By Joe Puccio

Books on professional wrestling are anything but an anomaly in 2024. In the first four months of the year alone, the sport has already boasted Ballyhoo! The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling, Becky Lynch – The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl, and Macho Man – The Untamed, Unbelievable Life of Randy Savage.

The Six Pack: On the Open Road in Search of WrestleMania, however, is not your typical squared circle tome. Case in point: Match (Chapter) 6, titled Tito Santana vs. Merced Solis, examines the relationship between Solis, a former top World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE, (then World Wrestling Federation, or WWF) performer and his homosexual son Michael, while Match (Chapter) 9, the requisitely coined Conquistador #1/The Red Demon/Mac Rivera/Jose Luis Rivera/The Black Demon/Shadow #2/Juan Lopez/El Sultan vs. Marcelino Rivera, explores perennial enhancement talent, or jobber, Rivera, and his very non-glamorous, reticent current lifestyle in Puerto Rico, and the tragic murder of his son, Jorge.

These are clearly not anecdotes one would readily discover in the majority of the endless career highlights, match results, and favorite opponents that saturate the plethora of wrestling content in the media landscape. And while author Brad Balukjian, didn’t initially set out to expose the personal struggles of his boyhood heroes, the various tales proved to be natural consequences during his over 12,000-mile trek across the country as he sought out six legendary mat men.

Originally intended to be an Iron Sheik biography, Balukjian’s plans were thrown a curveball when the once cordial relationship between the two was put into a virtual headlock in 2005. The Sheik, born Hossein Khosrow Vaziri, had the ability to morph from a gentle, lovable sexagenarian to an unkind, hateful old man in three seconds, the same amount of time it took “Khos” to have his shoulders pinned to the mat over 20 years earlier when he was defeated for the WWF World Championship in New York’s Madison Square Garden by Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea).

“I’ll shoot you with my .38 Magnum, stab you with my Bowie knife, or just break your fucking leg,” shouted the Mr. Hyde version of the Sheik. It would turn out to be the beginning of the end for Balukjian’s quest in putting the Iranian-born’s life story to paper for the entire world to read.

Instead, Balukjian focused his attention on the December 26, 1983 WWF lineup at MSG, the very evening that the Sheik, his all time favorite grappler, won the coveted championship belt from the clean-cut, Opie-like Bob Backlund, the reigning kingpin at the time. Balukjian decided that while the biography was not to be, he would seek out a half dozen of the Sheik’s contemporaries of the era who appeared at the seminal event (Bollea actually wasn’t on the show), and would attempt to tell their often intimate stories in the form of what eventually became The Six Pack, a somewhat loose sequel of sorts for the writer to his 2020 LA Times bestseller, The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball’s Afterlife.

In addition to Solis, Rivera, and Bollea, rounding out the list are Mr. USA Tony Atlas (Anthony White), The Masked Superstar/Demolition Ax (Bill Eadie), and Sgt. Slaughter (Bob Remus).

White’s narrative tackles heady topics such as his battle with homelessness and his adolescent years living at the Virginia Negro Baptist Children’s Home, while Eadie’s details his high-profile (and successful) $2.5 million lawsuit against Vince McMahon.

Remus, though, turned out to be a tough nut to crack. The G.I. Joe fan favorite, who purported to be a Vietnam veteran and former Marine, was exposed of his kayfabe-loaded yarn years after retiring, and Balukjian can only presume that it’s a fundamental reason for the Sarge’s unfortunate elusiveness.

Balukjian ultimately succeeded in his quest to pull back the curtain on the larger than life wrestling superstars and their always intriguing and often incredible exploits both inside and outside of the ring. And in some cases, it wasn’t merely time that was spared.

The scribe is fully transparent and honest on being asked for (and agreeing to) payment in order to be given complete access into the lives of a few of his subjects – with the caveat that he would be honest with readers, per his unequivocal journalistic integrity. Asked if, in retrospect, he regretted the monetary exchange, he is clearly at peace with his decision. “There were only two people who I paid – Tony Atlas and Tito Santana. And I think two of the best chapters were on them and if I didn’t talk to them, I wouldn’t have been able to write them as well as I did,” Balukjian explained during a chat with Generation X Wire.

In order to accurately and factually illustrate the fascinating lives of everybody involved, Balukjian didn’t just converse with the athletes themselves; he notably interviewed key people in their lives as well. For Bollea’s arc, for example, he spoke with childhood friends and bandmates; for Remus’, he engaged with old-timers still living in his hometown of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, including his 91-year-old former high school football coach. “My entire mission was to make sure what I wrote was as close to the truth as possible,” he contended, before adding, “and it’s very challenging to do that in an industry that’s built on illusion.”  

As for the possibility of a future Six (Seven, Eight…?) Pack spotlighting the game’s modern players, such as Seth Rollins, Cody Rhodes, or Jon Moxley, the odds appear to be slim. “Wrestling is still entertaining but I don’t watch it regularly,” Balukjian noted. “Most characters now are extensions of themselves but when I was a kid, they had these amazing gimmicks that you just don’t see anymore. I think it’s generational.”

Fortunately, since the book’s release a few weeks ago, none of the protagonists featured in The Six Pack have demonstrated any of the vitriol that was unleashed by Vaziri at the onset of his primary mission. Eadie read and thoroughly enjoyed it, while White took the time to excitedly seek out Balukjian at a recent wrestling convention to discuss it. “I haven’t received any death threats yet, like I did with the Sheik,” he joked.

Order The Six Pack: On the Open Road in Search of WrestleMania at https://www.thebradpack.com/

Check out Brad Balukjian at one of the following stops on his book tour: