Mark Pink

I was glad that Lance decided to do this book this month, it gave me an excuse to read it for the third time. Overall, I greatly enjoyed this book, I found it to be a fun and entertaining read, while still being very informative. The only drawback I had was all the numbers were a bit of over load at first. The first time I read it, I was a bit over loaded with all the TV numbers, PPV buy rates etc, but after reading it again, they do play a very important point of reference for how the programs went downwhill. The beginning of the book first very well, it made sense to start the book from the start of WCW, and all the information about the various promotions that were bought and sold to for WCW was also very interesting to read about.

I also liked all the little sidebars in bold face in the book, they were a nice addition and helped to break up the long chapters of the book as well has having neat stories in them. Another point I liked from the book was how the authors went out of their way to praise WCW as well. With a book of this such and sometime just wrestling in general it is easy to bury all the bad ideas, but they did give credit to WCW for the moves that they did that worked also. That said, I have to admit my favorite part of the book was the sarcasm the tone of the book had. I really liked that overall feel of the book, such as page 157 where the described the Hogan vs Warrior PPV match, the description was almost as funny as watching the match was. I think they sarcasm was really what hit best for me, it added a lot to the book and I think reflects the feeling of most wrestling fans.

I think what made the book so good was that you could tell that they authors were wrestling fans which to me is a huge part of it. You see a lot of that with the wrestling books written by ghost writers, instead of the guys themselves. They may not think there is a difference, but you can tell that the authors know what they are writing about, they are just not writing it for the money in it, and that is what made it such a good read for me.

Robert

As a fan of WCW from the late 80s up until 2001, I really enjoyed reading The Death of WCW. Even though I followed WCW closely, the book was full of information that I didn't previously know and was very well researched. For example, I did not know that WCW had plans for an NBC special during the Monday Night Wars and the book gave a bit of information about that. I came away having learnt many new things about WCW. There were also many interesting facts and figures about attendance, PPV buyrates, ratings, etc. It was all interesting stuff.

The book was both entertaining and insightful and will definitely be enjoyed by those who followed WCW for years. It was written in an interesting style and put it's point across eloquently. There are some humorous moments in the book where you stop and say, 'How could that have happened?' but there was a serious point to the book as well. Reading it also made me feel quite sad at times, as the writers went into detail about the many bad decisions that WCW made. Often, I'd read a line or a paragraph and ask myself why people in WCW allowed certain things to happen. It's a book that will elicit different emotions from you - one moment you may laugh, the next moment you may feel sad. Some books can be dry and have little entertainment value, other books can be entertaining but don't really make any serious point. However, The Death of WCW manages to be both informative and entertaining at the same time.

As a book for wrestling fans, The Death of WCW was entertaining, insightful, humorous and very well-written and it's a book I will revisit again in the future. However, I believe the book could serve another purpose - I think the book would be a good guide for any fledgling promoter/wrestling organization. I think the book is essential reading for any promoter or organization, which wants to avoid the mistakes that WCW made. By reading the book from beginning to end, those involved in the creative and business side of wrestling could learn what mistakes not to make. So, all in all, The Death of WCW could be considered both an entertaining book and a guide for any fledgling wrestling promotions. It was a very good read.

Brett

I thought the book was extremely funny. It's amazing how incompetent the people running this multimillion dollar company were, writing television shows and segments that nobody cared about, high paying guaranteed contracts to wrestlers who clearly were not worth the price, not building up any future talent to carry the load, cheatum the evil one-eyed midget, giving away Hogan/Goldberg on free tv to try to beat the WWE's rating, paying James Brown $10,000 to dance for a few minutes for an unadvertised appearance, etc. They've always had the opportunity to make some high quality shows with all the talent that they possessed, but instead the fan gets Hollywood Hogan looking into the mirror only to see the Warrior looking back at him or Cactus Jack getting amnesia. I know you can't show the same two guys wrestle all the time, even if they're putting out classics left and right, but I would've enjoyed seeing maybe a Benoit/Flair showdown or Sting/Guerrero instead of the same lame Hogan/Savage in a "Age in the Cage", "DNA Test for Torrie's Baby", or whatever the stipulation might be.

I also have to agree that the WWE's Invasion could've made a lot more money than it probably did. WCW did have many campy moments, MANY crappy moments, and yes it also had some great moments (especially the 80's). Overall, I loved the book and would rate it a 10 out of 10. By the way, did that part about Jericho running away from Wrath and then both wrestlers stopped running once they THOUGHT the show went to commercial but didn't make you literally laugh out loud for ten straight minutes like it did for me?

Duran

This is a comment for your book club on The Death of WCW. I was never a really big WCW fan but I decided to read the book anyway. It showed me some things about WCW I never knew. I always assumed it was bad luck that the company went out of business. Reading all of the WCW related books and articles are very strange. WWE did the exact same thing with ECW. Publishing books, showing how ECW failed, and having an ECW one night stand. Then ECW became a WWE show, and Paul Heyman is the general manager of it. I think Smackdown, which is my favorite wrestling program, might become WCW. Teddy Long is the current GM, but Eric Bischoff was just on WWE.com recently. If he came to Smackdown as the new GM, it could easily become WCW. Smackdown already has the Cruiser Weight belt, which was started in WCW. And Smackdown has the only five time, five time, five time, five time, five time WCW heavy weight champion, Booker T, with the same title belt. Smackdown also already has the U.S. belt, another title from WCW, held by the greatest wrestler of all time; Storm, Lance.. Of course they would all still be owned by Vince but I think it would raise a lot more interest for Smackdown to switch over, but if the shows stay the same it may be embarrassing that the WCW is so much better than the WWE. Also Eric Bischoff commented on DX being a good rip off of the NWO and I heard there might be a feud between the two, possibly bringing back Waltman and Hall to represent the NWO. Sorry if this is all off topic, but I feel that the whole purpose of this book and all the WCW stuff is just to help build up for the re-establishment of a WCW brand. Overall I liked the book, it was easy to read and interesting.