Beer, blood and cornmeal : seven years of Incredibly Strange Wrestling

I think the title of the book says it all. This is a great read, and a great ride, through a world that otherwise you'd never get to see. Very well done. Incredibly Strange Wrestling was the bastard offspring of post-punk garage rock and masked Mexican lucha libre. Fielding a cast of crazed characters with names like El Homo Loco, Macho Sasquatcho and El Pollo Diablo, the show lived up to its name. Christians fought lions, Ku Klux Klowns squared off against Hasidic Jews and Bigfoots and bears mauled hapless hippies in some of the most surreal grappling bouts ever staged. And if that wasn't enough, cult bands such as NOFX, The Dickies and The Donnas provided the raucous rock and roll in between the highflying mayhem. ISW emerged from the back alleys and seedy clubs of San Francisco's South of Market scene to headline the historic Fillmore and barnstorm North America on the Van's Warped Tour. At the height of its popularity, Green Day's Billy Joe Armstrong and Metallica's James Hetfield could be seen tossing tortillas (which the promoters supplied) at ringside with the rest of the hell heads, boozehounds and tattooed party girls that made up ISW's rabid following. Bob Calhoun broke into ISW as an untrained grappler and rose through the ranks to become one of the creative forces behind the subversive carnival. In his new memoir, Beer, Blood & Cornmeal, Calhoun delves into the ISW's organized insanity with all of the dark humor that it deserves. It's a story of urban misfits risking their necks for local celebrity in one of America's most famous cities all told against the backdrop of the dot com boom and bust and an increasingly corporate entertainment industry. Beer, Blood & Cornmeal takes the highest tier of the music industry and sends it on a collision course with the lowest rung of the professional wrestling ladder. The threat of real violence is always lurking at the fringes of the fake fights as shows end in riots and wrestlers disturbingly become their squared circle alter egos. Incredibly Strange Wrestling was the bastard offspring of post-punk garage rock and masked Mexican lucha libre. Fielding a cast of crazed characters with names like El Homo Loco, Macho Sasquatcho and El Pollo Diablo, the show lived up to its name. Christians fought lions, Ku Klux Klowns squared off against Hasidic Jews and Bigfoots and bears mauled hapless hippies in some of the most surreal grappling bouts ever staged. And if that wasnt enough, cult bands such as NOFX, The Dickies and The Donnas provided the raucous rock and roll in between the highflying mayhem. ISW emerged from the back alleys and seedy clubs of San Franciscos South of Market scene to headline the historic Fillmore and barnstorm North America on the Vans Warped Tour. At the height of its popularity, Green Days Billy Joe Armstrong and Metallicas James Hetfield could be seen tossing tortillas (which the promoters supplied) at ringside with the rest of the hell heads, boozehounds and tattooed party girls that made up ISWs rabid following. Bob Calhoun broke into ISW as an untrained grappler and rose through the ranks to become one of the creative forces behind the subversive carnival. In his new memoir, Beer, Blood and Cornmeal, Calhoun delves into the ISWs organized insanity with all of the dark humor that it deserves. Its a story of urban misfits risking their necks for local celebrity in one of Americas most famous cities all told against the backdrop of the dot com boom and bust and an increasingly corporate entertainment industry. Beer, Blood and Cornmeal takes the highest tier of the music industry and sends it on a collision course with the lowest rung of the professional wrestling ladder. The threat of real violence is always lurking at the fringes of the fake fights as shows end in riots and wrestlers disturbingly become their squared circle alter egos. Copyright......Page 6 Dedication ......Page 7 Contents......Page 9 Author's Note ......Page 11 Foreward ......Page 13 1 Moving In with Sasquatch ......Page 17 2 The Incredibly Strange Rejects Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Wrestlers ......Page 23 3 The Three Mile Baby ......Page 45 4 The Fat Kid ......Page 65 5 Stinky's Peep Show ......Page 85 6 Celebrity Gang Bang ......Page 105 PHOTO SECTION 1 ......Page 126 7 The Force Field ......Page 143 8 Leg Biting Riot! ......Page 161 9 The Poontangler and the Devil Chicken ......Page 175 10 Ashida Kim, The Ninja ......Page 195 11 Christians to the Lions ......Page 215 12 The Big-time Politics of Small-time Wrestling ......Page 225 13 Uncle N.A.M.B.I.A. ......Page 243 PHOTO SECTION 2 ......Page 260 14 Hot Man on Man Action ......Page 277 15 Warped ......Page 303 16 Liquid Gold ......Page 321 17 Homomania ......Page 347 18 Moving In with the Sasquatch (Slight Return )......Page 363 19 Amsterdamage ......Page 375 20 Epilogue......Page 399 Acknowledgements ......Page 405 Selected Bibliography ......Page 407 Delving into the organized insanity of Incredibly Strange Wrestling (ISW), this memoir takes a look at the bastard offspring of post-punk garage rock and masked Mexican wrestling. Fielding a cast of crazed characters with names like El Homo Loco, Macho Sasquatcho, and El Pollo Diablo, the show lived up to its name. And if that wasn’t enough, cult bands such as NOFX, The Dickies, and The Donnas provided the raucous rock and roll in between the highflying mayhem. ISW emerged from the back alleys and seedy clubs of San Francisco’s South of Market scene to headline the historic Fillmore and barnstorm North America on the Van’s Warped Tour. At the height of its popularity, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and Metallica’s James Hetfield could be seen tossing tortillas (which the promoters supplied) at ringside with the rest of the hell heads, boozehounds, and tattooed party girls.