Hello, everybody, and welcome to a very special post-wrestling

WrestleNomics collaboration. I am John Pollock, joined by Brandon Thurston, and we have a very special guest with us.

The story of 2022 and professional wrestling centered around Vince McMahon, which is probably how 2023 will focus on as well,

a perfect time to pick up a copy of Ringmaster.

Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America, Abraham Riceman is our guest today, and Abraham, thank you so much for joining us.

It is a, as always, tumultuous time when it centers around one Vince McMahon and having a chance to get an advanced copy of your book,

I think a lot of people are going to learn many new things about Vince McMahon that have never truly been covered in this depth.

Thank you. That's very kind of you to say. I mean, I've always been from the very beginning nervous about the reception among the wrestling press and the so-called IWC,

the online presence of wrestling fandom, just because I'm not really a part of that world.

Like, I was apart from wrestling for 20 odd years. I watched it obsessively as a teenager, stopped for 20 years,

and then I had the idea to write this biography of Vince McMahon, and dove back in.

So, there's this wide interim of stuff that I'm just not really like, of like, of conversations that I wasn't a part of.

So, it's really gratifying to hear people as plugged in as yourself say that there's something new in there.

I really worked hard to try and break at least a little new ground and not just regurgitate what's already been up there.

Yeah, I can add to it. As you know, reading it, I'm very sensitive to how people who are just sort of swooping in and uncovering a wrestling story

can show how they're not fully in tune with what's going on.

And I think there's not only are you well researched in the topic that you're writing about, but also I think you make some very insightful comments on just how wrestling is being created

and how the audience and the performers are interacting in some really insightful ways that they might get.

Thank you. That means a great deal. I appreciate that. Your reporting was essential in getting this book done, especially.

You uncovering numbers on revenue for the WWF back when it was the WWF from the 80s through the 90s was just before they go public.

That was essential. So I'll not like I have to tell any of your listeners and viewers to read Brandon Thurston, but you all should reprint.

If you can kind of break it down for us as well, like you're entering an industry that, you know, the kind of reporting that is out there, like it's few and far between.

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