- Vince Fahey

Wrestling with the Truth by Bruno Lauer is an entertaining, and thoroughly engrossing book.  My exposure to Lauer as Downtown Bruno is fairly limited to a few episodes from Memphis or Birmingham wrestling programs.  As a result, much of his story is new info for me, which is a pleasant surprise.   

Lauer comes off as a very likeable fellow but also very honest, and oftimes brutal.  However, this honesty is somewhat refreshing in that Bruno doesn’t come off as a sycophant in his book, loving everyone he’s ever come across in the business.  As in many bios, that aren’t necessarily tell-alls (you know the ones that try to create controversy by being salacious and sleazy), Bruno is able to balance his good-natured side with his honest side, being straightforward where necessary and complimentary when appropriate. 

One of the very enjoyable things about this book, especially for myself (since I run KM!) is the detail Bruno goes into regarding his work in the territories. Bruno goes into some great history regarding his days in Memphis for Lawler/Jarrett, in Birmingham for Fuller, in the Central States area for Geigel and in Hawaii for the Maivia promotion.  There are some great stories surrounding his time there as well as a good amount of insight into what the business was like during this era. 

The book progresses into Lauer’s jump into the “big time” with the WWE as Harvey Whippleman and his current position of WWE Concierge.   All in all, Lauer writes an informative and highly entertaining book that any fan of old-school wrestling should read. 

Special thanks should go to Scott Teal and his Crowbar Press for continuing to publish biographies from wrestlers who are not on the “A-list.”  It is these workers that so many of us want to hear from and Scott goes out of his way to secure these individuals and provide old school fans with biographies for these workers.  Please support Scott and all that he does by going to www.crowbarpress.com and buying your books directly from Scott versus buying them from Amazon or other retailers.