Accepted: How the First Gay Superstar Changed WWE

Accepted is the autobiography of former wrestler Pat Patterson, the first openly gay pro-wrestler. I have been a wrestling fan for years and after reading this book I got a different perspective on the early years. It was a quick read and covered his life before wrestling, trying to break in, the early years, his main event years as well as the years he spent with Vince McMahon Sr. and Jr. in the production and creative roles he took on after he stopped wrestling in the ring.

I did expect a bit more emphasis on the struggles he faced being a gay man during that time as well as in a "macho" environment, but it didn't seem that Pat and his longtime partner of 40 years, Louie really had a lot of issues. It seemed they were accepted and show more considered part of the club which surprised me. There were times that I was confused because he talked about people in the business knowing that he was a gay man, then would say that he kept that part of his life to himself and people didn't know. I did enjoy the stories about his practical jokes that he played on his friends and the descriptions of the various wrestling matches. So many of the wrestlers I have seen and cheered for were part of his story. He did not get bogged down with the seedy side of wrestling, but it was mentioned, specifically the way the wrestlers were treated by the promoters, the low pay they used to receive as well as getting the boot when they were injured. A far cry from the way they are treated today. Some things I didn't know was that Pat came up with the idea of the Royal Rumble as well as the fact that some of my favourite wrestlers such as Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, The Rock and Daniel Bryan would not have been where they were if he had not gone to bat for them with Vince McMahon.

Accepted had some really good moments but I wanted more. It was a pretty short book, which seems weird considering Pat wrestled for decades. More road stories, more backstage machinations, generally more everything, would have been nice. I do like that he does some fundraising for Gay youth to help them deal with situations where they might have problems with family and acceptance. I must admit, I have read some wrestling books that were much better written than this one, you can see his French Language coming out in this book with some grammar issues, but still, it was a decent read. The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book via Netgalley. show less