King of the Castle
From time to time it can feel like every day runs seamlessly into the other. Nothing wrong with that I suppose but I can’t say its mind inspiring. I like the bumps in the road, I like the way they cause havoc and make us adapt quickly to circumstances in order to overcome the unforeseen difficulty. Edgy is good.
I’ve just finished reading Eric Bishoff’s book called “Controversy Creates Cash”. For those of you unfamiliar with his name. Eric Bishoff was the former President of WCW, the once-upon-a-time Wrestling arm of then media mogul Ted Turner’s WTBS.
Bishoff has and had (in my mind) both a tenacious and irrefutable self-belief in himself. Not arrogantly so, though by some accounts this might be disputed among those closer to the coal face. But I believe you have to read a person’s actions in the context of a person’s whole life, not just the bits you want to have a go about.
His parents gave him his strong work ethic, he cut the teeth of his determination on the three pronged fork of life – of succeeding, falling down and getting up again. You can’t not admire that in a person. I dare you not to. And he did it with the belief of a wife and family that backed him to the hilt. It should be said about Bishoff, he was always going to succeed even if he only had the last part of the equation. His wife and kids. They are the jewels in any man’s crown.
If you’ve still got those (and he has) then no matter what else you do, to still be king in their eyes, well now, that’s owning the crown not simply having one for display purposes only. You gotta admire him, if for no other reason than that. In my books, that’s King of the Castle stuff for sure.
To paraphrase the known, “wrestling is one tough arse business” and the way biographical history writes it, Bishoff never shied away from the body blows though a lesser Executive might have. And there were some that did. I’ve lived in that world myself once, it can be horribly distasteful. Read the book, it’s insightful on the subject of corporate tail-waggers (my description entirely). To the pound with them!
I admire Eric Bishoff the man, he has more guts than a disembowelled hunk of wild hog. And I mean real guts. That said, I think Eric Bishoff the persona has brass balls as well. I liked his no frills version of his life, it’s earthy, it’s real and quite a lesson in entrepreneurial marketing. If he sounds like he’s proud of what he’s done, he deserves to be, that’s not the same as ‘spouting off’ with no water pipe to run down. Go on, read it, you’ll be more than a little surprised what you might learn. It’s edgy stuff.
