Lance Storm's favorite book in the world...
Eric Bischoff is no stranger to the word controversial. His booking in WCW generally fueled huge controversy, both good and bad. On the first Nitro, Lex Luger showed up a night after wrestling for the WWF. He created Monday Nitro, thus firing the first shot of the Monday Night Wars. He created the NWO. He gave away canned Raw results on his live Nitro show. Yes sir, Easy E is no stranger to controversy. However, that desire to stir the pot, to go against the grain, may have been Bischoff's Achilles Heel. Whereas Vince McMahon turned his WWF into smut TV, consistently pushing the envelope and challenging the moral mediators with just how far the WWF could take it, and turned WWF into a huge financial juggernaut and public commodity, Bischoff often used controversy in silly and insipid ways, which helped lead to the demise of WCW and the WWE monopoly you see today.
I will be honest, when I first picked up "Controversy Creates Cash" I was not expecting much. For one, its a WWE release. So how much would Bischoff be able to disclose about WCW in a WWE published book? Secondly, how do I delicately put this...Bischoff has been known to be a full of shit windbag at times, the ultimate spin doctor who takes credit for everything good WCW ever did and defers to others all the bad things. While Bischoff certainly did lead the way to WCW becoming wrestling's top promotion for two years, he was just as instrumental in its downfall.
It is these two contradictory Eric Bischoff's that basically inhabit this book. First off, I want to state that this is an absolute must read for any serious fan. It is truly a case study into the mind of the "Ken Doll" and also serves as almost counter programming contrary to WWE's portrayal of WCW. Which is to say that there is some truth in the book, and a whole lotta bullshit. But that is what makes it such a fun read.
Bischoff briefly describes his childhood. This, that and something happened, yadda yadda yadda. Most fans reading these things don't particularly care for that aspect of a book, although I will say Bischoff did have an interesting childhood. Not remarkable or anything, but nonetheless interesting.
Bischoff, while living in Minnesota as a teenager, was an amateur wrestler in high school. He admits he wasn't very good, but his high school team was looking to raise money to compete in a national tournament. This is where Easy E's journey really begins. He knew, as a young fan of the AWA, that Verne Gagne LOVED amateur wrestling. So on a whim, Bischoff decided to call the AWA and ask them for time on their program to help his high school wrestling team. The AWA obliged, and young Eric Bischoff was allowed a short segment with AWA honcho Wally Karbo and announcer Marty O'Neill. The seeds had been sown.
Now, while young Eric liked wrestling, he knew he was no good at it. So he transferred his passion to the world of martial arts. He mentions that it helped mature him and feel productive at doing something. But I sense someone is going to start mentioning front leg back kicks and some of the other infamous calls Bischoff made as the play by play man for WCW, so I will leave it at that.
After high school, Bischoff was basically directionless. He settled in as a salesman for a meat company, and did a fairly good job at hit,according to he himself. But Eric Bischoff, for all his deficiencies, was an ambitious young man. He did some modeling to supplement his income as a meat salesman, and then one night he met Sonny Onoo. The two shot the shit over a few drinks, and Sonny said something to Eric that resonated. Sonny, who was born in Japan but was transplanted to the States, mentioned a game he and his friends played across the pond called Ninja, a different version of tag. Sonny and Eric formulated an idea to produce and market a game called "Ninja Star Wars." Basically, two kids would wear velcro vests and fire velcro ninja stars at eachother. Insert South Park joke here. They produced a bunch of these games and waited for the cash to flow in. It didn't. Most toy stores only do business with big toy manufacturers, so Sonny and Eric were basically fucked. As much as they tried, they just could not net a profit.
Bischoff had an idea. He figured he could market Ninja Star Wars to the masses through the AWA. He made a call to AWA HQ's....and no one remembered him. It took some doing, but finally Verne Gagne relented and let him advertise his gizmo on TV with the caveat he get a share. Ninja Star Wars sold jack shit, but Verne liked what he saw in young Eric Bischoff, and hired him as an employee of the AWA, according to Bischoff, in 1987.
Basically Bisch was in charge of promotion and sometimes booking arenas. Take that with several grains of salt. One day Larry Nelson, the main AWA announcer, didn't show up for a TV taping, so Gagne pointed to Bischoff and said "You are our man." I guess this whole scene contradicts the long held ideals that Bisch mowed Verne's lawn and was simply a coffee boy...but its his book.
Eric then goes on to deny that the "Team Challenge Series" was his brainchild. Completely denies it like Aaron Hernandez denies he executed Odin Lloyd. NEXT.
The AWA died with Bisch as a lead announcer. Eric decided to try out for a position with WWF. That went nowhere. But he had a friend who was able to get him into WCW. You may have heard of him: Diamond Dallas Page.
I have reviewed Page's book before, and Bischoff's book corroborates the story that the two were ready to kick the shit out of eachother in their first meeting. Cooler heads prevailed, and soon, Page and Bischoff were announcing WCW B and C shows. Neither man was figured to attain any level of success, so nothing was thought of either man.
Now, we all know how unprofitable WCW was in the early 1990's. That fact has been made crystal clear throughout the years (especially by WWE). When Bill Watts was fired as WCW booker, most assumed it would be Tony Schiavone or Jim Ross taking over. Nope. Bischoff wowed Turner Executives with his pitch and got the job. Neither Ross nor Schiavone were happy about that.
Bischoff then states his business plans. This, fans, is the meat and potatoes of the book. This is the only wrestling book that travels inside the head of a "booker" who was wildly successful and was able to topple Vince McMahon. Now, while much of it is excellent and a must read....Bischoff is just as prone to spewing bullshit and hyperbole as any wrestling promoter would do. Revisionist history.
Hogan is signed, thanks in large part to Ric Flair. He pushes the needle slightly, but not the way Bischoff anticipated. Sure, the Bash at the Beach 94 buyrate was great, but soon Hogan started making Eric's life hell. We all know Hulk had creative control over, well, basically EVERYTHING in WCW. Most fans kind of knew this, but Bischoff puts it out there and lets us know we were right. Eric states that Hogan was the cause for WCW's greatest peaks, and cause for his most sleepless nights. And Bischoff is very close to Hogan, so these chapters are absolutely essential reads for any wrestling fan.
Now, here is where the book goes off course. Bischoff has hired Hall and Nash, aligned them with Hogan for the NWO storyline (for the record, if Hogan didn't accept the heel turn, it was going to be Sting with the NWO) and the thing just exploded. Naturally, Bischoff takes all the credit, and WCW was off and running for 82 weeks.
And it is right here where the book gets good again. Hogan, with creative control, gave Bischoff fits. As much as Bischoff liked and admired the contributions hogan had made to the business, he despised the way he went ABOUT BUSINESS. Bischoff realized that once Mike Tyson came aboard the WWF train that he was in trouble. So he says. WrestleMania 14 is not recognized as the turning point in the Monday Night Wars, but it might as well be. Bischoff has no regrets about letting X-Pac go, and, to boot, he saw where the WWF was going with their program, especially the DX "Invasion" of Monday Nitro.
Bischoff wanted to respond. Bring the NWO to RAW, on the hard camera. Front row.
Unfortunately for Easy E, the Turner hierarchy was in a state of flux. With the merger with Time Warner (and eventually AOL) Bischoff's vision was being put in the dumper. Where Ted Turner had always had something of a hard-on for wrestling, the corporate suits forcing Billionaire Ted out had no such allusions. They wanted TNT and TBS to feature highbrow entertainment (insert your own jokes here) and wrestling was not on the docket. Really, the best parts of the book involve Bischoff's dealings with men like Bob Dhue, Bill Shaw and Harvey Schiller. Schiller was Bischoff's greatest ally...until he read the writing on the wall at Turner and decided to accept a position with the New York Yankees.
By this point, Eric Bischoff was just burned out. He states that the higher ups wanted him to tone down the product, make it more PG, and he says THAT is what stifled him and drove him away from the company. Bullshit. Who winded up taking over for him? Vince Russo. What was his specialty? Shock TV. So Bischoff in one sentence states that his creative hands were tied, yet in the next he says Russo was peddling smut.
That is basically the story of this book, Bischoff saying WCW's demise was all Russo's fault. Truth is, Eric himself began that downfall. He was the one, and he admits to it, that had guys like Karl Malone (good choice), Dennis Rodman (debatable) and Jay Leno (Ultra bad choice) wrestle for WCW. He was the one who talked Kiss and the No Limit Soldiers into enlistment with WCW. His business partner is Hollywood one hit wonder Jason Hervey.
Bischoff also mentions his years in WWE, but that is par for the course in a WWE book. He does not make any sort of huge waves, but does make some points. I will leave it up to you, the reader, to figure them out.
All in all, Controversy Creates Cash is a fun book to read. On one end, it is excellent because it its authored, voiced, by Vince McMahon's main competition. Secondly, you get a good idea of what Bischoff was thinking, be it the SARSA model he used to model his company or the pratfalls of working for such a machinelike business infrastructure that turned their nose up at such a silly thing like pro wrestling.
Mostly, there are a lot of lies and half truths in the book, and those alone make this book a must read. Is it a great wrestling book? No. Is it must read? You bet your ass it is.