The Heels by Greg Oliver and Steven Johnson

This is the third book in the four-part Hall of Fame series about wrestling. As the title implies, this book takes a look at the wrestlers the fans hated. After reading this book, I am looking forward to next year's release of the next book, The Faces, in this series.

The book starts off with a great description of the job of the heels and the venom they used to get thrown in their direction. It then goes into an explanation of how changes in the industry have changed the role of the heel.

The main part of the book provides profiles of over 100 heels. The profiles are divided up into multiple chapters: the top 25, the pioneers, the madmen, the egotists, the monsters, the technicians, the connivers, the tough guys, and the foreigners.

As far as the profiles go, I learned a lot by reading them. Many of the wrestlers I have only heard about and this book gave me the chance to learn why these names have lived on in wrestling lore. As far as the wrestlers I am familiar with, in most cases, I learned at least one new fact about wrestler.

The reading experience of this book is different than most other wrestling books. This one reads like an encyclopedia. You can read the book in any order that you like and only need a few minutes of your time to read up on any wrestler.

Overall Recommendation: If you are a fan of the history of this sport then this book is a must-have reference for you wrestling library.