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The Dissection: Kayfabe by Sean Oliver

December 4, 2017 | Posted by Mike Campbell
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The Dissection: Kayfabe by Sean Oliver  

For those who’ve never read one of my book review columns before, here’s a quick refresher on how it works. The review is split up into four categories: The good and the bad are self explanatory. The ugly is beyond bad, and something that I feel damages the credibility of the book or the author. The last one is the rest, which are things that I feel are worth discussing, but don’t really fit into one of the other three categories.

If you aren’t familiar with the company Kayfabe Commentaries, or with Sean Oliver, then you’ll need a little bit of backstory. Sean is the co-owner of Kayfabe Commentaries with Anthony Lucignano, who produce and sell some of the best shoot interview type of shows that you’ll ever find. This book chronicles how Sean and Anthony formed the company, and goes through the ‘behind the scenes’ type of things that they deal with, like booking the guest, negotiations over money, dealing with agents and unsavory promoter types. Now, you might be wondering why someone would write a book about that. Well, if you’re the type who watches and enjoys shoot interviews, then you’re the answer. Wrestling fans, as a general rule, are the nosey types who want to hear about anything that we’re not supposed to know about. It’s the difference between simply knowing that Randy Savage beat Honky Tonk Man by disqualification at the Main Event in February of ’88, and, knowing about the planned title change and HTM threatening to jump if the finish wasn’t changed. Somewhere along the way, Sean realized that he had some stories to tell that his fanbase would appreciate, and this is the result.

The Good:
Admittedly, I’ve known Sean for a long time, and I consider him to be a friend of mine. I’ve always praised him as a good interviewer. But this shows that he’s a very good writer too. Sentences like “Greg seems fine with everything. He’s an easy-going guy. I probably could have told him we were going to sacrifice a virgin and drink the blood out of a dead goat’s asshole and his only question would have been where we were picking him up” certainly shows off his gift for metaphors. His stories about the Iron Sheik are absolutely hysterical. I was legitimately in tears from laughter while reading about Sheik having a full bladder of Molson, being stuck in a traffic jam in a NYC Tunnel, and demanding that Eric Simms unlock the doors so he could relieve himself. Sean lets out a few secrets, like the fact that the Sheik/Blair incident from the first Ring Roasts was staged (although the Scott Hall thing wasn’t), and Jerry Jarrett arranging to give them a scoop on the Jeff/Jerry fallout, without making KC look bad.

Sean going into detail about all the little things that go into setting up one of KC’s shoots is also rather interesting. As a big fan of their product, I’d honestly never given it much thought. But, after reading how much of an investment it really is for them to make the arrangements for the shoot, it’s that much more impressive to me that they’re still in business after ten years. And, while it’s selfishly disappointing to me that interesting concepts like My Side of the Story and Ring Roasts were shelved, I can totally understand why. He doesn’t shy away from any failures either. He flat out says that the YouShoot concept isn’t for just any person, and while he very much liked the people involved, the fact is that Matt Sydal and Gregory Helms weren’t right for YouShoot. Sean isn’t shy about telling stories that show friends of his in a bad light either. KC worked with Raven several times, including giving him his own series to host, so they obviously got past it, but, Raven was apparently a first-rate pain in the ass to deal with in 2008. Jim Cornette and KC have since patched things up, but they had a very big falling out from 2012-13 over KC working with Vince Russo, and Sean isn’t shy with his feelings with how everything went down.

One of Sean’s old running gags was pointing out how much “Vince loves KC” judging by how often the WWE seemed to try to emulate them. Honestly, it really wasn’t much more than an occasional photoshop or tweet. But, Sean is a lot more vocal about it in the book. Including the story about someone who works for the WWE Magazine winning a contest to get a couple of DVDs, and Sean also sent a few WWE Timeline DVDs to see how they liked the concept. A few months later, WWE released a magazine called “The History of WWE” which was a direct rip off of their product, right down to the timeline boxes. Needless to say, Sean wasn’t thrilled, and even included the email he sent to that employee when he saw the magazine.

The Bad:
Honestly, the only thing that I really took issue with was a running gag in the book, where Sean mentioned how the Sandman didn’t know who he was. It’s a running joke with Sean and Tod Gordon, and is supposed to be funny. It was funny at first. But, later on, Sean starts talking about dealing with promoters screwing him over, Konnan running off with his deposit, and Marty Jannetty making wild accusations about him. So, when Sean goes back to the Sandman joke, it reads more like Sean is taking a shot at him, even though it’s the same running gag. There are times that Sean comes off like a bit of a jerk, mostly when he’s recounting a problem with a talent, like Road Warrior Animal not appreciating the payday for a five minute interview, or Jake Roberts refusing to discuss his family for a Breaking Kayfabe interview. But, more power to him. Sean has a business to worry about, and he’s not doing himself any favors by kissing ass or laying down.

The Ugly:
Nothing!

The Rest:
Again, this is supposed to be a history of Kayfabe Commentaries, and more or less a shoot interview with Sean himself about running his company. So, he doesn’t talk too much about things outside of that purview. He’s occasionally mentioned his acting career, and various directors and actors he’s worked with, which I’d like to hear more about. He and Anthony had the idea of doing their own version of a shoot interview while working for an investment bank. With Sean’s excellent breakdown of the money invested in doing one of their shoots, it made me wonder if KC’s success allowed Sean and Anthony to make it a full time thing, of if they still have ‘shoot jobs’ as Dutch Mantel put it.

9.0
The final score: review Amazing
The 411
This is an excellent read, between the great stories, and the way Sean's personality comes through while reading.
legend

article topics :

Sean Oliver, Mike Campbell