The King of New Orleans
How the Junkyard Dog Became Professional Wrestling's First Black Superhero
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Narrated by:
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J D Jackson
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By:
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Greg Klein
About this listen
Telling the remarkable tale of a man who is still remembered on the streets of New Orleans and in the hearts of professional-wrestling fans, this book aims to restore the overlooked Junkyard Dog to his proper place in the history books.
In 1979, Sylvester Ritter, also known as the Junkyard Dog, managed to break one of the final color barriers in the sport by becoming the first Black wrestler named undisputed top star of his promotion, and this biography reveals all the famous feuds and business back stories that made him a wrestling legend. By 1985, New Orleans was one of the hottest cities in the Mid-South for pro wrestling due in large part to the Junkyard Dog; he became a legend in the Big Easy, drawing sellout crowds to the Downtown Municipal Auditorium and huge crowds to the Superdome, a feat unparalleled by any other wrestler.
The King of New Orleans delves into wrestling’s recent past and recounts how a region known for racial injustice became the home of the sport’s first Black idol.
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Based on unlimited access to the Ultimate Fighting Championship and its rival leagues, Blood in the Cage peers through the chain-link Octagon into the frighteningly seductive world of mixed martial arts, which is exploding in popularity despite resistance from every corner. Wertheim focuses on Pat Miletich, a mixed-martial-arts pioneer and six-time UFC champion, who currently runs the most famous MMA training school in the world.
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MMA Bible
- By Bret on 01-27-09
By: L. Jon Wertheim
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Dream Team
- How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Changed the Game of Basketball Forever
- By: Jack McCallum
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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In Dream Team, acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum delivers the untold story of the greatest team ever assembled: the 1992 U.S. Olympic men's basketball team that captivated the world, kindled the hoop dreams of countless children around the planet, and remade the NBA into a global sensation. As a senior staff writer for Sports Illustrated, McCallum enjoyed a courtside seat for the most exciting basketball spectacle on earth, covering the Dream Team from its inception to the gold medal ceremony in Barcelona.
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Great insight into the great basketball team ever.
- By James O'Brien on 09-04-12
By: Jack McCallum
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What's My Name, Fool?
- Sports and Resistance in the United States
- By: Dave Zirin
- Narrated by: Aaron Abano
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Here Edgeofsports.com sportswriter Dave Zirin shows how sports express the worst, as well as the most creative and exciting, features of American society. Zirin explores how Janet Jackson's Super Bowl flash-time show exposed more than a breast, why the labor movement has everything to learn from sports unions, and why a new generation of athletes is no longer content to "play one game at a time" and is starting to get political.
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Interesting read
- By sosnows8 on 08-16-20
By: Dave Zirin
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The "Down Goes Brown" History of the NHL
- The World's Most Beautiful Sport, the World's Most Ridiculous League
- By: Sean McIndoe
- Narrated by: Sean McIndoe
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Sean McIndoe of Down Goes Brown, one of hockey's favorite and funniest writers, takes aim at the game's most memorable moments - especially if they're memorable for the wrong reasons - in this warts-and-all history of the NHL.
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Fun, fascinating education in hockey history
- By D. Trull on 03-27-19
By: Sean McIndoe
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Got to Give the People What They Want
- True Stories and Flagrant Opinions from Center Court
- By: Jalen Rose
- Narrated by: Jalen Rose
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Jalen Rose has never been quiet. Not as a kid growing up in Detroit in the '70s and '80s. Not as the brash, trash-talking leader of the legendary "Fab Five" at the University of Michigan. Not as the player under the stewardship of Hall of Famers Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, and others throughout his 13-year NBA career. And certainly not as a commentator and analyst on ABC/ESPN and Grantland.
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Amazing book - a MUST download / read
- By Terry on 10-08-15
By: Jalen Rose
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The Football Ramble
- By: Marcus Speller, Pete Donaldson, Luke Aaron Moore, and others
- Narrated by: Marcus Speller, Pete Donaldson, Luke Aaron Moore, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Downloaded over 10 million times a year, The Football Ramble podcast has established itself as the essential independent voice of football punditry. The weekly podcast has resonated with supporters around the world, and their sold-out live shows have been a massive hit with supporters. This audiobook is a collaboration by all four presenters and tackles the real issues from fans you won't see or hear on Sky Sports - or anywhere else, for that matter.
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Best Performance
- By Amazon Customer on 11-15-16
By: Marcus Speller, and others
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Hardcore History
- The Extremely Unauthorized Story of the ECW
- By: Scott E. Williams
- Narrated by: Karl Miller
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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ECW was one extreme contradiction piled on top of another. It was an incredibly influential company in the world of professional wrestling during the 1990s, yet it was never profitable. It portrayed itself as the ultimate in anti-authority rebellion, but its leadership was, at various points, working covertly with the two wrestling giants, the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling. Most of all, it blurred the line between real life and the fantasy world of professional wrestling like no other company before it.
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Get a narrator with product knowledge
- By Dr Feelgood on 11-29-16
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Players
- The Story of Sports and Money - and the Visionaries Who Fought to Create a Revolution
- By: Matthew Futterman
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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For fans of Michael Lewis, the astounding untold story of how professional sports transformed, in the span of a single generation, from a cottage industry into a massive global business. In the cash-soaked world of contemporary sports, where every season brings news of higher salaries, endorsement deals, and television contracts, it is mind-boggling to remember that as recently as the 1970s elite athletes earned so little money that many were forced to work second jobs in the off-season to make ends meet.
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Starts slow...
- By John on 08-09-16
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The Club
- How the English Premier League Became the Wildest, Richest, Most Disruptive Force in Sports
- By: Joshua Robinson, Jonathan Clegg
- Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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No one knew it when their experiment began, but without any particular genius or acumen, the motley cast of billionaires and hucksters behind the modern Premier League struck gold. Pretty soon, everyone wanted to try their luck, from Russian oligarchs to Emirati sheikhs, American tycoons, and Asian Tiger titans. Some succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Some lost everything. Today, players are sold for tens of millions, clubs are valued in the billions, and games are beamed out to nearly 200 countries, all while the league struggles to preserve its English soul.
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Read don't listen
- By JR3 on 01-23-19
By: Joshua Robinson, and others
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Snake
- The Legendary Life of Ken Stabler
- By: Mike Freeman
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Ken "The Snake" Stabler was the embodiment of the original Men in Black - the freewheeling, hard-hitting Oakland Raiders. The league's first swashbuckling pass thrower, the mythical southpaw Southerner famous for come-from-behind drives late in the game, Stabler led the Raiders to their first Super Bowl championship in 1977.
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Great story about a childhood legend!!!
- By David Warnock on 07-18-19
By: Mike Freeman
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The Missing Ring
- How Bear Bryant and the 1966 Alabama Crimson Tide Were Denied College Football's Most Elusive Prize
- By: Keith Dunnavant
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Very few institutions in American sports can match the enduring excellence of the University of Alabama football program. Across a wide swath of the last century, the tradition-rich Crimson Tide has claimed twelve national championships, captured 25 conference titles, finished 34 times among the country's top ten, and played in 53 bowl games.
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Fantastic
- By John Rogers on 03-29-18
By: Keith Dunnavant
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The League
- How Five Rivals Created the NFL and Launched a Sports Empire
- By: John Eisenberg
- Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The National Football League's current dominance has obscured how professional football got its start. In The League, John Eisenberg reveals that Art Rooney, George Halas, Tim Mara, George Preston Marshall, and Bert Bell took an immense risk by investing in the professional game. At that time, the sport barely registered on the national scene. The five owners succeeded only because at critical junctures in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, each sacrificed the short-term success of his team for the longer-term good of the League.
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what a great book. loved it completely.
- By Daniel Mosca on 11-08-18
By: John Eisenberg
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You Herd Me!
- I'll Say It If Nobody Else Will
- By: Colin Cowherd
- Narrated by: Colin Cowherd
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In this age of billion dollar athletic marketing campaigns, “feel good” philosophy with no connection to reality, and a Sports Media echo chamber that’s all too eager swallow whatever idiotic notion happens to be in vogue at the moment, it’s tough to find people who aren’t afraid to say what they’re really thinking.
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Great book, Repeats majority of themes from radio
- By Troy on 01-20-14
By: Colin Cowherd
What listeners say about The King of New Orleans
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- M
- 03-12-18
misleading title
the book was titled to appear to e about The Junkyard Dog. The majority of the book was actually about Bill Watts and Midsouth Wrestling. The narrator also frequently mispronounced wrestlers names suck as Verne Gagne, Chris Benoit, Mr Wrestling 2 and others. you would think someone would at least made sure he knew the pronunciation of the wrestlers he was reading about
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- jayh
- 11-05-14
A Primer on Mid-South Wrestling's Glory Years
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
As an Amazon reviewer noted, this book isn't really a biography of JYD the man, so if that's what you're looking for, you'll be disappointed. There's a reason the book isn't called "The King of New Orleans: The Life and Times of Sylvester Ritter."
Instead, Greg Klein uses JYD as an entry point and guide to explore the bygone territorial wrestling system, specifically Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling promotion of the late 70s and 80s. As the place where guys like Ted DiBiase, the Fabulous Freebirds, Jim Duggan, Jake Roberts, Paul Orndorff, Mr. Wrestling II, and of course JYD came to prominence, Mid-South holds a special place in the hearts of a lot of old-school wrestling fans who had not yet (or never did) buy into the "sports entertainment" offered by the WWF or later WCW. Klein does a nice job detailing how Mid-South, thanks in large part to JYD, transcended the label of "wrasslin'" and connected with its fans on a personal level. (Some of the heels were so hated that fans tried to storm the ring and stab them.) Because it's easy to assume that pro wrestling is the same now as it always was -- a billion-dollar, worldwide entertainment industrial complex -- it's important to remember, as Klein asks us to, the industry's roots as a network of loosely related regional carnivals, with performers and storytelling devices as distinct and varied as the geography. Seeing how this system changed when a black man became a main-event babyface in the deep south helps shed light on the bigger industry changes to come.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The King of New Orleans?
I greatly enjoyed getting a glimpse into the marketing strategy and booking psychology that went into making JYD the promotion's first black main event draw. For instance, Watts took JYD's weakness -- the fact that he was never a great in-ring worker -- and used it to his advantage by booking him in short squash matches that highlighted his charisma and made him seem invincible and credible as a title threat. Watts also established a rule that JYD would never need saving -- if he got in a scuffle, he came up with a way to bail himself out.
It was also pretty fascinating that, during his Mid-South run, JYD was more popular with schoolchildren in New Orleans than Archie Manning or Pete Maravich, according to a poll taken at the time. That made me rethink the impression I'd always had of JYD as a popular but not particularly transcendent performer (of course, all I had to go on were his WWF and WCW runs, by which point drugs and his deteriorating physical fitness left him greatly diminished).
What does J D Jackson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
To the previous reviewed who railed on JD Jackson's reading: Settle down. Breathe. No matter how big the problem, there's never a need to go full caps lock.
Jackson does mispronounce a number of wrestling-specific names. It's Oh-lee Anderson, not Ol' Anderson. It's Mr. Wrestling 2, not Mr. Wrestling the Second. It's Ben-wah, not Ben-oyt (seems like you could know that one just from watching the news). While not knowing the ins and outs of the Audible recording process, I would think getting those right would not be the responsibility of the narrator, but of the Audible producer. It's not like Jackson read the names wrong and the producer said, "Well he missed those, but crap, he's the narrator. I guess we have to leave them in." No one in the room knew, and yes, someone probably should have taken a few minutes to do their due diligence. Not everyone's a wrestling fan.
However, those occasional mispronunciations don't take away from the overall performance (they're actually kind of funny after a while). JD Jackson is a fine narrator who treats the material with the seriousness it deserves when dealing with the real-life issues of race and the perils of the pro wrestling lifestyle, and he finds enough humor in the cartoon world of in-ring wrestling without being condescending or campy.
Any additional comments?
Though later chapters get a bit muddled and repetitive with the ins and outs of the promotions in-ring storylines, this book is totally fascinating if you have any interest in this formative era of wrestling's history. Recommended.
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- jared Billy
- 10-19-18
great listen
Some of the names were miss pronounced but other then that it is amazing JB
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- Anonymous User
- 04-12-18
Story good, narrator not so good!!
I really wish the narrator researched info before narrating this book, alot of names mis-pronounced..really annoying!!
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- Michael Cavacini
- 10-22-20
Entertaining & Insightful
The Junkyard Dog (JYD) is one of those wrestlers from the 1980s who I'm familiar with because he was part of the Rock 'N' Wrestling era, but not to a great degree. I was excited to check out The King of New Orleans, an Audible Original, for a couple reasons. First, I attended WrestleMania XXX in New Orleans — my first and only WrestleMania, so far — and it was a blast. And, second, because, in these racially charged times, now seemed like the perfect opportunity to learn about one of the most successful modern-day black wrestlers.
The King of New Orleans is as much a biography about Mid-South Wrestling as it is about JYD. And it does a solid job when it comes to delivering on both topics. My only complaint is that the author seemed to rely too much on reporting from Dave Meltzer — an industry outsider who is routinely lambasted by professional wrestling royalty for his inaccurate reporting and, sometimes, outright fabrication of events taking place. So, it's often very hard to tell what's real and what's not. I guess that's what makes this an entertaining book for the wrestling audience.
The King of New Orleans is a tragedy because JYD died far too young, and his star burnt out long before it should have. He was an immensely talented wrestler who reached heights that were seemingly unimaginable for the time. This book is a solid attempt at celebrating his career and reminiscing about Mid-South Wrestling. Go into with this mindset and you'll enjoy this Audible Original.
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- Ben Davis
- 10-14-16
JYD! JYD ! JYD!
Is there anything you would change about this book?
I would like more info about JYD's life.
Did the narration match the pace of the story?
yes
Could you see The King of New Orleans being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?
A movie or mini series would be good. I don't know who the actors should be.
Any additional comments?
This book is more about the social impacts Junkyard Dog had on the Mid South Wrestling territory in the early 1980's. He was a cultural phenomenon during the early stages of wrestling's boom period in a historically segregated region of the country. I got the book expecting a wrestling book but that is not what this is. Wrestling is in the backdrop but this is about much more than wrestling.
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- Chris
- 11-01-20
Good yet misleading but who picks these narrators?
I'm guessing they pick the narrators based on their voices, and granted this narrator has a great voice, but can't they get someone who knows how to pronounce people's names? Or have someone take a few minutes before hand and tell the person how to say people's names? This has happened a few times with books I've listened to (I'm currently listening to the Dusty Rhodes book and it's happening there too) and it's annoying.
Also, this isn't really about Junkyard Dog. It's really about the history of Mid-South Wrestling. They do an epilogue about how JYD's career ended up but really it's about Bill Watts's promotion. Which is okay, I like learning about all aspects of wrestling history. But I guess they didn't think a book about Mid-South Wrestling would sell? Maybe? So I liked this book but if you are looking for a retrospective of the JYD, you will get that I guess but that's not really what the book is about.
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- Nancy
- 10-09-18
great story about a great man
The story was great, and I loved the narrators voice... but he butchered nearly every name from the wrestling industry. If I would have haeard him say Vern Gagg-Knee one more time I was gonna punch my phone.
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- Robert Hicinbothem Jr.
- 01-10-17
JYD?
My biggest problem with this book is that it is less about its title character and more about Bill Watts and the Mid-South territory. I was hoping for some insight to Sylvester Ritter himself, but the book offers little. In addition, it jumps around chronologically a bit and frequently picks up a narrative that I thought had already been completed. If you are interested in Bill Watts, Mid-South, or a history of African Americans in wrestling, the book is worthwhile. If you are looking for in-depth information on the Junkyard Dog, you'll have to look elsewhere.
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- Dean S.
- 04-27-20
don't waste your time. It was more about Mid-South
this book was a giant waste of time it was more about other history than history of the Junkyard Dog more chapters were based about wrestling promotions than the Junkyard Dog don't waste your time I would like my money back not kidding
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