Thursday, July 7, 2011

Death Clutch: My Story of Determination, Domination, and Survival by Brock Lesnar

So I picked this up days after its release and breezed through it. I'm not sure if it's going to change anyone's mind about Brock Lesnar. If you like him you'll probably have your convictions strengthened and if you dislike him you'll probably think he comes off at times like an arrogant asshole. The cons are mostly lack of depth and length. We blew through the early years not getting a grasp on much outside of the Lesnar work ethic and love of competition. His WWE run, the section I was most curious about, had huge gaps where, due to the hard life of travel and physical abuse, he drowned his sorrows in so much booze and pills he admittedly couldn't muster up memories of much of it leaving us in the dark. He's anger towards McMahon and others comes out and it's nice to hear someone unafraid of Vince speaking freely which you won't see anybody in the business doing or at least not so publicly. Some of the WWE stuff is fascinating, like Brock being pissed about putting Rock over in Miami in a non-title bout, his thoughts on working with guys like Big Show, the Hardy's, Undertaker, etc. His post-WWE stuff like NJPW doesn't get much coverage either but I did enjoy what we got. The venture into MMA and his UFC career also feels a bit light. I guess the pros would be that it captures Brock's voice -- which is probably why it's not so long-winded seeing as how he's a more private and reserved man. You get a sense that it's just him blowing off steam and recollecting off the cuff and it getting transcribed. You have to admire his hard work and drive. Overall, quick, fairly compelling read, personally I'd like to have gotten another 75-125 pages out of it but am in no way surprised by its brevity. It also introduced me to the term "fuck finish" so I'll forever be indebted to it for that.

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