I was just wondering if anyone else has read this yet. I read it today and enjoyed it. I don't think Bischoff owned up to *quite* as much as he should have, but he did provide some interesting insight into WCW's corporate structure and how it affected what could and couldn't be done on WCW programming. And he did admit mistakes in many instances, and for the most part stayed away from personal attacks. The whole "dirtsheets" thing got old after a while, but admittedly, some of the criticisms (not all) were valid. Anyway, no one is ever going to write a book on pro wrestling where everyone is going to agree with every point made, but I think Bischoff's book is actually a great source for provoking some discussion about the history of WCW. Dave Meltzer thinks so too, apparently, since he's about to do a multi-part feature (and I really need to subscribe right away so I don't miss anything).

 

In the pantheon of wrestling books, I'd probably only put Dynamite Kid and Foley's first two books ahead of this. I'm still not sure which I think is the better book between this and The Death Of WCW. That's a book that gets criticized for being too negative, but it honestly does give Bischoff a world of credit for what he accomplished as well.

 

Anyway, let's talk about this stuff. Years later, it's still more interesting than anything going on right now in the world of wrestling.

I'll stick to DM's analysis of the book and his multi-part series on the subjects the book covers.

 

We should start an NMB version of the "WCW facts..." thread.

Believe it or not, and I thought this was interesting, Bischoff even addressed all the criticisms of the WCW Hotline and admitted fault for Gene Okerlund hyping Jerry Blackwell's death as a selling point, and said that Gene was motivated to make up any stories he could just to get people to call in because he received a portion of the profits. He said they made great money off of that hotline for a long time, though.

He also mentioned how Ric Flair, Jim Ross, Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Chris Jericho, Sean Waltman and even Paul Heyman have used him to get their characters over, which he takes as a compliment.

So it looks like I'm going to miss Part 1. Anyone care to share some of the highlights?

The main parts that stand out are Dave saying that while he has been offered the chance to write the autobiographies of many bigger stars, no WWE guys obviously, that he had to turn down, he almost wishes he could have done this book because it could be so much better. That's a common remark in almost every review of the book I've seen, that it could have been so much better.

 

Also, Dave mentions the deal about Mark Madden contacting Hank Aaron over Bill Watt's Torch interview, and that if Mark didn't do it then Phil Mushnick was going to within days anyway.

 

There's a bit more, and I can write some of it up later.