chanandler20
12-23-2006, 12:01 AM
source: stormwrestling.com
Just two things I want to touch on in this commentary the first being a response to Eric Bischoff’s rebuttal to my thoughts on his book, and the second an update on the status of my throat injury.
I have been swamped this week with e-mails wanting my response to Eric Bischoff’s comments about me and my review of his book, “Controversy Creates Cash”. For those of you who missed it, Eric has responded to my scathing review of his book in his BLOG on his official web-site. Everyone seems to think I should be irate about this but in truth I am not. Those who throw stones should not live in glass houses, so if I think it is okay to openly voice my opinion about his book he should certainly be free to voice his about me and my career. The two quotes specifically that seemed to offend the most of you were: “Actually…Lance wasn’t really a significant part of anything during one of the most significant periods of the wrestling business” and “Lance didn’t have “it”.
Let me address these two comments directly. He’s right. During the most significant time in the wrestling industry I was part of ECW, which apart from being wildly entertaining and innovative never achieved “Significant” enough large-scale success to become a major player in the Monday Night War Era of the Wrestling Industry. By the time I entered WCW and received the biggest push of my career, as Eric so accurately put it, “the wheels had fallen off WCW”. As for me having “it”, again I don’t dispute that. The “it” he refers to is that mainstream appeal quality the Rocks, Austins, and Hogans of the world have; that ability to touch people on a different plain and truly draw business effecting money. I didn’t have it, never claimed to. My goal in this business was to be a respected worker, and to contribute solid matches I could be proud of, and in that I think I succeeded.
What struck me as odd with Eric’s rebuttal is that he specifically address my criticism of the books editing yet completely ignored addressing any of my concerns as per it’s content and how almost every poor booking decision (the botched climax to the year long Sting angle, or David Arquette’s World Title reign, etc.) where either glossed over or completely ignored. Instead Eric decided to redirect his comments towards me and avoid the issue yet again.
I also find his continued defense amusing, that since I (or anyone else for that matter) wasn’t there at the time, we could not possibly have an accurate opinion of what went on in WCW. There is a fantastic book out on the History of Stampede Wrestling called Pain and Passion, The History of Stampede Wrestling written by Heath McCoy. This is a great book, which several people who worked Stampede Wrestling have told me paints an extremely accurate picture of the History of Stampede Wrestling. Oddly enough Heath McCoy has never been a wrestler and has never once worked for Stampede Wrestling, he is in fact an Entertainment Columnist for the Calgary Herald. How is this possible?
It is possible because of a thing called research. Heath interviewed and spoke with dozens of people who DID work for Stampede wrestling and after listening to numerous accounts of the events managed to sift through the exaggerations and blame shifting opinions of individuals to find the truth. Books written by Outside sources are done all the time because they are more objective than the inside view of one person with a stake in the outcome of the tale being told. Anyone who thinks different is very naïve.
One last point before I lay this issue to rest. I thought this one quote quite amusing and ironic, “Lance never really achieved the level of success in the business he hoped for.” If my never being in WCW at the right time makes it impossible for me to have any knowledge of what went on there, I am curious by what strand of logic does Eric Bischoff think he is qualified to comment on what level of success I had hoped to achieve in my career? I don’t recall him being in my head when I had hopes for my level of success, nor have I ever discussed such matters with him. As I’ve mentioned here many times (and Jericho can vouch for this as we talked about it way back when we were in training camp) my goal was to be more a Brad Armstrong caliber worker than an Ultimate Warrior level Superstar. Any bitterness I may, or may not have, does not change the fact that there were numerous booking disasters that contributed to the down fall of WCW that were not address, or completely glossed over in the book.
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all i have to say is kudos to Lance because he responded to the situation in a very mature way and by reading his response he came out as the bigger man out of the whole thing
Just two things I want to touch on in this commentary the first being a response to Eric Bischoff’s rebuttal to my thoughts on his book, and the second an update on the status of my throat injury.
I have been swamped this week with e-mails wanting my response to Eric Bischoff’s comments about me and my review of his book, “Controversy Creates Cash”. For those of you who missed it, Eric has responded to my scathing review of his book in his BLOG on his official web-site. Everyone seems to think I should be irate about this but in truth I am not. Those who throw stones should not live in glass houses, so if I think it is okay to openly voice my opinion about his book he should certainly be free to voice his about me and my career. The two quotes specifically that seemed to offend the most of you were: “Actually…Lance wasn’t really a significant part of anything during one of the most significant periods of the wrestling business” and “Lance didn’t have “it”.
Let me address these two comments directly. He’s right. During the most significant time in the wrestling industry I was part of ECW, which apart from being wildly entertaining and innovative never achieved “Significant” enough large-scale success to become a major player in the Monday Night War Era of the Wrestling Industry. By the time I entered WCW and received the biggest push of my career, as Eric so accurately put it, “the wheels had fallen off WCW”. As for me having “it”, again I don’t dispute that. The “it” he refers to is that mainstream appeal quality the Rocks, Austins, and Hogans of the world have; that ability to touch people on a different plain and truly draw business effecting money. I didn’t have it, never claimed to. My goal in this business was to be a respected worker, and to contribute solid matches I could be proud of, and in that I think I succeeded.
What struck me as odd with Eric’s rebuttal is that he specifically address my criticism of the books editing yet completely ignored addressing any of my concerns as per it’s content and how almost every poor booking decision (the botched climax to the year long Sting angle, or David Arquette’s World Title reign, etc.) where either glossed over or completely ignored. Instead Eric decided to redirect his comments towards me and avoid the issue yet again.
I also find his continued defense amusing, that since I (or anyone else for that matter) wasn’t there at the time, we could not possibly have an accurate opinion of what went on in WCW. There is a fantastic book out on the History of Stampede Wrestling called Pain and Passion, The History of Stampede Wrestling written by Heath McCoy. This is a great book, which several people who worked Stampede Wrestling have told me paints an extremely accurate picture of the History of Stampede Wrestling. Oddly enough Heath McCoy has never been a wrestler and has never once worked for Stampede Wrestling, he is in fact an Entertainment Columnist for the Calgary Herald. How is this possible?
It is possible because of a thing called research. Heath interviewed and spoke with dozens of people who DID work for Stampede wrestling and after listening to numerous accounts of the events managed to sift through the exaggerations and blame shifting opinions of individuals to find the truth. Books written by Outside sources are done all the time because they are more objective than the inside view of one person with a stake in the outcome of the tale being told. Anyone who thinks different is very naïve.
One last point before I lay this issue to rest. I thought this one quote quite amusing and ironic, “Lance never really achieved the level of success in the business he hoped for.” If my never being in WCW at the right time makes it impossible for me to have any knowledge of what went on there, I am curious by what strand of logic does Eric Bischoff think he is qualified to comment on what level of success I had hoped to achieve in my career? I don’t recall him being in my head when I had hopes for my level of success, nor have I ever discussed such matters with him. As I’ve mentioned here many times (and Jericho can vouch for this as we talked about it way back when we were in training camp) my goal was to be more a Brad Armstrong caliber worker than an Ultimate Warrior level Superstar. Any bitterness I may, or may not have, does not change the fact that there were numerous booking disasters that contributed to the down fall of WCW that were not address, or completely glossed over in the book.
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all i have to say is kudos to Lance because he responded to the situation in a very mature way and by reading his response he came out as the bigger man out of the whole thing