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December 19, 2006
Controversy Creates Storm vs. Bischoff
Lance Storm and Eric Bischoff are having a war of written words. Storm, a notorious bookworm, did not like Bischoff's book Controversy Creates Cash. Bischoff in turn doesn't have a whole lot of nice things to say about Storm. Both diatribes are interesting reads, point-counterpoint.
And now here are my two cents no one asked for: Having read Controversy Creates Cash, I can say that Lance is more correct about his review of Eric's book than Eric is in his account of Lance's motivation behind his critique. Although Eric is also correct when he says Lance Storm doesn't have "it", but that has nothing to do with whether or not his book is any good.
The issue behind why Bischoff attacked Storm the way he did I think lies in the fact that Storm encourages others to skip Controversy Creates Cash and read The Death of WCW, written by contributors to Wrestling Observer, instead. Nevermind that doing so takes money out of Bischoff's pocket, but also, Bischoff (as he makes clear in the book) has complete and utter disdain for dirt sheet writers in general and Dave Meltzer and Wade Keller by name. Choosing to attack Lance Storm's charisma or lack thereof was just an evasion akin to the greater evasion that he goes into in his book.
The fact is, for those who haven't or won't read Controversy Creates Cash, Bischoff never does what most anyone who buys the book expects and wants most: He does not take credit for the death of WCW. He takes the lion's share of the credit for its success and points the blame at numerous others for its downfall. The most blame he takes is along the lines of "I should have done more to stop it but I was too burned out by everything." He does NOT accept responsibility for Sting's botched booking at Starrcade 1997 and after, Bret Hart's botched booking, the watering down of the nWo, or any of the thousand other things that compiled to kill the company. Nor does he adequately explain the decision-making behind all the mistakes that happened on his watch.
Now, is Bischoff actually the sole person responsible? No, he isn't, any more than Vince McMahon would be the SOLE person responsible if WWE went out of business. I mean, Bischoff didn't run the company all alone. But as head of WCW for most of it's run, he can be HELD responsible. If he is accountable for WCW's incredible success, and he gladly and hungrily takes all that credit, then he is also accountable for WCW's demise.
What most readers want is a mea culpa and it never arrives. That's because Bischoff probably doesn't believe in his heart of hearts he should be blamed for WCW's death. But also, who can blame the guy for wanting to dwell on the glory of WCW's meteoric rise under his watch?
Furthermore, Storm is absolutely in the right for being disappointed by the book. The fact that he "wasn't there" is actually the point. None of us were there. That's the entire point! That's why we want(ed) to read the book. Eric Bischoff was there, in the most intimate way possible. And he doesn't deliver the whole story, just what makes him look as heroic and later as blameless as possible.
Everything else Lance Storm says about bad writing and factual inaccuracies is accurate. Especially the part about Controversy Creates Cash being a bad book.
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