"INSIDE OUT"- How Corporate America Destroyed Professional Wrestling by Ole Anderson

Ole, who is probably more known for being one of the first ever IV Horsemen, really left his mark in the business in the Georgia area. Ole was the first (and most likely last) ever person to full-time book two major territories simutaneously. (Georgia & Carolina) Ole, who self-admittedly is staunch in his beliefs, put up with no crap during his time, and found alot of success, despite trying to have to come up with progams and matches for over 100+ wrestlers at one point of his career.

Most of this book deals with Ole's wrestling career, but this isn't what this book is all about. It really deals with the business end of pro wrestling. There is alot of stuff that even the keenest minds don't know of in this book. Ole, who is one of the rare wrestlers to never dibble and dabble in booze and drugs, remembers his career clearly and is able to bring every detail to life. Ole recounts business figures, dollar amounts, attendance figures from different points in his career, and at the end of the book, Ole illustrates his point of "How Corporate America Destroyed Professional Wrestling" as he proves that the numbers from the yesteryear, were better than the numbers that the WWE are posting today. After all, the WWE runs maybe 5-6 shows TOPS, a week, and if they are lucky, some of those shows bring in 2000 people. Back in the days of the territories, the territories were running 2-3 shows EVERY DAY, EVERY WEEK, and drawing at least 2000 people.

One fascinating story that I'm surprised really didn't get much notice anywhere else and I'm actually shocked that it's not common knowledge yet, is the death of Georgia Championship Wrestling. Ole, who was very astute, and really knew the business "INSIDE OUT" (hence the name of the book) talked about the NWA bylaws and how one paragraph voided everything else in the 20 page document. This one paragraph, in the Articles of Incorporation, brought the NWA to its knees.

In the 20 page NWA bylaws, there is one paragraph that negated everything else, in regards to ownership. It was that one paragraph that Ole brought to the lawyers of the NWA's attention, and that one paragraph that he brought to other lawyers, that wound up killing the NWA. Ole explains it in detail, but to make a long story short, the paragraph said, as verbatim from Ole's book, that:

If a stockholder wants to sell stock In Gerogia Championship Wrestling, they must first offer it to another stockholder. If none of the stockholders want to purchase the stock, then they can agree to allow that holder to sell it to someone outside, subject to the approval of the other stockholders."

Also included in the Buy-Sell agreement was this nugget:

"If a majority of the stockholders decide to rescind the Buy-Sell agreement, they can do so."

Pretty much, that meant if 51% of the stockholders/owners decided to get together, and wanted to void the Buy-Sell agreement, they could. That meant that when Vince McMahon came around in 1983, and offered WWF jobs for GCW stock, once he owned 51% of the company, he was able to do whatever he want, even if it meant to kill GCW, which he ultimately did. It was that one paragraph that Vince McMahon used in his advantage to buy the NWA and to make the WWE the wrestling conglomerate that it become. It was the one paragraph that Ole showed everyone, but was ignored. It would go on to be the one paragraph that Ole regrets to this day.

This book is full of uncommon knowledge and is also a tool for wrestling's future. Ole wasn't one of the most well-liked guys, and there was a reason for that. It was because he was smart and successful. His decisions impacted wrestling and while other wrestlers such as Dusty or Flair would book themselves on top and not know what to do with anyone else, Ole was always level headed and able to make money for everyone.

One major topic Ole gets into, in this excellent book, was his time in WCW. In another quote from his book, while talking about the heads and suits of WCW (In this case, Jim Herd & his people):

"If I had realized that you people would be so damned stupid as to give the world champion $750,000, just because WE made him the world champion, I would have made myself the champion."

The death of WCW and the overblown spending of WCW has been covered ad naseum, but Ole really gets into it. Ole explains how WCW head honchos did not know wrestling at all, and believed in stars, and not in creating stars. Ole explains how you could always create the next big thing, and gave Vince McMahon credit for having that ability. However, WCW felt that they needed the stars, and would never do anything new. WCW also believed in guaranteed contracts and huge money to fulfill those contracts as well. While Ole realized this in 1990, and wanted to help WCW then, it would be Eric Bischoff (Who Ole describes as Barnett Jr, which isn't a good thing) who would fire in Ole in 1993. It would be in 2001 that Eric and everyone in WCW would be out of job, partly because of Ole foreshadowed in 1990.

Final McWord
This review doesn't even scratch the surface of the knowledge that Ole lays down in this book. It is easily one of the Top 5 wrestling books out there today. Ole might say things that I or you, the reader, might not agree with at times, but this book is his autobiography, and he's entitled to his opinions too. I really found myself engrossed with this book, and the 8 hours at my job flew by, as I was reading this bad boy.

While Ole can't teach everything he knows in this book, and explain everything, he does a great job of getting his points across. Ole really doesn't talk about all the successful angles he booked, or the successful matches he had, as he really talked about the business more. It was funny hearing Ole talk about Dusty Rhodes as being a huge egomaniac, and giving examples of it, as I just recently read Dusty's book, and wanted to throw up at points due to all the self-praise.

Wrestling will never be the way it was, and certainly never be the way it was in Ole's time. I don't know if Ole believes in the progression of pro wrestling, and in what was hot 20 years ago, won't be hot today. That stands true for even this generation. While fans love Cena and Batista now, will they be rememebered as fondly in the future? Ole did suck it in during his WCW days, and gave in to the way the business was changing. However, it would be interesting to see what Ole would've done, if he had full control of WCW in the early 90s. Maybe the business wouldn't be as fucked up as it is today.

OVERALL
MUST READ. That's all you need to know. The 390 pages might scare some people, but if you consider yourself a true wrestling fan, or if you consider yourself as part of this business, this book is a must-have. Hell, there is so much Ole didn't get into, such as his family life, his thoughts on the business today, the stars of today, what he'd to today, etc, that I hope Ole has it in him to come up with a sequel.

You can pick up this book through a variety of outlets, such as Amazon.com or eBay. I found it cheapest at an RF Video table (RFVideo.com) for $18.00

Sean "The MiC" McCaffrey
BULLSMC@aol.com