“I think you’d have to be on cocaine to enjoy it.”
Blade Braxton, Wrestlecrap Radio
So, 2005 saw WWE release a fictional book detailing the story of Kane, the Undertaker’s half-brother who debuted in 1997 and caused a big scene… and then bit by bit, that aura dwindled with stupid stories like Katie Vick, unmaskings, and corporate Kane. Fortunately, Journey Into Darkness was published long before that last bit took place and in fairness, I want to give the author credit in trying to reconcile all these different plotholes in WWE narrative into one cohesive story.
I mean, the poor bastard tried.
The book is poorly written… sometimes it reads fine, sometimes it reads bad, and then there are moments when it is unbearable (but those times are few and between). Here’s the thing, though; I enjoyed the book because I like the wrestling product. There’s a certain level regarding suspension of disbelief that you’d have to attain in order to follow wrestling. If you’re NOT a wrestling fan, though, then this book will do NOTHING for you. You’ll be reading this thing wondering, “What the hell is going on here?” And while the story is certainly readable for the most part and isn’t remotely terrible, it doesn’t make any attempt to make sense to the people who are picking this up without prior knowledge of the wrestling product.
If you’re a fan of the Big Red Monster and are remotely interested in his backstory, then Journey Into Darkness is probably worth a look. The story does its best to explain the various inconsistencies with the Kane backstory, but is marred down by generally poor writing and the fact that this is trying to make sense out of a narrative concocted by a company who didn’t give a rat’s ass about cohesive narratives unless it was convenient to them. There’s a “clever” attempt to try and make this grounded in reality by using real names here and there while maintaining their hokey fake story and for what it’s worth, you can’t help but admire the attempt.
I don’t know. If you’re into trainwrecks in literary form or want to know how WWE makes sense of its nonsense (and fail), then this is worth checking out. Otherwise, there are plenty of more worthwhile books to check out – either within the wrestling or fictional realms.
dtm666 