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Post by Halloween on Dec 10, 2015 17:57:47 GMT -5
The Death of WCW. Bought it way back in the day (Like 05-06 if I remember correctly) and trusted what was written because I was a dumb kid. A number of years later I started watching old WCW shows and learning more about WCW thanks to shoot interviews becoming huge and guys like Eric Bischoff being released from their WWE contracts and discussing the topic. Having looked back on the book now I feel they're pretty harsh on WCW and a lot of the times point blank fabricate things to get a "LOL WCW" comment in. They very much believe that Eric Bischoff is a one trick pony who was in the right place at the right time and I just never got into that. Any examples of things that were fabricated? I've read it loads of times but never really sought out alternative sources so I'm curious. Admittedly generally pretty small things but off the top of my head they claimed in an early 2001 edition of Nitro when WCW was building to the mystery man at Sin reveal. The mystery man had attacked Rick Steiner the week before and Rick Steiner came out the week after, pulled off the mask and revealed he was the mystery man. In reality Rick Steiner hadn't even returned to WCW on the week they claimed he was attacked. He returned a week later and never said anything about him being the mystery man. The book plays it as "Haha WCW is so dumb that they had a guy attack himself" but it was never that at all and was fabricated. Due to that book the "Rick Steiner attacked himself" story has remained forever. They also claim that on a tour of Australia that WCW had made an agreement to buy any unsold seats which cost the company millions on what should have been a successful tour. Not only does the story make no sense (WCW was paid to come over and received a fee) but Vince Russo has said in the past that the tour was one of the few financial successes that WCW had in the later years. They write about Evan Karaigas claiming that Three Count's album had gone platinum but was soon going to go gold. This was twisted to try and make WCW look bad. I remember coming across the episode years ago and whilst Karaigas did say it he said it as a comedy line and the announcers played it off as "Karaigas is an idiot" They claim that WCW added random wins to Goldberg which was never true at all. They also claim that Russo's suggestion that Tank Abbott win the WCW World Title is what got him released from his WCW creative duties. In reality Russo stepped down because he wanted to be the head writer and they wouldn't allow him. It's an okay book but you have to fact check a lot of what they say because they love the whole "HEY! CHECK OUT HOW STUPID WCW WAS!" angle and they'll twist things or make things up to back it up.
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Bad Books
Dec 10, 2015 18:34:06 GMT -5
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Post by Kevin Hamilton on Dec 10, 2015 18:34:06 GMT -5
Death of WCW, though entertaining, had a very clear agenda.
Can't speak to how factual it was or wasn't, but there was a definite theme they were going for beyond just an accurate work
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Deleted
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Bad Books
Dec 10, 2015 19:56:27 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2015 19:56:27 GMT -5
I may have read the Kurt Angle book "It's True, It's True" once. Gave me the impression of how Mick explained how the guy that was hired to write his book worked. A lot of repeating paragraphs and thoughts to stretch the book out. I couldn't get lost in his story.
I won't say Mike Hornbaker's book "Capitol Revolution" is bad. But it seemed as if they took the bulk of information from three chapters of his book on the NWA and made it a separate tome. If you haven't read either, the book is packed with great information. But if you read the NWA book, you really don't need the other. I was more disappointed than anything.
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Post by A Platypus Rave on Dec 10, 2015 20:33:03 GMT -5
Any examples of things that were fabricated? I've read it loads of times but never really sought out alternative sources so I'm curious. Admittedly generally pretty small things but off the top of my head they claimed in an early 2001 edition of Nitro when WCW was building to the mystery man at Sin reveal. The mystery man had attacked Rick Steiner the week before and Rick Steiner came out the week after, pulled off the mask and revealed he was the mystery man. In reality Rick Steiner hadn't even returned to WCW on the week they claimed he was attacked. He returned a week later and never said anything about him being the mystery man. The book plays it as "Haha WCW is so dumb that they had a guy attack himself" but it was never that at all and was fabricated. Due to that book the "Rick Steiner attacked himself" story has remained forever. They also claim that on a tour of Australia that WCW had made an agreement to buy any unsold seats which cost the company millions on what should have been a successful tour. Not only does the story make no sense (WCW was paid to come over and received a fee) but Vince Russo has said in the past that the tour was one of the few financial successes that WCW had in the later years. They write about Evan Karaigas claiming that Three Count's album had gone platinum but was soon going to go gold. This was twisted to try and make WCW look bad. I remember coming across the episode years ago and whilst Karaigas did say it he said it as a comedy line and the announcers played it off as "Karaigas is an idiot" They claim that WCW added random wins to Goldberg which was never true at all. They also claim that Russo's suggestion that Tank Abbott win the WCW World Title is what got him released from his WCW creative duties. In reality Russo stepped down because he wanted to be the head writer and they wouldn't allow him. It's an okay book but you have to fact check a lot of what they say because they love the whole "HEY! CHECK OUT HOW STUPID WCW WAS!" angle and they'll twist things or make things up to back it up. I believe they were talking about adding random wins to Sid's(?) winning streak not Goldberg.
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Post by 2coldMack is even more baffled on Dec 10, 2015 20:34:27 GMT -5
Admittedly generally pretty small things but off the top of my head they claimed in an early 2001 edition of Nitro when WCW was building to the mystery man at Sin reveal. The mystery man had attacked Rick Steiner the week before and Rick Steiner came out the week after, pulled off the mask and revealed he was the mystery man. In reality Rick Steiner hadn't even returned to WCW on the week they claimed he was attacked. He returned a week later and never said anything about him being the mystery man. The book plays it as "Haha WCW is so dumb that they had a guy attack himself" but it was never that at all and was fabricated. Due to that book the "Rick Steiner attacked himself" story has remained forever. They also claim that on a tour of Australia that WCW had made an agreement to buy any unsold seats which cost the company millions on what should have been a successful tour. Not only does the story make no sense (WCW was paid to come over and received a fee) but Vince Russo has said in the past that the tour was one of the few financial successes that WCW had in the later years. They write about Evan Karaigas claiming that Three Count's album had gone platinum but was soon going to go gold. This was twisted to try and make WCW look bad. I remember coming across the episode years ago and whilst Karaigas did say it he said it as a comedy line and the announcers played it off as "Karaigas is an idiot" They claim that WCW added random wins to Goldberg which was never true at all. They also claim that Russo's suggestion that Tank Abbott win the WCW World Title is what got him released from his WCW creative duties. In reality Russo stepped down because he wanted to be the head writer and they wouldn't allow him. It's an okay book but you have to fact check a lot of what they say because they love the whole "HEY! CHECK OUT HOW STUPID WCW WAS!" angle and they'll twist things or make things up to back it up. I believe they were talking about adding random wins to Sid's(?) winning streak not Goldberg. Yeah, they never mentioned padding Goldberg's streak at all to my memory, but yeah, Sid's was immensely padded.
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Cranjis McBasketball☝🏻
Crow T. Robot
Knew what the hell that thing was supposed to be
Peace Love and Nothing But
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Post by Cranjis McBasketball☝🏻 on Dec 10, 2015 20:43:23 GMT -5
I believe they were talking about adding random wins to Sid's(?) winning streak not Goldberg. Yeah, they never mentioned padding Goldberg's streak at all to my memory, but yeah, Sid's was immensely padded. No, they mention it. Said people started keeping a real count and Goldberg was getting more wins than shows WCW ran.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2015 20:49:20 GMT -5
of course SID's streak was padded, that was the whole point of it right? I mean, like 75% of his "wins" came from powerbombing luchadors in the locker room.
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MiLB Fan
Fry's dog Seymour
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Post by MiLB Fan on Dec 10, 2015 21:02:31 GMT -5
The Death of WCW. Bought it way back in the day (Like 05-06 if I remember correctly) and trusted what was written because I was a dumb kid. A number of years later I started watching old WCW shows and learning more about WCW thanks to shoot interviews becoming huge and guys like Eric Bischoff being released from their WWE contracts and discussing the topic. Having looked back on the book now I feel they're pretty harsh on WCW and a lot of the times point blank fabricate things to get a "LOL WCW" comment in. They very much believe that Eric Bischoff is a one trick pony who was in the right place at the right time and I just never got into that. Any examples of things that were fabricated? I've read it loads of times but never really sought out alternative sources so I'm curious. This would probably be considered more factual inaccuracy than fabrication, but I'll mention it anyway: The book claims that at SuperBrawl 9, tag team champions Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko beat Curt Hennig and Barry Windham, then lost the belts in a rematch that took place immediately after. Except, that's not what happened. The match was the final round of a double-elimination tournament to crown new champions. Hennig and Windham had gone undefeated until Benoit and Malenko scored the upset, so one more match had to be contested to decide who would walk out with the titles. Also--and I realize I'm getting nitpicky now--the authors state that Windham knocked Malenko out with one of the titles to score a quick win. It was a bit more simple than that: Windham just took the belt off his blue jeans and used it to choke Malenko unconscious while the referee's back was turned.
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Post by Kevin Hamilton on Dec 10, 2015 21:07:47 GMT -5
I keep reading this thread title to the tune of Bad Blood.
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Post by kingoftheindies on Dec 10, 2015 23:49:20 GMT -5
While not terrible books Jericho's 2nd and 3rd books were huge let downs from Lion's Tale. Undisputed was okay, but I found the Fozzy stuff boring, and the 3rd book just wasn't that interesting. The final 2 books also suffer from Jericho trying to be overly funny while his first book came off natural. (Like every time he talks about Mick Foley in book 2 he mentions how Mick never beat him in a match)
Death of WCW is a solid read, but there were enough inaccuracies to make some points come off a bit confusing.
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Post by Mayonnaise on Dec 11, 2015 0:01:01 GMT -5
Yeah, they never mentioned padding Goldberg's streak at all to my memory, but yeah, Sid's was immensely padded. No, they mention it. Said people started keeping a real count and Goldberg was getting more wins than shows WCW ran. Yeah, I think the story was early on Goldberg was billed at something like 6-0 after winning on Thunder and showed up on the next Nitro billed at 19-0. Those aren't the exact numbers (and I don't think) but was the story.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2015 0:11:41 GMT -5
Daniel Bryan's book was good overall, but the sections (seemingly written by a WWE intern) bragging about his life as a big superstar inserted at the start of each chapter really hurt the flow of the book. I always skip those parts. Unfortuantely, it makes a book that was already a little too short that much shorter. I think they were written by the guy who was going to ghost-write the whole thing, but like Mick Foley, Bryan realized he could write it himself. Unlike Foley, he tossed the guy a bone and let him do those chapter intros, which would make sense with Bryan's super-niceness.
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Post by Halloween on Dec 11, 2015 2:38:42 GMT -5
of course SID's streak was padded, that was the whole point of it right? I mean, like 75% of his "wins" came from powerbombing luchadors in the locker room. You're correct. They did claim that Goldberg was padded but with the power of the internet the fans have gone back and counted each WCW win and WCW was telling the truth all along.
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Zach
Trap-Jaw
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Post by Zach on Dec 11, 2015 9:42:28 GMT -5
World Wrestling Insanity, which was like a ripoff of Death of WCW but about how Steph and HHH are ruining WWE, complete with very a very badly photoshopped cover.
I liked Death of WCW but looking back now you realize how a lot of it was BS. Blaming people like Kevin Nash or even Bischoff who was barely around near the end for killing the company when it wouldn't have mattered anyway since AOL/Time Warner execs didn't even know what night of the week Nitro came on and didn't want to air a wrestling program.
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Bad Books
Dec 11, 2015 10:31:39 GMT -5
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Post by wwefan24 on Dec 11, 2015 10:31:39 GMT -5
I never watched wcw but have read the death of wcw book. Interesting to know that it's not all gospel. Personally I find Shawn Michaels second book particularly bad. Got it for 1.99 on the kindle store. Only read 50 odd pages. Can't finish it, I've given up. Road warrior animals book isn't that great either.
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Post by 2coldMack is even more baffled on Dec 11, 2015 11:21:05 GMT -5
World Wrestling Insanity, which was like a ripoff of Death of WCW but about how Steph and HHH are ruining WWE, complete with very a very badly photoshopped cover. I liked Death of WCW but looking back now you realize how a lot of it was BS. Blaming people like Kevin Nash or even Bischoff who was barely around near the end for killing the company when it wouldn't have mattered anyway since AOL/Time Warner execs didn't even know what night of the week Nitro came on and didn't want to air a wrestling program. Here's the rub on that: Do you think "We don't want wrestling" from one exec would have mattered if the company was making a profit? Hell no, it would have stayed on, and Kellner would have been vetoed, because money talks. And why wasn't WCW turning a profit? Because of the booking of men like Bischoff(One trick pony. It was a really impressive trick, but it was all he had), Kevin Nash(egomaniac) and Vince Russo(Complete lunatic).
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Post by Gerard Gerard on Dec 12, 2015 8:00:05 GMT -5
Austin's was as dry as crackers. Whatever guy they got to do the ghosting on it reads like a last-minute fill-in who'd absolutely no affinity for the little things like fluidity of expression and general flow. It reads like a stop-start hodge-podge.
As to the claims in this thread of braggadocio present within Foley's third book, you should really avoid Mick Foley's appearance on Marc Maron's WTF podcast.
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Post by 2coldMack is even more baffled on Dec 12, 2015 15:12:03 GMT -5
Yeah, Austin's was very devoid of any real feeling, where Foley, even though you can tell he's patting himself on the back a ton, it feels genuine to the guy.
I also wasn't a big fan of Goldust's book. Don't get me wrong, his story of overcoming addiction and coming back better than he was in his prime is awesome, but the book itself just didn't grip me.
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Post by Slingshot Suplay on Dec 14, 2015 14:34:25 GMT -5
Any examples of things that were fabricated? I've read it loads of times but never really sought out alternative sources so I'm curious. Admittedly generally pretty small things but off the top of my head they claimed in an early 2001 edition of Nitro when WCW was building to the mystery man at Sin reveal. The mystery man had attacked Rick Steiner the week before and Rick Steiner came out the week after, pulled off the mask and revealed he was the mystery man. In reality Rick Steiner hadn't even returned to WCW on the week they claimed he was attacked. He returned a week later and never said anything about him being the mystery man. The book plays it as "Haha WCW is so dumb that they had a guy attack himself" but it was never that at all and was fabricated. Due to that book the "Rick Steiner attacked himself" story has remained forever. They also claim that on a tour of Australia that WCW had made an agreement to buy any unsold seats which cost the company millions on what should have been a successful tour. Not only does the story make no sense (WCW was paid to come over and received a fee) but Vince Russo has said in the past that the tour was one of the few financial successes that WCW had in the later years. They write about Evan Karaigas claiming that Three Count's album had gone platinum but was soon going to go gold. This was twisted to try and make WCW look bad. I remember coming across the episode years ago and whilst Karaigas did say it he said it as a comedy line and the announcers played it off as "Karaigas is an idiot" They claim that WCW added random wins to Goldberg which was never true at all. They also claim that Russo's suggestion that Tank Abbott win the WCW World Title is what got him released from his WCW creative duties. In reality Russo stepped down because he wanted to be the head writer and they wouldn't allow him. It's an okay book but you have to fact check a lot of what they say because they love the whole "HEY! CHECK OUT HOW STUPID WCW WAS!" angle and they'll twist things or make things up to back it up. I agree. I think that the Death of WCW book is the source of all of the constantly repeated misinformation about WCW that flew around the 'net in the early to mid 2000's and that the WWE dvds about the monday night wars just added to the pile on.
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Bad Books
Dec 14, 2015 16:03:10 GMT -5
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Post by BlackJackRobby on Dec 14, 2015 16:03:10 GMT -5
Kurt Angle, Chyna, Rock
Those are the only ones I was unable to read as they just were awful and didn't seem real.
I think they were ghost written cash outs from the great Mick Foley book.
Hogan's book also stinks somewhat compared to what it should've been. Yet it doesn't reach humiliation level like my above mentioned three.
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