2015 Reading Challenge Book 036 Death of WCW original edition

TITLE-Death of WCW
AUTHOR-R.D. Reynolds & Bryan Alvarez
FORMAT-Over sized trade paperback
FIRST TIME READING-No
COST-$15

I first discovered the Wrestlecrap website about 3 weeks after it started. Yeah I was reading it back when it was R.D. and Merle writing the entries. And for many years every Friday when I got home first thing I would do is go read the new entries. So sometime in 2008 I ordered this book and the Wrestlecrap Book of Lists from Amazon.

As I said in the last paragraph R.D. is the owner of the Wrestlecrap website.And the other author is the lead writer of the Figure Four Weekly newsletter. Bryan Alvarez is a retired pro wrestler. Who  now works with the infamous Dave Meltzer on the Wrestling Observer newsletter,radio show and website.So this book has a nice mixture of wrestling insider knowledge combined with a fan's perspective.

The book covers the entire length of the existence of World Championship Wrestling.WCW started when Ted Turner bought up the old Jim Crockett Promotions. And ended in 2001 when Time Warner got tired of WCW losing piles of money. They cancelled the two WCW TV shows and a piece of wrestling history ended.

The book details all the stupid decisions the various people in charge of WCW made. Like how they paid the wrestler formerly known as Nails for over 3 years,when he only ever had one match in WCW. Or how WCW paid the band Kiss a huge amount of money to get them to perform at an episode of WCW Nitro. As part of this contract with Kiss,WCW created a wrestler based around the Kiss Demon. But in the late 90s WCW had a habit of paying various celebrities way too much money to wrestle. Like Dennis Rodman,who on one PPV showed up so messed up it looked like he passed out while waiting to be tagged into the match. Or the time WCW paid Jay Leno a huge amount of money. For him to do a tag team match at the annual Hog Wild/Road Wild PPV. A PPV that is held at the annual Black Hills Biker rally. A show that was free to see live. So not only did WCW drop huge money on Jay Leno,but it was also at a show where they made no money off the gate.

Now I have heard lots of criticism about this book. With one wrestling forum seeming to have an abnormal amount of hate for this book. Sure there are parts of the book where R.D. and Bryan make mistakes. But from reading posts about the book,you would think 90% of the book is wrong.

I do enjoy this book. Having had read this book at least 5 times. Just recently a 10th anniversary edition was released. I got a copy and read it. Nothing of importance was added to it. And to me it feels like a cash grab by R.D. & Bryan. The one thing that they added that stood out was an epilogue about TNA wrestling. And really this wasn't needed. No matter what lots of fans seem to think TNA has nothing to do with WCW. And really neither fed have much in common. Just because both are/were badly run doesn't mean they are the same.

Death of WCW gets a 3.15 outta 5.