There's Just One Problem . . .: True Tales From the Former, One-time, 7th Most Powerful Person in WWE - Brian Gewirtz

My time as a wrestling fan breaks down into two distinct eras. When I was a kid, one of the local TV stations showed wrestling matches from the North Side Coliseum in Fort Worth every Monday night. I was a devoted follower for a while and absolutely believed everything I was watching was completely real. I understand now why my dad, who watched with me sometimes, seemed rather amused by my enthusiasm. Out of curiosity, I looked around on the internet and found a site covering the Texas wrestling circuit in those days, and the only wrestler whose name I remembered was Pepper Gomez (not much sublety or political correctness in the early Sixties).

Almost forty years later, in the late Nineties/early 2000s, I became a regular viewer of what was then the WWF’s weekly show on UPN, FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN. This was what is now known as the Attitude Era, and some of the prominent wrestlers were The Rock, The Undertaker, Kane, the Big Show, Triple H, and my favorite, Mankind (the great Mick Foley). The whole thing was so goofy and over the top that I really enjoyed it for a few years before moving on to other things.

So when one of my friends on Facebook posted about this book, I knew I’d have to get a copy and read it for old-time’s sake. THERE’S JUST ONE PROBLEM . . .: TRUE TALES FROM THE FORMER, ONE-TIME, 7^TH MOST POWERFUL PERSON IN WWE is by Brian Gewirtz, a former sitcom scripter who became WWE’s head writer during the time I was watching and remained in that position for fifteen years. Prior to that era, the managers and the wrestlers themselves came up with most of the storylines and dialogue they used. It was unusual to have an actual writing staff shaping the way things were going to go in the matches. Gewirtz and his fellow writers (some of whom were former wrestlers) took things to a different level.

Given his comedy writing background, it’s no surprise that THERE’S JUST ONE PROBLEM . . . is a very funny book, full of just the sort of bizarre tales you’d expect when you’re dealing with such colorful, larger than life personalities. There are some poignant and dramatic moments, too, but mostly I chuckled and laughed out loud reading this book. It’s nice to get to know these characters better and get an understanding of why some of the storylines developed as they did.

I think you’d have to be a wrestling fan, at least to a certain extent, to enjoy this book. As mentioned above, I’m a casual, part-time fan at best, but I still found enough to like that I had a great time reading THERE’S JUST ONE PROBLEM . . . Now I have to go to YouTube and see if I can find some of those old North Side Coliseum matches from the early Sixties.