SIMON & SCHUSTER
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
ONE OF THE NEW YORKER’S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
“Revelatory.” —The Washington Post
“Magisterial.” —The New York Times
“A story that forces you to turn the page.” —The Spectator
“Riveting, essential reading.” —Rick Perlstein, author of Reaganland and Nixonland
“One of the best biographies I’ve read in years.” —Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of King: A Life
This definitive biography of disgraced former WWE CEO Vince McMahon charts his rise from rural poverty to the throne of one of the world’s most influential media empires—and features never-before-seen research and exclusive interviews with more than 150 people who witnessed, aided, and suffered from his ascent.
Even if you’ve never watched a minute of professional wrestling, you are living in Vince McMahon’s world.
In his four decades as the defining figure of American pro wrestling, McMahon was the man behind Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, John Cena, Dave Bautista, Bret “The Hitman” Hart, and Hulk Hogan, to name just a few of the mega-stars who owe him their careers. For more than twenty-five years, he has also been a performer in his own show, acting as the diabolical “Mr. McMahon”—a figure who may have more in common with the real Vince than he would care to admit.
Just as importantly, McMahon is one of Donald Trump’s closest friends—and Trump’s experiences as a performer in McMahon’s programming were, in many ways, a dress rehearsal for the 45th President’s campaigns and presidency. McMahon and his wife, Linda, are major Republican donors. Linda was in Trump’s cabinet. McMahon makes deals with the Saudi government worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And for generations of people who have watched wrestling, he has been a defining cultural force.
Accessible to anyone, regardless of wrestling knowledge, Ringmaster is an unauthorized, independent, investigative chronicle of Vince McMahon’s origins and rise to supreme power. It is built on exclusive interviews with more than 150 people, from McMahon’s childhood friends to those who accuse him of destroying their lives. Far more than just an athletics or entertainment biography, Ringmaster uses Vince’s story as a new lens for understanding the contemporary American apocalypse.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR RINGMASTER:
"Ringmaster is riveting, essential reading even if, like me, you have no taste for professional wrestling. All you need is an appetite for good stories of how the best—which is to say the worst—hustlers get over. Follow Abraham Riesman through that looking glass, and you even may creep closer to understanding how the U.S. managed to make one president."
—Rick Perlstein, New York Times bestselling author of Nixonland and Reaganland
“To understand what's at the heart of carny culture is to understand what's at the heart of a huge swath of the American experience. As Abraham Riesman demonstrates in this highly readable, sharp and compelling book, professional wrestling embodies this idea both on screen and off, in the arenas and in the conference rooms. This is a serious work about the legacy of confidence games, abandonment, abuse and power. Whether or not you are a lifelong wrestling mark like me, Ringmaster is essential reading.”
—Brian Koppelman, co-creator of Billions, co-writer of Rounders
“Ringmaster, like Riesman's previous book True Believer, examines how seemingly innocuous past-times like professional wrestling have shaped American culture and warped it beyond measure. In Riesman's telling, Vince McMahon emerges as a powerful figure of terrifying complexity, his rise and fall in lockstep with the country's. Ringmaster brilliantly pulls back the curtain of kayfabe to reveal the pulsating reality underneath — and how the lines, once blurred, can never be separated again."
—Sarah Weinman, author of The Real Lolita and Scoundrel
No faking! Ringmaster is one of the best biographies I’ve read in years — smart, entertaining, impressively reported, and beautifully written. Wrestling fans will devour it, but everyone who wants to better understand this crazy country and one of its truly original characters ought to read it.
—Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of King: A Life
"Abraham Riesman has given us a fascinating, rigorously researched account of the life and times of the ultimate ringmaster, Vince McMahon. This is the story of how the world of professional wrestling has become our world. The rules of the game are now so gamed in American politics and daily life that the real, if ever there was a real, has gone up in a puff of hyperbolic smoke-and-mirrors. Ringmaster helps us to see how we got to this point. How we get ourselves out of it remains an open question."
—Sharon Mazer, author of Professional Wrestling: Sport and Spectacle
"Though it's hard to pinpoint the date, one morning wrestling fans like myself woke up and realized the pastime that had largely defined our youths and imaginations had jumped the firewall and, somehow, some way, began infecting the rest of the world. What Abraham Riesman has done here is invite readers to see that fundamental and disturbing truth, to wrestle with just how we've come to live in this bizarre un-reality, and possibly begin sorting through the wreckage. An absolute triumph. As must-read as must-read can get."
—Jared Yates Sexton, author of The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis