Book Review - Controversy Creates Cash

I recently took a much needed vacation from work and for the first time went to Disney World. While this time of enjoyment was a refreshing experience, it was also an eye-opening one. To my surprise, I realized that Disney World is a place where adults can have just as much fun as the kids, and that essentially everything I thought I knew about Eric Bischoff was wrong.

You probably are wondering how Eric Bischoff would have anything to do with my vacation to Disney. Well, I normally don’t read much, but I figured that I might as well take a book with me to read on the flights and while waiting at the airports, and the book I chose was “Controversy Creates Cash” the autobiography of Eric Bischoff, co-written by Jeremy Roberts.

I had received this book as a Christmas present, and really had no expectations of ever reading it. After all, I thought I knew the whole story on Eric Bischoff and his role in WCW from watching the DVD “The Monday Night Wars.” I was surely in for a surprise.



I would never consider myself a wrestling insider by any means. I have never read dirt sheets and I don’t have the time to surf websites for behind-the-scenes information. But I do have a good memory as far as what happened on tv. As a teenager, I watched every single wrestling broadcast that I could. I rarely missed an episode of the then WWF shows like Raw and Mania, and the WCW shows like WCW Saturday Night. I could remember most of the on-air matches, feuds, and developments that were covered in the book. Being able to read about the details of what was going on behind the curtain during that era in WCW was a delight.

Of course, the claim to fame of this book is the coverage of the Monday Night Wars and the Fall of WCW.

During the implosion of WCW over the course of 2000 and 2001, I was in my Senior year of college and only took the time to follow WWE storylines. But, again, I thought I knew what really happened during that time period from watching “The Monday Night Wars.” To read about it the way Eric Bischoff lived it is an eye-opening experience. I think Vince McMahon and the rest of the Gerry Briscos and Sgt. Slaughters that made statements on the “Monday Night Wars” DVD should publicly recognize that there was much more to the descent of WCW than what was exposed on the disk.

I think Bischoff’s book, “Controversy Creates Cash” is an excellent read, and I think that anyone who is a die-hard fan of wrestling should read this book, especially if they lived through the period of time in the wrestling business know as the Monday Night Wars. I think it will serve as a balance that will even out the depictions of that epoch. I know I feel I have more well-rounded understanding of the dynamics of that time.

I might add that, as a member of management in a large corporation, and as an on-line business owner, I was also able to take some things from this book that I will use in my day-to-day work strategies, and my on-line marketing campaigns. Not only is Bischoff an excellent story-teller, he is also a savvy businessman and leader.

-NAPALM-