Eric Bischoff: Controversy Creates Cash

This was an interesting look at WCW in the 90's through the eyes of someone who was there for the vast majority of the good times and the bad. Eric Bischoff gets a lot of heat for the failures of WCW, and this was a refreshingly different perspective on most of the big events of the time. Like all wrestling autobiographies, everyone will agree or disagree on things. Overall Bischoff seems like a decent guy, and I especially enjoyed reading about the early parts of his career under Verne Gagne and how he began learning the business.That said, this book doesn't cover all I'd hoped for. It touches on the big events: - bringing in Hulk Hogan, the nWo, the cruiserweights etc. There's still a lot left unsaid I'd have loved to get his opinion on: What was the reasoning for not resigning Jericho? Bloating the nWo with midcarders? Bringing in Ultimate Warrior? Ending Goldberg's streak? These are just a few of the things I was curious to hear his opinion on, even if he wasn't physically in those meetings. I know you can't go over a few years worth of content in a few chapters, but didn't get as much out of this as I hoped.Still, I left this book with a new sense of respect for Bischoff and the amount of work he put into WCW. If you're a fan of pro wrestling during this period, this is an enjoyable read.

Very interesting

I can tell a lot of people will be disappointed by this book. Many wrestling books, especially those written by performers, tend to be mud-slinging trash-fests (a fact mentioned in this book). Bischoff, however, never goes into full-on negative attack mode. The end result is that the book comes off as much more real than other one-sided tales you might read.If you approach the story objectively, you'll come away with a greater knowledge of not just how a wrestling business operates, but how a major corporation can shoot itself in the foot. On the other hand, if you come ready with the typical "fanboy grudge" eye, you aren't going to like what you get here.This covers Bischoff's childhood as well as his early work in the AWA, which resulted in him getting a job at a struggling WCW. It then goes on to chronicle the rise and eventual fall of WCW amidst the Time-Warner takeover of Ted Turner's company. There's a very few tidbits about more current events, as well as some thoughts and opinions on the current state of wrestling, but the main course is WCW.As stated before, Bischoff never really pulls a hatchet job on anyone. He has some harsh criticism of certain individuals, but nearly all of the criticism is tempered by at least a passing mention of those individual's better talents or attributes. He almost always cushions the blow. The only people that don't get an out are a few executives in WCW/Time-Warner (none of whom even hardcore fans will be familiar with) and what Bischoff calls internet "dirtsheet" writers. Internet writers crop up several times during the book, and never in a positive light. They are the only group that he definitely has no love for, but most wrestling higher-ups feel the same way, so no big surprise there.Just as he doesn't bury anyone, he also doesn't whitewash his involvement with WCW. While he doesn't come right out and outline many specific decisions that should have been made differently, he does admit to not handling personnel properly and getting too full himself, among other mistakes. He does not, however, point the finger at one person or one incident as the catalyst for the end of WCW. His ability to point to both failures and successes grants his version of events much more plausability than other books about the subject (which were often written by outsiders working on assumptions).On the technical side of things, there are a few flaws. I noticed at least three typographical errors, but they aren't nearly as bad (or as frequent) as other reviews make them out to be. Also, one photograph is mislabelled, but it deals with a very minor part of the story, so it is easily overlooked. My main technical beef with this book was its use of headings. Chapter headings, sub-chapter headings and sub-sub-chapter headings...it was as if this book was written to be read three or four paragraphs at a time. I don't know if the sub-sub-chapter headings were added to pad the length of the book, but they interrupt the flow of the narrative much too often. It would have been better off without them.In the end, this is a fine addition to the growing collection of wrestling literature. If you are one of the people that has no problem seperating the human beings in wrestling from the characters they play in the ring, you will enjoy the unique point of view from the man everyone loved to hate, Eric Bischoff.

Great book by one of the best in wrestling .loved it very much .felt like I knew Eric Bischoff better after

I thought this book was interesting. A lot that has been said about WCW's demise and Eric Bischoff seems untrue. Eric pulled no punches in this book as he gave his candid reflections and thoughts. While growing up I hate Eric Bischoff the character, but as the person behind the scenes running the company, I think he did a lot of good and outside the box thinking. After reading this book, you come to despise the Internet Wrestling Community and the dirtsheets a bit. Because all the negativity takes away from the product Eric tried presenting. Also, when you look at Bischoof working his way from AWA and to running WCW, a lot of it was luck, and being at the right place at the right time. As a non-wrestling guy, he just happen to have wrestling roles dropped on his lap due to AWA's gradual demise. After reading his book, he really deserves a lot of credit for what he's done and how he immersed himself in the wrestling world. But one thing I got for sure in this book: corporations and politics suck. If Time Warner and the corporation wasn't a pure profit heartless machine, we would probably still enjoy a 2nd wrestling brand. Truth be told, I really do believe Eric did his best to save WCW. But hence why he wrote this book. I finished reading this book in 2 days because a lot of what he said was intriguing,

Eric Bischoff's autobiography, Controversy Creates Cash, differs from nearly all other pro wrestling autobiographies in the fact that it focuses more on the business end that you don't see on camera. Bischoff's story is an interesting one and this results in a book that is an easy read despite it being 400 pages. Bischoff's journey through wrestling and even before is intriguing and the stories behind WCW's spectacular rise and its stunning free fall makes this a must read for all wrestling fans, especially if you watched during its heyday of the late 1990's. You won't always agree with Eric's opinions but you will respect them. Since this book was released by World Wrestling Entertainment, there is a little McMahon kissing up but refreshingly Eric will also tell you in his charming smarta** way about how he enjoyed beating Vince at his own game. On the down side, he does skim over a few topics in this book. I would have liked to hear more of his side on Ric Flair since the latter pulls no punches on his loathing of Eric in his own autobiography. However, this is still a must read for wrestling fans since it does show a side of the business that you don't hear enough about.

I was looking forward to this but wow yeah, perhaps the worse wrestling book I've read all year. It wasn't particularly egregious just, not what I was hoping for. It was nice tot get some elaboration on Eric's relationship with the TNT execs but everything else I've already seen covered in interviews a hundred times over. Also his constant crapping on "dirthsheet" writers is just pathetic, If I was looking for that type of biased nonsense I would have just tuned into Bruce Pritchard's podcast. If you can pick it up cheap then yeah Id get it, just don't get your hopes up. Also never really a fan of when people don't write their own book, not sure that's fair to hold against it though., and to be fair again the writer does seem to do a good job of capturing Eric's cadence and style of speech. So in conclusion, pretty meh.

...not surprised by many of the stories which are well known but how I enjoyed reading this book and warmed to Bischoff!Whilst not going into over detailed descriptions of events there is enough information to make this an interesting read.Whatever anybody says about his methods the man has earnt a lot of money from the industry and he's right in what he says, behind VM he has been the most influencial person in wrestling in the last 30 years. Just watch any WWE event now and his method of formulating storylines are still being used today.Well worth a read but approach it with an open mind, you won't get huge amounts of unknown information but it's an entertaining summary of the WCW/WWE wars.

Very good book, insight into the world of wrestling you don't here or see... last chapter the spine of the book fell apart, didn't matter.

Was on time and husband loves it.

This was a great account by a legend on the industry. In addition, it gave a good perspective on the problems that arise from large corporate mergers