The Death of WCW (Book)

[oogieboogie]

I know that there have been tons and tons of threads about WCW. I wanted to know how many people have actually read this book? Also what your thoughts were after reading this? Did anything surprise you? Did anything shock you?

I have outlined certain things in red, which i found interesting with comments below.

Hogan v DDP main event for Nitro.
As this had a loow rating, Hogan blamed DDP.

Nash didn’t want Bret Hart in main event cos he believed that he wasn’t a draw and his contract was unjustified.

Bischoff just wanted to win weekly. He followed WWE with taped backstage promos. But he didn’t follow them in creating new stars, which obviously helped WWE win the war.
Never understood why he didn't push younger stars. Though when he believed he was purchasing WCW, his plan was to push.

I didn’t understand why the Hog Wild PPV’s had tickets given away for free. Shocked at how the Great American Bash 1999 wasn’t promoted at all in the weeks leading up to it. As on the actual PPV, the commentators ran down the card so viewers would know what was on the card. They did this cos they were worried by running down the card on TV would lead to viwers switching to WWE.

Hogan burying WCW on some morning show. Saying he was tired of hearing ‘Malenko and the rest of the midgets’ complaining about their roles. Also he downplayed Goldberg’s popularity saying anyone could win 20,000 matches in a row, saying he had done it when he first made it huge in the WWF.
This proved to me how self centred Hogan is. So he is slating guys who put on the best matches on TV and PPV, while he try to make himself the centre of attention and put on totally crap matches? I think he was stuck in a time zone, where he is the king and ruler and should always be the centre of attention. Yep he made wrestling popular. But there comes a time when even the top dog should step aside. What also annoyed me was that when he took time off from WCW to go film a film, he would come back at a time when ratings would go up and take responsibility for it.

One of Master P’s henchmen, Swoll a huge guy with no talent was signed for $400,000 a year???

So Jericho’s fiancée went to the store and purchases a Jericho/Malenko WCW figure set. On the receipt it stated that it was a Hogan/Sting set, so Hogan and Sting got the residual revenue. How the hell does that work???

So Hogan for whatever reason was ripping most of the WCW roster saying nobody under the age of 40 could draw???
Could that be cos the old horses didn’t give them a chance to draw? Yet at the next PPV, which was Superbrawl, which featured main event matches with Hogan/Luger and Flair/Funk only draw a 0.15 buy rate??? How did Hogan explain this? Or did he just not bring it up? Or did he blame the rest of the card not being any good? Yep I know the actual main event was Sid/Hall/Jarrett. Also the 2000 Uncensored PPV with Hogan/Flair, drew 0.13 yet the previous year drew a 1.1 buy rate? I cannot believe Hogan never took responsibility, or did he? Yep I know that the older guys can draw as it was proven with Flair at a later Nitro and Hogan when he returned to WWE.

The funniest thing in this book for me was placing a $50,000 ad in the international version of USA Today plugging Nitro that evening on TNT, yet the ad appeared in a paper which came out on a Thursday. LMAO!

Personally I believe if Bischoff didn’t have Turners cheque book, so much money wouldn’t have been wasted on so many stupid things. He kept wasting money as he didn’t seem to have any limits. So he would waste money on bringing in all their celebrities and on segments, which when they didn’t work he would spend more on the same crap elsewhere.

One thing I never understood was how in WCW, the older guys who wanted to stay on top would talk about the midcarders not being draws. But anyone with half a brain knows you have to be pushed in order to be a draw. A prime example is Austin, who in WCW wasn’t a draw and I believe was told never would be. In WWE he was given an opportunity and ran with it and look what happened?

 

[President Evil]

I have this book, but its been a few years since I read it. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in knowing some of the crazy things that went on in WCW.

WCW went sky high with the wcw vs nwo thing, and crashed down so hard. It was sort of a slow and painful death. During its final year, it was hard to watch. Good things dont last forever, specially in wrestling, but Bischoff didnt pay any mind to this. Take for example Vince Mcmahon, even when he had Austin and Rock, he knew in the back of his mind they wouldnt last forever, they would either get injured, or just leave, and thats exactly what happened. So before they were gone, WHILE they were still hot Vince was already building up and planning for new talent.

Bischoff must be credited for WCW's rise, he also must be mentioned for its fall. How long did he think he could ride this wcw vs nwo thing 10 years? It lasted approximately 3 years. Also to blame are the politicians Hogan and Nash, who just cared about filling up their bank accounts and 'fuck creating new stars'. But they failed to understand, that if they do dont do anything to keep the company alive, the wont have a company at all to fill those bank accounts.

 

[bigsexy72]

i have this book and i often go back and read it which coincidentally was this week. I look back at the the Monday night wars as a beautiful time to have been a wrestling fan. But when i read the book it also reminds me just how lame things became in the latter stages (I.E 1998-2000) it was like watching a train wreck. I agree with the statements made about the old guard holding their spots from the new guard. Hell i believe if there was proper cooperation, it could have been turned into a believable angle but it was not to betoo much money was out there and misusage resulted into poor product and apparently it looks we are seeing it with another brand coincidentally with alot of the main culprits.(In my Ron Simmons voice)......"DAMN!!!

 

[therockisback!!!]

I had a read of this great book this week still getting through it abut up to the invasions

I think that the wrestling is heading back towards this with possible the ultimate downfall of the wwe with ROH maybe eventually taking over after TNA is gone.
The way i see it i think that WWE will fall into the who WCW of this new era and then TNA being ECW and ROH Building towards the total overhaul of the WWE Jaggernaught over the next 10-15 years. Because over the last year before The Rock came back WWE was just shit. We all knew that Super Cena or Hogan 2.0 was getting old and i feel they might be trying to recreate the whole modern era NWO. And the way i see it all great empires have to fall. Does anyone see this happening.

 

[ahoyhoy]

I had a read of this great book this week still getting through it abut up to the invasions

I think that the wrestling is heading back towards this with possible the ultimate downfall of the wwe with ROH maybe eventually taking over after TNA is gone.
The way i see it i think that WWE will fall into the who WCW of this new era and then TNA being ECW and ROH Building towards the total overhaul of the WWE Jaggernaught over the next 10-15 years. Because over the last year before The Rock came back WWE was just shit. We all knew that Super Cena or Hogan 2.0 was getting old and i feel they might be trying to recreate the whole modern era NWO. And the way i see it all great empires have to fall. Does anyone see this happening.

this is ridiculously absurd. wwe is bigger than ever, insomuch as vince is looking to make his own cable channel. a billion dollar company that has learnt the lessons of every other wrestling company in the past 100 years is not going to go out of business. not only that but you point at their product as being 'just shit': well gosh, i watched turn of the century wcw and i know that while wwe hasn't been exactly classic over the past three or four years - it still has been a draw and more importantly has been trying to sow the seeds for the future (look at punk! also trying to figure out talent post-territories).

The book itself is great. It tries to be objective and let the actions of those involved speak for themselves. And considering the villains, they don't need to say Bischoff or Russo or Hogan was bad at business or booking when the facts prove it. The parts I loved most though were the details of Russo era promos, giving screen time to Sid and Poppa Pump. One that springs to mind and always makes me laugh is Bischoff making a deal on television to Sid that "it's ok, there aren't any scissors here" or whatever as if anyone knew that Sid stabbed Arn Anderson with scissors, cared, understood why there was 5 minutes of talking about scissors or if they did know, why they would validate the history of someone prone to stabbing wrestlers.

 

[Foshinzo]

I've read the book a couple of times, now, and I love it. I think it's a fascinating study into the business and that booking really does make a great wrestling show.

Nothing about it really surprised me, other than the hard numbers. Everyone on the Internet pretty much knew these stories, who had looked into them, but it's definitely a great series of evidence that Hogan is horrible for business. The man's name alone used to draw tens of thousands to his shows, but this is why he's lost it. As for some of the other culprits, I kind of hate that Nash has to take so much blame for his mistakes. I mean, if he really did book Goldberg to finally lose, then he should take a ton of the blame for at least speeding up the process in the death of WCW. But, Nash was one of those performers that I've always wanted to like. He wasn't that great in the ring and his promo work wasn't amazing, and he is statistically the lowest drawing WWF Champion in history, if I'm not mistaken, but he seemed like he would be a legitimately cool dude, in real life, and I've always felt like maybe that's how he got by for as long as he did. I suppose that's a dumb reason to like a guy who deserves all the crap he gets, mostly, but I do feel that way.

Nothing really surprised me about The Death of WCW. Back in the 90s, I didn't watch WCW regularly because I was always wondering why they pushed people who were boring, why they buried the guys who weren't like Jericho, and why old guys were still in the spotlight. This book gave me answers to those questions: because the company was run by a bunch of guys who had one genius idea (the nWo), one great idea (the cruiserweight division), a slew of really bad ideas (burying Flair, for example), and $62 million worth of terrible ideas.

 

[dansaun77]

Read the book many years ago when I first bought it and have read it many times since. WCW was a shambles, there attitude was a joke. Busienss was a joke their. If Hulk Hogan never went to WCW, it would have fgollowed the same path but alot earlier. If the nWo gimmmick did not get over like it did, ditto regarding WCW. People wnat to hammer on Hogan but the fact is if he did not go there in 1994, WCW would not have been competition,. SDure his attitude was no better than Nash and Flair and Bischoff, but when a company is more interested in the competition instead of their own productm, they are doomed for failure

 

[therockisback!!!]

if u fully read what i said it reads in 10-15 years not now you never know it only takes 1 huge wrong move or mistake to see something astronomical happen i dont wanna see it but it might happen one day and i do like what punk is doing its great. But Punk will not last forever niether will the McMahon family. Every Great Empire has to fall im loving the current state of it and i have been a fan of the great game for the last 30 years and you just never know with the industry anything can happen

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I have never read the book, but I have considered buying it on several occasions. Reading what some of the contributers to this thread have said, it seems to be worth the money so I think I will order it from Amazon.

WCW was run so badly, I wouldn't have believed it was true had I not known the facts. The company did well to last as long as it did, things like the headliners keeping down the lower-ranked stars in order to protect their spot ruined WCW, and you could see it happening, but guys like Hogan, Nash etc just didn't care. They were only ever out for themselves.

The money Bischoff wasted was unreal, huge contracts on wrestlers who were barely used, music stars being payed thousands to perform when noone wanted to see them, Dennis Rodman, Karl Malone and Jay Leno as wrestlers. The list goes on.

Ridiculous

 

[GrandSword]

I haven't read the book either but I'm going to buy it very soon.

The company from a business point of view from what I know is contained in the book (Lanny Poffo being on the books for years although no one knowing and never wrestled for the company once) goes to show the mis management going on.

Also for the "inmates" to run the asylum is just bad for bunsiness. Nash and Hogan knew this but took full advantage of the company and bled it dry.

If they were smart they would have had Goldberg beat Hogan on ppv, and centre the company around him. Hogan should have been put in a role that the Undertaker does now for WWE (big time specatacle side act) to keep him out of main events and title picture and let guys like Big Poppa Pump go head to head with Berg.

Then from there build up the new gen around these guys with the help of Sting.

Just before WCW went out of business they were inkinga deal with RVD who was the most over guy in the industry. It would have been great for them. (He was so over Vince was forced to include him in Austin/Angle feud in 2001.)

WCW blew too much money on avsoltely nothing and paid the price. What a shame, if run correctly it could be alive today.

 

[oogieboogie]

The company from a business point of view from what I know is contained in the book (Lanny Poffo being on the books for years although no one knowing and never wrestled for the company once) goes to show the mis management going on.

Also for the "inmates" to run the asylum is just bad for bunsiness. Nash and Hogan knew this but took full advantage of the company and bled it dry.

Yeah the first point about Lanny was shocking. They paid a crazy amount to guy who no one knew was under a contract and who did nothing. Yet i am sure other guys who worked day in and day out and had great matches didn't make as much, is that fair?

Well from the book i understood that regardless of the bad decisions made by Hogan and Nash, no one intervened to stop them. Since no one did, they continued to get away with stuff.

I did point this out a while ago, but i was shocked at how at certain PPV's the older stars who were draws weren't even on the cards. This is something i have never seen happen in WWE. Where if a major star/draw isn't injured he has always been in a main event.

 

[Slyfox696]

This book was a completely biased account of WCW, from guys who weren't even privy to the actual decision making process. On it's own, this book is shit, and no where is it more apparent than the fact they constantly praise Flair's infallible wrestling greatness, while basically crapping on everything to do with Hogan. I remember reading this book a long time ago, and it's little more than biased writing from people who really don't know what they're talking about.

However, if you read this book along with Bischoff's "Controversy Creates Cash", and you have the ability to smell through the bullshit which is thick in both books, I think you can get a much better idea of what WCW was truly like. And I just finished Russo's book on the subject, and it was a FAR better written book than either this book or Bischoff's, though, not as much about WCW as those two books.

In the end, what I'm saying is that anyone who reads this book as a Gospel deserves to be led astray from the truth, because this book will do that. Read Bischoff's, and then figure the truth is somewhere in the middle of the two books. Then read Russo's, and I think you'll wind up with a fairly good idea of what WCW was like.

 

[Steve001]

This book was a completely biased account of WCW, from guys who weren't even privy to the actual decision making process. On it's own, this book is shit, and no where is it more apparent than the fact they constantly praise Flair's infallible wrestling greatness, while basically crapping on everything to do with Hogan. I remember reading this book a long time ago, and it's little more than biased writing from people who really don't know what they're talking about.

However, if you read this book along with Bischoff's "Controversy Creates Cash", and you have the ability to smell through the bullshit which is thick in both books, I think you can get a much better idea of what WCW was truly like. And I just finished Russo's book on the subject, and it was a FAR better written book than either this book or Bischoff's, though, not as much about WCW as those two books.

In the end, what I'm saying is that anyone who reads this book as a Gospel deserves to be led astray from the truth, because this book will do that. Read Bischoff's, and then figure the truth is somewhere in the middle of the two books. Then read Russo's, and I think you'll wind up with a fairly good idea of what WCW was like.

From what I've read so far, this appears to resemble my opinions on the subject the closest.

When the book was initially released it piqued my interest as an avid follower of WCW during the glory days...Then I saw the list of names attached to the project and I avoided it.

Fast forward to about a year ago and I was casually flipping through an old Power Slam magazine from 2007 and in it was a small pic of Hall & Nash at a convention, supposedly quoting from the book during a fan Q&A session. Anyway, it inspired me to check it out.

From the moment I started reading, It was immediately clear that there was just as much fiction as there was fact.
I certainly suggest steering clear of this book for anyone who wasn't watching at the time and has relied upon biased WWE dvd's to educate them thus far.

Slyfox had a great suggestion, read books such as Bischoff and Russo's releases and try and find some middle ground between them. Hell, anything's better than forming opinions based off those previously mentioned biased WWE releases!

Not only has the WCW product on display within WWE dvd's been butchered and edited to sh*t by the insecure Kevin Dunn and his production team, But also the closed-minded version of events covered by the many useless "talking heads" that appear are not only redundant in many cases but also completely incorrect.

A prime example of WWE's now infamous re-writing of history is shown for all to see whilst they bash Vinnie Ru in the 'Rise and Fall of WCW' dvd feature.
Firstly, not only are they bashing the man who is almost solely responsible for the WWE being where it is today let alone in existence, However they're also bashing a man who has long publicly given credit to the people who enabled and aided his success from '96-'99 in the WWF.

Back on track, in the dvd, Russo is credited with the ridiculous cash burning fiasco of the KISS concert during an August '99 Monday Nitro. Though his WCW run admittedly featured more misses than hits, Russo was still penning Raw and Smackdown! at the time of the ratings sapping KISS calamity.

Back to the Death of WCW book, overall, various parts were interesting and did contain some useful information. But the mostly hysterical exaggerations and fairy stories strip the book of any real acclaim.

 

[oogieboogie]

This book was a completely biased account of WCW, from guys who weren't even privy to the actual decision making process.

Yeah i did kinda question the guys who wrote this, who are they and how did they know things? The only way to somehow know truly what happened would be for those who were there to be honest and come out with the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But there is more chance of me winning the lottery every week for a year and i don't even play the lottery. lol