Ringmaster cover art

Ringmaster

Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Ringmaster

By: Abraham Josephine Riesman
Narrated by: Alyss Weissglass
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

About this listen

 INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Riveting, essential reading.” —Rick Perlstein, author of Reaganland

This definitive biography of Vince McMahon, former WWE chairman and CEO, is “riveting, essential reading” (Rick Perlstein, New York Times bestselling author) as it charts his rise from rural poverty to the throne of one of the world’s most influential media empires. Featuring exclusive interviews with more than 150 people who witnessed, aided, and suffered from his ascent.

Even if you’ve never watched a minute of professional wrestling, you are living in Vince McMahon’s world.

In his four decades as the defining figure of American pro wrestling, McMahon was the man behind Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, John Cena, Dave Bautista, Bret “The Hitman” Hart, and Hulk Hogan, to name just a few of the mega-stars who owe him their careers. For more than twenty-five years, he has also been a performer in his own show, acting as the diabolical “Mr. McMahon”—a figure who may have more in common with the real Vince than he would care to admit.

Just as importantly, McMahon is one of Donald Trump’s closest friends—and Trump’s experiences as a performer in McMahon’s programming were, in many ways, a dress rehearsal for the 45th President’s campaigns and presidency. McMahon and his wife, Linda, are major Republican donors. Linda was in Trump’s cabinet. McMahon makes deals with the Saudi government worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And for generations of people who have watched wrestling, he has been a defining cultural force and has helped foment “the worst of contemporary politics” (Kirkus Reviews).

Ringmaster built on exclusive interviews with more than 150 people, from McMahon’s childhood friends to those who accuse him of destroying their lives. “Smart, entertaining, impressively reported, and beautifully written. Wrestling fans will devour it, but everyone who wants to better understand this crazy country and one of its truly original characters ought to read it” (Jonathan Eig, author of Ali: A Life). Business Combat Sports & Self-Defense Professionals & Academics Sports Wrestling Combat Sports

Listeners also enjoyed...

 There's Just One Problem... cover art
Dynamite and Davey cover art
Tod Is God cover art
The Last Real World Champion cover art
Titan Sinking: The Decline of the WWF in 1995 cover art
We Promised You a Great Main Event cover art
Nitro cover art
Slobberknocker cover art
Blood and Fire cover art
MOX cover art
The Hardcore Truth cover art
We Had a Little Real Estate Problem cover art
True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee cover art
Drama in the Bahamas cover art
Mayor Kane cover art
Bundini cover art
All stars
Most relevant
Very much the same stuff. Was hoping for a bit more. Narrator wasn't great but did improve through the course but it was very clear they had little to no wrestling knowledge, so some of the mispronounced names was a little jarring.

Was expecting more

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The first half of this book is a stunning examination of Vince's rise to power, framed as a heel background story and neatly showing the differences between Vince's telling of his own story (sometimes more than one version) and other people telling Vince's story. As a backdrop to "the unmaking of America," it is stunning. The second part of the book turns to a mildly repentant love letter to the Attitude Era. And I get it, I really do. The Attitude Era was my brief love affair with WWE and it was nice to relive it, painful to share the repentance for the people who got hurt for my enjoyment. But it does lose the thread that ties wrestling to politics and events in the rest of the world (with some exceptions). And this means that we come back to that thread in a single chapter at the end that covers a good 20-year span. And, to start and end at "the end of the world" (pandemic lockdowns) without giving a single nod to AEW seems odd. That said, pacing issues aside, this is well written and beautifully narrated (hats off to Alyss) and very worth a listen, particularly for non-wrestling fans. For Me, I'd like to see another book really digging into the 21st century, Vince's monopoly, the politics, the connections to Trump, the New World Kayfabe, AEW riding an opportunity and competing by not competing (except financially). Just to complete the promise of this book.

So Close

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
There’s a few things I didn’t know listening to this which surprised me. However, just to make sure the casual listener knows Vince is bad, let’s mention Donald Trump at every opportunity

Meh

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I listened to this because I was incredibly impressed with Riesman’s previous book, a biography of Stan Lee that used meticulous research and strikingly insightful and nuanced writing to cut through the fog of self-mythology and fan speculation that surrounds that extremely divisive figure.

Well, Reisman has done it again.

As a comics fan who’s never been into wrestling, I didn’t have the context for McMahon that I did for Lee, but it’s clear from the sheer breadth of sources both primary and secondary that the author employs that this book is just as painstakingly researched, and that the subject themself is not only just as influential on modern culture, but equally as shrouded in manufactured legend and legitimate controversy.

I absolutely loved this book, and would heartily recommend it to anyone- with the only caveat being that if you’re personally invested in the obvious fictions men like Lee and McMahon cultivate about themselves to craft their personal brands, then you should know that Reisman isn’t going to give you that. This is a book about the truth, and is all the more fascinating for it.

An excellent book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Not really anything new. Not sure how familiar the author really is with the industry as seemed out of touch at points. Still an entertaining listen but one and done.

Not the greatest biography

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews