The Territories

Imagine a new world of professional wrestling.Travel back in time to an era before the capitalists won the Cold War. Before cable television had narrowed the field to a handful of bloated behemoths. Back then, wrestling was a very different place. The entire scene could change depending on where you parked your Plymouth on a given night. From the blood-soaked South to the fading glitz of the West Coast, dozens of regional wrestling troupes vied for supremacy, each with its own unique cast, each putting a distinctive new spin on the old grunt and groan game.Set in a funhouse mirror of our own world, THE TERRITORIES leaps into the madness of 1980s professional wrestling, presenting the business the way we liked it-wild, unruly and a little unhinged. Filled to bursting with steroids, bad choices, body slams and love, this is an unvarnished vision of an industry so seedy even gangsters give it the side eye. Edited by long-time wrestling enthusiasts Chad Dundas (Champion of the World, The Blaze) and Jonathan Snowden (Shooters, Shamrock), more than a dozen writers spanning fictional genres and styles take you deep into a sport that is never truly what it seems.PRAISE for CHAD DUNDAS and JONATHAN SNOWDEN”Champion of the World is professional wrestling of the 1920s in full roar. It bristles with heroes, schemes, bootleggers, shysters, twists, romance, and excitement. Dundas knows wrestling.”-Deirdre McNamer, author of One Sweet Quarrel and Red Rover, on Champion of the World “The best pro wrestling biography ever written.”-Dave Meltzer, editor of the Wrestling Observer, on Shamrock.