Phil Schneider helped invent the internet wrestling community (IWC for short) as part of the Death Valley Driver Video Review. For better or worse, their eclectic community helped launch many prominent names in the wrestling media space and introduced a generation of fans to both the beauty of the art and the many different ways it is performed around the world. Alongside Phil and his crew, hardcore fans of the era discovered the masterful, emotional brutality of Onita, the high-flying antics of Michinoku Pro Wrestling and the extreme stunts performed by a pair of wacky brothers down in North Carolina.
You left each edition of the Death Valley Driver Video Review excited to watch pro wrestling and see the matches that had moved the “Playaz” (it was the 90s, forgive them) and to discover new favorites of your own.
Schneider captures that same feeling in his new book Way of the Blade: 100 of the Greatest Bloody Matches in Wrestling History. It revisits classics of the form and offers up new discoveries for your enjoyment. More than just a list of matches, the book doubles as a history of the sport itself, offering up Schneider’s unique insights into the business from the 1950s to the present.
If there are ten people on the planet who have watched more pro wrestling from around than globe than Phil Schneider, I’d love to meet them. And that level of obsessive fandom and expertise comes in handy when producing a book like this. These aren’t randomly selected matches he skimmed Wikipedia to find. It’s the product of a lifetime’s fandom—and it shows.
Chris Bryan’s artwork is perfectly suited for the subject matter, grisly and gonzo in equal measure. The cover is one of the most striking wrestling drawings I’ve ever seen, a tribute to one of the sport’s greatest artists from another artist worth keeping a careful eye on.
This book earns my highest personal recommendation. It’s one of the best wrestling books ever written and worth your time and attention. On sale now:
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3tXj6J9
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3uXTmhd
Promotional copy
There's something about blood that can take a routine professional wrestling match and turn it into a work of art. Blood spilled, pooling on the mat or painting blonde hair red, immediately raises the stakes of any match.
In the business, they used to believe red turned into green—when the blade emerged from its hiding place to scrape the forehead, box office receipts grew right alongside the scar tissue.
It's visceral and inarguably real, a physical repudiation of the age-old heckling every fan has heard a million times—"it's all fake, isn't it?" In Way of the Blade, Segunda Caida's Phil Schneider, a leading wrestling critic and internet wrestling pioneer with the Death Valley Driver Video Review, looks at 100 of the best, bloodiest matches in the sport's history.
Starting in the 1950s and spanning the decades and continents, Schneider tells the story of a very weird sport. You'll meet wrestling chickens and Nazi Doctors, relive classics everyone knows, and discover some hidden gems previously witnessed by a mere handful of fans lucky enough to have been in the building the night the carnage went down.
Gorgeously illustrated by Chris Bryan, this book is destined to become a classic in the burgeoning field of wrestling criticism and a handy guide for fans looking for insight into their favorites and to be introduced to new matches, complete with the context necessary to explain why and how they became legendary.