The Death of WCW: Wrestlecrap and Figure Four Weekly Present . . .

by R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez

Book Overview

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,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1550226614
• Release Date: December 2004
• Publisher: ECW Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.4" x 0.8" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

The Blame of WCW's Demise

It's hard to believe that a company could fold the way WCW did several years ago. At one time, WCW stood at the top of the wrestling mountain, and crushed the WWF/E in all ratings on television. It was obvious. WCW had became the number one promotion in the wrestling world. But gradually, something happened. WCW decided to go against the formula that brought them success. And when you do that, something bad is bound to happen. When Eric Bischoff's idea to bring in Scott Hall and Kevin Nash from the WWF came about, no WCW management was for sure if it would save the ratings. It did just that. WCW became the mainstream wrestling product for most wrestling fans, as the N.W.O. changed wrestling forever. But, just as it was normal for WCW to do, they ran the N.W.O so long that it became stale. But rather than drop them, they continued the run, which eventually led to the likes of Scott Norton, Buff Bagwell, and even Virgil joining the group. Bad idea. Also, the backstage situation was nothing short of a disaster. No one liked anyone. When you run a successful company, everyone wants to be the number one guy. Which is exactly why in the late 90's, the WCW World Title began to change hands on pretty much a weekly basis. Also, we can't forget one of the most memorable title reigns ever brought about by Vince Russo, and his idea was for........himself to become WCW Champion. Probably not good business there. Neither was the idea to have actor David Arquette win the WCW Title and beat two legitimate contenders, Jeff Jarrett and Diamond Dallas Page. It becomes obvious in this book that there is more than one person to blame for the death of World Championship Wrestling. Vince Russo, Eric Bischoff, Dusty Rhodes, Lex Luger, Hulk Hogan, Goldberg, Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and even David Arquette had vital roles in situations that led to the company folding. For any former WCW wrestling fan, this book is an absolute must-read. This is one of the greatest wrestling books I have ever read, and it shows just how bad things can get in a company in a downward spiral. Some of the things you read in the book will be so completely absurd, that you would think some of these things weren't possible. But, it's true. And that is why WCW is no longer in business.

An Excellent Read! Very Accurate!

I was VERY impressed with this read! I bought this book like Wrestlecrap: The Very Worst In Pro Wrestling to support Wrestlecrap.com (a very ammusing site). I must've wasted countless hours arguing with WWF fans about what went wrong with WCW and now here's a very accurate account of what really went wrong with my favorite promotion. WCW was indeed my favorite promotion. I became a fan back in 1988 (then the NWA) because of the cartoon characters and intelligence insulting crap the WWF was putting out at the time. Yes, WCW had just as many stupid gimmicks and ridiculous booking ideas but all in all they always WRESTLED! World Championship WRESTLING wrestled! Unfortunatly the 4-5 star wrestling matches we got from Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit, the Guerreros, Lance Storm, Mike Awesome, Raven, Vampiro, and the Luchadores were put in the low to midcards in favor of the Nash-Hogan finger poke of Doom, Rick Steiner losing a debate with a horror movie prop named Chuckie, Goldberg's monsterous winning streak as World Champ put to an end by Nash's egotistical booking and a drunken Scott Hall's tazer gun... Oh, and don't forget the Warrior's horrific WCW run. Sure, it's hard to predict the future and hindsight is always 20/20 but c'mon! The people in charge of WCW (Turner, Bischoff) couldn't see that their numbers were dropping faster than spit off the Empire State Building?? Russo's fluke "crash TV" booking worked in the WWF for a stort time, (as expected from an armchair booking smark)however it proved disasterous for WCW. David Arquette as WCW Champion? Rehashing the pig's blood thing from 1976 horror flick "Carrie?" What was WCW thinking when they hired him? They did... and he made no improvments (just turned WCW into a cheap imitation of WWF/E's worst programming; 2 minute matches, too much backstage drama, a dash of sleeze) so they fired him or sent him home... WITH PAY! OK, maybe they learned... Nope, they brought him back, TWICE! THEN they make the dazzling deduction that they lost nearly $80 million in 2000! Nash not learning from his big ego and horrible booking killed the heat of many newcomers (Lance Storm, Sean O'Haire, Mike Awesome...) in 2000 that really could've helped turn the promotion around. They wouldn't have pulled off BIG miracles but they were definitly the start of the future WCW needed to turn itself around. He even booked himself over established workers like Booker T, Jeff Jarrett, and even Ric Flair. And people wonder why Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko, and Jericho went to greener pastures in the WWF? Hey, they're the "vanilla midgets" right Big Kev? The other "Kev" would be Sullivan... Eric Bischoff DID try and turn WCW around by focusing more on what distiguished WCW from other promotions; the Cruiserweight division. Alot of the geezers were showcased less and less (even though I had to look at Luger longer than I wanted to)and he even tried desparatly to purchase WCW, but alas... By 2001, it was too little TOO LATE

The Story of WCW's Amazing Rise & Fall

I've been reading Bryan Alvarez' column now for quite some time and he is one of the most respected people covering pro wrestling today. Along with R.D. Reynolds they tell the story of the remarkable Rise & Fall and eventual Death of WCW. Relive some of the classic moments as WCW began its increidble rise from a second rate wrestling company who once gave us Robocop in the ring, to the juggernaut that nearly did the unthinkable: Nearly putting Vince McMahon and the WWF out of business. Through interviews with many of the stars and other participants we'll see how WCW used the WWFs long-time strategy of raiding its rivals talent rosters as they systematically stole nearly every major star that the WWF had in the 80's and early 90's: Hogan, Savage, Nash, SCott Hall, Bret Hart, Ted DiBiase, Sean Waltman, the Nasty Boys, Ultimate Warrior, and more. The eventual "turning" of Hulk Hogan and the creation of the NWO led to WCW winning the Monday Night ratings war with the WWF for over 80 consecutive weeks. Riding high, WCW will soon collapse under its own weight. Soon, big, guaranteed contracts given to wrestlers take their toll on WCWs budget as guys like Nash, Hogan, Hall, and Hart would be injured for months at a time. WCW leaked money like a sieve, tossing about millions to bring in celebrities like Dennis Rodman, Jay Leno, and Karl Malone, and trying to make wrestlers out of people like Jerry Only of the Misfits. Meanwhile egos clashed as the powerbrokers like Bischoff, Hogan, and Nash controlled everything and kept younger wrestlers down. Fights backstage and no advancement would eventually lead many younger stars like Chris jehrico, Chris Benoit, and Eddie Guerrero to jump ship to the WWF. Small cracks became large fissures. WCW brings in Vince Russo to do the booking leading to some of the greatest embarrassments in the history of wrestling with Hogan lying down on the mat to lose and actor DAvid Arquette becoming WCW champion. Add to that, WCW could find no answer to the WWF's two hugely popular stars: Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. It would all lead to a company that was once worthy tens of millions being bought by Vince McMahon for a fraction of that and opening up the last Nitro show announcing the purchase of WCW. Many of these details are quite well known but the interviews are great and its amazing the way even years later some of the parties involved still refuse to accept any blame for WCWs downfall. Excellent Read!

A great read. Not perfect, but great.

First of all, let me say - if you're a hardcore wrestling fan, you're not really going to get much new information from this book. Pretty much everything that's discussed here, you've read about on a message board somewhere. Frequently, not in the level of detail that RD Reynolds goes into, however, which is what makes this book good. There are, however, some inconsistancies. One thing Reynolds completely fails to take into account was the popularity of the nWo Wolfpac, writing the part of the book dealing with that time period as if Goldberg was the only person in the company who could draw as a main eventer. He obviously didn't remember the audible "Goldberg sucks" chants from the Wolfpac loyalists at Starrcade '98. My other major gripe with the book was that it failed to mention the excellent undercard WCW had put together just before it collapsed. Having recognized that one thing WCW could easily beat WWF on - Cruiserweights - they hired a good half dozen of cruiserweights, and frequently gave large portions of the undercard to these guys. They brought in some amazing talent like AJ Styles, Jason Jett (ECW's EZ Money), Air Paris, Kid Romeo, etc, the WCW braintrust seemingly knew what they were doing with these guys. But again, it wasn't in time to have any effect on the ratings. A mistake which WWE is duplicating yet again today... As for the good things about the book, generally everything else. RD Reynolds maintains the humorous edge he keeps in his wrestlecrap website, while keeping the tone of the book generally serious and leaving it to the reader to laugh his head off about the various inane things WCW management did. He documents such things as how Goldberg's career was ruined, how WCW managed to build up a $100 million debt, the problems that Eric Bischoff's panicked attempts to win the weekly ratings war with WWF caused. This book isn't just a narrative on Hogan and Nash ruining the careers of Goldberg and Bret Hart - there's a lot of stuff on smaller name wrestlers. Some of whom would go on to be huge stars in WWF later, such as Chris Jericho. Psicosis - one of world's most underrated wrestlers, and the guy who got me interested in wrestling in the first place - got a fair amount of print in the book, as it discussed his cruiserweight title "win", and the crisis surrounding a match between himself and Mysterio that took place in Mexico, after Mysterio was unmasked by then WCW booker Kevin Nash. And he's not the only one. No matter who you're a fan of, said wrestler probably got some print in the book - quite possibly more than they got from WCW itself. If half star ratings were possible, I'd have given this 4 1/2, because the book does have flaws. But on the whole, this is an excellent read for any wrestling fan.