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The Death of WCW: 10th Anniversary Edition of the Bestselling Classic ― Revised and Expanded Paperback – October 1, 2014
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In 1997, World Championship Wrestling was on top. It was the number-one pro wrestling company in the world, and the highest-rated show on cable television. Each week, fans tuned in to Monday Nitro, flocked to sold-out arenas, and carried home truckloads of WCW merchandise. It seemed the company could do no wrong.
But by 2001, however, everything had bottomed out. The company ― having lost a whopping 95% of its audience ― was sold for next to nothing to Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment. WCW was laid to rest.
What went wrong? This expanded and updated version of the bestselling Death of WCW takes readers through a detailed dissection of WCW’s downfall, including even more commentary from the men who were there and serves as an object lesson ― and dire warning ― as WWE and TNA hurtle toward the 15th anniversary of WCW’s demise.
- Print length456 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherECW Press
- Publication dateOctober 1, 2014
- Dimensions6 x 1.25 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101770411755
- ISBN-13978-1770411753
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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
Here Lies World Championship Wrestling 1988-2003
World Championship Wrestling was not supposed to die.
Anyone with even a basic understanding of its inner workings knew this to be true. As the company began to hit its peak around 1997, all signs indicated that WCW was destined to thrive and prosper. The promotion had so many unfair advantages, it seemed that not only would it continue to expand its profits, but it would also eventually turn every other wrestling promotion in the country into dust.
And why wouldn’t it?
More importantly, how couldn’t it?
The promotion had the single greatest array of talent the wrestling world had ever known. The two men who defined professional wrestling in the 1980s, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, both made their home in WCW. The most popular wrestlers of the 1990s, including Sting and Bret Hart, competed in WCW rings, as did Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, who revolutionized the business as the Outsiders, and shortly thereafter formed the nucleus of the infamous New World Order. The company had the most talented in-ring workers: men like Chris Benoit, Eddy Guerrero, and Dean Malenko, as well as the greatest high-flyers from around the world ― Rey Mysterio Jr., Juventud Guerrera, and countless others. And, perhaps above all, WCW also employed the man who would lead the industry into the next millennium, the man fans flocked to arenas to see: Bill Goldberg. Such a roster of talent had never been seen in a single pro-wrestling promotion before.
When their flagship show WCW Monday Nitro was created, many older fans returned to watch the stars they’d grown up on, creating the largest wrestling audience the cable industry had ever seen. WCW was in a place no company had been since Vince McMahon took the World Wrestling Federation national in the mid-1980s: that is, poised to kill the WWF once and for all. Many wrestlers were eager to jump ship to WCW, some looking to increase their paydays, others out of fear that the WWF wasn’t long for this world. Essentially, they were looking to survive.
WCW was looking beyond that. Nitro had surpassed not only Raw in the ratings, but every other program on cable television. They weren’t just the number-one wrestling show; they were the number-one cable show, period. Every week, Nitro presented three hours of live action, featuring cutting-edge story lines, amazing matches, and production values the likes of which the wrestling world had never seen before. In addition to the sky-rocketing ratings, WCW was one of the biggest and most profitable touring groups in the country, as fans swarmed to arenas for live Nitros and for the monthly megashows. Fans who couldn’t attend the matches live ordered in record numbers via the miracle of pay-per-view, spending upwards of $30 a month just to watch the special events. And let’s not forget the insane amounts of merchandise sold, from T-shirts to posters to magazines to bandanas to wrestling teddy bears to key chains to beanie babies to sipper cups to every stupid tchotchke piece of crap imaginable ― all with the WCW logo slapped right on it.
Everything was making the company money, to the tune of more than a $55 million profit in a single year.
So let’s restate once more, for the record, that WCW was not supposed to die.
In fact, not only was WCW never supposed to vanish from the face of the Earth, but the mere thought that the company could ever perish was laughable.
How could this company go the way of the dodo? WCW zealots would tell you ― inaccurately, but that’s beside the point ― that it had been around for over 100 years. One hundred years! Not only had it been around longer than any other wrestling company, they’d insist, but also longer than almost any other viable form of entertainment. It had been around longer than movies or television. It had been around longer than the National Football League. By God, WCW wasn’t just a wrestling company, it was an American institution!
As impressive as it was that the company could trace its roots back “nearly to the days of Abraham Lincoln,” more impressive was the fact that it was owned by the biggest media mogul in the entire universe, Ted Turner ― the real reason why the company could not, would not, die. There was simply too damn much money behind it. Turner had purchased the company in the late 1980s almost as a toy, a hobby, and, if truth be told, he wasn’t greatly concerned if the thing ever made a dime. Anything it lost was just pocket change, and anything it made likely was as well. But since wrestling had been a cornerstone of the Turner networks since the launch of the Superstation, he pledged to keep it around, no matter what.
So he had their shows airing on his networks, TBS and TNT, and in prime viewing hours: Monday nights, Wednesday nights, Saturday nights, and Sunday nights. Think about that: in any given week, more often than not, WCW was being featured on the Turner networks during prime time. If another timeslot was needed for a new show, or perhaps a bimonthly special, Uncle Ted was just a phone call away. Backed with the power of the Turner networks, promotion of the pay-per-view events was nothing short of grandiose.
How on Earth could anyone imagine that World Championship Wrestling might die?
Product details
- Publisher : ECW Press; Tenth Anniversary edition (October 1, 2014)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 456 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1770411755
- ISBN-13 : 978-1770411753
- Item Weight : 1.67 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.25 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #190,722 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #49 in Wrestler Biographies
- #86 in Wrestling (Books)
- #1,780 in Actor & Entertainer Biographies
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A real eye opener was Jim Herds comments. Herd, who famously fired Ric Flair in the summer of 1991 following failed contract negotiations, basically admits that firing Flair was a huge mistake and that he was the best performer in the entire company by far. It's amazing what hindsight does to people.
Moving on, the book has new asides. These are titled Lesson Not Learned in which mistakes by WCW are stunningly repeated by the WWE and in some cases TNA in the coming years, long after the company dies. The staggering details of Hulk Hogan 's first WCW contract are also revealed.
Lance Storm also talks about his first night in the WWE which is a good read.
It's too bad Vince Russo was not interviewed for this book. I would have loved to hear his side of things as he's portrayed as a clueless baffoon throughout the first and second versions of the book. Jim Cornette, a sworn enemy of Russo, rips him for his lack of understanding of psychology in wrestling. Psychology in wrestling is extremely important so it's easy to see why Russo struggled so much in WCW as nothing he came up with made any sense.
A key thing that was eliminated in this version was Bischoffs role in creating the confusing Team Challenge Series in the AWA. It was long accepted as fact but Bischoff said he had nothing to do with in his book and there's nothing else to back up the claim so out it went.
At the end of the book is a long list, though I swear it's only a partial list of the general idiocy in TNA, with many mistakes eerily similar of the mistakes WCW made.
Anyway it's definitely worth the money even though it's largely the same book.
Much like the original Death of WCW , this book remains a gripping account of all the drama that took place behind the scenes and how it affected what everyone saw in the ring. If you're thinking this was simply a re-release with some new pictures, however, think again. Though much of the original story prevails, additional comments were spliced into the text from those involved (some identified, some anonymous) who decided to sound off now that most of what happened is out in the open. The book now includes a "Lessons Not Learned" addendum to show how today's two nationally-televised wrestling promotions (WWE and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling) have either failed to learn (or in some cases, did learn) from the mistakes which led to WCW's demise. A great new forward is included from Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer, along with a new epilogue to illustrate how TNA (which is currently fighting for it's own survival) managed to replicate WCW's record of futility by hiring the same hands which led to the demise of WCW.
So does the book have some bias? Sure, but there's also enough documented elsewhere to show that the tales weren't too exaggerated or unfair (even the acknowledgements thank Vince Russo, a target in the book to be sure, for being a good sport about what was written.) The book also suffered from run-on sentences and errors that should've been weeded out prior to printing. Yet with the new content comes new reasons to read. Much like the first one, I was finished with this book in 2 days because it was too captivating to put down (even though I read the bulk of the content the first time around.)
I recommend this book to wrestling fans. I also recommend it to business students as well to show how not to run a company. Will some of the pro-WCW/TNA marks be upset that the tone was critical of their favorite organizations? Heck, will some of the pro-WWE marks be upset because the tone was critical of their organization, too? Maybe, but the proof's in the pudding: WCW is dead, TNA is dying, and the WWE's ratings are a fraction of what they used to be. I just hope there's still a national wrestling promotion when it's time to discuss the 20th Anniversary of this book.
While the authors most likely don't have business degree backgrounds (and why they probably didn't elaborate more on business theory) the book can be a good teaching tool for any company executive. With a small understanding of the inner workings of pro-wrestling, the book allows the reader to see how mismanagement of talent/employees, lack of cash reserve, short term v long term objectives, and failure to understand a customer base can ruin one's business at a rapid pace.
Ultimately you see that a company who adopts a #1 or None mindset will eventually achieve the later part of that goal. To see how management could take a guaranteed successful property for several decades to come, provided the show minimal fiscal responsibility, and disregard that responsibility at ever opportunity, serves to remind how fast a fun thing like WCW can turn to tragedy.
For a wrestling fan, this book is the ultimate recap of found memories and what could have been. So many sport books and documentaries focus on athletes that never lived up to potential. WCW is the ultimate example of this. No former #1 draft pick, All American, Collegiate Player of the Year who busted in pros can match how WCW went from being the most dominate name in the industry to the industry's biggest joke.