Former wrestling executive Eric Bischoff’s new memoir is a very different kind of read
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Managing Editor
Eric Bischoff is opinionated and unapologetic about it. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the resume to back all of it up.
“Grateful” is the follow-up to Bischoff’s 2006 memoir “Controversy Creates Ca$h” and there are a few notable differences this time around. “Grateful” is about half as long, and it covers Bischoff’s exploits from right where “Controversy Creates Ca$h” left off. There’s a different co-author, as Bischoff chose Guy Evans (the author of the long, detailed and acclaimed NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner’s WCW) as his partner this time around.
The book is formatted in a similar way to Evans’ NITRO, as there are no indentations and the text is mostly plain. Quotations, too, are structured differently, as there are no quotation marks and quotes are stylized in italics. It can be a bit jarring to those who are used to the normal way that books are structured.
But make no mistake… Bischoff’s voice is present throughout. Every single word on the page is his. And, Bischoff has quite the story to tell.
After his historically relevant presidency of WCW and his acclaimed mid-2000’s WWE run, Bischoff thought he was done with the professional wrestling business and attempted to move on to other projects. But his association and personal friendship with Hulk Hogan ended up with him getting involved with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) and he found himself back in the game.
Bischoff doesn’t have much fondness for those years in TNA, and he doesn’t mince words when criticizing the company, which has since downsized and changed its name. Bischoff’s primary frustrations are targeted towards TNA’s seemingly reluctant funding partner Panda Energy (a company that has since dissolved) and its owners, the Carter family. He actually is mostly fair to Dixie Carter, the then longtime president of TNA, and is perhaps one of the few people in the industry that have had nice things to say about her, even if he didn’t think she was made to run a wrestling company.
Most of his criticism is directed toward her parents Bob and Janice, and the fact that the company attempted to put him in positions he largely didn’t want to be in. But he also talks about his positive experiences with the company, including getting the opportunity to work directly with his son.
After a few years dealing with filing for bankruptcy and the resulting changes in his life, Bischoff details the beginnings of his forays into podcasting, why it didn’t work out and how he met and began a business relationship with podcaster Conrad Thompson. The resulting podcast, 83 Weeks (a reference to NITRO beating WWE’s television in the ratings for 83 weeks in a row), has become a huge success, and may have partially been responsible for Bischoff getting the call to return to the WWE in an executive role in 2019.
That role lasted a total of five months, and came to an abrupt end. For the first time in print since his firing, Bischoff speaks on the circumstances surrounding it, why the job wasn’t what he thought it was and his working relationship (and sometimes lack thereof) with then-WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon.
Bischoff also briefly speaks on McMahon’s abrupt “retirement” this past summer, as well as his highly publicized feelings regarding Tony Khan, the co-owner and CEO of All Elite Wrestling. While McMahon has returned to the WWE since the book’s publication under the auspices of facilitating a sale of the company, Bischoff’s words on the matter are respectful and no less meaningful.
Evans’ most notable visible contributions concern something rarely ever seen in a book before; there is a QR code at the end of each chapter that when scanned, leads to exclusive content, usually an interview between Evans and someone else involved with the chapter. It’s certainly a unique thing to include, and it helps make the book feel more personable.
“Grateful” is available to purchase through several outlets, including directly from the authors at https://guyevansbooks.com/.
