Ring of Hell

The story of Chris Benoit and the fall of the pro wrestling industry. This book is written about the life of Chris Benoit and through that we have stories about the dark side of the pro wrestling industry. The Hart Dungeon, The New Japan Dojo, WCW and a wide variety of other topics, it's a fantastic book and a must read for any wrestling fan who wants an insiders look at the wrestling industry.

I'll leave you with the words of Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.

It's a business you can't explain to anyone. They have to be in it. If you try to tell somebody what the business is like they'll never understand. Just think if I said to you that you were going to be a wrestler:

"Well what will I have to do?"
You'll have to go where I send you.
"Will I have any days off?"
No, no.
"Will I make a lot of money?"
Probably not...And we'l want you to take these sharp pieces of razor and stick it into your face whenever we tell you to. And you're going to have to go out to the people and incite riots.
"Will I get any Hospitalization?"
None at all, none at all.
"Will I get a car to drive?"
No you'll have to drive your own car, pay your own gas.
"What about the hotel rooms?"
No. Stick nine of you in a room, I don't care.
"GET ME THE JOB! I WANT TO DO THIS!"

Who would do that?

Its definitely not the life of a sportsman thats for sure, what I would say its similar to is musicians, bands travel all over Europe in the back of some stinking van just to do gigs that they will if they are lucky get paid just about enough to cover costs all the time, in the hope hey can get noticed.

Who would do it? people who believe they are good enough to get spotted by the big leagues, people who want to live the dream

The saddest part of the book for me was that Benoit started on steroids at such a young age (15 I think it was) to add size to his small frame, one of the side effects of steroids is that it stunts skeletal growth, if he had stayed off them he could have gained the height he needed to make him a credible wrestler.

he might not have though, if he didn't take them thn your looking at Bryan Danielson in my opinion, Beniot took them to become a credible wrestler and make it to the big time, he did that, it was at a cost though

He took a serious amount of them though even Dynamite was shocked at the amount he was taking. I'm not sure steroids even contributed to his personality form reading the book I just got the impression that his insecurities about his size had a lot to do with it.