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Cucch's Book Review: "Controversy Creates Cash."







Lance Storm's favorite book in the world...


Eric Bischoff is no stranger to the word controversial. His booking in WCW generally fueled huge controversy, both good and bad. On the first Nitro, Lex Luger showed up a night after wrestling for the WWF. He created Monday Nitro, thus firing the first shot of the Monday Night Wars. He created the NWO. He gave away canned Raw results on his live Nitro show. Yes sir, Easy E is no stranger to controversy. However, that desire to stir the pot, to go against the grain, may have been Bischoff's Achilles Heel.  Whereas Vince McMahon turned his WWF into smut TV, consistently pushing the envelope and challenging the moral mediators with just how far the WWF could take it, and turned WWF into a huge financial juggernaut and public commodity, Bischoff often used controversy in silly and insipid ways, which helped lead to the demise of WCW and the WWE monopoly you see today.

I will be honest, when I first picked up "Controversy Creates Cash" I was not expecting much. For one, its a WWE release. So how much would Bischoff be able to disclose about WCW in a WWE published book? Secondly, how do I delicately put this...Bischoff has been known to be a full of shit windbag at times, the ultimate spin doctor who takes credit for everything good WCW ever did and defers to others all the bad things. While Bischoff certainly did lead the way to WCW becoming wrestling's top promotion for two years, he was just as instrumental in its downfall.

It is these two contradictory Eric Bischoff's that basically inhabit this book. First off, I want to state that this is an absolute must read for any serious fan. It is truly a case study into the mind of the "Ken Doll" and also serves as almost counter programming contrary to WWE's portrayal of WCW. Which is to say that there is some truth in the book, and a whole lotta bullshit. But that is what makes it such a fun read.

Bischoff briefly describes his childhood. This, that and something happened, yadda yadda yadda. Most fans reading these things don't particularly care for that aspect of a book, although I will say Bischoff did have an interesting childhood. Not remarkable or anything, but nonetheless interesting.

Bischoff, while living in Minnesota as a teenager, was an amateur wrestler in high school. He admits he wasn't very good, but his high school team was looking to raise money to compete in a national tournament. This is where Easy E's journey really begins. He knew, as a young fan of the AWA, that Verne Gagne LOVED amateur wrestling. So on a whim, Bischoff decided to call the AWA and ask them for time on their program to help his high school wrestling team. The AWA obliged, and young Eric Bischoff was allowed a short segment with AWA honcho Wally Karbo and announcer Marty O'Neill. The seeds had been sown.

Now, while young Eric liked wrestling, he knew he was no good at it. So he transferred his passion to the world of martial arts. He mentions that it helped mature him and feel productive at doing something. But I sense someone is going to start mentioning front leg back kicks and some of the other infamous calls Bischoff made as the play by play man for WCW, so I will leave it at that.

After high school, Bischoff was basically directionless. He settled in as a salesman for a meat company, and did a fairly good job at hit,according to he himself. But Eric Bischoff, for all his deficiencies, was an ambitious young man. He did some modeling to supplement his income as a meat salesman, and then one night he met Sonny Onoo. The two shot the shit over a few drinks, and Sonny said something to Eric that resonated. Sonny, who was born in Japan but was transplanted to the States, mentioned a game he and his friends played across the pond called Ninja, a different version of tag. Sonny and Eric formulated an idea to produce and market a game called "Ninja Star Wars." Basically, two kids would wear velcro vests and fire velcro ninja stars at eachother. Insert South Park joke here. They produced a bunch of these games and waited for the cash to flow in. It didn't. Most toy stores only do business with big toy manufacturers, so Sonny and Eric were basically fucked. As much as they tried, they just could not net a profit.

Bischoff had an idea. He figured he could market Ninja Star Wars to the masses through the AWA. He made a call to AWA HQ's....and no one remembered him. It took some doing, but finally Verne Gagne relented and let him advertise his gizmo on TV with the caveat he get a share. Ninja Star Wars sold jack shit, but Verne liked what he saw in young Eric Bischoff, and hired him as an employee of the AWA, according to Bischoff, in 1987.

Basically Bisch was in charge of promotion and sometimes booking arenas. Take that with several grains of salt. One day Larry Nelson, the main AWA announcer, didn't show up for a TV taping, so Gagne pointed to Bischoff and said "You are our man." I guess this whole scene contradicts the long held ideals that Bisch mowed Verne's lawn and was simply a coffee boy...but its his book.

Eric then goes on to deny that the "Team Challenge Series" was his brainchild. Completely denies it like Aaron Hernandez denies he executed Odin Lloyd. NEXT.

The AWA died with Bisch as a lead announcer. Eric decided to try out for a position with WWF. That went nowhere. But he had a friend who was able to get him into WCW. You may have heard of him: Diamond Dallas Page.

I have reviewed Page's book before, and Bischoff's book corroborates the story that the two were ready to kick the shit out of eachother in their first meeting. Cooler heads prevailed, and soon, Page and Bischoff were announcing WCW B and C shows. Neither man was figured to attain any level of success, so nothing was thought of either man.

Now, we all know how unprofitable WCW was in the early 1990's. That fact has been made crystal clear throughout the years (especially by WWE). When Bill Watts was fired as WCW booker, most assumed it would be Tony Schiavone or Jim Ross taking over. Nope. Bischoff wowed Turner Executives with his pitch and got the job. Neither Ross nor Schiavone were happy about that.

Bischoff then states his business plans. This, fans, is the meat and potatoes of the book. This is the only wrestling book that travels inside the head of a "booker" who was wildly successful and was able to topple Vince McMahon. Now, while much of it is excellent and a must read....Bischoff is just as prone to spewing bullshit and hyperbole as any wrestling promoter would do. Revisionist history.

Hogan is signed, thanks in large part to Ric Flair. He pushes the needle slightly, but not the way Bischoff anticipated. Sure, the Bash at the Beach 94 buyrate was great, but soon Hogan started making Eric's life hell. We all know Hulk had creative control over, well, basically EVERYTHING in WCW. Most fans kind of knew this, but Bischoff puts it out there and lets us know we were right. Eric states that Hogan was the cause for WCW's greatest peaks, and cause for his most sleepless nights. And Bischoff is very close to Hogan, so these chapters are absolutely essential reads for any wrestling fan.

Now, here is where the book goes off course. Bischoff has hired Hall and Nash, aligned them with Hogan for the NWO storyline (for the record, if Hogan didn't accept the heel turn, it was going to be Sting with the NWO) and the thing just exploded. Naturally, Bischoff takes all the credit, and WCW was off and running for 82 weeks.

And it is right here where the book gets good again. Hogan, with creative control, gave Bischoff fits. As much as Bischoff liked and admired the contributions hogan had made to the business, he despised the way he went ABOUT BUSINESS. Bischoff realized that once Mike Tyson came aboard the WWF train that he was in trouble. So he says. WrestleMania 14 is not recognized as the turning point in the Monday Night Wars, but it might as well be. Bischoff has no regrets about letting X-Pac go, and, to boot, he saw where the WWF was going with their program, especially the DX "Invasion" of  Monday Nitro.

Bischoff wanted to respond. Bring the NWO to RAW, on the hard camera. Front row.

Unfortunately for Easy E, the Turner hierarchy was in a state of flux. With the merger with Time Warner (and eventually AOL) Bischoff's vision was being put in the dumper. Where Ted Turner had always had something of a hard-on for wrestling, the corporate suits forcing Billionaire Ted out had no such allusions. They wanted TNT and TBS to feature highbrow entertainment (insert your own jokes here) and wrestling was not on the docket. Really, the best parts of the book involve Bischoff's dealings with men like Bob Dhue, Bill Shaw and Harvey Schiller. Schiller was Bischoff's greatest ally...until he read the writing on the wall at Turner and decided to accept a position with the New York Yankees.

By this point, Eric Bischoff was just burned out. He states that the higher ups wanted him to tone down the product, make it more PG, and he says THAT is what stifled him and drove him away from the company. Bullshit. Who winded up taking over for him? Vince Russo. What was his specialty? Shock TV. So Bischoff in one sentence states that his creative hands were tied, yet in the next he says Russo was peddling smut.

That is basically the story of this book, Bischoff saying WCW's demise was all Russo's fault. Truth is, Eric himself began that downfall. He was the one, and he admits to it, that had guys like Karl Malone (good choice), Dennis Rodman (debatable) and Jay Leno (Ultra bad choice) wrestle for WCW. He was the one who talked Kiss and the No Limit Soldiers into enlistment with WCW. His business partner is Hollywood one hit wonder Jason Hervey.

Bischoff also mentions his years in WWE, but that is par for the course in a WWE book. He does not make any sort of huge waves, but does make some points. I will leave it up to you, the reader, to figure them out.

All in all, Controversy Creates Cash is a fun book to read. On one end, it is excellent because it its authored, voiced, by Vince McMahon's main competition. Secondly, you get a good idea of what Bischoff was thinking, be it the SARSA model he used to model his company or the pratfalls of working for such a machinelike business infrastructure that turned their nose up at such a silly thing like pro wrestling.

Mostly, there are a lot of lies and half truths in the book, and those alone make this book a must read. Is it a great wrestling book? No. Is it must read? You bet your ass it is.   

Comments

  1. I like that you assume Eric is lying and all the rumors from rspw in the mid 90s are true.

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  2. "By this point, Eric Bischoff was just burned out. He states that the
    higher ups wanted him to tone down the product, make it more PG, and he
    says THAT is what stifled him and drove him away from the company.
    Bullshit. Who winded up taking over for him? Vince Russo. What was his
    specialty? Shock TV. So Bischoff in one sentence states that his
    creative hands were tied, yet in the next he says Russo was peddling
    smut."


    Many people have said how Turner's standards and practices department interefered in WCW's affairs. Larry Zybysko quoted one of them as saying "you can shoot the ass, but you cannot touch the ass". Yes, they turned to Russo when they got desperate. Bischoff points out that they hated wrestling, but they loved the money it made them. Which is why they asked him to add an hour of Nitro and Thunder. Bischoff states this a key reason why he thinks WCW went under in this book.



    To be honest, while as the head of the company he is not blameless, I think you've given to much credence to IWC rumours about Bischoff. Like, how do you know his story about joining the AWA isn't true?

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  3. We live in a post WCW IWC. WWE controls the narrative and most WCW fans stopped caring in 2001, so naturally the IWC reflects that.

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  4. Bischoff is not the only person with blood on his hands. In fact, he probably has the least. Harvey Schiller fucked him, Bob Dhue fucked him, Bill Shaw fucked him. These reviews are just a general idea of what the books are about to hopefully get fans to read them, Nothing more, nothing less.

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  5. And Jamie Kellner is the man that fucked wrestling in the ass, may I state that.

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  6. Bischoff has the least blood on his hands? That's just not true.

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  7. I don't actually assume everything is lies. But, trust me, as an informed fan, you can call Easy E out on a lot of stuff. Quick example: he never mentions the Arquette title reign.

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  8. I don't. I was never privy to the inside machinations of any of these promotions. For that matter, were you? I think I do a good job flowing between what Bischoff states and what the so called IWC states as gospel truth. But we all know there are certain things that are always being called up as bull or a fabrication of lies. THOSE are the things I might mention...but it is always loaded, words are powerful. I am not some all knowing all feeling being. I am simply a person who has watched wrestling for 25 years and knows a good deal about the sport.

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  9. Always wondered why Turner didn't get back in the game. AOL sank him more than he let on? Stink of Benoit? (and all the other deaths)

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  10. He doesn't even mention WCW in his autobiography. He lost a lot of money on the Time Warner stuff, and is focused on environmental issues.

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  11. Hogan also has a lot of blood on his hands. In his defense WCW never gets as big as it did without Hogan.

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  12. Interesting. I always kind of took him as not quite a fair-weather fan, but that his interest in wrestling was just the show that put his channels on the map. If fishing or nascar or some other Southern-style endeavor caught on and made numbers on Saturday nights, he would have cared less.

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  13. As much as Bischoff tries to play Mr. Blameless here, it was an interesting read. I hate his theories of booking, but it was cool to read about someone trying to shape a wrestling company from the top. For all the shit Jamie Kellner takes, the fact of the matter is if WCW had been turning a healthy profit he wouldn't have been able to justify axing it.

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  14. The less said about the Arquette title reign the better.

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  15. The title of this book pretty much sums up to me that the promoters didn't understand what made them money.
    Controversy created short term interest, it was the compelling nature of the Austin/Mcmahon feud and the NWO invasion that kept peoples interest. NWO ultimately failed because it never progressed beyond the heels getting the upper hand, so the story became stagnant, not because WCW wouldn't let Eric "push the envelope".

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  16. Eric's definitely not lying about having nothing to do with creating the Team Challenge Series. Greg Gagne admitted several years ago that the Team Challenge Series was his idea.
    Although why anyone would want to admit to coming up with that clusterfuck is beyond explanation, that's like admitting that you greenlighted "Vampires Suck".

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  17. Most of the time, people in wrestling don't understand what the word "controversy" even means. Jim Ross once said the word during a DX/Spirit Squad segment for crying out loud!

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  18. You should at least be comforted by the fact that his reign as Turner Broadcasting president was an abysmal failure. The guy didn't even last 2 full years in that job. At least WCW managed to last a little over 12 years when they logically should not have even lasted past the Ric Flair debacle in 1991.

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  19. Eric cannot be held responsible for WCW's death.

    On the other hand, whoever nominated Russo to be head booker is.

    People forget how incredibly awful it was to watch in the last two years. If they were doing a half-decent job the ratings would have been okay and there would be no justification to axe the show.

    Eric isn't as brilliant as this book may portray him to be, but shit, he was the guy who went toe-to-toe with Vince and brought professional wrestling to its highest plateau ever.

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  20. Any rumor Dougie disagrees with must be a lie.

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  21. "I don't. I was never privy to the inside machinations of any of these promotions. For that matter, were you?" Of course not, and that's the point, you're disputing the word of someone who did witness these events with rumours and stories spread by people who weren't.

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  22. He brought pokemon to the US, I think that worked out fairly successfully.

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  23. You may state that. But you would be wrong.

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  24. Knowing a few things about the world of business, a lot of things that he says sound more plausible than what smarks are taught to believe.

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  25. I remember only casually flipping through the book, and found it very much in the "why I was right and things only went bad by stuff beyond my control", but then, I think most biographies are like that unless they involve the guy getting into drugs.

    The title always bugged me- WCW wasn't even really that controversial after a point- giving away WWF results on the air, sure- but things settled down pretty quickly. I mean, there was plenty of controversy in WCW, but it was usually behind the scenes, and just stuff the online fans were pissed off about. The WWF was way more controversial (though theoretically that could be Bischoff's point- EVERYONE was talking about wrestling for a while there).

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  26. I still remember Eric S's column about Kellner way, way back in the day (and how he predicted Kellner would ax WCW immediately right before it happened, giving him eternal respect from other IWC writers), announcing that he was the guy who got Animaniacs killed and pushed Histeria (a piece of crap), among other things.

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  27. You realize that half of the stuff from that period are just made up right? Konnan is not from New Jersey.

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  28. Was he even there at the time?

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  29. This book is worth it just to hear about Bischoff's time in North Korea. I don't know how politically conservative he is but I doubt he was using much hyperbole in describing what an absolute nightmare it was over there.

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  30. Scott mentioned that in one of his reviews and it seemed like he was joking

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  31. I miss Sonny Onoo.

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  32. Histeria was NOT that bad. Compared to most "edutainment" programs is was a freaking masterpiece.

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  33. He's the one that decided to cancel all wrestling on Turner programs, that resulted in the Fuscient media deal with Bischoff falling through, that led to WWE purchasing WCW. Kellner pulled the trigger on cancelling WCW.

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  34. I was going to say the same thing. Greg admitted it on the AWA doc DVD.

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  35. He was in the match where Arquette won the title.

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  36. Oh? I honestly don't remember any of the angle other than Kurt Russel.

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  37. This book really shows why WCW went down - and it isn't even in it.

    And what?

    Well, Bischoff talks about Flair, Hogan, nWo, Hogan, Hall, Hogan, Nash, Hogan, Sting, Hogan and a little bit about Goldberg, and more Hogan.

    What he didn't mention are the Ravens, the Steiners, the Jerichos etc.. He always was focused on the "Big Old Boys". Even with Bret Hart he hadn't any clue what to do with him. Everything was about Hogan, the nWo and some Stars like Leno or Rodman.

    If he had focuses during his WCW time a little more about the new guys and how to push them, maybe we wouldn't had gotten from Hogan vs Savage to Jarrett vs Booker T nearly overnight.

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  38. Eric Bischoff is a multi-millionaire, and the only man to ever beat VKM at his own game.

    If spoiling results is good enough for him, then it's sure as hell good enough for me.

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  39. Arquette pinned Bischoff to win the title. It was DDP/Arquette v. Bischoff/Jarrett

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  40. I think Eric was being honest in describing how shitty it was to deal with the Turner brass, judging from other non-wrestling sources.

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  41. Bischoff didn't know how to make new stars. He did have the ability to get the most out of older guys star power however.

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  42. Did he really beat VKM? I think it's more like he had an 8-2 lead during the early part of the game but wound up losing 15-8.

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  43. Bischoff should of stayed focused on making WCW as great as possible, instead his objective was to put Vince out of business. Ironically Vince did this to Eric and did so with a bunch of guys who passed through WCW at one time or another. Bischoff was and still is completely star struck around Hulk Hogan. Those nWo interviews with Bischoff creepily smiling holding the mic for Hogan were the worst.

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  44. I think it's more than just Russo having a horrible run as head writer that led to WCW's death.


    I'm not trying to defend Russo, but by the time he got there, WCW had more 'name' talent as opposed to great draws. Guys like Sting, Goldberg, DDP and even Flair were either clearly past their prime or were damaged goods from earlier in 1999. Sure, The Radicalz were still there but I don't think Chris Benoit would have really moved the needle and even though Eddie wound up becoming a big name in WWE, it took the E over three years to figure out how to put him in a spot to succeed.


    I think the biggest issue was just that the WWF was a runaway train. The middle/later parts of 1999 weren't great for the WWF but they still had Austin and then Rock on top. By 2000 you had HHH's emergence as an awesome heel and The Radicalz jumped to sure-up the midcard.


    WCW started to blow it in '97 with how awful Nitro was in the fall, Starrcade obviously, having no idea how to use Bret Hart, not winding down Hogan/nWo, ruining Goldberg, having DDP use 'scum' in every promo to seem edgy. It didn't seem like it at the time but all those little errors wound up doing major damage long term.

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  45. just checked out that page - "Among the shows that emerged during Kellner's seven years at Fox were The Simpsons, Married... with Children, Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Placeand In Living Color. Kellner took credit for all these shows, stating that he had dreamed all of these shows up, including the movies 'The Matrix', 'Pretty in Pink' and the highly successful song 'waterfalls' by TLC."

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  46. They also tried to market John Cena as the most controversial WWE Champion in history at one point.

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  47. He was also the guy who cancelled "Unhappily Ever After" so he should have been fired just for that alone.
    Not to mention he greenlighted those awful 24 hour marathons where TNT and TBS played the same fucking movie on a 24 hour loop.
    Makes perfect sense: Almost everyone on Planet Earth hates and complains about constant repeats, so let's throw even more repeats at them! No wonder he failed so miserably.

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  48. Got to love how WCW managed to get a legitimate A-list actor to do a brief promo on Nitro and they didn't even bother to advertise it ahead of time because *gasp* it might have gotten them some extra viewers.
    Compare WCW's hype (or lack thereof) of Kurt Russell's appearence to the WWF's hype of Arnold Schwarzenegger"s appearance on Smackdown (which they advertised ahead of time and got a very good rating out of it. Who would have thought it?) And some people wonder why Vince was able to beat WCW so easily.

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  49. Yeah, I think "beating" him might be too strong of a word to use as it didn't pan out in the long-term, but at the same time I don't think you want to minimize the accomplishment.

    They weren't at the WWF's level in any sense really aside from television ratings until that 1996/1997 -- they were taping three months of television at once to save money despite the havoc it wreaked on their continuity and the credibility of wrestling, ran almost no house shows (or ran them at a loss), gave tickets away or ran two-for-one specials regularly, had never drawn more than 10,000 paid fans to a show or higher than an $190,000 gate at their peak and did terrible PPV buy-rates. By 1998 they'd broken every record in the history of the company at their previous peak in all of those areas (not to mention some of the WWF's records) and were doing unprecedentedly huge first day ticket sales, record PPV business, live arena business and merchandise numbers.

    Surely the WWF built off that and took their own company to a new level, but they didn't have nearly as far to rise -- WCW was always a structurally unsound organization and it's really sort of a miracle that it worked as well as it did for the period it did.

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  50. He was the guy who cancelled UEA? OK maybe he is as bad as most say.
    Oh man I didn't realize UEA lasted for 100 episodes.

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  51. Caliber_Winfield_The_3rdJuly 28, 2013 at 10:55 AM

    One of the more underrated duos of all time is Ernest "The Cat" Miller and Sonny Ono. They were hysterical.

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  52. Caliber_Winfield_The_3rdJuly 28, 2013 at 11:02 AM

    I always remember that night Arnold appeared on Smackdown, because the only thing that's clear in my mind is when he got the honorary WWE title, he held it upside down. I fucking HATED when people did that.

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  53. Caliber_Winfield_The_3rdJuly 28, 2013 at 11:04 AM

    Yeah, same with Ric Flair's story. No way would I have ventured over there.

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  54. I've been rereading this book for the past couple of weeks. Here are my observations: 1.) He mentions "dirtsheets" and how much he hates them about 20 times. 2.) He gives zero credit to Japan and how he pretty much stole the idea for the NWO from them. 3.) Dx is "a third or fourth string" NWO wannabes. LOL 4.) When he talks about how great wrestlers who could have a great match with anybody, he gives Ric Flair and HHH as examples. HHH? Really? That alone would tell you it was published by WWE.


    It really is a good read but you do feel like taking a shower afterwards b/c of all the bullshit he spews.

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  55. Didn't he also criticize Hunter later on in the book? And to be fair HHH has had plenty of great matches but to say he can have them with "anyone" is going too far. Same with Flair IMO.

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  56. I can't remember the criticism but HHH has had a ton of great matches. I just wouldn't put him in the same class as Flair. I think he should have said Flair, HBK, and Bret Hart.

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  57. I think the criticism had to deal with how Hunter portrayed himself as a heel in the early 2000's. Then again Bischoff subscribes to the "cowardly heel" school of thought, not so much as a heel has to look weak but that he has to cheat to win matches.

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  58. Did he really, though?


    Because it seems to me that all he did with the older guys was eventually throw them all into the nWo, and when that had run its course...well, we know how it ended up.

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  59. Oh I agree with all of this. I definitely wouldn't minimize Bischoff's accomplishments. Under his watch WCW reached levels that almost no one ever thought were possible. That's incredible.

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  60. And yet no cable channel anywhere will bother to air it. That in itself shows how bad the quality of TV programming has declined in the last decade.
    Got to make room for all day marathons of the same shitty shows that already aired 35 times the previous week and the 269,000th airing of "Star Wars". Can't have good nostalgic programming like "Unhappily Ever After", "Weird Science" and "Dream On" getting in the way of that.

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  61. Even Bret Hart was reduced to mimicking DDP's promo style because he couldn't do the same kind of strong promos he did in the WWF because of WCW being so ridiculously toned down that they would censor words that were not even curse words (like "screw" and "suck" for example). And yet somehow, they would frequently forget to censor Scott Steiner, go figure.

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  62. Yeah, I've never heard of him claiming responsibility for all of that. It seems like a hack-job designed to make him look like an idiot. Not that they'd need the effort.

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  63. Is any of Eric S.' stuff archived anywhere? His columns were pretty decent at the time.

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  64. Basically Vince took over WWF in the late 70's, since then Bischoff over took him for under two years about twenty years later, now twenty years after that Vince

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  65. Scream09_HartKillerJuly 28, 2013 at 3:49 PM

    I like Bishoff, I don't think he's entirely stupid, but he used someone else's money to lure big name stars to WCW and those stars came up with a lot of what made WCW successful. The best thing Bishoff did was bring in the Jericho's, Benoit's, but he didn't know how to elevate those guys. Or he wasn't willing to. He's like a GM who can spend money on established players and put together a successful team but can't scout and develop his own team.

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  66. For someone who throws the "mark" insult around he pretty much did what marks would probably do if chucked into the same position.

    Brought in his favourite wrestler

    Had one good idea he kept rehashing

    Paid to hire all the big names from all around the world.

    Put himself on TV with his favourite wrestler.

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  67. You must have really hated Owen Hart because he did it a lot, although he did it so frequently that I'm convinced that he was doing it on purpose, presumably playing an odd rib.

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  68. Scream09_HartKillerJuly 28, 2013 at 7:44 PM

    His TV character in WCW pretty much summed him up - he's the boss and is more powerful than anyone in the company, but instead of portray himself as such he's wearing denim jackets and holding the mic for Hulk Hogan, just happy to be one of the guys. Compare that with how Vince portrayed the Mr.McMahon character.

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  69. That's always been the thing that's bugged me about people who point to Kellner as the sole reason of WCW's demise. They seem to forget that axing a product that's so far in the red and doesn't look to have a chance at becoming profitable is a no brainer, Kellner or not.

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  70. There's some stuff at InsidePulse still, I believe. His stuff was great, but then he all of a sudden disappeared off the grid.

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  71. This is a nice description of ignoring the new guys and only let the old ones in the main event, ;-)

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  72. Once they got the James Brown ripoff music for him, he had finally found his niche. Heck him calling himself the greatest and claiming all the rednecks need to sit down and shut up before he wups all of them, only to get his ass handed to him was hysterical.

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  73. Having DDP use scum while annoying wasn't something I'd put on the same level as those other ones. By that same token WWE should've been out of business long ago due to Cena's numerous juvenile promos.

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  74. But..but..that was in the FAQ?!?

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  75. ninja star wars.... sounds like the stupidest idea ive ever heard of, i loved star wars, i would never have touched that game xD martketing at its worst "if we mix 2 things together kids love it always works" unless they have brains haha, jedi basically ARE ninjas, they just dont look like a typical one lol

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  76. he never brought in jericho and benoit, they had already established themselves in the industry and various people suggested bringing them in, eric just loves taking credit and bullhitting people, but its what he does, you cant trust a word he says because he knows made up bull is more exciting to hear than reality.

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  77. you are kidding, right? he did exactly that and portrayed himself AS the boss, as being in charge, that noone could do anything to touch him or his friends, where you blind during the 90s or are you just too young to have watched it all? because he did exactly what vince did but without a corporate look lol, eric had the NWO and vince had the corporation xD seriously, open your eyes man.

    Eric yes, held the mic for most wrestlers
    Vince yes, held the mic for most his wrestlers


    they basically played the commentator interviewer until they both got more involved and basically build up there own stables xD you know nothing of wrestling my friend, i lived WCW and WWF daily, and you couldnt be more wrong

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  78. he didnt get rich from good business strategy, he basically stole most of what he has and never worked for it, he didnt beat vince as his own game, thats why he went out of business and his legend status comes from basically having higher ratings for a few weeks... a few weeks... ill let that set in

    back in the day i remember WCW getting bigger and being more worth watching, then it was all pretty much over a year later, went to see WCW live, was the worst show id ever seen, was great seeing terry funk but, it really didnt do much to save them. you can work from someones worth all you want, it doesnt mean what they did in business was good, WCW would still exist if eric knew what he was doing, he threw around ted turners money until it was gone, filtered it through as many businesses as possible to build himself his own little savings kitty for when the party was over, even used bagwell as a fake business to do so, hes pretty much scum, dont know how anyone could respect a thief only out for themselves.

    also, his spoiling results didnt work, it backfired and thats where the downfall of WCW started, they told the world cactus jack was gona win the title, i dont know anyone that didnt WANT to see that, i did, my friends did, it was an amazing match and the turning point in people going "oh, well, WCW isnt really ahead anymore, it was level for a while and now its swinging back in WWF's favor" and the rest is history. Eric will lie and make shit up as much as he can, thats the worst thing.

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  79. LOL erics autobiography is bullshit xD you can believe a word that comes out the guys mouth, people have already proven alot of it to be made up crap, so how anyone would believe anything in that book is hilarious.

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  80. it is, but it cost him and ted turner, i wouldnt say blowing everything you had on a month or two run better than your competition a legit reason to call it an accomplishment, if i said to you "heres £2million please throw an awesome party to be most famous parties" you could probably do it, for a day or two, then it would all be gone, if success is "beat your opponent just ONCE in 1000 matches" then, yeah i guess its success.... lol

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  81. dont believe anything eric says or writes, hes a true bullshitter

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  82. yes, yes he can, be burnt through there money and filtered it around to save for himself and his friends, he is lying scum and you dont need to do much research to see that, Russo made WWF what it was at its peak, same with WCW until near the end, just because someone burns out of ideas, doesnt mean its there fault, WCW failed because they where cut off the air during a PPV event, they had to refund millions, after already giving wrestlers contracts that just could not hold up in the long run eric bankrupt ted turned on the wrestling front, he didnt want to waste anymore money on it all, it wasnt russo's fault eric made terrible descisions

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  83. DDP was awesome, until they brought in david arquette because of that film he was making "ready to rumble" then it just... meh, crap.

    WWE arent out of business because they ended up making all the money that was coming in from people wanting wrestling, millions of them, now they are so rich they can take risks, like having cena main match every event for about 10 years and have the same matches over and over again all because the kids love his colourful look... thats all it is, i cant take the guy seriously his rapping is better than his acting... and thats seriously saying something.

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  84. bret lost his brother and he wasnt the same again, i saw him come out live and talk to the audience not long after he joined and all he did was rant on about own for half an hour, he was a changed man and WWF had ran his idea of wrestling into the ground, WWF basically ruined bret towards the end and he wasnt what he once was anymore

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  85. lol his book, its mostly made up crap to make himself sound cooler and to glamourise his life, he is a thief, plain and simple, filtering money in WCW to save for himself instead of saving the company.

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  86. hes a compulsive liar though so, why would you believe a word of it?

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  87. It took you two years to write that horseshit?

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