Even in the world of professional wrestling, Kurt Angle was a bit of an oddity when he joined World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in the late 1990s. He wasn't the first person to come to the WWE with a background in amateur wrestling but he was, as far as I'm aware, the first person to come to WWE as the current holder of an Olympic gold medal. For Kurt Angle had won a gold medal in heavyweight freestyle wrestling at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and returned to his home town of Pittsburgh as a hero.He didn't have an easy path to the top, as the youngest of six children living conditions were cramped and he was frequently pushed to excel as well as pushed around by his brothers. Then his father died in an accident at work when Kurt was only 16 and this motivated him to push himself even harder. Through the book, we follow Kurt's drive to the gold medal and then as he seeks to achieve similar success in life after the Olympics have ended and the fame he gained wore off.The book focuses more on Kurt's training for wrestling and his amateur wrestling career than it does on his life prior to taking wrestling seriously or his WWE career. Admittedly, at the time the book was written, his career as a professional wrestler was only a little over a year old, so there wasn't a great deal more he could have said about this time of his life. It's clear that, regardless of whatever else had happened in his life, his main focus was his wrestling and once he'd set his sights on Olympic glory, his mind was on very little else from that point on.This does give the book rather a narrow focus. Whilst the amount of training he did for his Olympic medal was incredible and reading about it really shows you how hard some people will work and need to work to achieve their dreams, it does make him seem almost like a machine at times. He talks about being able to shut out and wrestle through some of his injuries and this makes him seem quite mechanical. When you combine this with the lack of emotion he feels at events like his Dad's passing, this makes him seem even more so.This lack of emotion does come as quite a distraction, which is a shame as it's a fairly well written book otherwise. Admittedly, it's not going to win any awards and it's not great work of literature, but it's quite simply written and there is always something going on. It seems strange to talk about how well the book flows and how evenly paced it is in an autobiography, but there is rarely a moment where something isn't happening in Angle's life.Unfortunately, what was happening in Angle's life generally revolved around wrestling. He went to college so that he could wrestle and win national wrestling titles. Once he left college, his life revolved around gaining selection to the Olympic team and, once this was achieved, winning gold. Having turned professional, he was adapting to the new style of wrestling and reaching the top in WWE. This makes the whole thing slightly repetitive, as he's always training for one wrestling meet or another and he's always talking about pushing himself and the training regime he was running at the time; often going into great detail about his training and then, when the time comes, recounting his matches move for move and minute by minute. Yes, there's nearly always something happening, but it's always pretty much the same as happened before.This incredible focus is admirable and certainly backed up Angle's early promos in WWE that he wrestled with intensity. Whilst it certainly made and continues to make him a success, it doesn't make for a gripping book, or a terribly enjoyable one. He comes across more as a machine than a man and you never really find out too much about how he feels about things.Given the age of the book now, it's tough to recommend it, as the latest events are now more than ten years old and Angle has since moved on from WWE and had various injury issues, as well as returning to WWE and leaving again. For this reason, the book is probably best recommended to those who are only now discovering Kurt Angle thanks to his work with TNA and are keen to look back on his earlier career.This review may also appear, in whole or in part, under my name at any or all of www.ciao.co.uk, www.thebookbag.co.uk, www.goodreads.com, www.amazon.co.uk and www.dooyoo.co.uk
I just finished reading its true! It's true! By Kurt Angle. When I first got the book I was skeptical and thought it would be tacky by looking at the cover. But I knew not to judge it by the cover so I decided to read it. My experience with this book is overall very good. I enjoyed the parts when he talked about his childhood and his story about how he got big. However there were some parts that I felt was repetitive. This book had parts where it kept explaining the same thing like when he was in the world wrestling federation, it was interesting at first but that part got boring fast.tIn this book there were a lot of sad times. One of these sad times was when Kurt's father passed away after a crane accident. That was a turning point that determined kurt's path to adulthood after his father passed away he stepped up and decided to work as hard as he could to achieve his dreams. "So I had to learn to be a good student, but I was always committed to excelling as an athlete, especially after my father died" (Angle 42). That was easily one of my favorite parts of the book because it was interesting to learn about how hard he worked. tThis book was very good, I would recommend it to anyone that wants to read about a touching story that teaches you good morals and hard work. This book also had a lot of comedic times. Because Kurt Angle is a naturally funny guy. Therefore read this book and I doubt that you'll be unhappy.
Do You like book It's True! It's True! (2001)?
I read this book over a decade ago. I got my copy signed by Kurt himself. Stood in line all day at the Circle Centre mall here in Indy. It was great. I read it in High School. At the time I was on the wrestling team and since the first part of the book was about his rise to winning the Olympic Gold in wrestling, it was right up my alley. If you like wrestling, pro or amatuer, you should like this book. Now, I read this as a kid and I bet if I reread it parts would bother me. Oh, Its true, its damn true.
—Jon Estle
This book is what it is, and very little more. Kurt Angle's "autobiography" is a self-slanted account of the events of his life, laden with false modesty bordering on masturbation. The majority of the book focuses on Angle's life before getting into professional wrestling: from his youth up to the Olympics. Frustratingly, it insists on giving away potentially interesting and compelling information as soon as possible. For instance, the chapter that leads up to Angle winning the WWE title is called "winning the title".Once Kurt gets to the WWE, the book lacks any of the backstage stories that are often the reason that fans want to read this sort of book. One can hardly depend on a man in the prime of his career to be entirely candid about the company that is providing him such a comfortable life.Most troubling is Angle's blatant prioritization of his work over his family. He speaks far more fondly of co-workers (especially Triple H) than he does of his wife, Karen. His unquestioning loyalty to the WWE is an interesting, and somewhat disturbing willingness to talk about his marital problems. Reading this book in 2009, it is not difficult to see why their marriage has come to the end that it has.
—Dylan Clark
