The Death of WCW

by R.D. Reynolds

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 photographs, and probing questions illustrate with humor and candor how greed, egotism, and bad business shattered the thriving enterprise. Wrestling fans will devour the true story of this fallen empire, which in its heyday spawned superstars such as Sting, Bill Goldberg, and the New World Order.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sports, History, Audiobook, Biography, Business, Ebooks

15 pages, Audible Audio

First published October 14, 2014

Reviews

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book turned out to be a whole lot of fun. The story basically chronicled the rise and then fall of World Championship Wrestling. At its peak WCW was the number one rated show on cable television in the USA and made millions of dollars. By its dying days WCW lost over $60 million in one year and had lost 95% of its audience. Authors Reynolds and Alvarez provide a mix of facts (TV ratings, profits and losses, and even talent contracts) and opinions (Their take on good or bad story-lines and in ring wrestling quality). It all made for a fascinating story as the real life tale was portrayed as being even more absurd than a fictional wrestling TV show!

The book opened with a brief history of pro-wrestling before switching its main focus to WCW. The bulk of the story is made up of a year by year breakdown of the Monday Night Nitro years. That might sound a little dull but in actuality was super entertaining.

If this book has a flaw it is that it seems to be aimed at a very niche market. To get maximum enjoyment from this one the reader really needs to know who the big players in the pro-wrestling world were in the 80s and 90s. Given the focus on TV ratings and other business aspects of running WCW readers probably have to have an interest in that sort of thing as well.

The best part of the book was that the story was pretty entertaining. Some of the authors examples of awful booking are complete personal opinion but to their credit they do explain things in such a way that it is all made to sound hilariously awful and absurd.

All in all this was an engaging read. The goings on behind the scenes in the wrestling business are way more exciting (and unbelievable) than the actual product!

Rating: 4.5 stars.

Audio Note: This was narrated by co-author Bryan Alvarez. He did a great job with the audio which should come as no surprise since he has been talking about pro-wrestling for years on radio shows and podcasts!

[Damien Field · Rating 2 out of 5]

The reviews for this book will be split most likely between fans who had saw the demise of WCW and read this with an interest in what caused it and those who saw the demise of WCW and have previously read articles, books, watched documentarys on it. The former will enjoy this book greatly, sadly I fall into the latter. RD Reynolds is by no stretch a literary great, nor does he claim to be. However it's glaringly obvious how this book was created. It's a story created off articles in Dirt Sheets, the opinion of long time "Smark Go-To-Guy" Dave Meltzer and the opinion of the author who clearly watched a lot of WCW back in the day. Whilst this doesn't kill it for the casual fan, the latter group I mentioned won't learn anything new. This wouldn't be nearly as big a problem had the author not chose to make his point with references to viewing figured, buy rates and gate receipts on almost every page. It got to the point I felt I was a seal getting clubbed to death by numbers. He is very anti Bischoff and Russo, which is fine had it not effected the telling of the story. In the main it feels like a collection of publicly available information put next to a guys opinion on wrestling. I'd have to warrant a book unreadable to 1 star it. This is not that, but close

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

RD Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez’s critically acclaimed 2004 book “The Death of WCW” hit its tenth anniversary this year and to celebrate the duo released a new edition that is approximately forty percent larger. The two took on the task of diving deep into the history of the Ted Turner owned wrasslin’ organization to analyse just how a company that had been packing upwards of forty thousand people into giant stadiums in 1998 went to losing over $60 million in one calendar year in 2000.

How could this happen? How could a company so successful just shrivel up and die so quickly? The authors do their best to provide a multitude of reasons. In fact, here’s just a few examples of how much money the company threw away:

WCW’s flag ship show, Monday Nitro, had a weekly broadcast length of three hours. Despite only needing maybe two or three dozen performers for any given week, the company would often purchase plane tickets for almost 160 performers to be flown in on a weekly basis.

A yearly pay-per-view performed at a motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. Attendance was free so the cost of flying in performers, transporting sets and equipment and satellite broadcasting fees all led to a guaranteed yearly loss.

$25,000 paid to legendary R&B artist James Brown to appear in a one-off unadvertised segment that ultimately did nothing for the program nor led into anything for the future.

$100,000 spent on the first (and last) Junkyard Battle Royal in which nine guys fought in.. well, a junkyard over the WCW Hardcore Championship.

$200,000 per appearance for hip hop star Master P to just show up (not wrestle). Five appearances were booked totalling $1 million. On top of that, one of his posse members – an impossibly large man with no wrestling experience named “Swoll” – pulled in $400,000 a year.

$500,000 for Kiss to play a song on a random episode of Nitro.

Huge guaranteed contracts for legendary performers such as Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall that did more to hurt the company than help it. In years prior, contracts offered by WWE (WCW’s competition) were structured with performance based incentives. Therefore, if a performer succeeded in producing memorable in-ring work, moved merchandise or basically became immensely popular, they could see a bump in their pay. With this removed, guys had no real reason to put on a good show, which led to a poor product.

Not only is this book a great learning experience in what not to do when running a wrestling promotion, it’s hilarious as well. The year 2000 within WCW contained some of the most nonsensical television programming ever produced. Reading the two authors try make heads or tails of the matches, the storylines and the hiring/firings was entertaining and had me laughing out loud.

As you probably know by now, I’m a junkie for pro-wrestling. I’ve been watching since I was six years old and while I no longer watch everything WWE produces (honestly, there’s just way too much out there), I still keep up with it. Nowadays, what interests me the most is how the industry works and the decisions made by those in power. I love seeing how “the machine” operates and stories about events behind the scenes will always be way more interesting than what plays out on camera. If this sounds like you, don’t hesitate to pick this one up.

The Death of WCW is a tightly researched, well written autopsy on the demise of one of pro wrestling’s greatest success stories and mind-boggling failures. Now, to sit back and wait for The Death of TNA Impact Wrestling.

Also posted @ Every Read Thing.

[Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a fan of wrestling, The Death of WCW is a must-read.

It is co-written by a writer for the essential site WrestlingObserver.com and the creator of the excellent website WrestleCrap.

This is the story of how the hottest wrestling company of the mid-90s went out of business in about five years.

I would recommend it to non-wrestling fans, but it probably really is only for those fans of the squared circle. I could try to spin it as a book on business (and to a point it is, there's a lot of helpful advice, such as the classic "Don't just throw money at a problem."

No, this one is just for wrestling fans, but if you remember the Monday Night Wars of the 90s, then you should look this up.

The WCW did everything wrong. Once someone got "heat" (popular), then WCW did everything to destroy that heat. The book is a series of blunders that Vince Russo, Eric Bischoff, and others made.

The writing is conversational, but it is also well-organized and thought out.

You probably already know some of the story (David "Dewey" Arquette wins the belt, the push of past-their-prime stars to the detriment of the up-and-comers, stupid and expensive vignettes), but it is worth revisiting them all.

As a wrestling fan, it is disappointing to recount the ways the WCW went down the drain, and the ending of the book- where the WWF botched what could have been the hottest storyline of all-time.

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 McMahon's then-WWF is a case study in people who never learn from their mistakes.

The saddest thing about the death of WCW is that those same problems persist in the wrestling business today. WWE's main event wrestlers have comprised the same seven people since 2004, and they're just now feeling the effects of that due to the staleness of the roster and age of the stars, all of whom have suffered injuries that keep them out for months on end. Distant number two promotion TNA employs all of the same office workers and creative team as WCW, so it's no wonder they fail miserably despite the wealth of talented wrestlers they have at their disposal. The book was written in 2004, and it's amazing how so many of the events chronicled here have repeated themselves since then.

As for the book itself, it's a well-researched history written in a light, conversational tone. I doubt anyone who is passively interested in wrestling would have any interest in it, but for those who enjoy the blend of sports and entertainment, it's a nice way of getting caught up on the past and serves as a solid preparation for the future.

[MacDara Conroy · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a godawful book. Nothing to do with the subject matter, mind, as behind-the-curtain wrestling politics holds endless fascination for me. But it's so poorly written, poorly researched, poorly reasoned, poorly argued - poorly crafted in general. To a parodic degree, even; much of it reads like the worst examples of a cheeto-spitting, know-nothing know-it-all grapple nerd cliché. At some point I even started to read it in the voice of Comic Book Guy, which is decidedly not a compliment.

[Scott D'Agostino · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly entertaining book on one of the most epic implosions in TV history. I've long been fascinated by WCW's later years (i.e. the trash years) and this was a fascinating read.

[Starlight Kid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really funny and interesting book about how awful and ludicrous WCW was. I never saw any WCW with my era being more Triple H, Cena, Batista and Undertaker so all this was new to me.

It's just how crazy some of the ideas were it was like giving kids the chance to run their own show without any parental control.

Seriously this book is excellent because it really is shocking some stuff that happened some examples of such are having an electric chair match, rehiring a wrestler who had nearly stabbed another wrestler to death a few years before to having celebrities become world champion.

Highly recommended.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insight into what actually happened behind the scenes at WCW, and why the company failed. The narrator was hilarious in his descriptions to the point is laughed out loud many times during the book. Everyone who has been a fan of wrestling should read this. It brought me back to my childhood.

[Graeme Rockerbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though by 2020 the story has been done to death on the network and interviews etc I still found this an enjoyable read. Some parts actually had me in tears mainly some of the silly things that somehow made it to TV in 99 and 2000.

[Robert Hinds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though it suffers from extreme Bryan Alvarez ratings obsession syndrome, some extreme 90's viewpoints and thinking Goldberg was actually good, it's still super entertaining.

[C.T. Phipps · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Death of WCW is a mean-spirited book. This is the biggest problem with it. It's informative, sometimes hilarious, but fundamentally filled with a contempt for the sequence of events which led to the fall of Turner Broadcasting's wrestling promotion. Admittedly, reading through the book, it's not hard to see why the authors felt this way.

Essentially, The Death of WCW is a book chronicling the rise and fall of World Championship Wrestling. Created by Ted Turner as an alternative to the World Wrestling Federation, it was the successor organization to the in-decline National Wrestling Federation. Ted Turner was already a very rich man with his own network when he noticed no one was watching the latter. He proceeded to start airing The Andy Griffith Show every day and wrestling, which created an audience for his programming. A very Southern audience to say the least.

The book follows the rise of Eric Bishchoff, mid-level announcer, to the head of the company and how he used Ted Turner's billions to poach the top-talent of the WWF. Talent which had their heyday in the Eighties but which had been overlooked since then like Macho Man Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, Ted Dibiase, and others. He also managed to get Kevin Nash (Diesal) and Scott Hall (Razor Ramone), two individuals who had received a great deal of attention from the WWF but smelled money in the WCW.

They became extraordinarily successful in their new promotion before a combination of poor contracts, poor decisions, horrible wrestling, and outright bizarre angles resulted in the collapse of the company. The WCW went from being a ratings juggernaut to being almost unwatched. There's no greater illustration than the books mention that the WCW was originally worth so much that an offer of five hundred million for it was passed on, only for it to later be sold for three.

The book suffers due to, mostly, being a repetition of events from the time the book gets to the "Monday Night Wars" portion of the book onward. We don't get a sense of what qualifies as good decisions in the wrestling business, only that WCW kept making extremely bad ones. It gets a little tiresome reading one horrific mistake after another. Though, to be fair, this is nonfiction and they really did appear to be run by a bunch of lemmings at the end (or Vince Russo, I'm not sure which is worse).

The book argues no one thing brought down the WCW. Instead, they argued it was a consistent long-term series of poor management decisions. They overspent, they didn't tell good stories, they didn't let the wrestlers perform interesting matches, and they misjudged their audience terribly. No single change could have saved the WCW because it took a fantastic series of bad changes to end its viability as a brand. Worse, the book argues that the WCW's successor in TNA wrestling is more or less following the same road.

Which is a shame.

While the book is very informative, some of the events described within needed elaboration. I was particularly interested in finding out about the poor handling of Bret Hart as well as the "David Arquette becomes WCW champion" angle. Yes, the dorky sheriff from Scream and Courtney Cox's ex-husband, David Arquette. These two matters are skimmed over in the book and I felt cheated. Both events are mentioned but really needed longer explanations. The later, in particular, was a symbolic end to taking matches in the promotion seriously.

By the end of the book, I was tempted to skim every page.

Still, The Death of WCW was a pretty decent read for the first two hundred or so pages. You get a sense of what made the promotion great, what made it fabulous, and then are forced to watch it all get thrown out the window. For those familiar with the promotion and its matches, I recommend this book. Just understand it gets ugly toward the end and, more than sad, tragic.

7.5/10

[Restokes92 · Rating 5 out of 5]

For this book I feel that voice was highlighted extremely well in the book. The key component of voice that I felt was used the best by the author was that he knew his audience. I think voice was used very well because Brian Alverez knew that the audience that was going to pick up this book were going to be smart wrestling fans. Fans of wrestling who knew that the sport is nothing more than acting with wrestling put in it where the winners of matches are prearranged and wins and losses don’t really matter. For example when reading the Death of WCW the author was not giving any attempt to hide the fact that professional wrestling is a “work.” The audience for this book is fans of wrestling but more so fans of the wrestling business and what goes on backstage.
For example the book talks about a famous angle in WCW called the “finger poke of doom” where Hulk Hogan beat Kevin Nash by poking him on the chest for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Instead of saying how Hulk Hogan was so strong that he was able to do this and trying to fool the audience that bought this book, the authors explain how this angle led to WCW going out of business. A definite strategy that I would use from reading this book is knowing who your audience is and what they will respond to. I would not use a piece from the book for a minilesson but I would use the idea of knowing your audience and knowing what to share with them and not to share with them. For example I would not read Hop on Pop (a simple Dr. Seuss rhyme book meant for toddlers) to a 5th grade class and expect them to be interested and hungry to learn based off of that book. You must know your audience and not test their patience by feeding them something too simple.

[Jason Schneeberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahh....the glory days of wrestling, the pinnacle moment in sports entertainment history: the Monday Night War. WWF vs WCW was the ULTIMATE feud in wrestling history, but WCW was doomed from the get go. You wouldn't think so when considering how dominating they were over the WWF in 1997, but WCW had zero leadership or a vision for the future and in the end, it damned the company. This book covers it all.

I have many fond memories of this period in history. I was always a WWF guy at heart, but I dabbled in WCW on occasion. When the nWo made their presence felt in a HUGE way in 1996, when the unthinkable happened and the immortal Hulk Hogan turned heel, I, like many millions of fans worldwide, sat each Monday night with my remote control in hand, switching back and forth relentlessly between Raw and Nitro, trying not to miss a thing on either show.

It's sad that WCW went out of business, and this book fully details every mishap along the way. If you're "in the know" of the ill fated WCW story, there isn't a lot of new information in this book, but it's still a great reference tool to have and an entertaining read. By 2000, when WCW was putting out abysmal shows, I had already tuned out for good, so a lot of the things mentioned in the book about this time frame was fascinating to read. It's quite amazing at just how horrible their programming and business decisions were at this time. Losing over 62 million dollars in the year 2000 is almost beyond comprehension, especially considering how much profit they were turning just a few years prior, but they managed to do it and this book takes you step by step through the reasons why.

Wrestling fans will love this book!

[Artiom Karsiuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a huge WCW fan back in the day- so much so that I didn't even know that a rival company (WWF) existed. Of course, that was mostly because I was an ignorant 10-year old living in Lithuania, but I was a loyal fan. So it wasn't without pain that I read this book, but I do believe that this as objective of an evaluation as you can get. I loved the book for two distinct qualities:
1. It is written by a very witty writer in a manner that balances comedy (where appropriate - like the Hogan/Warrior match review that should be considered for a stand-up comedy bit) and factual content with ease. That makes the book an easy read that helps you flip through the pages effortlessly.
2. The "report" nature of the book. The pages are filled with numbers, statistics, salaries, TV ratings - every statement is backed up by data and in-depth analysis, which should make the people who call pro-wrestling writer "dirtsheet reporters" die in painful shame. This isn't just a book of opinions and hear-say. It's total breakdown of the company's business with the rights and wrongs.
I have read my share of PW and MMA books, but if I was forced to pick only one to recommend somebody - it would be Twilight. Kidding... it would be this book. Scout's honor.

[Anthony Brennan · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 "no, surely not, they wouldn't -- Oops, yes, they did" ;/
Sadly, most of these ingrates/found positions of power in other companies, wrestling never learning form failures, only brief successes.

[Juan Ortiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

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,
nothing less.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good informative book about WCW. Being a wrestling fan in the 1990's was probably the best time to be one and this book does what it says on the tin and charts the WCW story. As I was more a WWF fan this was essential reading to find out what really went on with the rivals. The world of wrestling is like no other and if this was a story you wouldn't believe it. In my opinion a great read for fans and former fans of the 'sport' but I doubt would be interest to anyone else.

[Amy tribes]

every wrestling fan MUST read this book.

[Chad]

Couldn't put this down. I could read this a thousand times and not get tired of it.

[Superilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best wrestling-related book I've ever read.

[Austin Calhoun · Rating 3 out of 5]

This could've been cut in half and still delivered all of the details, many stories were repeated and many of them out of order / out of context.

[Gavin Eddings · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the opposite of MINUS FIVE STARS! R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez do an incredible job laying out the rise of WCW and the hard to watch fall just a few years later. I've watched countless documentaries and listened to podcasts about this topic, but this book does a great job educating and entertaining. It also helps that Bryan Alvarez narrates the audiobook so he is able to portray the words as they are meant to be said. And that is as sarcastically as possible.

This is one of the funniest books I've listened to in a long time, and a lot of credit goes to the writers, but most of the credit goes to WCW for being crazy people. There are so many angles that I had forgotten or never knew about that makes me want to look up just how crazy things actually got. I also enjoyed hearing about all of the backstage politics that went on during this time.

If you want a fun and hilarious history of one of pro wrestling's greatest rises and falls, this is a great book to check out.

[Barry Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wrestling writing and criticism has slowly moved past the era that Death of WCW represents, but nonetheless Alvarez and Reynolds are amusing in their consternation, and this is a REALLY breezy read on the inherently farcical fall of WCW. Won't serve as a definitive history of the organization; but that's okay.

[Kris Gunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for any wrestling fan. Incredibly entertaining, the book details the rise of WCW in the 90's to its eventual demise in the early 2000. A fascinating read that takes you behind the curtain and in forensic detail looks at how massive egos, bad booking and horrible business decisions led to the company's collapse.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

4tb time i read it

Some grammar mistakes here and there and sometimes it gets to be too much with differing opinions. But if you love reading wrestling history, read this.

[Willy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating look into the world of late 90’s wrestling and WCW. I learned a lot about the fall of the company and how… avoidable it all was. Id recommend this to any wrestling fan

[Tim Kretschmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you are evenly casually interested or familiar b with the subject matter, this book fills in the holes and teaches what to avoid in a promotion. Excellent and real page turner.

[Jon Peder Grønsveen Opsahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew alot of the history of WCW and it's demise before reading this book through the many documentaries on the subject. The book was still really enjoyable, and provided new details I was not aware of. It is also nice to get an outside WWE perspective on the Monday Night War. If you are a wrestling fan I think you will enjoy this book.

[Luke Pennock · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is full of interesting facts and stories but struggles to create a compelling narrative out of them. It's also got some editing problems, as though it's been collated from a series of articles rather than made as a cohesive whole; for example, it introduces and explains Tank Abbott as an MMA fighter then reintroduces him with a similar explanation in the next chapter. The statistics and viewership numbers, while important, are presented in a way and with a frequency that can be grating.

Still, if you liked WCW it's interesting to hear how badly it went wrong, and there's great journalism in a notoriously difficult to cover industry. It's also a damning counter piece to the new television show on the same topic which is reluctant to place the blame at Russo and (especially) Bischoff's feet.