Professional wrestling meets Empire in a trilogy that RollingStone.com called âa one-of a kind literary offering for die-hard wrestling fans.â
New York City, 1969. Danno Garland is a middling member of the National Wrestling Council, a secretive syndicate of pro-wrestling promoters. Heâs kept his head down for fifteen years, but now heâs found a new heavyweight champion, Babu, and plans to use him to build a wrestling empire. Blocked, though, by the NWC, Danno makes a deal with Florida boss Proctor King to ensure Dannoâs man will be the next title holder. In exchange, the belt will go to Proctorâs son, Gilbert, once heâs out of prison in a couple of years.
But things donât go according to plan, and now Danno is standing in a sold-out Shea Stadium on the night of biggest wrestling card of all time, and neither Babu nor Gilbert has shown up. Meanwhile, Lenny Long, Dannoâs driver, is walking dazedly from the overturned van that was supposed to bring them to the venue, and the only sign of Gilbert is his foot.
Across the country, Proctor nervously watches the show on TV, wondering why his screw-up of a son doesnât already have the championship belt in his hands. Itâs taken four years of pay-offs, double dealing, and bone-breaking to arrange this match, and if all thatâs gone to waste, he might just have to take a business trip to New York. The âfakeâ world of professional wrestling is going to get very real.
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