Hollywood Hulk Hogan (World wrestling entertainment) [Kindle Edition]

The mix will be familiar to readers of wrestling literature--a plain-talking gallop through the highs and lows of breaking into the business (with few opportunities missed to laugh at his own dumb luck, or throw the spotlight on those who doubted him); a totally indiscreet attitude to the secrets of the ring including behind-the-scenes stories of the sport-defining Wrestlemania show, and his battles with The Rock; a roll-call of "big-names-I-have-known/thrown about"--though in Hulk's case this includes the likes of Sylvester Stallone and Muhammad Ali--and the age-old tussles with the strange realities of suddenly becoming enormously famous and having shed loads of money.

What sets Hollywood Hulk apart, of course, are his excursions into movies, from bit parts in the Rocky series to starring in the sort of muscles-with-chuckles flicks that briefly put him in the same ballpark as Arnie Schwarzeneger. It's entertaining, knockabout stuff with loads of pictures accompanying a well-plotted tale, told "big". Nervous parents be warned though, Hulk is generous with the expletives, and while some of his attitudes may be just part of the show, they are not a recommended diet for the impressionable, the uninformed or anyone struggling with an irony-bypass--for the record, Hulk, you weren't going to catch "Aids or anything like that" by sharing a dressing room with Liberace... --Alex Hankin

Yeah, I'm the towering red-and-yellow warrior who revolutionized the wrestling business, the larger-than-life superhero who transformed an entire country into a horde of Hulkamaniacs. I'm the guy who spit blood and breathed fire to help create an empire called World Wrestling Entertainment™.

But it wasn't always like that. Once I was a fat kid named Terry Bollea watching legends like Dusty Rhodes and Superstar Billy Graham, never dreaming I'd be a professional wrestler myself one day.

Run with me on the streets of Tampa, where a bass guitar became my salvation. Fight alongside me in the wrestling arenas of Japan, where opponents try to bite your fingers off to make a name for themselves. Slide into the ring with me against 700-pound Andre the Giant, who only became my best friend after he found out he couldn't beat me down.

Then cruise L.A. with me and Sylvester Stallone on the heels of Rocky III. Learn why Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura hates my guts. Go head-to-head with Dennis Rodman in a hard-liquor drinking contest, and share a dressing room with Liberace.

Find out what makes me cry like a baby, what makes my blood boil, what I think of Jesus Christ, and what scares the living hell out of me. Then tell me you know the man called Hollywood Hulk Hogan.

Join the Babe Ruth of wrestling on a gritty, no-holds-barred odyssey from his start in the barbaric wrestling arenas of the seventies through the heartbreak of potentially career-ending surgery to the achievement of his greatest triumph yet.

Along the way, lock up with the likes of Cyndi Lauper, Andy Kaufman, Dolly Parton, Mr. T, Ted Turner, George Foreman, Jay Leno, Undertaker, Triple H, The Rock...and of course, Vince McMahon, head of World Wrestling Entertainment™. They're all in here, waiting to show you what they've got.

Hollywood Hulk Hogan™. It's the real deal, brother.