FanPost

Reading Between the Ropes: Dino Wrestling

Prologue:

I’m back with another pro wrestling themed book review. This time I’m reviewing a picture book while I work my way through the longer book. Having worked in the children’s department of the library for most of the last two years, I was already familiar with Dino Wrestling, but it’s a fun one, and the Dino Sports series is ongoing even if this one came out a few years ago.

The Build:

Lisa Wheeler published her first picture book in 2001 and has been publishing books regularly since that time. Her picture books have covered a variety of themes and characters, mostly being stand-alone books until she hit on the idea of having dinosaurs play sports. She has now published 10 Dino Sports books with Dino Wrestling being the sixth one. All the Dino Sports books are illustrated by Barry Gott.

The Main Event:

The theme of Dino Wrestling should be pretty clear. It’s dinosaurs, and they’re wrestling.

The first five Dino Sports books featured team sports (hockey, soccer, baseball, basketball, and football) where the book walked you through the different aspects of a single game between two teams of dinosaurs. This book represented a new wrinkle for the series as it presented dinosaurs competing in multiple events within a sports discipline, which has continued in each subsequent book in the series.

The dinosaurs are putting on a Dino-Wrestling Jamboree that features a range of wrestling styles. The book walks through each style as though the matches were put together on a single card. In order, the different events presented are Folk Style, Lucha Libre, Greco-Roman, Sumo, Freestyle, and "WWD" Professional Wrestling.

There is only a subtle distinction made between Lucha Libre and the amateur wrestling variations on either side with a line indicating one wrestler is "playing the bad guy." I’m curious if that would be enough to rankle Jim Cornette and the Kayfabe Truthers (If you’re reading this, Mr. Cornette, I would like to encourage you to start a doo-wop band with that name). One person the book would definitely please, however, is Teddy Long as it ends in a Tag Team Main Event Playa!

The wrestling itself comes across as though Mrs. Wheeler has done her research even if she isn’t actually a fan. The Lucha Libre competitors are referred to as tecnicos and rudos, their fans are noted as coming from Mexico, and the final illustration for this section shows the winner holding the loser’s mask up to taunt the crowd. The final event featuring WWD Superstars shows a distracted referee and a steel chair. But the match ends in a smoz when the fans start rioting. I guess you win some, you lose some.

Most of the text is a more straightforward announcing style call of the action (though in rhyme), laying out the different styles; however, there are a few things that are quite funny. The T-Rex enters the Greco-Roman event then totally fails because you can only use your arms. There is also a running thread where the pterosaur tag team tries to sneak in and interfere with the other events and keeps getting thrown out. I also liked that the referees are all depicted as birds while everyone else (competitors, security, and audience) are all dinosaurs.

Reactions and Star Rating: 4 Stars

Who doesn’t love dinosaurs? And who (on this site) doesn’t love wrestling? That means this book found itself a winning combination. Assisted by the colorful illustration, this book is a lot of fun. Really, the whole series is. I would recommend checking out any of the titles that feature a sport you might be interested in.

Epilogue: I met a deadline! Self-imposed, but hey, I’m calling it a win. I’ll be back in two weeks with my review of Yes! My Improbable Journey to the Main Event of WrestleMania.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.