• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • Star Wars New Hope Mark Hamill Carrie Fisher Harrison Ford Luke Skywalker Princess Leia Han Solo

      Star Wars: 45 Years Later and the four people who made it happen

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 23, 2022
    • Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers Poster

      REVIEW: Chip n Dale: Rescue Rangers is a fever dream of family fun

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 22, 2022
    • Doctor Strange Multiverse of Madness: Benedict Cumberbatch, Xochitl Gomez and Rachel McAdams as Steven, America Chavez and Dr. Christine Palmer

      REVIEW: Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is Sam Raimi’s Sam Ramiest movie in ages!

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 7, 2022
    • Full Metal Jacket: Vincent D'Onofrio

      Full Metal Jacket is still awesome thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 5, 2022
    • Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore: Jude Law as Albus

      REVIEW: Fantastic Beasts 3 (The Secrets of Dumbledore) is a gloomy sequel with little pizzaz

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 18, 2022
    • Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Sonic voiced by Ben Schwartz

      REVIEW: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 – Best video game film yet?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 9, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Michael Jackson Bad 2

      BAD is Michael Jackson's best album. Period.

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 31, 2017
      Music Blogs
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Nancy Drew S03e01: Kennedy McMann as Nancy

      Nancy Drew S03E01 Review: The Warning of the Frozen Heart - Uh-oh!

      By Salome G
      | October 10, 2021
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • Riverdale 6 15 3

      Riverdale S06E15 Review: Things That Go Bump in the Night – Unexpected allies

      By Salome G
      | May 23, 2022
    • Doctor Who S10e8 Peter Capaldi

      Why is it that The Doctor can never seem to become ginger?

      By Jason Collins
      | May 23, 2022
    • Big Sky S02e18: Katheryn Winnick and Jensen Ackles as Jenny Hoyt and Beau Arlen

      Big Sky S02E18 Review: Catch a Few Fish – Solid finale

      By Salome G
      | May 22, 2022
    • The Flight Attendant S02e07: Griffin Matthews and Kaley Cuoco as Shane and Cassie

      The Flight Attendant S02E07 Review: No Exit – Huh?

      By Salome G
      | May 22, 2022
    • Star Trek Strange New Worlds S01e02 Celia Rose Gooding and Ethan Peck as Uhura and Spock

      Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Episodes 2-3 review (Good stuff!)

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 21, 2022
    • Riverdale S06e14: Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge

      Riverdale S06E14 Review: Venomous – Spider-Woman?

      By Salome G
      | May 16, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
    • Mario Headphones

      The SNES Turns 30: A look at some of the system’s best soundtracks

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 22, 2021
    • Metroid Dread Poster

      REVIEW: Metroid Dread reawakens the old gamer in me

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 11, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • Wwe Payback 2017 Poster 2

      Your SO OF COURSE preview of WWE Payback 2017

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 30, 2017
      WWE Blogs
    Recent
    • Raw 210501: Triple H and Stephanie McMahon

      May 21, 2001 – A (forgotten) date that will live in WWE infamy

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 20, 2022
    • WWE WrestleMania 39 Logo

      Your WAY TOO EARLY predictions for WWE WrestleMania 39!

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 20, 2022
    • WWE WrestleMania 38 Poster

      Your SO OF COURSE preview of WWE WRESTLEMANIA 38!

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 30, 2022
    • Wrestlemania 31 Paige Aj Lee 2

      BOOK REVIEW: The Women of WrestleMania is a balanced take on an under-valued slice of history

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 16, 2022
    • ROH Proving Ground 2009: El Generico aka Sami Zayn

      In buying ROH, AEW has a chance to redo history (the right way)

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 14, 2022
    • Cody Rhodes Tnt Title Belt 220720

      Cody Rhodes is gone from AEW. What does that mean for wrestling?

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2022
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • Star Wars: 45 Years Later and the four people who made it happen
    • Riverdale S06E15 Review: Things That Go Bump in the Night - Unexpected allies
    • Why is it that The Doctor can never seem to become ginger?
    • Big Sky S02E18 Review: Catch a Few Fish - Solid finale
    • REVIEW: Chip n Dale: Rescue Rangers is a fever dream of family fun
    • The Flight Attendant S02E07 Review: No Exit - Huh?
    • Latest Comments

    Eric Bischoff: Controversy Creates Cash Book Review

    By Tony Cottam
    | November 19, 2006
    Wrestling Book Reviews
    This page contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, we may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Learn more

    The title raises two questions right away… Does controversy really create cash? Given this book’s high placing in the New York Times bestseller list upon its US release, you have to surmise that it does. The next question would be: Does controversy create a good read?

    Controversy Creates Cash – Eric Bischoff sets the record straight, as he has his say on how the WCW dream went down the drain.

    Eric Bischoff Controversy Creates Cash Book Cover

    Well, gentle Wrestling 101 reader, I’m happy to say that it does. I’ve been looking forward to this book since I knew it was on the release schedule. Thankfully, it’s not a total washout, although there are obviously a few things that could be covered more in depth.

    Eric’s life story is one of them. It’s quickly established who he is, where he grew up and how he ended up where he did – less than 60 pages and only two chapters cover Eric’s childhood and career up until the WCW years. Now, I don’t really have a problem with that – you’re obviously buying the book for the inside track on WCW, not what colour pyjamas little Eric wore as a 5 year old.

    “The only drawback with competing as a gold belt is that they didn’t let you kick or punch your opponent’s head. I liked kicking people in the head, so I didn’t get real enthusiastic about the tournament format until green belt.”
    — Eric Bischoff on his martial arts career

    By the time the third chapter rolls around, you have an idea of who Eric is, what he wants from life and the lengths he’s prepared to go to get it, complete with the insight into his male modelling (yes, male modelling) career and short stint competing on the martial arts circuit. With that safely out of the way, we move onto the nitty gritty – the WCW years.

    It’s fairly obvious that Eric feels he’s been a pretty lucky man, as according to him, almost everything fell into his lap, as a matter of chance. Not many things happened as a result of him forcing himself into contention, which tends to go against the impression of Eric’s early WCW career. Indeed, Eric spends a lot of time setting right what he perceives as wrong perceptions of him, his career and many other titbits of info that the ‘dirtsheets’ have accepted as fact.

    Oh yes, one thing that is exceptionally strong is Eric’s hatred of the Internet Wrestling Community, and especially writers and ‘dirtsheet’ editors all over the world. Not a chance to take a cheap shot at them is passed up, one of the few people that Bischoff is not shy at poking at. It’s a strange departure for a “tell all” book to take the moral high road and not get involved in settling a few scores; Even more unusual when you consider this quote:

    “My nature is to fight – I’d generally rather fight than have sex, on any given day. Good fights are harder to come by.”
    — Eric Bischoff

    Still, Eric does find the time to pick apart a few people – Vince Russo, Bill Watts, Sean Waltman and his agent, various WCW backroom staff, but his most precious time is saved for attacking Paul Heyman – Eric himself claims that he could devote a whole chapter to Heyman, and starts to cut loose on the Tribe of Extreme, before reeling himself in and calming down again in less than 3 pages.

    The mention of ECW is very rare in this book – little mention is made of the plundering of the ECW ranks for Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, Dean Malenko and Eddy Guerrero, merely a passing word about their cruiserweight style being performed in “a few bingo halls in Pennsylvania” is about as far as it goes.

    That’s my one problem with the book, if any. We goes into extreme detail about how it was the behind the scenes guys that were to blame for WCW’s decline – and to a point, if we believe Eric’s point of view, then yes, he’s correct – but the points that most wrestling fans want to get into – the feud with (WWE owned) ECW and (WWE owner) Vince McMahon are basically swept away. Bischoff’s one controversial point is to mention that he’s not sure if Montreal was really a shoot or not, but aside from that, there’s little or no controversy in his book.

    “As underhanded as it may have been – italicize may, because I’m still not sure it was all that it supposed to be – at the end of the day it was just a wrestling match.”
    — Eric Bischoff on the Montreal Incident

    It’s obvious that the book is not an independently funded publication, where Bischoff would have been free to rant, pontificate and posture. What we’re dealing with is a slick WWE approved version of history – remember, history is always written by the winner – and as such, not many of Vince’s concerns are too badly picked apart by Eric.

    I do get the feeling there is truly more to the whole Bischoff-McMahon relationship than either man will ever publicly admit to, and that independent book may just have been the one book that really did blow the lid off the wrestling industry. Sadly, we’ll probably never see that book, as Bischoff ends his tale recounting how he ended up working for Vince, who is naturally a fine man, and thoroughly professional and any other cliché you want to throw at your boss in print.

    The bottom line though – is it worth buying? For all the problems I have with the whitewashing of certain subjects, it’s still a very good read. Ghost writer Jeremy Edwards does a really good job of moving the book along at pace, and it does still have the odd “wow!” moment scattered throughout its pages. For anyone with even the briefest knowledge of the WCW-WWE war, then it is a must get. Just don’t expect any shocking revelations…

    Points: 8 / 10 – Great for the information junkie and casual fan alike.

    Buy It:

    UK: £12.59

    USA: $18.20

    Share this article:

    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit

    Tags

    Eric BischoffWWE Books

    COMMENTS

    Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

    Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

    Subscribe
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    Notify of
    guest
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    guest
    0 Comments
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments

    You might also like

    • Eric Bischoff Interview

      By Josh Modaberi
      | June 4, 2012
    • Rope Opera: How WCW Killed Vince Russo Book Review

      By Dante Spears
      | May 2, 2010
    • The Rise and Fall of WCW DVD Review

      By Henry Higgins
      | January 11, 2010

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    Wrestling Topics

    Recommended for you

    • May 21, 2001 – A (forgotten) date that will live in WWE infamy

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 20, 2022
    • Your WAY TOO EARLY predictions for WWE WrestleMania 39!

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 20, 2022
    • What we want from an AEW video game

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 31, 2021
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2021 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter
    wpDiscuz