel that broadcasts Monday Night Raw. One of the first memories I have as a regular watcher of WWE was Candice Michelle vs Beth Phoenix 2 out of 3 falls match. I didn't know anyone involved in the match, but those two pulled me into the match. When Candice Michelle fell from the top rope and injured herself it put a permanent memory in my mind. No, it wasn't a technical masterpiece; however, the fact that they laid it all on the line made me respect not only them, but female wrestling in general. From that point on, I was a lifelong women's wrestling fan.I started to research women of the past and present. I watched their matches just as much as I watched the matches of my favorite wrestler, The Undertaker. As I grew into my teenage years, I am twenty at the time of this writing, I began to look up women's wrestling outside of WWE. I learned that women were capable of doing more than what they were in WWE through the work of women like Manami Toyota, Akira Hokuto, Aja Kong, Amazing Kong, and Gail Kim. That is what kept me eager for the 2 minute Diva matches during the "Bathroom Break era" of WWE women's wrestling. When I would visit wrestling websites and see the endless bashing of WWE's Divas, I would always shake my head and think 'yeah, but those are my girls.' The Divas and other women's wrestlers were all my girls, some of them just needed a chance to shine.Honestly, to see how far women's wrestling in general has come, fills me with such gladness. Its just like a big "I told you so" to all the haters and bashers. Women's wrestling right now, is in a time of prominence.This book is a celebration of said prominence. It not only covers the notable and celebrated, but also the forgotten and unsung. It covers wrestlers and there are some you will be inspired by. There is also clarification on the injustices of the Fabulous Moolah. It also chronicles important events and moments in women's wrestling history.You can tell that absolute care was taken when developing this book. It is truly amazing, and a must read for any women's wrestling fan. Hopefully, this will not be the last of books such as this one.

It kind of bogged down and became more of an essay on how one promoter took advantage of women's wrestling and abused and full filled his own predatory desires. I was looking for more of the stories of actual matches and how the women felt and a little more characterization. It had a lot of little tidbits and so you got a little blurb of things. But, not much meat to the stories.