I grew up watching WWF and Saturday Night's Main Event was a main event in our house, as we were allowed to stay up late to watch it. I lost interest in wrestling as I grew older, but this book still caught my interest. The author captures the rise of the McMahon family and WWE, which many WWF wrestlers went to. The behind the scenes antics of wrestling are more interesting than some novels. So much was going on behind the scenes to put on a show for their viewers. This is a great read!

Actually, I thought this was great. Having been a fan of wrestling in my middle school days, it was fun to relive what I remembered and see the behind the scenes drama too. Hanstock does a great job of being objective and a fan.

I've enjoyed Bill Hanstock's work in the past, and this is no exception. While as a longtime fan and habitual reader of histories like these, I knew a lot of the information he presented, Hanstock's casual, fan-friendly voice continually engages the reader. He wisely uses the McMahons and their own history as the backbone for his presentation of WWE's, and I was impressed with how up-to-date the work was, even including discussion of wrestling's current pandemic state. Hanstock also spends time looking at organizations that have challenged WWE, contrasting them with WWE's approach at the time. If you are looking for a history that is mostly WWE-centric, but will also keep you informed of the general climate of wrestling at the same time, this is a superb choice.

In We Promised You a Great Main Event, journalist and long-time wrestling fan Bill Hanstock takes the reader behind the scenes (into Gorilla position, if you will) of the long history of WWE. From the early, carnival-style events that Vince McMahon Sr. debuted in the northeast, to the current, global climate of WWE in 2020, Hanstock covers the full gamut of successes and failures at the hands of the McMahons. Hanstock does a good job of balancing the events and personalities that have been at the forefront of WWE storylines with the trials and issues happening when the cameras stopped rolling.

This book definitely feels like it has a niche audience. Yes, any WWE fan would find parts of this book to enjoy, but Hanstock seems to be writing for a smark - a smart mark/fan - rather than the casual fan, or the fan who chooses to believe the storylines are reality and the characters they see on TV are real. If you find yourself always cheering for the babyfaces and booing the heels because that's how WWE wrote it, then this book might ruin too many of your childhood dreams. However, if you've found yourself more than once on wrestling dirtsheets, then you'd probably enjoy reliving some of WWE's best and worst moments, on screen and off. Hanstock employs plenty of humor, and takes a true smark perspective on all the major events and players in WWE's history. The book was enjoyable, well-written, at times funny, and contains plenty of information the McMahons would probably rather you didn't know.

I am a lifelong fan of wrestling (and of an age that I used to fight over the "reality" of it all). This is a great look at the McMahons, especially Vince and how he shaped this entertainment industry. I'm still a little salty about some of the stuff he did, so it feels a bit "raw" when I think about how much I loved NWA and then WCW. WWF/E was the "other one" that I'd watch when my real wrestling wasn't on. I loved that the author wrote this in a way that felt like a conversation between fans. Fans who realize how messed up it all is/was and still tune in. Good stuff, this!