On paper, wrestling just shouldn’t work. A travelling circus of oiled-up, overly muscled men (and women) with long wet hair, squeezed into spandex budgie smugglers, jumping around a boxing ring-slash-trampoline performing choreographed “fights”, bookended by theatrical bouts of trash-talk in an arena full of screaming lunatics.
Actually, when you put it like that, what’s not to love? A childhood isn’t worthy of the name without a wrestling phase – the rivalries, the signature moves, and above all, the characters. Larger-than-life and daft as a brush, the characters are what makes wrestling great, and every generation has its favourite heroes and villains. Are you a youngster raised on The Rock, or from the old school when Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior ruled the roost? Whatever your era, you need Hell Yeah!, a colouring book full of the biggest and brightest wrestling stars as illustrated by friends of London nutcase society Belly Kids.
Rendered in a range of styles from charmingly naïve to Dandy-subversive, each of the wrestlers appears twice – once empty for you to colour in, and once already coloured in case you need some help. And if you’re not so good at staying within the lines, you can order A3 prints of the colouring book images already done for you. Finding out wrestling is fixed is a bit like finding out Santa Claus isn’t real. It’s time to rediscover some of that lost innocence. Order now in time for Christmas! Hell Yeah!
Legion of Doom,
by Stephen Maurice Graham
Koko B Ware,
by Jiro Bevis
Chris Benoit,
by Mya Munnelly
Hacksaw Jim Duggan,
by Will Bryant
Iron Sheik,
by Sam Taylor
Papa Shango,
by Tom J Newell
