The Death of WCW by RD Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez, 334 pages
To paraphrase Edward Gibbon, there are two great problems in wrestling history - how to account for the rise of World Championship Wrestling, and how to account for its fall. In The Death of WCW, the creators of WrestleCrap.com come as close as anyone can to answering both questions.
In the early '90s, WCW challenged Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (subsequently renamed World Wrestling Entertainment) for the spot at the top of the pro wrestling heap. In what became known as the Monday Night Wars (because the most popular programs - WCW's Nitro and the WWF's Raw - aired opposite one another on Monday nights), the WCW scored early victories, setting new ratings records and driving the WWF to the brink of bankruptcy. Owner Ted Turner's deep pockets lured in many of the biggest names in wrestling, leading to one of wrestling's most celebrated storylines when wrestlers poached from the WWF "invaded" WCW as the New World Order. Nor was the WCW averse to innovation, providing many Anglo viewers with their first exposure to luchadores outside of watching El Santo movies with Joe Bob Briggs. The peak of the WCW was astonishingly brief, however - within a couple of years it was losing millions of dollars per month, until it was sold in 2001 to none other than archrival Vince McMahon.
This is a book about the business of pro wrestling, not a tell-all - the authors aren't interested in backstage shenanigans except insofar as they impacted the actual product. An informal style establishes a conversational tone - this is a work by fans for fans rather than an academic analysis. The reader might doubt some of the authors' conclusions, but they are certainly entirely plausible and backed by actual data where possible. An altogether fun, if ultimately tragic, tale of fame, greed, ego, and ambition, and how sometimes smart people make stupid choices.
