'After the Bell’ best enjoyed after 'The Last Fall'

The world of wrestling literature is littered with great works of non-fiction. Bertrand Hebert and Pat Laprade’s Eighth Wonder of the World, about Andre the Giant, is an incredible piece for its research on a man that closely guarded his real life. Brian R. Solomon’s epic work on The Sheik, Blood and Fire, is similar in that it digs up the facts on someone who buried them deep underground in defense of his wrestling gimmick.

Those are two of a myriad of books on wrestling history. Crowbar Press’s archives could keep you busy for years. This website, Slam Wrestling, was founded by a historian and writer Greg Oliver and has featured authors of numerous works that are too long to list.

Professional wrestling has not seen many works, however, in the fiction section of your bookstore or online booksellers. Sheldon Goldberg, a long-time wrestling promoter, recently released his second wrestling novel, After the Bell, and he seems determined to continue to add to that section of your bookshelf.

Sheldon Goldberg as ring announcer in NECW. Photo courtesy NECW

The book is a sequel to The Last Fall, a novel that fictionalizes parts of wrestling history into the story of a wrestler’s travails. After the Bell starts in much the same way. His protagonist, Rick Pacheco, has moved from the ring to part owner of Great Western Wrestling, a “satellite” promotion for the bigger American Championship Wrestling (ACW).

It is easy to see similarities between WWE and ACW and Great Western Wrestling bears some resemblance to NXT. But Goldberg strays from depicting these promotions as carbon copies of real promotions. Great Western Wrestling is one of many “satellites” who run independent of ACW and are quite successful on their own, they are not developmental wings of the larger promotion.

The satellite promotions do share talent and have deep ties with ACW, but Goldberg imagines them as something more akin to the territories of old. ACW is not the evil empire, either. There are no Vince McMahon/WWE style scandals or predatory business practices. Rival national promotions have survived as well instead of being left in ruins.

That represents the feeling you get when reading this novel. Optimism is a major strength of the book. Not only is the wrestling business thriving, but it is a well-respected industry that also has a wing, creating movie stars and quality films instead of the nightmare fuel the WWE created.

The first few chapters were my least favorite of the book. While they were necessary to bring readers up to date on the back story, they became tedious after a while and could have been edited down to get to the heart of the story. But those chapters do allow a reader, if they happened to buy this book first, to understand the story without having read The Last Fall.

Where the story thrives is in the personal stories of Pacheco’s family and young wrestlers that he has taken under his wing. Once his wife and kids show up, the drama family gains momentum, and the book becomes a pager turner. Without giving away specific plot points, the family does face some tragedies along the way, but the book never loses its sense of optimism.

It is interesting to note that Sheldon Goldberg authored a book full of hope while facing personal health problems. In a 2023 interview with Jamie Hemmings, of this website, Goldberg said, “I had an issue on a flight back from Las Vegas (at CAC) to Boston and my kidneys failed on the flight.”

His health problems continue with dialysis three times a week. He is hopeful for a kidney transplant. He said to this writer that the book “was therapy — a chance to use creative muscles I hadn’t fully used before.”

Those creative muscles come from a long history in professional wrestling. He started with a promotion called Century Wrestling Alliance, which later morphed into NWA New England. Goldberg eventually moved on to New England Championship Wrestling, a promotion, he told Hemming, he envisioned as your “friendly neighborhood wrestling promotion plus.”

Sheldon Goldberg and Psycho Clown at the Cauliflower Alley Club reunion in August 2024. Facebook photo

Goldberg also was a theater major at the University of Massachusetts and worked in the theater business doing publicity and eventually promoting show before getting into the wrestling business. Apropos considering theater’s influence on pro wrestling.

There is another novel coming from Goldberg and other potential projects related to his two books. He has also spoken about writing a non-fiction book at some point.

His current novel, After the Bell, is written in a way that people outside of wrestling could understand. It is not too “insider” to where someone who has never seen a match would be lost.

“I decided to write a fictional story because I felt I could say more about the experience of professional wrestling through the vehicle of fiction than through a historical account,” he told this writer in an email interview. He aptly weaves a family-centered story throughout his depiction of pro wrestling.

I recommend After the Bell for someone looking for a “beach read.” It is a book written for all audiences and becomes a page-turner once the family drama begins. While it works as a standalone book, readers would enjoy it more if they read The Last Fall first. After the Bell is full of hope and envisions a professional wrestling industry without a megalomaniac or a giant unholy promotion set to destroy all in its wake. That is what makes this book standout.

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