![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/sisterhood-200x300.jpg\")
<\/a>By Brian \u201cThe Beret\u201d Young<\/strong><\/p>\nToday I am going to veer off of boxing for the first time. As my regular readers know I am a bit of a history buff and I have recently read a book that I wanted to share with our readers. Now this book is about the ring, but the Wrestling Ring, and for fans of wrestling or history, this is a book for you.<\/p>\n
Sisterhood of the Squared Circle: The History and Rise of Women\u2019s Wrestling (ECW press), by Pat Laprade and Dan Murphy chronicles the history of women in wrestling from its early days in carnivals to Madison Sq. Garden and everything in between. <\/p>\n
Including the 1st women\u2019s wrestling championship match in 1891! This book introduces us to the biggest names in women\u2019s wrestling history. Names like The Fabulous Moolah, Wendi Richter, Sherri Martel, Leilani Kai, Sable, Chyna, The GLOW Girls, and all of today\u2019s Diva\u2019s and stars. But it\u2019s the chapters on the pioneers of the game that really stand out to a historian like myself. Women like Mildred Burke, Mae Weston, Penny Banner, Babs Wingo and Ida Mae Martinez.<\/p>\n
Their stories and struggles competing in a man\u2019s game in what really was a man\u2019s world at the time. These women were true trailblazers who paved the way for generations of women, not just in wrestling, but in life. They showed that they could compete with and even out do in some cases, the best men in the business at times. This book talks about the backstage politics, the harassment many of these women suffered, the deplorable treatment they received and how thru it all the held their heads high and became stars and in some cases legends. It also chronicles the ups and downs of women\u2019s wrestling; often harsh, but always honest.<\/p>\n
At times, the women were national TV stars, known around the world and respected, yet other times they were relegated to almost sideshow attractions or used merely to titillate unruly crowds. We travel from the origins of the sport thru the 1930\u2019s where it really picked up steam. We learn about how television came along making wrestling bigger than ever, and women\u2019s wrestling would draw as big as the men\u2019s game. How the 1960\u2019s and 1970\u2019s wrestling, with its growing violence and viciousness pushed the women off the cards and it wasn\u2019t until the 1980\u2019s with the then WWF\u2019s Rock-n-Wrestling angle put the ladies back on top as headliners.<\/p>\n
And of course, how the state of the game is today, where women\u2019s wrestling, both in major organizations and on the independent circuit is bigger than ever and in many cases it\u2019s the women who are more popular than the men now (let\u2019s have Ronda Rousey compare paychecks with most men in the game) and of course what the future holds.<\/p>\n
Sisterhood of the Squared Circle is brilliantly researched by Pat Laprade and Dan Murphy, and their love and respect for these women and their history is evident. And these two are not lightweights when it comes to the wrestling game. Pat Laprade of Montreal, Quebec, Canada has been involved in the business for over 15 years, as a writer and women\u2019s wrestling promoter, while Dan Murphy, of my home town of Buffalo New York, is a staff writer for PWI (Pro Wrestling Illustrated) and has been with them for over 20 years. He has also been in charge of the PWI women\u2019s rankings and year end top 50 since its inception (and as of this year the women\u2019s 100).<\/p>\n
Together they use their years of expertise to paint the reader an amazing portrait of the subject. They also give us profiles of over 100 of these amazing women, and nearly 200 photos to help tell the story. The respect they show their subjects is noteworthy as well, this isn\u2019t just a list of people and bios, this is a love letter to the game. The proper respect is given.<\/p>\n
This is the kind of book that could have easily become a cheesecake book of pictures, but these two talented writers give us something more, something far more. Pat and Dan have given us a history lesson in an entertaining, meticulously researched and well written book. Not only a snapshot of the past, but also a look to the future, and I for one am glad it now has a place on my bookshelf.<\/p>\n
Trust me when I say you don\u2019t have to be a wrestling fan to enjoy this book. Personally, I haven\u2019t watched wrestling since the mid 1980\u2019s yet I couldn\u2019t put this book down. As a fan of history, the first half of the book was by far my favorite, but the 2nd half dealing with the current crop of athletes was still fascinating to me, and to any fan of today\u2019s wrestling I can see this part of the book being just as good if not better than any contemporary state of the game publication.<\/p>\n
Again, as a sports fan, and history buff, I read usually two to three books a week and very rarely do I feel the need to review them, but this book is one I think every fan of sports history or wrestling should read (Sisterhood of the Squared Circle: The History and Rise of Women\u2019s Wrestling available by clicking HERE<\/a>). I also want to thank Pat Laprade and Dan Murphy for this amazing book. I not only learned far more than I thought I would, I developed a new respect for these amazing women, and dear readers, I think you will as well.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll be back to boxing next week, but in the meantime remember to submit your questions\/comments to me via the form box below by selecting Brian \u201cThe Beret\u201d Young and follow me on Twitter @BoxingGuyBrian<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n [si-contact-form form=’2′]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [AdSense-A] By Brian \u201cThe Beret\u201d Young Today I am going to veer off of boxing for the first time. As my regular readers know I am a bit of a history buff and I have recently read a book that I wanted to share with our readers. Now this book is about the ring, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1342],"tags":[19550],"class_list":["post-77983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sporting-news","tag-ringside-report-book-review-sisterhood-of-the-squared-circle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77983"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77983\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}