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The Death of WCW cover art

The Death of WCW

Written by: R.D. Reynolds, Bryan Alvarez
Narrated by: Bryan Alvarez
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Publisher's Summary

What went wrong with WCW?

In 1997, World Championship Wrestling was on top. It was the number-one pro wrestling company in the world, and the highest-rated show on cable television. Each week, fans tuned in to Monday Nitro, flocked to sold-out arenas, and carried home truckloads of WCW merchandise. Sting, Bill Goldberg, and the New World Order were household names. Superstars like Dennis Rodman and KISS jumped on the WCW bandwagon. It seemed the company could do no wrong.

But by 2001, however, everything had bottomed out. The company - having lost a whopping 95% of its audience - was sold for next to nothing to Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment. WCW was laid to rest.

How could the company lose its audience so quickly? Who was responsible for shows so horrible that fans fled in horror? What the hell happened to cause the death of one of the largest wrestling companies in the world? The Death of World Championship Wrestling is the first book to take listeners through a detailed dissection of WCW's downfall.

©2014 R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Death of WCW

Average Customer Ratings
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    5 out of 5 stars

PHENOMENAL

A long and detailed history of wcw and more. Worth the listen. Brian Alvarez does a great job in narrating this story. Simply phenomenal

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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The Story Too Insane to Believe

While Death of WCW may ultimately have a bit of a barrier to entry, the story in general is equal parts fascinating and stunningly entertaining. Bryan Alvarez, a seasoned broadcaster in his own right, does a great job reading his own book with sarcasm, mockery, bemusement, and the occasional grim realization. One can only hope a 20th anniversary edition further explores what has, and hasn't, changed since this book first came out.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book

I have listened to this multiple times and while the story of WCW is well known now this is where a lot of that info came from.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wrestling lovers must Listen

Great story telling and backround happenings too all our favorite WCW blunders. Little confusing at times, but if you watched WCW you know what i mean.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Entertaining History of WCW

This was an enjoyable story to listen to. The reader was entertaining and the recap of how the WCW rose to prominence then horribly failed was excellent. It was a little over the top at times and so the reason I give it 4 stars. Other than that I definitely recommend it especially if you enjoy wrestling and, in my case, were around while this was going on. Four plus stars all the way!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Nice walk down memory lane.

I had to take a star of performance because of the distracting mispronounced words. There aren't that many, mind you, but they are pretty glaring and funny.

Overall good book and, despite what I just said, the narrator is pretty good.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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loved it

its eerie how similar WWE is now to WCW then. Great BOOK. Hope there's one for TNA in the future.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointing given my expectations.

As a fan of Wrestling Observer and having listened to hundreds of podcasts featuring Bryan Alvarez I was naturally VERY excited to some day pick up this audiobook. Unfortunately, the book experience completely failed to live up the experience you get from his podcasts on a regular bases. While comparing different mediums is admittedly not fair, it left me very disappointed with the final product especially given the asking price. The book itself is performed very well by Bryan. The content, however, is rather drab. Its difficult for me to explain why. Bryan would frequently gloss over things which no doubt left an impression on people who saw the moment back in the day or have experienced it through is podcasts...but if you weren't familiar with the source material in question then it came off as either not that bad or hard to appreciate. The book jumps timelines constantly which makes things a little tricky to follow as well. As I said, its difficult for me to explain this stuff...just know that the story is not told in as fun or as interesting a way as you'd expect if you are a fan of his daily work. I wouldn't recommend this book but I do very highly recommend his podcast work.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Jealous ex

Seemed like something a jealous ex lover would write to completely bash the former lover

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Repetitive and nothing revolutionary

Same story any wrestling fan has heard, read, watched 1000 times. Found that the author's seem to repeat it's same points over and over. Not terrible but not good either.

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