Bob Holly's Harrowing Journey: The Hardcore Truth

dave haden: I was absolutely hooked the second I started reading it. Unlike most wrestling autobiographies where there's a lot of sucking up to the hierarchy, Hardcore Holly tells if like it is. This is a must for all wrestling fans.

United Kingdom on Mar 30, 2023

C. P. Lewis: Autobiographies are prone to, if not exist solely for, revisionism and score-settling, depending on the level of self-delusion and bitterness from which the author suffers, and how far from their peak they are when the book deal comes their way. Despite being about a fictional character, the Alan Partridge autobiography skewered this genre mercilessly. Sometimes when I read other autobiographies and the subject starts whining or throwing people under the bus, I no longer "hear" their voice narrating in my head, but North Norfolk Digital's finest instead.

I admit that the main reason I purchased this book was because I expected a lot of that bile from a permanently disgruntled-looking, recently-retired wrestler. You do indeed get a hearty dose of ire, but be prepared for some surprisingly balanced opinions along with the expected (and not entirely undeserved) Triple HHHatred.

Howard's employment with the WWF/WWE follows a timeline from when the wrestling business was moribund, through to its period of biggest mainstream success and subsequent dwindling due to lack of competition. He describes what the locker room was like under the Kliq, the pay-offs, the endless...

United Kingdom on Sep 26, 2015

NJL1974: Bob Holly is a hard man. He was born on a hard day, in a hard week, during a freak outbreak of total hardness. Got that? Good - Bob wants to make that very clear.

Bob Holly was in the WWE for 13 years. 13 years which included the Montreal Screwjob, the Attitude Era, the deaths of Owen Hart, Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero (and too many others), the Monday Night War, the collapse of WCW and the WWE brand extension and subsequent move to a PG product. During that time, he won precisely zero prominent titles and, to my mind at least, never had a single memorable match, angle or feud. By the time he left, he had a reputation as a locker room bully.

This book describes the life of a mid-card WWE wrestler and the sacrifices that it takes to get to that role and to stay in it. Holly is one of the guys who spent years getting beaten up for a living, making the likes of Steve Austin, The Rock, The Undertaker, Chris Jericho, Batista and Randy Orton look good so that they can go on to be superstars.

Before getting to WWE, Holly worked as a mechanic, spent his spare time racing stock cars and training as a wrestler, going through the (now familiar, thanks to the raft on...

United Kingdom on Sep 11, 2015

R. T. Wilcoxon: I haven't followed wrestling in some time - since the Monday Night Wars. But I still feel nostalgic for that time. I have read a number of the wrestling biographies out there (Hart's, Michel's, Foley's, Jericho's, Flair's, etc) but when I saw Hardcore Holly wrote a book I knew I had to read it. I wasn't necessarily a big Holly fan but I couldn't wait for this book for 2 reason...
1) First, I had read a ton of books written by guys who were multimillionaires based on pro-wrestling...the books of the superstars of the sport. But what about a guy who was a midcard talent? That would be nteresting.
2) The book wasn't put out by the WWE where Vince would review and strip out things and stories...this way we get the real truth...or we should have.

For the most part Holly delivers. He tells many backstage stories I had never heard. And I believe he tells "his version" of the truth.

But the book has some real flaws. Spoilers ahead:

- I wanted to hear midcard wrestlers honest opinion...but Holly seems like he still want a job with McMann and goes out of his way to praise Vince, even if he stories paint a different picture. He repeatedly says how much he respects...

United States on Jan 23, 2014

mordenboy: Exactly what one would expect from the character of Hardcore Holly. Straight forward story telling with no punches being pulled and little embellishment suspected.

The beggining describes a little of his background and personal life, it's interesting and offers a nice context to place the story. Holly then pretty much gives an account of his career through the years. He keeps your attention, mentioning all the big events (Owen, Eddie, Chris, WCW, the clique etc). You dont learn anything knew, Triple H is still a dick, Bret and Shawn are still the best, but its a good read none the less.

It was interesting to read about the untold story of the life of a mid carder, that said, there is a limit to the amount of times you can read "they should have pushed me, but they didn't". In the end you get the feeling he had about the career his all round skill set deserved.

Not one of the absolute best wrestling books, like Bret's or Jericho's first book, but well worth a read.

United Kingdom on Oct 28, 2013

Luke Smitherd: I'm exactly the same. I found the whole thing a little bit awkward when I heard about it; what did Hardcore Holly ever really do, other than be a solid in-ring worker? Wouldn't this just be an embarrassing attempt to make an at-best 'standard' lower mid-card career seem like more than it was? And furthermore, wasn't Hardcore Holly an unlikable, grumpy, aggressive bully? But it was recommended by PWTorch.com, so I gave it a go.

I'm so glad I did. This is an excellent, totally honest, utterly gripping book for any wrestling fan.

It got to the point where I'd be excited about sitting down to read some more of it, and watching the 'percentage complete' number on my Kindle going up with dismay. I guarantee you'll like Bob Holly a lot more by the end than you did at the start, and it's fascinating to see how some guys, not really through any fault of their own, don't manage to break through the glass ceiling (one of the reasons being, according to Bob...well, let's just say there's three letters in their name, and they're all the same.)

Refreshingly honest - Bob slates Triple H horrendously, and Vince a little at times, throughout the book, but isn't bitter or...

United Kingdom on Jun 12, 2013

Ham&CheeseOrchestra: Hey now, don't get the wrong idea just because I am The World's Greatest Holly Mark(tm), I honestly didn't really have any expectations for Bob's book but bought it on principle anyway. As it turns out, this is one of the best books on wrestling ever written, and considering the other candidates (Foley, Jericho) that's saying a lot. Holly completely opens up and tells his story; punches are not pulled, which is exactly what you'd expect from a guy like him. "The Hardcore Truth" is completely free of any agendas (apart from the ones that are HUGELY justified in the book) or over-glorification of Holly.

Even if you don't agree with some of his actions behind the scenes (I'm still not sure I do), he rationalizes them in a way that would make sense to me if I were a wrestler. To be honest, us fans on the internet aren't in a place to judge anybody; lots of stuff goes on backstage and whether we ever find out about it depends on whether there's a whistleblower. Bob posits the blame of his being made a scapegoat for stuff that occurs backstage all the time, on one Hunter Hearst Helmsley, and I for one have about as much reason to doubt that claim as I do the odds of the sun...

United States on Apr 24, 2013