Customer Reviews

The Death of WCW: WrestleCrap and Figure Four Weekly Present . . . (WrestleCrap series)

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I've been reading Bryan Alvarez' column now for quite some time and he is one of the most respected people covering pro wrestling today. Along with R.D. Reynolds they tell the story of the remarkable Rise & Fall and eventual Death of WCW. Relive some of the classic moments as WCW began its increidble rise from a second rate wrestling company who once gave us Robocop in the ring, to the juggernaut that nearly did the unthinkable: Nearly putting Vince McMahon and the WWF out of business.

Through interviews with many of the stars and other participants we'll see how WCW used the WWFs long-time strategy of raiding its rivals talent rosters as they systematically stole nearly every major star that the WWF had in the 80's and early 90's: Hogan, Savage, Nash, SCott Hall, Bret Hart, Ted DiBiase, Sean Waltman, the Nasty Boys, Ultimate Warrior, and more. The eventual "turning" of Hulk Hogan and the creation of the NWO led to WCW winning the Monday Night ratings war with the WWF for over 80 consecutive weeks.

Riding high, WCW will soon collapse under its own weight. Soon, big, guaranteed contracts given to wrestlers take their toll on WCWs budget as guys like Nash, Hogan, Hall, and Hart would be injured for months at a time. WCW leaked money like a sieve, tossing about millions to bring in celebrities like Dennis Rodman, Jay Leno, and Karl Malone, and trying to make wrestlers out of people like Jerry Only of the Misfits.

Meanwhile egos clashed as the powerbrokers like Bischoff, Hogan, and Nash controlled everything and kept younger wrestlers down. Fights backstage and no advancement would eventually lead many younger stars like Chris jehrico, Chris Benoit, and Eddie Guerrero to jump ship to the WWF.

Small cracks became large fissures. WCW brings in Vince Russo to do the booking leading to some of the greatest embarrassments in the history of wrestling with Hogan lying down on the mat to lose and actor DAvid Arquette becoming WCW champion. Add to that, WCW could find no answer to the WWF's two hugely popular stars: Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock.

It would all lead to a company that was once worthy tens of millions being bought by Vince McMahon for a fraction of that and opening up the last Nitro show announcing the purchase of WCW.

Many of these details are quite well known but the interviews are great and its amazing the way even years later some of the parties involved still refuse to accept any blame for WCWs downfall. Excellent Read!

This is a tough review to write. On the one hand, I enjoyed this book immensely. It was a fun trip down memory lane reviewing all the twists and turns of the Monday Night Wars in terrific detail. In fact, this is probably the most detailed book you'll find out there about this period. The authors also have a wonderful sense of humor, and the book is a quick and fun read.

What immensely frustrated me, however, was that almost no effort was made to provide sources for the voluminous amounts of information presented. While there is a very short bibliography at the end of the book listing a handful of sources organized by chapter (which probably do not account for most of the information in the book), no indication is given as to which pieces of information came from which source. To me, this is a major issue because the wrestling industry is rife with unfounded internet rumors, and it's important for the reader to be able to distinguish documented facts from unfounded rumors or speculation.

For example, the authors make numerous allegations about WCW's financial status at different points throughout its history with no citations or any other indications as to where this information purportedly came from. In his book, "Controversy Creates Cash," Eric Bischoff lamented the fact that internet writers often made unfounded and inaccurate claims about WCW's profits and losses since the company's information was proprietary and was allegedly unavailable to anybody outside of WCW. Of course, Bischoff could be lying through his teeth, but there's no way to tell (at least from this book) because Alvarez and Reynolds give us no way to determine where their figures came from.

In addition, the book is replete with allegations of conversations and happenings that occurred backstage with, again, no citations provided to allow the reader to verify any of it. This became especially frustrating when the authors wrote about promoters' and wrestlers' INTERNAL motivations for certain actions. The authors write about these internal thought processes as if they were mind-readers. Hulk Hogan got the worst treatment, as he was frequently accused of internally plotting to put his own interests above those of WCW. A notable example occurs on page 139, detailing what allegedly led to the July 6, 1998 match between Hulk Hogan and Bill Goldberg:

"As the date drew near, Hogan, the wily veteran, came up with a plan. Aware that all the Turner bigwigs would be at the show, he offered to take Goldberg on in a non-title, non-televised match in which Goldberg would get the win and and send the folks home happy. All the company execs, seeing the huge house, would obviously assume that Hogan drew it, and his standing as WCW's top dog would be cemented."

How do the authors know this was Hogan's motivation and thought process? Did they interview him? Did they rely on his book or something else that he wrote? Not according to the bibliography. In the bibliography, the only sources listed for the chapter on 1998 were a Prodigy Chat with Eric Bischoff CONDUCTED IN 1997 and a personal interview R.J. Reynolds conducted with Bobby Heenan (which is also listed as a source for the chapter on 2000). Since the Heenan interview is never referred to in the text of the book, it's entirely unclear which pieces of information (if any) actually came from that interview. Even assuming that Heenan provided the authors with information about Hogan's "plan", at best that's hearsay about another individual's internal thought processes from somebody who may or may not have an axe to grind. The reader is left to wonder whether Hogan's "plan" is a documented fact, the result of hearsay from Heenan (or somebody else), or completely unfounded speculation by the authors.

That's just but one example of the unfounded allegations that arise throughout the whole book. In sum, while this book is an immensely enjoyable read, the facts presented in it, other than what we saw on our TV screens, simply are not reliable. And that is a shame.

It's hard to believe that a company could fold the way WCW did several years ago. At one time, WCW stood at the top of the wrestling mountain, and crushed the WWF/E in all ratings on television. It was obvious. WCW had became the number one promotion in the wrestling world. But gradually, something happened. WCW decided to go against the formula that brought them success. And when you do that, something bad is bound to happen.

When Eric Bischoff's idea to bring in Scott Hall and Kevin Nash from the WWF came about, no WCW management was for sure if it would save the ratings. It did just that. WCW became the mainstream wrestling product for most wrestling fans, as the N.W.O. changed wrestling forever. But, just as it was normal for WCW to do, they ran the N.W.O so long that it became stale. But rather than drop them, they continued the run, which eventually led to the likes of Scott Norton, Buff Bagwell, and even Virgil joining the group. Bad idea.

Also, the backstage situation was nothing short of a disaster. No one liked anyone. When you run a successful company, everyone wants to be the number one guy. Which is exactly why in the late 90's, the WCW World Title began to change hands on pretty much a weekly basis. Also, we can't forget one of the most memorable title reigns ever brought about by Vince Russo, and his idea was for........himself to become WCW Champion. Probably not good business there. Neither was the idea to have actor David Arquette win the WCW Title and beat two legitimate contenders, Jeff Jarrett and Diamond Dallas Page.

It becomes obvious in this book that there is more than one person to blame for the death of World Championship Wrestling. Vince Russo, Eric Bischoff, Dusty Rhodes, Lex Luger, Hulk Hogan, Goldberg, Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and even David Arquette had vital roles in situations that led to the company folding.

For any former WCW wrestling fan, this book is an absolute must-read. This is one of the greatest wrestling books I have ever read, and it shows just how bad things can get in a company in a downward spiral. Some of the things you read in the book will be so completely absurd, that you would think some of these things weren't possible. But, it's true. And that is why WCW is no longer in business.

R.D. Reynolds is one of the better writers of wrestling books, Mick Foley excluded, and he proves it here. He took the time to go incredibly in-depth on the Death of one of wrestlings greatest companies, World Championship Wrestling, and it shows. While Reynolds is (self-admittedly) not a fan of Vince Russo, Eric Bischoff, and Hulk Hogan, he keeps these prejudices to himself as much as possible and comes out with an excellent book for any wrestling fan who missed the humiliating end of WCW. A highly recommended read for any wrestling fan, even over Ric Flair's book (though not over Foley's).

I am a steady visitor to Reynold's Wrestlecrap.com website, and really enjoyed "Wrestlecrap" the novel. I was looking forward to reading "Death of WCW" to get a few laughs at the stupid booking ideas, and to remember some of the goofy things that used to happen on "Thunder". About halfway through the novel I realized....I wasn't laughing, in fact I was getting angry and depressed at the same time. I have quite a few fond memories of watching WCW, and just reading about all of the talent WCW had, all of the money made available to the promotion...it just kind of hit me how badly the entire promotion was run. Eric Bischoff and company had all of the means necessary to become THE Premier wrestling company in the US....and just blew it! As a fan who lived through the "Monday Night Wars" this was a great book, that brought back so many memories, and if you were a fan of WCW or WWF/E at that time you should definately read this book. It's amazing how inept WCW became...and what's really amazing is watching the current WWE making so many of the same mistakes that are outlined in this book??!!

I was VERY impressed with this read! I bought this book like Wrestlecrap: The Very Worst In Pro Wrestling to support Wrestlecrap.com (a very ammusing site). I must've wasted countless hours arguing with WWF fans about what went wrong with WCW and now here's a very accurate account of what really went wrong with my favorite promotion. WCW was indeed my favorite promotion. I became a fan back in 1988 (then the NWA) because of the cartoon characters and intelligence insulting crap the WWF was putting out at the time. Yes, WCW had just as many stupid gimmicks and ridiculous booking ideas but all in all they always WRESTLED! World Championship WRESTLING wrestled! Unfortunatly the 4-5 star wrestling matches we got from Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit, the Guerreros, Lance Storm, Mike Awesome, Raven, Vampiro, and the Luchadores were put in the low to midcards in favor of the Nash-Hogan finger poke of Doom, Rick Steiner losing a debate with a horror movie prop named Chuckie, Goldberg's monsterous winning streak as World Champ put to an end by Nash's egotistical booking and a drunken Scott Hall's tazer gun... Oh, and don't forget the Warrior's horrific WCW run.

Sure, it's hard to predict the future and hindsight is always 20/20 but c'mon! The people in charge of WCW (Turner, Bischoff) couldn't see that their numbers were dropping faster than spit off the Empire State Building?? Russo's fluke "crash TV" booking worked in the WWF for a stort time, (as expected from an armchair booking smark)however it proved disasterous for WCW. David Arquette as WCW Champion? Rehashing the pig's blood thing from 1976 horror flick "Carrie?" What was WCW thinking when they hired him? They did... and he made no improvments (just turned WCW into a cheap imitation of WWF/E's worst programming; 2 minute matches, too much backstage drama, a dash of sleeze) so they fired him or sent him home... WITH PAY! OK, maybe they learned... Nope, they brought him back, TWICE! THEN they make the dazzling deduction that they lost nearly $80 million in 2000! Nash not learning from his big ego and horrible booking killed the heat of many newcomers (Lance Storm, Sean O'Haire, Mike Awesome...) in 2000 that really could've helped turn the promotion around. They wouldn't have pulled off BIG miracles but they were definitly the start of the future WCW needed to turn itself around. He even booked himself over established workers like Booker T, Jeff Jarrett, and even Ric Flair. And people wonder why Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko, and Jericho went to greener pastures in the WWF? Hey, they're the "vanilla midgets" right Big Kev? The other "Kev" would be Sullivan...

Eric Bischoff DID try and turn WCW around by focusing more on what distiguished WCW from other promotions; the Cruiserweight division. Alot of the geezers were showcased less and less (even though I had to look at Luger longer than I wanted to)and he even tried desparatly to purchase WCW, but alas... By 2001, it was too little TOO LATE! AOL/Time Warner had seen enough and pulled all wrestling off of TBS and TNT forcing an already reluctant Fushient (Bischoff's investors) to back out and ultimatly lead to the sale of WCW for a mere fraction of what it was to a drooling Vince McMahon. Poor Bischoff... His dream of crushing Vince McMahon came to an abrupt end. But, it was expected from a guy who tried to turn around the dying AWA by having teams of grown men fight over a raw turkey in an empty gymnasium...

In the epilogue I relived McMahon dancing on WCW's gravesite by booking that horrible WCW Invasion in 2001. Great workers like Booker T and (my fave) Lance Storm had to lay down for WWF's jobbers to the stars. They weren't even booked as a threat to what could have been bigger than the nWo invasion of WCW back in '96. You did it Vince, you've beaten your competition! But you still had to get your revenge on a promotion that you now OWN squandering potential millions in the process. Now what do you have? A dwindling fanbase, a promotion that lost it's trademark name, and practically booked by your son in-law...

Who killed WCW? It was definitly the 4 guys pictured on the cover along with many supporting players (Kevin Sullivan and Brad Seigal come to mind). Eric Bischoff: had a dream that was alomst realized. But dirty tactics (giving away the WWF's results), an inflated ego, and bad decissions (the ridiculous spending of Ted's money) lead to him now working for the guy he tried to destroy. Hogan and Nash: two inmates that were allowed to run the assylum. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutly. Cost too many talented workers to be buried and lose credibility and fans to just lose interest altogether. Vince Russo: an overglorified wrestling smark who chose to make his WCW tenure a personal vendetta against his former promotion by doing angles that made sense to no one but himself and his peers. And the loss of over $80 million sure didn't help! I would've added Vince McMahon's face to the cover as well because he really could have done something special with WCW and made millions in interpromtional specials that fans of both WCW and WWE could've enjoyed for years to come. Instead he chose to stroke his own ego and spit on the grave and bury any of its talent that came over in the buy out...

Perhaps the book should have been titled "The Death of Wrestling in the Main Stream." Again, a great and accurate read. Definitly more so than that WWE produced Monday Night Wars DVD. RIP WCW, you are missed! Especially the man who brought it to new hieghts in the 90's who never wrestled for WWE; STING!

First of all, let me say - if you're a hardcore wrestling fan, you're not really going to get much new information from this book. Pretty much everything that's discussed here, you've read about on a message board somewhere. Frequently, not in the level of detail that RD Reynolds goes into, however, which is what makes this book good.

There are, however, some inconsistancies. One thing Reynolds completely fails to take into account was the popularity of the nWo Wolfpac, writing the part of the book dealing with that time period as if Goldberg was the only person in the company who could draw as a main eventer. He obviously didn't remember the audible "Goldberg sucks" chants from the Wolfpac loyalists at Starrcade '98.

My other major gripe with the book was that it failed to mention the excellent undercard WCW had put together just before it collapsed. Having recognized that one thing WCW could easily beat WWF on - Cruiserweights - they hired a good half dozen of cruiserweights, and frequently gave large portions of the undercard to these guys. They brought in some amazing talent like AJ Styles, Jason Jett (ECW's EZ Money), Air Paris, Kid Romeo, etc, the WCW braintrust seemingly knew what they were doing with these guys. But again, it wasn't in time to have any effect on the ratings. A mistake which WWE is duplicating yet again today...

As for the good things about the book, generally everything else. RD Reynolds maintains the humorous edge he keeps in his wrestlecrap website, while keeping the tone of the book generally serious and leaving it to the reader to laugh his head off about the various inane things WCW management did. He documents such things as how Goldberg's career was ruined, how WCW managed to build up a $100 million debt, the problems that Eric Bischoff's panicked attempts to win the weekly ratings war with WWF caused.

This book isn't just a narrative on Hogan and Nash ruining the careers of Goldberg and Bret Hart - there's a lot of stuff on smaller name wrestlers. Some of whom would go on to be huge stars in WWF later, such as Chris Jericho. Psicosis - one of world's most underrated wrestlers, and the guy who got me interested in wrestling in the first place - got a fair amount of print in the book, as it discussed his cruiserweight title "win", and the crisis surrounding a match between himself and Mysterio that took place in Mexico, after Mysterio was unmasked by then WCW booker Kevin Nash. And he's not the only one. No matter who you're a fan of, said wrestler probably got some print in the book - quite possibly more than they got from WCW itself.

If half star ratings were possible, I'd have given this 4 1/2, because the book does have flaws. But on the whole, this is an excellent read for any wrestling fan.

On the one hand, "The Death of WCW" is just the story of the rise and fall of a professional wrestling promotion. On the other hand, the book almost reads like a modern day moral fable where men who get consumed by the vices of greed, arrogance, egotism and delusions of grandeur end up getting their just deserts.

The book covers the entire history of WCW, from its early years as the perennial distant number two wrestling company in the country behind the WWF, through its rise under the surprising leadership of Eric Bischoff (surprising because Bischoff's only previous notoriety in the wrestling business came as a third-string announcer) to the position of not only the top wrestling promotion in the country, but into a company so incredibly successful that it actually appeared for awhile they might run the once-powerful WWF right out of business. Of course, the book then covers WCW's tailspin where they not only lose the position of top wrestling promotion in the country back to the resurging WWF, but end up going out of business altogether just a few short years after their greatest success.

I enjoyed "The Death of WCW" overall -it was easy, fast reading, often funny, an interesting trip down memory lane and I feel the authors were fair and accurate in their analysis of what factors led to the promotion's amazing success as well as what led to its shocking downward spiral. If I have any constructive criticism for the authors it would simply be to better decide on who your audience is prior to writing. The book doesn't really offer any new insights or uncover any previously unknown information regarding the demise of WCW, making it slightly disappointing for long-time wrestling fans like myself who are already familiar with the story from following it in real-time through newsletters and wrestling news web-sites. Yet alternatively the book would often drop names and insider wrestling terms without giving a whole lot of description as to who the people were (or their significance in the industry) or explanation as to what the terms mean, leading me to believe the book may be somewhat hard to follow for the more casual wrestling fan. Otherwise, a very good effort that is easy to recommend.

This book tells the story of not only the death of WCW, but the entire history of WCW. Most wrestling fans are probably familiar with the story, but it's still an interesting read. Plus, there were so many boneheaded mistakes made, that many fans probably forgot a lot them. Much of this book is funny, but it's also sad in a way. After all, a lot of people lost their jobs when WCW shut down. And the wrestling industry was much better off with two major promotions. Just look at how bad WWE is now, compared to how it was when WCW was around, and you can see how competition inspired them to put on a better product. This is an entertaining book that wrestling fans will enjoy.

I'd go 2 stars, but this book should probably be required reading for wrestling promoters. Plus, it's WCW and that was something I held near and dear. There's nothing in this book that you couldn't find on the internet. In fact, if you were a spoiler junkie in the 90's, you've probably already read this book. It's a nice, more or less, factual recap of the ratings and PPV buy rates of WCW. The authors then like to thrown in their 2 cents, but they're like every other internet wrestling geek. They all hate Hogan, Nash, and Bischoff. They all think Flair, Benoit, and Jericho are god. And they all think they could start booking tomorrow and run a major promotion. There's nothing truly personal in this book - no stories from wrestlers, crew, or suits that truly relate any sort of real connection to the story of WCW's demise. Kudos for actually getting all this info in one place and making a book out of it, but oddly, better personal stories can be found from DVD's produced by WWE of all places.