Cheating Death, Stealing Life [Book]

[motosada]

Yeah. I need to either stop reading this book, or hurry up and finish it. It's extremely depressing, man. And, if this had come out six months ago, it may not've seemed so damn eerie. For instance, the sudden and unexpected death of his teammate Art Barr - of causes that are still to this day unknown.

And, then there's this passage; this was quite hard to read.

With my drinking and drugging plainly getting out of hand, Dean [Malenko] and Chris [Benoit] talked among themselves and decided the only way to help me was to intervene. It had reached the point where they were more worried about my life than they were about management finding out that I had a problem. What good would having a job do me if I wasn't alive to do it?

They didn't know what to do--they only knew that they had to do something. They decided to speak to Jim Ross, let him know of their concerns. They weren't stooging me out to the boss--they were genuinely worried about my health and my safety.

As far as I can remember, they never approached me to discuss their fears. On the other hand, it's very possible that they did and I simply don't remember. I was pretty far gone at that time, getting more and more loaded every night.

I first heard that they had spoken to J.R. when I saw the UPN TV special about my life. I had no idea that they had done that. I'll be honest, it hurt me deeply. Not so much that they felt that they had to go to J.R., but that even after I got sober, they still hadn't told me.

When I asked Dean about it, he told me why they felt they had to do what they did. "I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I would've found you dead in a hotel room," he said. "And there's no doubt in my mind that that's the path you were on."

I'm not finished with the book yet, but I have to say, I'm learning a lot of things that I didn't know. But, it's still a very difficult read.

[motosada]

Well, I did finish the book today, and I must say, it was a good read. You can tell that it was written over a year ago, as there's brief mention about losing the WWE Championship (the last chapter is about WrestleMania XX), but then little mention of anything like his multi-month feud with Mysterio.

Although some parts of the book are very difficult to read - him self-destructing and nearly ending his life over and over again, as well as some of the things he'd done while drunk or on massive amounts of painkillers - there is a true sense of triumph to the book. Eddie had put himself through a lot, but managed to come out on top.

I do suggest this book. If you are a fan of Eddie's work, this will give you a lot of insight into the things going on behind the scenes during his career.

[Smacked Ass]

Cool. I've been looking for the book for a while now, I guess the Mounties haven't declared it "okay to read, eh" yet. I can't wait. I didn't read your quotes, I'll read them when I get the book. Thanks for posting your opinion!

PS: I'll let y'all know how Terry Funk's book is when I'm done (So far, AWESOME!)!

[Smacked Ass]

Uh, yeah. Wow. As a fan of Eddy, I feel really lucky to have had him as long as we did after reading the book. The whole thing is kind of creepy in a way, it's as though he wrote his own eulogy. It was pretty cool to see how at peace he became with himself, and even though like most small men in the pro wrestling business, he was treated like mid-card garbage all of his life by the higher-ups, he really seemed to have forgiven everyone. It was interesting to see the words written in the book and think "how many people on their death-beds wished that they could have said all of these things to so many people who have otuched their lives at one time or another?". If you're any kind of fan of Eddy or just a pro wrestling fan in general, this book is really worth your time. It's a very quick read, and there's lots of really fun stuff along the way. For a big, tough wrestler type dude, he bared his soul to his fans quite extensively in the book. He even made mention of getting beer poured on him in Winnipeg, then apolagizing to the crowd, just like Paul was telling everyone when he got home from that show. Cool stuff, go get it.