By Joe Puccio
Perhaps more than any other time in modern publishing history, literature related to professional wrestling is experiencing a renaissance that would have seemed to be highly implausible not too long ago. While poorly produced, factually challenged books were the norm throughout the glossy 1980s as well as much of the transitional 1990s, the 21st century changed course with the mostly insipid, quick buck publications being replaced with a refreshing crop of titles by the performers themselves, including A Lion’s Tale: Around the World in Spandex (Chris Jericho, 2007), Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling (Bret Hart, 2008), and Slobberknocker: My Life in Wrestling (Jim Ross, 2017).
But the welcome change didn’t just come from the plethora of wrestlers who got the itch to temporarily trade in trunks and turnbuckles for pens and paper. It surprisingly occurred from the accomplished full-time authors who did and do it for a living. From Tim Hornbaker to Ian Douglass to Brian R. Solomon, there’s no shortage of skilled writers who are just as apt to cover the squared circle as they are baseball, superheroes, and even Godzilla.
Cue Keith Elliot Greenberg.
Beginning with Menudo, a somewhat sublime selection in 2025, yet completely sensible in 1984 upon its release, Greenberg has become one of the most prolific scribes working today. His latest offering, BIGGER! BETTER! BADDER! WRESTLEMANIA III and the Year It All Changed, is a highly anticipated examination of what many consider to be the most pivotal wrestling undertaking of all time. Due to its sheer scope, with an estimated attendance of approximately 78,000 people, the grudge match between then World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE) kingpin Hulk Hogan and former storyline friend Andre the Giant, and its soaring mainstream appeal, WrestleMania III truly altered the landscape of the business. For Greenberg, his decision to write the book was obviously spawned from its enormity but it also transcended the spectacle itself.
“When you’re telling the story of any major event, you should always tell stories that come from the periphery,” Greenberg said, during a recent conversation with Generation X Wire. “When you look at WrestleMania III, it’s not just the combatants in the ring, and it’s not just the promoter. It’s the lead up, the TV people, the photographers, and, of course, the fans’ experiences too. It’s all of that.”
Whereas a less seasoned journalist might opt to strictly illustrate the tale in a more one-dimensional method, Greenberg compartmentalizes his extensive research in a structured way, with chapters on WWF owner Vince McMahon Jr.’s national expansion, the gradual dissection of the territory system that preceded it, the reactions of the talent, and, naturally, exactly what went into creating something so elaborate. One of those aspects was the celebrity involvement, including Alice Cooper, Bob Uecker, and Aretha Franklin, who opened the show singing America the Beautiful.
“Aretha is an icon. She’s the ‘Queen of Soul.’ And no wrestling promoter had ever managed to get anyone at that level of fame until Vince did,” Greenberg exclaimed. “And not only that but it was in suburban Detroit so her presence there meant even more. In speaking to fans who were there, they all said her performing took them out of the mindset of coming there to watch wrestling and they went into another plane. They were mesmerized by her voice.” Greenberg believes that McMahon felt it was important to present a tribute to soul music because of WrestleMania III’s location. “I personally saw Vince listening to soul music when I worked for him,” he remembered. “I believe having her there stimulated something in him as well. And we were all beneficiaries.”
The massive crowd is a story in and of itself. Although the company has essentially mythicized the number of people in the Pontiac Silverdome on the 29th of March in 1987, aggrandizing it to over 93,000, there is absolutely no debating its impressiveness. In speaking with a variety of WWF enthusiasts, Greenberg devotes significant space to a familiar pair, Vladimir Abouzeide and Charlie Adorno, who were seemingly sitting ringside at nearly every New York area card. A lifelong New Yorker himself, Greenberg thought it would be prudent to highlight the duo.
“I started writing for WWF Magazine in 1985 and Vladimir and Charlie were always in the crowd back then. They were part of the landscape,” he stated. “They were both there and I wanted to show how the fans received this event and how it affected their fandom.”
While the music, the supporters, and everything in between made WrestleMania III historic, it was two matches in particular that are still talked about with reverence today – Randy “Macho Man” Savage vs. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat and the aforementioned Hogan vs. Andre main event. The Savage/Steamboat bout, considered to be one of the greatest technical contests of all time, is still lauded by Greenberg, despite often being overshowed by the constant flow of wrestling clinics put on weekly nowadays.
“I don’t rank it differently now because I look at that match in the context of when it occurred. We see five star matches all the time now, especially since we’re in a wrestling war between AEW (All Elite Wrestling) and WWE and they’re both under pressure to step up their athletic game,” he contended. “But in 1987, while there were probably more spectacular matches than that, I don’t think, on a wide scale, a professional wrestling match like it had ever been presented before.”
As for the Hogan/Andre battle, which really was the primary impetus for the event’s success, Hogan famously defeated his foe in an unremarkable bout athletically, but quite phenomenal dramatically. Greenberg’s description of Hogan’s insistence, many years after it took place, that he wasn’t sure if Andre would go through with ‘doing the job,” or losing, the predetermined duel, provides plenty of humor, and in a way, pairs nicely with the promotion’s 93,000 claim.
“When I was on Chris Jericho’s podcast, we had a chuckle about it. If Hulk had begun suddenly telling the truth after all those years, we’d be heartbroken,” he laughed. “It’s part of the allure of Hulk Hogan. He told tall tales.” What Greenberg finds even sillier is the fact that anyone would believe an individual as controlling as McMahon would allow anything of the sort to transpire. “Is there anyone walking the planet who believes that Vince just trusted them to call it in the ring? I doubt it.”
Other than the mat game, Greenberg names true crime as his other writing passion. And although he considers them his two specialties, he’s proud of his ability to expand beyond them. “Not only do I like to view myself as versatile, it’s a necessity because there are bills to pay. In fact, I make an effort to read and write about other things,” he contended. “I feel that, generally, I can write about any topic that’s put in front of me.”
Greenberg’s work has appeared in an eclectic mix of publications, from The Village Voice to Playboy to HuffPost, while simultaneously functioning as a producer on programs such as America’s Most Wanted and Dateline NBC. If that isn’t enough, he can regularly be seen on wrestling documentaries like Vice’s Dark Side of the Ring and A&E’s WWE Biography series.
Next up for the multitalented author is This Book is All Elite, a tome chronicling the first five years of AEW. “It’s really a riveting period of recent wrestling history. And it’s a deep history,” he asserted. “AEW asked me to write it and the pictures in it are exquisite and are just as compelling as the writing,” Greenberg continued. “I’m proud to be a part of it because people label me a professional wrestling historian, and this is a vital part of professional wrestling history.”
Greenberg’s admiration of Tony Khan, AEW’s president and CEO, is evident in discussing the upcoming coffee table book, set to hit bookshelves on November 4. “Tony is a lifelong fan, like many of us are, and he’s created something that he has devoted his entire life to, even though he still does so many other things,” he reflected. “He provides options for wrestlers, he created a stage in which they feel comfortable performing, and some of them became the best professional versions of themselves they’d ever been.”
One project that followers of Greenberg and the sport have been longing for over the past decade is a book that has already been written but has yet to see the light of day. Perennial wrestling villain The Iron Sheik, a close friend of his until the passing of the man born Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri in 2023, had his life story detailed by the writer in 2015. Unfortunately, sensitive subject matter nixed the autobiography’s release. “Nobody ever blatantly told me why it wasn’t released but there were a lot of sordid tales in it, and I believe that WWE was worried that it would put the wrong kind of smiles on faces,” he opined. A request, at the time, for it to be sanitized was rejected by Greenberg. He still, however, is holding out hope for it to find its way to the public in the future. “Perhaps one day, when Stephanie McMahon’s daughter is running the company or the creative end, she’ll feel that the stories that were considered risqué at the time now seem kind of quaint. But that’s a long time from now.”
Currently, though, it’s, BIGGER! BETTER! BADDER! WRESTLEMANIA III and the Year It All Changed that is Greenberg’s primary focus and it’s not difficult to understand why. “WrestleMania III was the turning point,” he rationalized. “The WWF was able to sell out an NFL stadium. In many ways, it legitimized professional wrestling.”
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