Book Review: Controversy Creates Cash by Eric Bischoff

Controversy Creates Cash by Eric Bischoff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In Controversy Creates Cash, former WCW executive Eric Bischoff gives his side of the story against a decades worth of bad press he received in the Internet Wrestling Community.  Bischoff quickly starts off by setting the record straight on some of his early life and how he got into the wrestling business in AWA.  Then goes through his ups and downs in WCW before leading the organization even coming close to quitting and going to Hollywood.  Once in charge of WCW, Bischoff explains his philosophy to make the organization successful and how he implemented it.  Bischoff also discussed how in 3 1/2 years, WCW went from being a multi-million dollar property to being sold for chum change and all the factors that led to it.

From the outset, Bischoff tells he readers he knows they come into reading autobiographies that they expect shameless self-promotion and/or b.s.  While Bischoff tries to avoid this, he's still guilty of doing this, more so on the self-promotion than on the b.s. though.  Bischoff repeatedly brings up the "dirt sheet" writers and after a while it gets old, but one can tell that he feels they were the one most responsible for giving false information about him.  Throughout the book, Bischoff does discuss some famous situations in which he had been cast as the villain, but instead of going all defensive Bischoff is very balanced.  If in retrospect Bischoff believes he mishandled a situation he lets the reader know, but he never throws a wrestler "under the bus" however if it was a corporate officer Bischoff takes them to task.

My opinion of this book changed throughout my reading of it, the first half of the book I was very positive but the majority of the latter part of the book I felt only so-so especially as Bischoff really let his frustrations show that even his co-author couldn't improve upon.  But considering that Eric Bischoff is the top five individuals ever in pro wrestler, I recommend this book.


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