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19th out of 72 books
—
10 voters
My rating:
add to my books
The Death of WCW
This detailed tell-all of the demise of the former top pro wrestling company World Championship Wrestling explores the colorful personalities and flawed business decisions behind how WCW went from being the highest-rated show on cable television in 1997 to a laughable series that lost 95 percent of its paying audience by 2001. Behind-the-scenes exclusive interviews, rare p...more
Paperback, 240 pages
Published
November 1st 2004
by Ecw Press
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A biography of the entire World Championship Wrestling federation, from its split with NWA (not the rap group) to its pitiful demise.
Yes, I'm giving it five stars, but I'm doing so as a wrestling fan. If you're not a fan then I bet you're not interested in this book (then how did you find this page?).
As a wrestling fan, this book is consistently in-depth about all the aspects of the business without getting boring or sidetracked. Neilsen ratings and pay-per-view buyrate...more
Yes, I'm giving it five stars, but I'm doing so as a wrestling fan. If you're not a fan then I bet you're not interested in this book (then how did you find this page?).
As a wrestling fan, this book is consistently in-depth about all the aspects of the business without getting boring or sidetracked. Neilsen ratings and pay-per-view buyrate...more
Quick read. It seems they interviewed some people but there aren't a lot of quotes. It mostly details WCW programming '94-'00 and explains why it was successful or why it sucked, and man did it suck. This is good to read if you're interested in in storytelling at all. It chronicles how egos and incompetence can get in the way.
there's a lot of numbers, it seems like we get ratings and buy rates for every events (and money made at the gates too!) but it's easy to get the gist and skim...more
there's a lot of numbers, it seems like we get ratings and buy rates for every events (and money made at the gates too!) but it's easy to get the gist and skim...more
I nearly broke my neck from shaking my head at all the incompetence. Wrestling is a very individual-centred craft, but that's what makes it the ultimate team endeavour. But by thinking only of themselves, and not the greater good, Hogan, Hall , Nash, Bischoff and even Vince McMahon killed what could have been a strong brand for decades to come.
Before reading this, I wondered how it died. Now I'm shocked World Championship Wrestling lasted as long as it did. Every other page you're like "...more
Before reading this, I wondered how it died. Now I'm shocked World Championship Wrestling lasted as long as it did. Every other page you're like "...more
This is the first book I finished on my iPad, using the Kindle app, while my wife was away in Las Vegas for a weekend.
In an age where corporate incompetence only seems to allow higher-ups to fail upwards into more money that furthers their greed, it's nice to see a story where morons who make poor decisions actually suffer the consequences of them. The story of WCW's rise to the top of the wrestling world and the subsequent fall that followed and led to its sale to rival Vince McMaho...more
In an age where corporate incompetence only seems to allow higher-ups to fail upwards into more money that furthers their greed, it's nice to see a story where morons who make poor decisions actually suffer the consequences of them. The story of WCW's rise to the top of the wrestling world and the subsequent fall that followed and led to its sale to rival Vince McMaho...more
This book was a surprisingly good read. Since I had watched most if not all of the 'Monday Night War' as it happened it was interesting to get a 'behind the scenes' look at what was really going on as two companies waged a ratings war. However, even though it lets the reader in on what was going on behind the curtain, there were several things omitted from it as to what occurred in front of the camera. As I read it I found several things that were missing that lead to some of the incidents menti...more
I have never been a fan of professional wrestling, although I had a few friends and roommates that were into it in the late 80s/early 90s, so I have some passing familiarity with at least some of the players. Even so, I found this book to be a pretty fascinating look at how a business that was at the top of the heap and making millions of dollars a year could be turned into a sinkhole in almost no time at all. Taking a profitable company and making it lose $62 million in a year takes a special k...more
The Good: The book provide statistic about ratings and PPV buys that I did not know about. It's good to note that even at its worst time, WCW was doing very good rating numbers, so everyone's idea that the booking and bad ratings were the reason behind its demise is proven wrong.
The bad: The book is very opinionated, which wouldn't be as bad if said opinion was coming from somewhat with any successful entertainment or business background. These are the opinions of a fan; nothing more,
...more
The bad: The book is very opinionated, which wouldn't be as bad if said opinion was coming from somewhat with any successful entertainment or business background. These are the opinions of a fan; nothing more,
...more
I've been meaning to read this book for years. I started following U.S. pro wrestling closely around the same time WCW went under, so there were a lot of events in the book that I'd heard of but never really understood. Not that there's much to understand about the dumb decisions WCW management made over the years. Jesus...
Overall this was a fun and informative read. I'm a patron of Bryan Alvarez's newsletter and audio shows, and it's possible to actually hear him saying a lot of...more
Overall this was a fun and informative read. I'm a patron of Bryan Alvarez's newsletter and audio shows, and it's possible to actually hear him saying a lot of...more
Another addicting, read it in a day, tome. I loved WCW, and was bummed by it's demise. I was always fascinated by the saga of it's meteoric rise, and equally spectacular fall, all in the space of about 5 years. This book thoroughly explains, and documents every step of WCW's story from the pre-inception NWA days, to the final Nitro telecast in 2001. Quite informative for the wrestling aficionado.
Ok this book is for the die hard only. if you even knew what the hell the wcw was and you didnt google it and was mighty curious on what happened. Read this book. Beware the writer thinks is is a very funny fellow... he isent.
Sign Guy
added it
This one is great. It gave a tremendous history of the mismanagement that was WCW. I'm not just saying that because Bryan Alvarez put me over in the inscription when he signed it for me.
view 1 comment
Great story with a lot of inside information. Not the greatest editing and writing ability, but still a fantastic read.
Chad
added it
Couldn't put this down. I could read this a thousand times and not get tired of it.
Amy tribes
added it
every wrestling fan MUST read this book.
The best wrestling-related book I've ever read.
A highly amusing litany of incompetence.
Excellent book chronicling the downfall of a multimillion dollar wrestling company, once the WWE's top rival and once the hottest company around. A great tale of stupid business mistakes, egos, gross mismanagement and the authors have a good sense of humor.
Great book detailing exactly what NOT to do for a successful professional wrestling promotion. Overall, Mick Foley and Ric Flair wrote better books with personal touches, but from a strictly historical point of view, this book is king.
This book discusses the origins, rise, and fall of a great wrestling organization. It is for those fans who want to know how the once red-hot WCW was maimed and eventually sold the the now WWE.
This book does a great job of going into detail on why WCW failed, but also keeping things light. I loved this book, it's a must-read for any fan of wrestling in the 90s.
This is a really good read if you can stand some of the inaccuracies mentioned within.
Steve Rauscher
marked it as to-read
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