Despite Being an Entertaining Read, Bischoff’s Tale Doesn’t Tread Much New Ground

ebcccRegardless of your affinity for the wrestling industry, it was pretty hard not to notice the explosion the industry was going through almost a decade ago that created legions of hardcore fans that still watch to this day. One of the main reasons for that explosion was Eric Bischoff, who turned WCW from a washed-up regional promotion into a multi-million dollar company and forced the WWE to shake things up.

His new book, “Controversy Creates Cash,” co-written with Jeremy Roberts, while being an immensely enjoyable read for any wrestling fan, fails to really bring out many of the juicy details of the Monday Night Wars that haven’t already mentioned in numerous WWE documentaries over the years and is riddled with numerous typos that take away some of the books brightness and charm. Despite that, it’s still a worthwhile read for any wrestling fan.

Chronicling the life and career of Bischoff, “Controversy Creates Cash” tells the story of a kid from a low income family in Detroit who eventually became the only man to ever beat Vince McMahon at his own game, battling everyone and everything in his way in an attempt to stay on top, only to lose and be hired by his competition a few years later.

Considering the fact that all the books that have written about the wrestling industry during this time period have been written by outsiders, “Controversy Creates Cash” gives the reader Bischoff’s unique interpretation that was unavailable previously.

Due to its conversationalist’s tone, the entire book feels like you’re having a one on one conversation with Bischoff. Hearing stories about his early days as an amateur wrestler in high school to his early days in the AWA are a pleasure to read and shed some light on a person that has been blasted so many times on the Internet during his professional career, that it was impossible to separate him from his persona he played on TV, before the writing of this book.

As a matter of fact, throughout the course of the book, Bischoff manages to put an end to many of the rumors started about him on the Internet over the years, resulting in a few instances of wit and sarcasm that really help the book shine. Despite that, once Bischoff finishes talking about his pre-WCW days, the book becomes something much different.

While reading Bischoff’s explanations as to why he fired wrestlers like Steve Austin, the Honky Tonk Man and Sean Waltman are extremely entertaining; you get the feeling that Bischoff is pulling his punches a little bit. Instances of this can be seen when he discusses the personal problems of Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. For some reason, Bischoff fails to go into enough detail about them to really entice the reader, making it all a big tease. The same thing goes for the infamous Sid Vicious – Arn Anderson scissor fight, which is mentioned, but is never discussed in the detail that could have made the book a cult classic.

As well, Bischoff never tells the reader how controversy creates cash. Instead, he spends dozens of pages talking about how inner-office politics killed WCW and how they wouldn’t let him be controversial, making the reader confused as to why the book was named what it was.

In addition, various typos in the last section of the book, take away much of the shine and polish off an otherwise decently-written book. Things like referring to the Steiner Brothers as the Stemer Brothers and the Sterner Brothers within the space of three paragraphs and various obvious sentence fragments take credibility away from the story.

However, despite its problems, the book is still an interesting read because Bischoff is an interesting and intriguing person.

Doing everything from competing in karate tournaments all over the world to being a male model, Bischoff’s life mirrors Tom Hanks’s in “Forrest Gump.”

Considering that, hearing how he became the king of the professional wrestling industry after being a salesman in the AWA and a third-string announcer in WCW is an intriguing tale of perseverance, hard work and luck that every fan of the squared circle should give a chance.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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