By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast with Guy Evans
Host: JP John Poz
Twitter: @TwoManPowerTrip
Website: www.tmptempire.com
Interview available at Tmptow.podomatic.com
On Eric Bischoff: “There’s some portions of the book that he has said were quite difficult to read about himself, n terms of some of the other comments that various WCW and Turner ex-employees had to say about him and his tenure with WCW. So certainly by no means, is it sort of a portrait of him that’s entirely positive. I think if anything, you could argue it probably skews more so the other. Um, especially once we get into what was happening in the last two or three years of the company. So, you know, I was obviously aware that he was either going to read the book or going to hear about what was in the book.
“Once it was published, you know, he was kind enough to give me probably four hours of his time in, in doing, you know, a couple of interviews, um, for the book. Um, and I knew he was, he was gonna be aware of it. You know, he very easily could have gone on his podcast and said, look, this is a bunch of BS; don’t believe any of of it. And I’m sure, you know, for many thousands of people that would probably be all they needed to hear the only excuse that they needed to not check out the book. Um, but actually he did the opposite. He said, you know, look there, there’s some things that I really didn’t like reading about myself here. And at time it times it was a painful read, but it’s what it is.”
Working on Eric Bischoff’s second autobiography “Grateful”: “Last Friday, we announced, the second autobiography by Eric Bischoff and it’s, we’re billing it as, something that was produced in partnership with myself. Um, so it’s something that, that Eric and I, um, have worked on now for a little over a year. The name of the book is “Grateful”, and really it tells the story of everything that’s happened in Eric’s life and career since ‘Controversy Creates Cash’ was released in 2006. So that there’s quite a lot of ground to cover there in terms of what’s happened with him personally and professionally. Some of the changes in the wrestling business has really actually gone through a lot of ups and downs, which I think he’s alluded to in the past in different interviews and podcasts and things of that nature. But in this book, we really delve into that, you know, some of the challenges that he’s had to overcome.”
On the success of his WCW Nitro book: “I think the approach that I took with the Nitro book, um, that I would like to think sort of sets it apart from other books in, in the genre. You know, first of all, going straight to the source and speaking to over 120, you know, former WCW and Turner employees, and actually getting these people, for the most part, on the record, you know, I was able to talk with, or, or discuss in the book, uh, with confidence, you know, the actual, you know, exact financial picture in WCW in a particular year, because as I was writing the book, I had those financial statements in front of me. You know, if the book references how much money the company made or, or lost in a given year, I can cross reference that back to the actual documents themselves. So, I think the combination of, of having access to those documents, you know, speaking to, to so many people trying as best as one person possibly could to filter out, you know, some of the input that, that was obviously motivated by malice and, and personal agendas. Not that that’s, you know, entirely possible to do, but, but, but that also was part of the process. And then just trying to always go back to the central mission of the book, which is to find out what, what was the truth here? What actually happened.”
On WCW’s sale to the WWF: “When you speak to some of the top wrestlers or even just the, the wrestlers in general, who were associated with WCW at the time, you know, Jamie Kellner is obviously a name that comes out of a lot of people’s mouths and, you know, uh, he’s, he’s obviously been blamed for, um, ultimately pulling the trigger on that decision to, to cancel WCW from the Turner networks. And prior to writing the book, you know, I, I had always read that supposedly he possessed a hatred for wrestling and was just not a fan of the genre whatsoever, you know, could not be talked out of that was not interested in, in considering anything other than, you know, I’m running the show now at, at Turner Broadcasting, and this has to go off the air end of story. And I kind of thought, well, you know what? This is probably more complex than that because if you’re axing a show, you know, that has been a staple of your networks for over 25 years in some form of fashion, I doubt that, you know, it was necessarily solely because of someone’s supposed personal hatred of the genre. And people can make up their own minds as to whether or not what I just said is true.
“If you read his quotes in the book, he kind of gives his perspective on the, the, the menu of options that he was presented with at the time and gives his rationale for why they did what they did. I know that I’ve heard from some people who’ve written to me and said and said, you know, actually that’s kind of changed my perspective on him. And I can sort of understand his perspective a little bit and why what happened actually happened. Um, and you know, I’m sure there are other people that maybe take a different stance again, you know, in the book, I really try to stray away from leading people in one direction or another. I’d rather present all of the size and let you decide. So people can just hear it straight from the horse’s mouth and then make up their own minds as to the veracity of his statements and how important he was in that ultimate decision.”
Other topics include The Monday Night Wars, his WCW Nitro book, WCW, the real finances of WCW, The Death of WCW book, Eric Bischoff, Vince McMahon, Brad Siegel, Stu Snyder, and more.
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