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MORNING THOUGHTS: LOOKING AT THE LARRY ZBYSZKO AUTOBIOGRAPHY

I'M GOING TO LARRYLAND!

Don't go into Larry Zbyszko's autobiography expecting a detailed, heartbreaking look at the professional wrestling business and what decades of wrestling in the business has done to Zbyszko personally, professionally and emotionally. Heavy drama, this book is not.

With the exception of a chapter on mixing love and wrestling, you aren't going to find any deep, spiritually invoking insight into the brain of the former AWA World champion.

Instead, Adventures in Larryland!, which was recently released by Canada's ECW Press, eschews the atypical style of most wrestling autobiographies. It completely skips over his early years growing up in the Pittsburgh area, delving instead into his apprenticeship training under WWWF champion Bruno Sammartino, already a huge star on the Northeastern seaboard for Vince McMahon Sr.  Unlike a Zbyszko match, there's no stalling here.  He goes right into the meat and potatoes of his wrestling career.

Indeed, most of the early chapters cover Zbyszko's infamous feud with the "Living Legend", told from an insider's point of view, complete with Zbyszko recounting how Sammartino would wage war with WWWF's braintrust to make sure he and Zbyszko were financially and politically taken care of for being the horse that drew the territory's cart as then-WWF champion Bob Backlund is portrayed as a neutered champion who failed to capture the imaginations of fans the way Bruno did. 

Bruno is portrayed as he was, Larry's friend and mentor, to the point of being fiercly protective over his ward. When Zbyszko is blown off by Vince McMahon Sr. on the phone, Bruno uses the opportunity to instruct Zbyszko to start missing events under the guise that Zbyszko "believed" he was just fired.  When WWWF promoters like Gorilla Monsoon start freaking, Bruno teaches Zbyszko to play them like violins in order to get his pay, up front, on houses he helped draw as a top heel and insuring his importance to the territory.  It's an interesting look into that era of the McMahon family business, although Bruno won't be happy to read that he did jobs and bladed, something he himself wrote never, ever happened in his own 1980s autobiography. 

Larryland! continues with the adventures of Larry Z's career - Japanese tours, watching the business evolve before his eyes when the WWF expansion killed the territories one by one, working heel and the art of making fans mad, helping Curt Hennig become the AWA champion, his own ascension as AWA World champion in the company's dying days, the aborted feud with Dusty Rhodes (don't expect to find out what was in Baby Doll's envelope, however), and transitioning from wrestler to announcer for World Championship Wrestling.

The WCW era of the book is interesting in many ways, particularly because it helps drive home one of the major points that helped take that company to it's grave - the reality of the company's good and bad were hidden via smoke and mirrors, even to the guy writing the checks and running the show.  When then-WCW head Eric Bischoff asked announcer Mike Tenay his opinions on a certain show, Tenay responded honesty.  Zbsyzko dragged Tenay aside and advised him to never, ever tell the boss the truth, because politically, it was the best way to end up fired.  

While that mindset is certainly true in the ever-volatile world of professional wrestling, it was that same mindset that helped WCW evolve into the company that eventually imploded under bad booking, the AOL-Time Warner merger and poor management.  Everyone was out for themselves and murdered the golden goose in the process.  

Overall, the book makes for some easy reading with the most intriguing chapters being centered around what was likely the prime of Zbyszko's career, the heel turn and subsequent battles with Bruno, building to their Shea Stadium Steel Cage match.  

Adventures in Larryland will never be confused with Mick Foley or Ric Flair's books, nor does it attempt to live up to that level.  Instead, it reads more like a sit-down chat with Zbyszko as he recounts different road stories of his career, the book will, at times, make some die-hard fans roll their eyes over claims Zbyszko makes about his importance to the WCW-NWO feud and his own in-ring prowess.  

Still, the book is no different than speaking to any other veteran in person and listening quietly as they tell stories of their career - factually it may not (and most likely, will never) match up with facts as the general public believes them to be - but no one ever sees themselves as someone else does. 

Zbyszko doesn't try to live up to what anyone else judges him to be or not to be - he tells things as he recalls them.  In that vein, it's as honest as a book written by someone who's been working his entire life will ever be - you can decide for yourself how much was exaggerated and how much was BS you should dismiss, but at times, Adventures in Larryland provides some true, interesting insight.

Mike Johnson can be reached at Mike@PWInsider.com.

 

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