Lardlad
El Dandy
Live reaction to @WWE #WWENetwork
Posts: 8,251 
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Post by Lardlad on Jan 15, 2013 16:59:48 GMT -5
I saw this posted on Bryan Alvarez's FB today. I already own the original book so I won't likely get the new edition, but if you don't own a copy, do yourself a favor.
Bryan Alvarez and RD Reynolds announced today on Figure Four Daily that they have signed a deal with ECW Press to write a newly-expanded 10-year anniversary edition of the 2005 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Book of the Year, “The Death of WCW”.
The original manuscript was significantly larger than the final product, largely due to the wrestling book market being significantly smaller at the time. Nearly everything that was cut out will be included in the revised edition, plus it will feature tons of quotes from the major players, a look at the ten years following the death of the company, a section debunking criticisms of the first book (“WCW died because of the AOL/Time Warner merger”), THE WOLFPAC, and more.
The book, which will be released in a limited-edition hardcover version as well (Bryan made sure that was in the contract), is expected to be released in mid-2014.
If you have suggestions of topics to tackle or expand upon in this edition, email them to Bryan@wrestlingobserver.com. We’d also appreciate hearing from anyone who lived through that period, wrestlers, office staff, etc. at that same address. Everything will be forwarded on to RD as well.
Thanks so much to everyone for all of the support. We hope that this anniversary edition will be a book that can be looked back upon historically as the definitive, most factually-accurate book detailing the death of what was, for a brief period, the biggest wrestling company in the history of the world.
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Jan 15, 2013 17:22:03 GMT -5
I'll probably buy it. The original is one of my favourite books.
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Post by tigermaskxxxvii on Jan 15, 2013 18:52:56 GMT -5
I remember seeing a preview for I believe Kayfabe Commentaries YouShoot interview with Vince Russo in which Sean Oliver tries to ask Vinny-Ru questions but Vince is too distracted reading The Death of WCW to answer him. I can't find the video anywhere on the KC site. What's the deal?
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Lardlad
El Dandy
Live reaction to @WWE #WWENetwork
Posts: 8,251
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Post by Lardlad on Jan 15, 2013 19:27:10 GMT -5
^^ Very strange since it was a YouShoot Live and it's not listed on their website anymore. All the other YouShoots including Dixie's Live on are there.  kayfabecommentaries.com/YS_Main.html |
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Post by notasmark on Jan 15, 2013 20:18:31 GMT -5
The book is a fun read but a lot of stuff is just dirt sheet stuff. It does go into the realm of "Everything past 97 sucks" which just isn't true at all.
I think to get a proper scope of how everything went down you need Eric Bischoff's book and a few shoot interviews (Vince Russo's with Ed Ferrara are great)
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Lardlad
El Dandy
Live reaction to @WWE #WWENetwork
Posts: 8,251
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Post by Lardlad on Jan 16, 2013 5:49:32 GMT -5
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Post by bobversion1 on Jan 16, 2013 6:50:59 GMT -5
^^ Very strange since it was a YouShoot Live and it's not listed on their website anymore. All the other YouShoots including Dixie's Live on are there. kayfabecommentaries.com/YS_Main.htmlIt's possible they decided not to sell it because it was painfully bad.. I felt ripped off even though I think it was only $14.95. Not to mention, my favorite baseball team, the new York mets, just so happened to get there first ever no hitter that night and I missed it... |
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Lardlad
El Dandy
Live reaction to @WWE #WWENetwork
Posts: 8,251
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Post by Lardlad on Jan 25, 2013 12:17:01 GMT -5
^^ Very strange since it was a YouShoot Live and it's not listed on their website anymore. All the other YouShoots including Dixie's Live on are there. kayfabecommentaries.com/YS_Main.htmlIt's possible they decided not to sell it because it was painfully bad.. I felt ripped off even though I think it was only $14.95. Not to mention, my favorite baseball team, the new York mets, just so happened to get there first ever no hitter that night and I missed it... Saw someone ask a similar question over at the KC boards and this was Sean Oliver's response: The "Unavailable" was the OnDemand feed for the two days after the PPV. We hope to have a YouShoot: Russo DVD by this summer. It's having additional footage shot, adding an interesting twist. |
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Post by wrestleauthor on Jan 25, 2013 15:49:14 GMT -5
I read the original version, but am looking forward to seeing the updated one.
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Post by Stu on Jan 25, 2013 15:56:14 GMT -5
Wonder if they'll clarify the David Arquette fiasco and specify that he was far from the villain in that story.
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tms
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,901
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Post by tms on Jan 25, 2013 21:09:19 GMT -5
Wonder if they'll clarify the David Arquette fiasco and specify that he was far from the villain in that story. They acted like DDP was just a no-name scrub who was only popular because he was friends with the boss, so I wouldn't hold my breath. Never mind the fact that Page was arguably a top 5 face from that era. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2013 1:13:20 GMT -5
I got this book as a gift given to me a few years ago as I was a childhood fan of WCW (and WWF, but in the UK it seemed plausible to be both as long as you had a tape trading older brother) and it really seemed to pull 2 lies out of the bag for every 1 truth.
It's not a good read, I like RD and I like Bryan, but the book is a mess of opinions painted as fact without actually explaining HOW the things they say affected later growth/profits, usually because with some study you'll find the opinions usually don't correlate to the death of WCW at all.
I mean I don't want a book on how Time Warner cancelled WCW and sold it off at $4 or whatever million dollars, but too much of the book is absolute retrospective fact changing. As TMS said above the DDP fan response opinions made me think these were two guys who never watched WCW but saw DDP in WWF during 2001 and assumed he was a scrub hence his bizarre heel role, not that the two writers were well respected nice guys who whenever you speak to them type fact differently from opinion.
Yeah, please, if any one is an old school WCW fan don't buy it, it's not accurate at all.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2013 3:11:49 GMT -5
I got this book as a gift given to me a few years ago as I was a childhood fan of WCW (and WWF, but in the UK it seemed plausible to be both as long as you had a tape trading older brother) and it really seemed to pull 2 lies out of the bag for every 1 truth. It's not a good read, I like RD and I like Bryan, but the book is a mess of opinions painted as fact without actually explaining HOW the things they say affected later growth/profits, usually because with some study you'll find the opinions usually don't correlate to the death of WCW at all. I mean I don't want a book on how Time Warner cancelled WCW and sold it off at $4 or whatever million dollars, but too much of the book is absolute retrospective fact changing. As TMS said above the DDP fan response opinions made me think these were two guys who never watched WCW but saw DDP in WWF during 2001 and assumed he was a scrub hence his bizarre heel role, not that the two writers were well respected nice guys who whenever you speak to them type fact differently from opinion. Yeah, please, if any one is an old school WCW fan don't buy it, it's not accurate at all. Yeah I agree. I didn't care for the book either. It could have made a nice sequel to the Wrestlecrap book (though I even thought the Wrestlecrap book quickly went from a fun retelling of awful storylines to more disgruntled stories of how Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff ruined wrestling) celebrating the awfulness of WCW as it be should in hindsight. Alvarez I think just gets too emotionally charged up to be objectively telling a story about wrestling gone wrong and I think RD was out of his element with this book. Too many tips from "anonymous sources" and a lot of details missed or misrepresented. I get that they had length limitations and I know there are limitations to what sources they can name, but that should be all the more reason for them to know this wasn't really their story to tell. |
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mizerable
Fry's dog Seymour
You're the lowest on the totem pole here, Alva. The lowest.
Posts: 23,475
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Post by mizerable on Jan 26, 2013 3:38:48 GMT -5
I enjoy the book a lot, but it does have plenty of massive flaws. A lot of which became opinions of people on this board, which I would assume never watched WCW and just took their word for it;
Flair could apparently do no wrong. Despite the fact, he made a lot of booking errors and ruined a lot of good storylines through the years. I love the guy, but the guy was hardly a causality of Hogan's reign on top.
Sid was mostly at fault for the scissors incident. This pissed me off the most, since I believed it for the longest time. Now, I'm not declaring amnesty for Sid, but after hearing several reports and shoots, it's pretty clear how things transpired. Sid was annoyed that the main event was filled with old timers, specifically Flair. Now, shooting off at the mouth isn't smart, but apparently everyone was super drunk. After an argument with Arn, people tried to break things up but Arn wouldn't let it go. Arn finally instigated a brawl by throwing a drink, which again got broke up, then kept talking trash in the hotel alley and NOT letting the argument die. Arn had threatened him with a broken bottle and even told Sid to come prepared. Finally, Sid grabbed a chair leg since Arn would not quit. They were both ready to go at it, so it's not like Sid blindsided Arn or anything. Oh...and Arn was the one who pulled the scissors on Sid and stabbed him first in the stomach, then lost control of the scissors and Sid grabbed them in defense. In my humble opinion, Arn was going for attempted murder, and Sid reacted in a plausible fashion. If someone stabs me and loses the weapon, I'm going to grab it so that he doesn't attack me with it again. Arn apparently didn't remember anything from the events. It's good that they patched things up, but holy hell does it annoy me that the book painted Sid as this dumb savage.
Vader was apparently buried by Hogan. Keep in mind, that Vader kicked...no POWERED out of the Hogan legdrop at a ONE COUNT, he looked amazing throughout his entire feud with Hogan. It's not like Hogan was pinning him left and right. Hell, most of the feud involved Flair getting involved for no f***ing reason. Vader likely had a healthy career with WCW, but according to the book, Hogan and the gang drove him out.
Even things that were kayfabed were reported as real in the book.
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Post by Oh Cry Me a Screwball on Jan 26, 2013 3:47:33 GMT -5
Even things that were kayfabed were reported as real in the book. Yeah, like how they took Sid's "winning streak" in 1999 seriously. Anyone who actually watched the show knew that Sid wasn't really undefeated, and was making up bogus victories to dig at Goldberg, yet somehow RD and Bryan interpreted that as WCW actually promoting Sid to be undefeated. |
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mrjl
Fry's dog Seymour
Posts: 20,319
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Post by mrjl on Jan 26, 2013 8:56:43 GMT -5
Even things that were kayfabed were reported as real in the book. Yeah, like how they took Sid's "winning streak" in 1999 seriously. Anyone who actually watched the show knew that Sid wasn't really undefeated, and was making up bogus victories to dig at Goldberg, yet somehow RD and Bryan interpreted that as WCW actually promoting Sid to be undefeated. well, took the fact that they were humoring him seriously. Goldberg's streak numbers were never announced. The ring announcer listed Sid'd supposed victories. |
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Post by RowdyRobbyPiper on Jan 26, 2013 11:43:56 GMT -5
I enjoy the book a lot, but it does have plenty of massive flaws. A lot of which became opinions of people on this board, which I would assume never watched WCW and just took their word for it; Flair could apparently do no wrong. Despite the fact, he made a lot of booking errors and ruined a lot of good storylines through the years. I love the guy, but the guy was hardly a causality of Hogan's reign on top. Sid was mostly at fault for the scissors incident. This pissed me off the most, since I believed it for the longest time. Now, I'm not declaring amnesty for Sid, but after hearing several reports and shoots, it's pretty clear how things transpired. Sid was annoyed that the main event was filled with old timers, specifically Flair. Now, shooting off at the mouth isn't smart, but apparently everyone was super drunk. After an argument with Arn, people tried to break things up but Arn wouldn't let it go. Arn finally instigated a brawl by throwing a drink, which again got broke up, then kept talking trash in the hotel alley and NOT letting the argument die. Arn had threatened him with a broken bottle and even told Sid to come prepared. Finally, Sid grabbed a chair leg since Arn would not quit. They were both ready to go at it, so it's not like Sid blindsided Arn or anything. Oh...and Arn was the one who pulled the scissors on Sid and stabbed him first in the stomach, then lost control of the scissors and Sid grabbed them in defense. In my humble opinion, Arn was going for attempted murder, and Sid reacted in a plausible fashion. If someone stabs me and loses the weapon, I'm going to grab it so that he doesn't attack me with it again. Arn apparently didn't remember anything from the events. It's good that they patched things up, but holy hell does it annoy me that the book painted Sid as this dumb savage. Vader was apparently buried by Hogan. Keep in mind, that Vader kicked...no POWERED out of the Hogan legdrop at a ONE COUNT, he looked amazing throughout his entire feud with Hogan. It's not like Hogan was pinning him left and right. Hell, most of the feud involved Flair getting involved for no f***ing reason. Vader likely had a healthy career with WCW, but according to the book, Hogan and the gang drove him out. Even things that were kayfabed were reported as real in the book. Hogan wasn't pinning Vader left, right and center, but the damage was done when Hulk no-sold the Vader bomb during their initial angle. Imagine watching the 1980's WWF and During his angles with Bundy and Earthquake, Hogan no-sells their attacks and finishers. That would have destroyed those guys and heir heat. Hogan should have done a stretcher job for Vader like he did for Bundy and Earthquake. Especially since Vader was much, much more intimidating (and was a better athlete to boot). |
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Lardlad
El Dandy
Live reaction to @WWE #WWENetwork
Posts: 8,251
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Post by Lardlad on Jan 26, 2013 13:59:58 GMT -5
I used to look forward to a future "The Rise and Fall of.." or "The Death of.." TNA book by the same two guys who wrote the WCW book.
But after reading this thread, not so much anymore.
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mizerable
Fry's dog Seymour
You're the lowest on the totem pole here, Alva. The lowest.
Posts: 23,475
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Post by mizerable on Jan 26, 2013 14:24:03 GMT -5
Hogan wasn't pinning Vader left, right and center, but the damage was done when Hulk no-sold the Vader bomb during their initial angle. Imagine watching the 1980's WWF and During his angles with Bundy and Earthquake, Hogan no-sells their attacks and finishers. That would have destroyed those guys and heir heat. Hogan should have done a stretcher job for Vader like he did for Bundy and Earthquake. Especially since Vader was much, much more intimidating (and was a better athlete to boot). By no-sold...do you mean taking the move multiple times? Because the first time he took he took it, he sold it pretty f***ing hardcore. It wasn't until he "Hulked Up" the second time that you could classify him as no selling it, which I don't since THAT WAS HOGAN'S THING. He did this to plenty of people...why the hell does Vader get singled out? Oh, and how well did that feud go down? Oh, that's right...Vader was DQed in just about every match because Flair f***ing got involved. |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2013 14:35:35 GMT -5
Hogan wasn't pinning Vader left, right and center, but the damage was done when Hulk no-sold the Vader bomb during their initial angle. Imagine watching the 1980's WWF and During his angles with Bundy and Earthquake, Hogan no-sells their attacks and finishers. That would have destroyed those guys and heir heat. Hogan should have done a stretcher job for Vader like he did for Bundy and Earthquake. Especially since Vader was much, much more intimidating (and was a better athlete to boot). By no-sold...do you mean taking the move multiple times? Because the first time he took he took it, he sold it pretty f***ing hardcore. It wasn't until he "Hulked Up" the second time that you could classify him as no selling it, which I don't since THAT WAS HOGAN'S THING. He did this to plenty of people...why the hell does Vader get singled out? Oh, and how well did that feud go down? Oh, that's right...Vader was DQed in just about every match because Flair f***ing got involved. Hogan no-sold Vader's powerbomb the very first time he took it (at the January 1995 Clash). |
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