Wrestling Rashomon - Why Tod Gordon's Autobiography Is One Of The Books Of 2023
Think you know everything about ECW? If you haven't read Tod Is God, you only know one, Heyman-shaped side of the story.
Marge: "Come on, Homer, Japan will be fun. You liked Rashomon."
Homer: "That's not how I remember it..."
When I heard that there was a Tod Gordon autobiography in the works, a familiar feeling crept over me - Do I really need this? Haven't I read enough about the rise and demise of ECW? Hasn't this dead horse already been flogged to the extent that there'll be no shortage of equine mince until year’s end?
But then two things happened. First, I discovered that Sean Oliver was working on the project, the man behind the superb Kayfabe Commentaries and the host of Kevin Nash’s compelling podcast Kliq This.
And then the second, even more important thing struck me: as, for all the people I've heard whinge, bitch and sentimentalise about ECW, I'd heard next to nothing about the organisation from the man who birthed it!
It's one thing to have heard from the booker, the talent, the commentators, the production team, but how much can you really know about Extreme Championship Wrestling if you don't have Tod Gordon's take on things? To mix my highfaluting artistic references, it's like performing Hamlet with Hamlet.
And now that I've read Tod Is God I can confirm that while the ECW story is a tragedy, you'll never appreciate the height of the highs nor the depth of the lows until you've checked out this essential work.
Hats off to you then, Mr Oliver. And to Tod, of course - not God perhaps, but a bloody good bloke and one to whom wrestling history ought to be a little kinder.