Skip to product information
1 of 3

GuyEvansBooks.com

The NITRO Book Collection

The NITRO Book Collection

Regular price £46.00 GBP
Regular price Sale price £46.00 GBP
Sale Sold out
Book options

This bundle is NOT available anywhere else!

It includes BOTH books in the famous NITRO series! 

Free WORLDWIDE shipping is included!

Over 1,200 pages, 200+ exclusive interviews, and innumerable fresh insights!

As seen on 'Who Killed WCW' - the acclaimed VICE TV series!

Reviews

"The most definitive, well written and thoroughly researched book on the rise and fall of WCW."
--Eric Bischoff, former WCW President

"This is - without question - the very best book ever written on professional wrestling."
--Conrad Thompson

"Well written and captivating...a fresh take on [the] time period."
--Chris Harrington, AEW VP of Business Strategy

"...may be the best overall pro wrestling book to date."
--David Bixenspan, Deadspin

NITRO Synopsis

In April 1999, Entertainment Weekly asked its readers what many in America were suddenly wondering to themselves: how did wrestling get so big?

As a consequence of the heated ratings competition between World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), the spectacle had taken over Monday nights on prime-time cable television. But in a departure from the family-friendly programming produced by the last industry boom - the 1980s wave, which made household names of Hulk Hogan, 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper and Andre the Giant - the new era of wrestling combined stunning athleticism with a raunchy sex appeal, engrossing story lines and novel production techniques that reflected a changing society and its shifting values.

Once again, wrestling was a ubiquitous phenomenon - only this time, it seemed as though the fad would never end. With both WCW and WWF expanding into other forms of entertainment - movies, video games, and the like - the potential for growth appeared to be limitless.

But with uncertainty surrounding its corporate future, and increasingly uninspired programming eroding its audience, WCW stood on the verge of collapse. Three years into a five-year plan devised by its charismatic leader - a former Blue Ribbon Foods salesman named Eric Bischoff - the company whose unexpected ascension had initiated the entire boom was operating on borrowed time.

For by the end of the five-year plan, WCW ceased to exist.

But Nitro is a story about much more than WCW and the last great wrestling boom. It is a story of an era, a time in which the media and cultural landscape precipitated - and later supported - pro wrestling's mainstream popularity. It is a story of how a company made in the image of an intuitively brilliant risk-taker betrayed its original promise. It is a story of how a handful of men, each struggling with their own limitations, facilitated a public obsession that changed television forever.

And so, with the inside knowledge of a journalist, the perspective of a historian, and the passion of a fan, author Guy Evans provides a fresh look at an unfortunate inevitability - the downfall of World Championship Wrestling. Bolstered by exclusive interviews with over 120 former TBS and WCW employees, Nitro is the definitive picture of the last wrestling boom.

Featuring exclusive interviews with:

Eric Bischoff, fmr. President of World Championship Wrestling;
Harvey Schiller, fmr. President of Turner Sports;
Jamie Kellner, fmr. CEO of Turner Broadcasting System;
Bill Burke, fmr. President of TBS network;
Joe Uva, fmr. President of Turner Entertainment Sales and Marketing; Scot Safon, fmr. SVP of Marketing for TNT network;
Kevin Nash, WWE Hall of Famer and 5-time WCW world champion; Diamond Dallas Page, WWE Hall of Famer and 3-time WCW world champion;
Vince Russo, fmr. WCW writer;
Marcus 'Buff' Bagwell, fmr. WCW superstar and 5-time world tag team champion;
Kevin Sullivan, fmr. WCW superstar and head booker;
Neal Pruitt, fmr. WCW Feature Producer and voice of the nWo;
Alan Sharp, fmr. WCW Director of Public Relations;
Mike Weber, fmr. WCW Director of Marketing;
Jerry Jarrett, legendary wrestling promoter and booker...

And many, many, many more!

BEYOND NITRO Synopsis

Bestselling author Guy Evans ('NITRO') returns with a monumental 680-page volume on World Championship Wrestling, bringing to light scores of revelatory insights in the process. Informed by over 100 new interviews, hundreds of internal company documents, confidential corporate materials, and never-before-seen financial records, BEYOND NITRO goes to places that no pro wrestling book has!

BEYOND NITRO is divided into three parts, as outlined below:

Part 1: Untold Stories – a series of engrossing personal profiles of people with a unique connection to WCW;

Part 2: Where The Big Boys Played – an examination of various aspects of the WCW story which often escape introspection, such as the byzantine nature of its corporate accounting system, the company’s historical Southern lineage, and the impact of its pioneering production team;

Part 3: A Wrestling Odyssey – a look at some of the changes which occurred in the wrestling business post-WCW, including a noticeable change to the mainstream wrestling style, the proliferation of what is sometimes called ‘the wrestling bubble’, and the phenomena of WCW experiencing a ‘second life’ through the waves of ‘90s nostalgia.

To supplement this rather weighty structure – and to break up the presentation more generally – six ‘interlude’ chapters are included of various lengths, ranging from incredibly detailed (e.g., ‘Spiked!’) to relatively direct in scope (e.g., ‘Don’t Touch That Dial’). In all cases, these ‘interludes’ relate to a theme (or set of themes) explored in the preceding chapter. In the process, the book is able to delve into some thrilling uncharted waters, relative to the world of late ‘90s WWF - and even TNA during the 2010s.

BEYOND NITRO features exclusive interviews and comments from:

Eric Bischoff, fmr. WCW President;
Stuart Snyder, fmr. WWF President & COO;
Keith Mitchell, legendary fmr. WCCW, WCW, TNA and AEW producer;
Kevin Sullivan, fmr. WCW head booker and wrestler;
Jerry Jarrett, legendary wrestling promoter and booker;
Kevin Kay, fmr. President of Spike Television;
David Schwarz, fmr. Senior Vice President of Communications at Spike TV;
Scott Fishman, Executive in Charge of Production at Spike TV;
Eric Fleischer, fmr. Sr. Director of Consumer Insights, WWE;
Christine Lawrence, fmr. Senior Director of Media Insights and Analytics, WWE;
Michael Capretta, fmr. VP of Global Research and Insights, Warner Bros. Discovery;
David Sahadi, fmr. Creative Director, WWE;
Sami Callihan, fmr. Impact World Champion;
Lash LeRoux, fmr. WCW wrestler;
Scott Hudson, fmr. WCW announcer;
Neal Pruitt, fmr. WCW feature producer and 'voice of the nWo';
Dick Cheatham, fmr. group controller for TBS;
Jenni Sloan, designer of the nWo logo...

And many, many, many more!

Informed by the same attention to facts, research, analysis, drama and detail which made NITRO a bestseller, Beyond NITRO is finally here.

It's a simply sensational sequel!

View full details