Preview

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Ringmaster

By: Abraham Josephine Riesman
Narrated by: Alyss Weissglass
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $22.49

Buy for $22.49

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

This definitive biography of Vince McMahon, former WWE chairman and CEO, is “riveting, essential reading” (Rick Perlstein, New York Times bestselling author) as it charts his rise from rural poverty to the throne of one of the world’s most influential media empires. Featuring exclusive interviews with more than 150 people who witnessed, aided, and suffered from his ascent.

Even if you’ve never watched a minute of professional wrestling, you are living in Vince McMahon’s world.

In his four decades as the defining figure of American pro wrestling, McMahon was the man behind Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, John Cena, Dave Bautista, Bret “The Hitman” Hart, and Hulk Hogan, to name just a few of the mega-stars who owe him their careers. For more than twenty-five years, he has also been a performer in his own show, acting as the diabolical “Mr. McMahon”—a figure who may have more in common with the real Vince than he would care to admit.

Just as importantly, McMahon is one of Donald Trump’s closest friends—and Trump’s experiences as a performer in McMahon’s programming were, in many ways, a dress rehearsal for the 45th President’s campaigns and presidency. McMahon and his wife, Linda, are major Republican donors. Linda was in Trump’s cabinet. McMahon makes deals with the Saudi government worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And for generations of people who have watched wrestling, he has been a defining cultural force and has helped foment “the worst of contemporary politics” (Kirkus Reviews).

Ringmaster built on exclusive interviews with more than 150 people, from McMahon’s childhood friends to those who accuse him of destroying their lives. “Smart, entertaining, impressively reported, and beautifully written. Wrestling fans will devour it, but everyone who wants to better understand this crazy country and one of its truly original characters ought to read it” (Jonathan Eig, author of Ali: A Life).

©2023 Abraham Riesman. All rights reserved. (P)2023 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Ringmaster

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    51
  • 4 Stars
    30
  • 3 Stars
    38
  • 2 Stars
    28
  • 1 Stars
    19
Performance
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    41
  • 4 Stars
    23
  • 3 Stars
    21
  • 2 Stars
    20
  • 1 Stars
    49
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    55
  • 4 Stars
    34
  • 3 Stars
    29
  • 2 Stars
    22
  • 1 Stars
    14

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Worst narrator in over 300 books I’ve listened to

The book was clearly written with an agenda to teach rather than a recollection of a man’s life.

The narrator is however by far the worst I have listened to in over 300 books on this platform.

It appears it was read by the lowest bidder and no research was put into proper pronunciation.

Also, why bleep out the N word and not all the other offensive words. Plus the use of the N word was completely irrelevant and not even part of the biography.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

For real?????

Even if the narrator was unfamiliar with the material, the editors should have picked up on the mispronunciations that made listening difficult

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not what I expected or wanted.

My Confirmation Bias chose this book for me because I had long agreed with the Author’s late admitted premise that there was remarkable similarity between Trump’s “Covfefe” and McMahan’s “Kayfabe”.

I was expecting that there would be an emphasis on revealing these parallels. Instead it was a probably well-researched Biography of McMahan’s rise to dominance over the World of “Professional” Wrestling. Most of the anecdotes he shares ring true to anyone with even a fleeting exposure to the craziness of his productions over the years.

I’ll give it three stars for his mention of some of the Greats a neighbor took me to see at Sunnyside Gardens in New York City when I was ten. At the risk of sounding sexist, I would have preferred a male voice narrating this subject, but Weissglass did a good enough job. Three Stars. ***

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Didn’t like the narrator

Too much detail in storylines that doesn’t matter and was annoying listening her emulate crowd chants

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Incredibly Frustrating

If you follow Vince McMahon or the inner workings of WWE, then you already know a lot of what's on offer.

The UNMAKING OF AMERICA component of this book is a promise that is not delivered on so don't look for strong parallels to WWF/WWE and society at large. You'll get bookends of political intrigue but other than that there's not much meat on those bones.

Far too much emphasis and detail is placed on specific instances, which have already been well documented. More time and energy should have been spent on the last two decades.

I came in expecting to learn more about what was going on in the US when some of these events unfolded. The Attitude Era only worked because it came along at the right time. What else happened in America that made it successful?

Instead of drawing those lines the author provides us with a play-by-play of the Greater Power storyline. Instead of giving us the how and why he ended up buying WCW and that fallout we get a deep dive into The Montreal Screwjob.

What's happened over the last 20 years? Surely more than what's crammed into the final hour of a 15 hour book.

Missed Opportunities

- Relationship with Ultimate Warrior (good and bad)
- Vince's penchant to micro-manage scripts, stories, characters
- WCW purchase, inclusion of talent, working with team, etc.
- XFL
- Saudi Arabia (how the relationship began, why they
- WWE Network (genesis of idea, execution, selling to Peacock, etc.)
- Hulk Hogan (washing hands of him, welcoming back, etc.)
- Moving into film production, talent moving to and from Hollywood
- Social media (leveraging it, understanding its potential, pivoting to YouTube, etc.)
- Immediate aftermath of hush money payments

There's surely another five hours worth of content that could have been included which would have lived up to the expectation teased in the book's title.

Perhaps most frustrating is the narration. Off the top of my head I can name mispronunciations of Ole Anderson, Lanny Poffo, Joe Piscopo, Rocky Maivia, and NWO. It's jarring to hear these over and over and really signals to the listener that there was no oversight or vetting.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Poor narration

The story is great but the narrator comes off as scoffing towards the topic. Print may be the way to go.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Fun story, poor narrator

Enjoyed hearing the ins and outs of Vince and the WWF/E. However, the narrator didn’t know any of the subject matter. She made several mispronunciations throughout the story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Solid History of a Controversial Figure

Some pronunciation issues with the reading, but otherwise very solid. Well researched. The history of McMahon's wrongdoing should be reason enough for anyone to take a pass on the current WWE product until they properly clean their house.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Research how the names are pronounced!

This narrator mispronounces at least half of the names in the book. Is no one editing or fact checking the content?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this

So the word on this book before its release was that it did an excellent job of covering Vince's early years and not much after that...and that sums it up pretty well.

Once the book reaches its halfway point and gets into the mid-late 90s it does nothing but regurgitate and recount a very basic timeline of events that almost all wrestling fans have burned into their brains. No additional perspective, very few references to new research or interviews. It gets mind-numbing for a good 50-60% of the book before landing nicely with a decent conclusion.

There are a ton of mispronunciations but I can't hate on them too much. I don't fault fault narrator because the production director should have corrected them. I don't know if they author had any input but one would think they would want to make sure that was addressed. Also, they are really a crucial source of entertainment when the story goes dry (my favorites are Razor Raymon, Olay Anderson and enwoah for NWO) .

I can only recommend this for folks who don't have much or any background knowledge of 90s pro wrestling history.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!