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Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: PW Torch and Speaker bring you the Wade Keller Pro
Speaker 3: Wrestling Podcast. It's time for this week's Interview Classic where
Speaker 3: Wade Keller interview is one of pro Wrestling's newsmakers.
Speaker 1: Ten years ago. This week, I interviewed Jim Ross for
Speaker 1: over an hour and a half. We talked about Jerry
Speaker 1: Lawler's role being showed lifted from the main shows on
Speaker 1: color commentary to being a panel pre show host. We
Speaker 1: also talked about the roster split for WWE and evaluating
Speaker 1: how they divvied up the talent and the whole concept. Also,
Speaker 1: the live callers were out the show with a range
Speaker 1: of questions and topics dating back to his days announcing
Speaker 1: Mid South Wrestling and Smoky Mount Wrestling all the way
Speaker 1: through his Access TV shows and one man shows. So
Speaker 1: let's get to it. This is the Wad Keller Pro
Speaker 1: Wrestling Podcast Interview Classic for Saturday, August first, twenty twenty
Speaker 1: six This originally live stream on July twenty eighth, twenty sixteen.
Speaker 4: That Torch.
Speaker 1: All right, Welcome to the PW Torch live cast. I
Speaker 1: am Wade Keller, editor and publisher of the Pro Wrestling
Speaker 1: Torch weekly newsletter since nineteen eighty seven and also pwtorch
Speaker 1: dot com to mmatorch dot com, covering the world of
Speaker 1: pro wrestling and mixed martial arts. You can also download
Speaker 1: our free apps covering all the same content that is
Speaker 1: on our websites. Just download the free apps. Search PW
Speaker 1: Torch and MMA Torch in the iPhone iOS and also
Speaker 1: Android app stores. It is Thursday, July twenty eighth, two
Speaker 1: thy sixteen, and it is Interview Thursday. And I am
Speaker 1: pleased with no further ado, to bring on our guest
Speaker 1: for today's program. Returning to the show one of my
Speaker 1: favorite guests, Jim Ross, greatest wrestling announcer ever. Jim Ross.
Speaker 1: How you doing.
Speaker 2: I'm good, Wade, and thanks for the compliment. Maybe I should
Speaker 2: try to get back in the business.
Speaker 1: I mean it. I was actually yesterday what site was?
Speaker 1: It came out with the list of the top Raw
Speaker 1: or the definitive list of Raw theme songs, because you know,
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of talk of that with Raw
Speaker 1: introducing their new theme song this week, and so I
Speaker 1: watched the videos and it just kind of was a
Speaker 1: fun memory. And after the intros there was your voice,
Speaker 1: you know, welcome to WWS Monday Night Raw, and I
Speaker 1: was like, I missed that. I miss that, So it
Speaker 1: was fresh up things.
Speaker 2: A lot of people I get this all the time.
Speaker 2: You know, Marronello is the hot announcing property right now,
Speaker 2: and certainly rightfully so, but I get a little bit
Speaker 2: it's frustrating when people say, well, he's the best at
Speaker 2: Jim Ross, which is a cool compliment, but it's as
Speaker 2: if I don't exist anymore, and I think people still
Speaker 2: haven't found me on Friday Nights on Access TV and
Speaker 2: fully realized that Access is not in all cable systems
Speaker 2: at this time, but they're endeavoring to do so. So
Speaker 2: it's nice to be hon it's nice to be irrelevant
Speaker 2: and be able to talk about the business. I've loved
Speaker 2: my entire life.
Speaker 1: Well, there's no doubt that WWE programming hasn't been quite
Speaker 1: the same without Youmorrow has been a very refreshing addition
Speaker 1: to the WWE announced team. Moving back in the direction
Speaker 1: to somebody who I think adds more of a sports vibe,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I think Michael Cole takes more
Speaker 1: heat than it deserves because I think a lot of
Speaker 1: the things people complain about when it comes to Michael
Speaker 1: Cole have more to do with how he's produced than
Speaker 1: the job that he's capable of doing. And I thought
Speaker 1: Monday night he had a really good night. But still
Speaker 1: all that said, and this isn't meant to be a
Speaker 1: Jim Ross fan club session here, but they're just honestly,
Speaker 1: there's nobody who did it like you did it. There
Speaker 1: was nobody who enhance, enhanced what was happening on television
Speaker 1: and helped create new stars and blended what vinsmic Mann
Speaker 1: sees as sports entertainment with what I think most viewers want,
Speaker 1: which is that immersive sports environment. You were just a
Speaker 1: master at that.
Speaker 2: Well, thanks, it's been fun and it's still fun. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm able to do boxing now and a week from
Speaker 2: tonight on August fourth, my next primetime boxing special can
Speaker 2: and will air on the CBS Sports Network. So I've
Speaker 2: still got my tone of water. I'm having fun, and
Speaker 2: that's where at this stage of our life, having fun
Speaker 2: is really a high priority for me.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, we missed you over the weekend. Speaking of fun,
Speaker 1: I know you had a fun time at the other
Speaker 1: than dealing with the Iowa State Highway Patrol, you had
Speaker 1: a good time at the George Frego sleuth as Progressling
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame in Waterloo, Iowa. We missed you over
Speaker 1: the weekend, however, because of your absence, because you had
Speaker 1: other obligations, I was able to replace you on the
Speaker 1: podcast session that was held for VIPL access holders, interviewing
Speaker 1: for the first time ever, Bob Eckland and Iron Chic
Speaker 1: together and that was real fun. So I got to say, Jim,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of happy, all right. Have mixed feelings that
Speaker 1: you missed the weekend events because it was fun. Bruce Mitchell,
Speaker 1: who was your guest on your show this week, joined
Speaker 1: me in interviewing Chic and Backland, and man, that was
Speaker 1: quite the experience Bob and Chic to two very distinct characters.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would assume it was somewhat like herding chickens.
Speaker 1: It was a bit of a yes, glad.
Speaker 2: You had I'm glad you had a memorable weekend. And uh, Waterloo,
Speaker 2: I said many times it is probably one of the
Speaker 2: better secrets as far as we pro wresting fans are concerned.
Speaker 2: And I'll say it here again very succinctly that if
Speaker 2: you're a pro wresting fan and you're you can get
Speaker 2: to Waterloo at some point in time for a for
Speaker 2: a day trip or a weekend or whatever to go
Speaker 2: to the museum, you should really consider it. Very strongly.
Speaker 1: I agree. And you can fly in to see Rapids,
Speaker 1: Iowa and a relatively short drive then to Waterloo. Yep.
Speaker 1: You can also fly into the Twin Cities and many
Speaker 1: in Minneapolis Saint Paul. And when you fly into the
Speaker 1: Twin Cities, then you can take a nice three hour
Speaker 1: drive down to Waterloo and admire the cornfields. Big week
Speaker 1: in professional wrestling and in w w EE it was
Speaker 1: a a one two three punch that gave us so
Speaker 1: much to talk about throughout this week because of the
Speaker 1: the Battleground pay per view and the newsworthiness of that
Speaker 1: followed by the first post draft episode of Monday Night
Speaker 1: Raw followed by the first post roster split episode of SmackDown,
Speaker 1: and I think the consensus so far is that a
Speaker 1: SmackDown didn't quite live up to the high bar set
Speaker 1: by Monday Night Raw, but overall it was a good
Speaker 1: week for WWE. I think where the real concern is
Speaker 1: is will there be enough roster depth going forward for
Speaker 1: Ron SmackDown, especially Raw, to be as good as it
Speaker 1: was this week. The number if you want to give
Speaker 1: us a call on the phone lines to join the program,
Speaker 1: and Jim Ross will be joining us in just a
Speaker 1: moment once again is six four six, seven to one,
Speaker 1: nine to eight to eight. That's six four six seven
Speaker 1: two one nine eight two Weight and we'll begin taking
Speaker 1: your calls in just a moment. I'm gonna go to
Speaker 1: our first break of the show and want to come back.
Speaker 1: We'll get Jim Ross's views on the roster split era
Speaker 1: number two here in wwwight. But first, here is a
Speaker 1: word on our website, pw torch dot com. Did you
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Speaker 1: Everything with Rich and Wade, to Fix with Todd Martin
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Speaker 1: stay within the Patreon ecosystem. Either way works. Go to
Speaker 1: Patreon and start your seven day free trial. All right,
Speaker 1: we are back in. Jim Ross is my guest, and Jim,
Speaker 1: you were talking before we got cut off a moment
Speaker 1: ago in our conversation about a watter array of things,
Speaker 1: but one of them is all the other announcing work
Speaker 1: you're doing. I want you to talk, if you can
Speaker 1: a little bit more about maybe get people a sales
Speaker 1: pitch regarding access TV in New Japan, and talk about
Speaker 1: the experience for you of all the wrestling that you've
Speaker 1: called over the years, having the chance to call on
Speaker 1: a regular basis New Japan's style of pro wrestling, and
Speaker 1: how that feels different to your skills that compared to
Speaker 1: Mid South, w CW and the w WS and WWE
Speaker 1: in particular.
Speaker 2: Well, it's fun, you know, it's a very solid, fundamental
Speaker 2: sound product. More often than not. You know, they don't
Speaker 2: hit home runs in every match either, nobody does. Nobody can,
Speaker 2: but more often than not they score. I like the
Speaker 2: fundamental soundness. I like the fact that they have winners
Speaker 2: and losers much much more often than not. I like
Speaker 2: the fact that they use logic, that they do have
Speaker 2: a athletic sports feel for their presentation. That's what Mid
Speaker 2: South was, by and large, UWF. Anything that Bill Watch
Speaker 2: produced was very athletic centric, including some of the stuff
Speaker 2: that he did and when he worked for Turner that
Speaker 2: short period of time. So I enjoy that. That's my
Speaker 2: it's my style, that's my preference, you know. Now, he
Speaker 2: being an arresting announcer is all about recognizing and hearing
Speaker 2: the music that the wrestlers create, and then it is
Speaker 2: the job of the announcers is to provide the lyric
Speaker 2: to that music. So first of all, you got to
Speaker 2: have an ear for music. In other words, you have
Speaker 2: a feel for the game and some natural instincts, and
Speaker 2: then you've got to be able to turn around and
Speaker 2: verbalize that so that you know you're connecting all the
Speaker 2: dots and you're connecting the what the people are seeing
Speaker 2: on television with their emotions. So I'm having a good
Speaker 2: time with New Japan. They like I like the twenty
Speaker 2: cot on the outside of the ring. I like the
Speaker 2: fact that they don't use blatant closed fifths like American
Speaker 2: progressing does. Way too many strikes.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: I have reasons for that, but the striking is way overdone,
Speaker 2: I am. I am reluctant to say that I'm seeing
Speaker 2: a more of a proliferation of uh, you know, stunts, Uh,
Speaker 2: big big spots and big spots and stunts are great
Speaker 2: if you don't see them regularly. They got to stay special.
Speaker 2: And that's a big thiev of mine right now, is
Speaker 2: that the spot monkey type wrestling is just taking bunch
Speaker 2: for bump's sake, and you know, just out of the blue,
Speaker 2: going to the top rope, out of the blue, leaving
Speaker 2: the ring out of the blue, you know, cluttering a
Speaker 2: group of guys in the outside, and one guy running
Speaker 2: and jumping over the top rope, and everybody's standing and
Speaker 2: waiting and catching, which is so illogical it's not even funny.
Speaker 2: So but the new Japans style is good. I hope
Speaker 2: they don't allow themselves to fade into what they believe
Speaker 2: is the needy the trend that they need to adhere
Speaker 2: to with as far as all the high spots and
Speaker 2: the like, because it leads to wrestlers working too fast,
Speaker 2: it leads to wrestlers working sloppy. That leads to injury.
Speaker 2: I think it leads to what's next? How do you talk? What?
Speaker 2: He already did? A great example Money Night with their
Speaker 2: dive after dive after diving on Raw. And then you
Speaker 2: have a match, the Charlotte and Sasha Banks match where
Speaker 2: they do two major dies. Sasha does one who she
Speaker 2: almost seemed like she crashed and burns very lucky on that,
Speaker 2: and then Charlotte does an amazing moon salt from the
Speaker 2: outside from the rope to the outside. And if those
Speaker 2: spots were the only basically the only h dies that
Speaker 2: we saw that night, it would have been even more spectacular.
Speaker 2: It meant even more. But unfortunately, Uh, the process to
Speaker 2: that match was it really managed. I don't think as
Speaker 2: well as probably they wanted to in hindsight. So but
Speaker 2: the new fest up is good. I'm having a good time.
Speaker 2: You know. My biggest shallows on it sometimes wait, it
Speaker 2: is just enunciations and wanted to do be a professional
Speaker 2: and not butcher somebody's name. So I'm I'm still working
Speaker 2: on that aspect of it. So it's fun. I'm having
Speaker 2: a good time, and it's done in the voiceover sess
Speaker 2: you know. We the one advantage that Josh Barnett and
Speaker 2: I have is that we don't have to plug a
Speaker 2: litany of other things. We don't have to mention a
Speaker 2: litany of other things. If we don't mention anything but
Speaker 2: just call the match. Uh, my producer and the network
Speaker 2: is very happy and no issues whatsoever. That's completely up
Speaker 2: to us. So uh, and I keep you mentioned about
Speaker 2: Michael Cole. He doesn't have that option. He doesn't have
Speaker 2: that option, and nor will anybody ever have that option
Speaker 2: totally within the WW wheelhouse, and that's going to knock
Speaker 2: on WW. It's just that they have a lot of
Speaker 2: things to sell and out of the belief that you
Speaker 2: can pick your spots and when you do it, how
Speaker 2: you do it, where you do it, that makes it
Speaker 2: more palatable to the audience. But by and large, I'm
Speaker 2: glad to be doing wrestling again, and I hope that
Speaker 2: folks will try to find our network and on Friday
Speaker 2: nights and enjoy what we do.
Speaker 1: If you want to join us here at PW Towards
Speaker 1: Live Cast, you can do so by calling six four
Speaker 1: six seven nine eight two eight, and we are going
Speaker 1: to go to phone calls now. Jason from Austin, Texas
Speaker 1: VIP member. I think it's Austin, Texas, right, Jason, Yes,
Speaker 1: that's right. Thank you, Wade, absolutely welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: Thanks for being a college today.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, good to be on with you guys.
Speaker 2: JR.
Speaker 6: A real honored to talk to you. I grew up
Speaker 6: I'm forty now, but I grew up watching in the
Speaker 6: mid eighties, mid South and specifically Houston Wrestling with Paul
Speaker 6: Bosh And I remember just being so into Hacksaw Jim
Speaker 6: Duggan when he was the lead baby face there, And
Speaker 6: I wanted to ask you just a little bit about
Speaker 6: those Mid South uwfda's. First of all, I'm just sort
Speaker 6: of curious where y'all would tape the TV shows there,
Speaker 6: if that was in the same city every time, or
Speaker 6: if y'all would move around, I would go to shows
Speaker 6: at the same Houston Coliseum, but I don't believe that
Speaker 6: the day that y'all did TV there. And then I'm
Speaker 6: also wondering if you think that if there was any
Speaker 6: particular reason why people who were so serious in the
Speaker 6: u w F, specifically dug In and the Shepherds and
Speaker 6: the Sheepherters case vicious characters, uh, why it was that
Speaker 6: they became more cartoony when they went to the w
Speaker 6: w F And and was that a missed opportunity?
Speaker 2: Well, the Mid South shows are taped in Shreveport at
Speaker 2: the Irish McNeil Boys Club, small kind of a super
Speaker 2: sized TV studio in Shreveport on the fairgrounds there in Streetport. Uh.
Speaker 2: And then the u w S show was done in
Speaker 2: the Tulsa Convention Center. So and then the we the
Speaker 2: other matches were taped actually on the Friday night set
Speaker 2: of Houston Wrestling, So there was a there was a
Speaker 2: combination of both. But the Mid South show was straightport.
Speaker 2: U w S show is Tulsa. Uh I. It's just
Speaker 2: here's the thing about that, and they simply put the
Speaker 2: w W had a different uh vision than than the
Speaker 2: Mid South and u w F. They had a different
Speaker 2: target audience. Mid South was not a children's product, even
Speaker 2: though a lot of kids, young young teens loved it. Teens.
Speaker 2: More specifically, I'd say it was very violent more often
Speaker 2: than not, certainly at times very very violent. I don't
Speaker 2: think that was ever ww's MO until the Attitude era.
Speaker 2: So Doug and the sheep Herders, for example, I'll give
Speaker 2: you this, they went to a new TV show with
Speaker 2: a new producer and they were recast. They were recast
Speaker 2: in a role that best fit that brand and their presentation, so,
Speaker 2: you know, and they seem to be They did well there,
Speaker 2: They've made money and probably was less taxing on them
Speaker 2: physically than it was working for Cowboys. So that's that's
Speaker 2: the best example I can give you is that it
Speaker 2: is a new TV show. They were recast and because
Speaker 2: the shows are different, different demos, different objectives.
Speaker 1: It's cool to get a vintage question like that. When
Speaker 1: he brought up mid eighties mid South, it made me
Speaker 1: think of something that made news this week, the new
Speaker 1: Universal Championship on RAW What do you think of that solution?
Speaker 1: And are you are you kind of amused by people
Speaker 1: not liking the name that some people thinking, oh I
Speaker 1: don't like that name and not actually knowing the history
Speaker 1: of the word universal in front of a major title,
Speaker 1: both in Puerto Rico and in the US.
Speaker 2: Well, we had the same flight and when we created
Speaker 2: the UWS Champion its universal. You know, it was a
Speaker 2: Universal Champion. So and the theory was, uh, you know,
Speaker 2: with eyebrows up, that the universe is bigger than the world. So, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, that was kind of the doctor Internet the overd.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm nonplussed with I don't have I don't have.
Speaker 2: It's a name, it's a name. I'm just I'm curious
Speaker 2: to see how it evolves and how it develops, and
Speaker 2: that's going to depend on the person that carries it
Speaker 2: and the people that he works with. So, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm good with it. I know, no issues with me
Speaker 2: at all, the Universal, Right, fine, It's just here's the deal.
Speaker 3: This.
Speaker 2: We all knew going into the brand separation that once
Speaker 2: the draft was held and the and the brands were
Speaker 2: quote unquote separated, that there's going to be a lot
Speaker 2: of bitching and moaning, there's gonna be a lot of
Speaker 2: second guessing. Because it was a very topical thing to discuss.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of right ways to get it done.
Speaker 2: I believe it'll take several months. I've stated publicly I
Speaker 2: thought it would be to WrestleMania thirty three till we
Speaker 2: really felt how good this was going to be. Because
Speaker 2: we could then determine how uh what kind of main
Speaker 2: events for WrestleMania that each brand is providing us as fans,
Speaker 2: then I can give you a lot better feeling for
Speaker 2: how I perceive that the brand separation has evolved, and
Speaker 2: how it's developed and how successful it is from a
Speaker 2: creative standpoint. So, I, uh, you know, I think that
Speaker 2: the Universal's fined. You know an any name they gave it, Wade,
Speaker 2: I think I would have been a second guest. You
Speaker 2: knew it. Agree.
Speaker 7: Searching for more great pro wrestling talk then join me.
Speaker 7: Jason Powell host them the three weekly Pro Wrestling Boom Podcast.
Speaker 7: Each week he'll hear the latest news and analysis from
Speaker 7: me and my team at pro Wrestling dot Net along
Speaker 7: with other pro wrestling media members. Plus, the Pro Wrestling
Speaker 7: Boom Podcast features long form interviews with notable names in
Speaker 7: the pro wrestling industry. Subscribe and iTunes, Stitcher, Downcast, and
Speaker 7: all your favorite secondary apps, or visit us directly at
Speaker 7: PW boom dot com. Once again, that's PW boom dot com.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I one thing, you made this point with Bruce
Speaker 1: Mitchell on your show The Ross Report earlier this week
Speaker 1: of saying, you know, don't fully judge it until Wrestlemanian.
Speaker 1: I thought that was a great point, I mean, a
Speaker 1: point absolutely worth underlining and stressing during the ups and
Speaker 1: downs of the individual ron SmackDown shows and pay per
Speaker 1: views because one thing that WW is doing and I
Speaker 1: think they had what would probably be considered to disappointing
Speaker 1: network number that we have detailed. James Calledo did a
Speaker 1: great job on the news story in analysis at PW
Speaker 1: torch dot com today that the quarter two or that
Speaker 1: the latest network subscription number shows that they're pretty flat
Speaker 1: in terms of the number of subscribers that they have
Speaker 1: domestically compared to where they were quite a ways back,
Speaker 1: going back to early twenty fifteen. The only growth they've
Speaker 1: really had has been on the on the international front,
Speaker 1: which is good that they can do that. But I
Speaker 1: think going kind of go to this point with the
Speaker 1: roster split, WrestleMania by definition should feel more special because
Speaker 1: it will be there will be matchups that haven't been
Speaker 1: run into the ground on raw and SmackDown during the
Speaker 1: previous you know, six to nine months, and so WrestleMania
Speaker 1: by definition, I should say definite by hope, they're hoping
Speaker 1: that WrestleMania will be more special because there'll be some
Speaker 1: dream matches that you would not have seen on the
Speaker 1: other pay per views, especially the brand specific pay per
Speaker 1: views and Ron smacked on themselves in the meantime. Is
Speaker 1: that one of the big things that you're pointing at
Speaker 1: in terms of why wait till WrestleMania?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think yeah, absolutely, You hope that you're supposed
Speaker 2: to get the very best that WW has to offer
Speaker 2: at WrestleMania. I think we all kind of kind of
Speaker 2: agree on that point. And of course the contrarians can say, oh,
Speaker 2: hellthough it should be good to be weak. Well, that's
Speaker 2: just so stupid. Somebody just needs to quick jerking the
Speaker 2: knee jerk in their knees and their face. They're gonna
Speaker 2: get concussed here. Just take it easy, you want it.
Speaker 2: You got to build to something, a crescendo. I've always
Speaker 2: thought that WrestleMania was the big blowoff. It was, you know,
Speaker 2: it used to be. It's going to be one or
Speaker 2: two things to be special WrestleMania, the blowoff or the debut,
Speaker 2: one of two, not maintenance. It's not something along the journey.
Speaker 2: I think it's going to be a blowoff or a debut.
Speaker 2: That's my just my take. So you would think that
Speaker 2: if it's you're getting the best at WrestleMania, let's see
Speaker 2: what the best will be. Let's see who they perceive
Speaker 2: to be the best and how they build their best
Speaker 2: on both brands. You should have two completely separate, separately
Speaker 2: build not over exposed stories. It should be well laid out.
Speaker 2: I really believe it's the right way to go in
Speaker 2: that irs fact, as far as judging the brand separation
Speaker 2: and the and the split itself, so yeah, something it
Speaker 2: should be fresh, it should be exciting, and we should
Speaker 2: really want to go see it. We should really want
Speaker 2: to invest in this more than just a normal WrestleMania,
Speaker 2: which is something we all enjoy by and large anyway
Speaker 2: because of the secnacle of the event and his heritage
Speaker 2: in history. So yeah, I think it'll be. That's why,
Speaker 2: That's how I'm judging it. And everybody can do what
Speaker 2: they want, but I'm going to wait until wrestle Mania
Speaker 2: and see what they give me as a fan on
Speaker 2: that card from each show Raw and SmackDown. I need
Speaker 2: a couple of matches from Raw and a couple of
Speaker 2: matches of SmackDown on the top side of that card
Speaker 2: and out they're going to be really good and I
Speaker 2: have every recently that they will.
Speaker 1: Be absolutely and from the first efforts of Ron SmackDown
Speaker 1: this week, I think that we saw something that we
Speaker 1: saw the beginnings of a couple good things. One of
Speaker 1: them is some new talent coming in, including giving a
Speaker 1: fresh look maybe isn't looking to the free agency or
Speaker 1: to their own NXT division and saying, all right, who
Speaker 1: can we bring into fresh and things up, And the
Speaker 1: announcement on SmackDown that Shelton Benjamin is coming back. I
Speaker 1: think it's a really good move. I don't think Shelton
Speaker 1: Benjamin will be headlining WrestleMania next year. I do think
Speaker 1: that Shelton Benjamin has a reputation with fans as somebody
Speaker 1: who maybe didn't reach his peak, that maybe there's more
Speaker 1: to see from him, both in terms of in the
Speaker 1: ring and his personality. And Shelton's more seasoned from the
Speaker 1: work he's done outside of ww WE. A lot of
Speaker 1: people get laid off from WWE gym and we never
Speaker 1: hear from them again. They go do something else, and
Speaker 1: Shelton isn't one of those guys. He's on a lot
Speaker 1: of work, same which Charlie haas over the years since
Speaker 1: they both were since they built a part of WWE.
Speaker 1: I like that. I think Rhino can be a good
Speaker 1: mid card kind of gatekeeper, a guy who can be
Speaker 1: on television and work some matches without giving away a
Speaker 1: full fledged pay per view match and burning it out,
Speaker 1: and I think that's good. And then obviously Finn Balor,
Speaker 1: Sasha Banks and Naya Jacks. They've brought in some fresh
Speaker 1: names too. I just think it makes SmackDown thoroughly more newsworthy.
Speaker 1: And more exciting when you're not watching warmed over leftovers
Speaker 1: from Raw, afterthoughts from Raw. So I think we saw
Speaker 1: some of the good, some of the good aspects of
Speaker 1: what I thought would make the roster split a good
Speaker 1: idea if executed well. How would you grade them after
Speaker 1: two whole days?
Speaker 2: Jim, I'm I give him a good grade, you know,
Speaker 2: you know, I don't know if he's a. I don't
Speaker 2: think anythink's ever going to be an A in my
Speaker 2: eyes because I'm too damn But in particular, it was
Speaker 2: I thought this way, it was a success. And if
Speaker 2: we want guys like Ambrose and Rawlins and the younger
Speaker 2: guys though they've had a lot of indie experience, but
Speaker 2: some of the young guys coming in the alpha males, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, some of the some of the real young kids.
Speaker 2: For them to get better, they have to work with
Speaker 2: people the skill set of a Rhino, of a Shelton Benjamin,
Speaker 2: Guys that are green, that are still putting their game together.
Speaker 2: And don't kid yourself so as well, Jason Shordan has
Speaker 2: been in a performance center for several years. True, but
Speaker 2: he's still green and he's still learning. Ask him, he'll
Speaker 2: tell you that. So for those guys to get better,
Speaker 2: they have to work with people to have better fundamental
Speaker 2: skill sets than do they. And I think, WW bringing
Speaker 2: these these guys in that we've already seen this little
Speaker 2: tip of the iceberg. I think of Shelton and uh,
Speaker 2: you know Rhino. There will be others that have great
Speaker 2: skill sets and experience that can help these guys on
Speaker 2: these live events become better workers, better performers, take their time,
Speaker 2: tell a good story, be logical, slow down a little bit,
Speaker 2: learn to sell the fundamental skills that if you don't have,
Speaker 2: you you're going to be a flash in a pan.
Speaker 2: You can't be a spot monkey and have a long, successful,
Speaker 2: big money career. It's not going to happen because you're
Speaker 2: going to overload your body with too many bumps and
Speaker 2: you're going to wear down and you're going to and
Speaker 2: the injuries are going to start becoming an issue as
Speaker 2: if they weren't already in this in that business. So
Speaker 2: I think it's a good move. I think they had
Speaker 2: a and I like to look Terry garn Rhino is
Speaker 2: a great team locker room guy. Shelton Benjamin is a
Speaker 2: great locker room guy. And being somebody that's been in
Speaker 2: that role, that hired talent, that manage those locker rooms,
Speaker 2: that manage that talent roster at a very pivotal time
Speaker 2: in the company's history. I can tell you from experience,
Speaker 2: you want guys, if you can get them, that are
Speaker 2: team players that help build people up and not get
Speaker 2: on a political agenda to tear people down. I always
Speaker 2: try to find a way, if pop so to get
Speaker 2: rid of the guys that you just couldn't make happy.
Speaker 2: You know that Jimmy giohas that adhere to Jimmy Johnson's
Speaker 2: philosophy of management. These are the Dallas Cowboys. If I
Speaker 2: can't solve your problem, I wouldn't eliminate it. And that's
Speaker 2: pretty much the way you got to look at it
Speaker 2: in this business.
Speaker 1: The previous caller, first caller Jason from Austin, did ask
Speaker 1: a follow up question. I'm going to get to that. Actually,
Speaker 1: I want to get to that moment. If the first
Speaker 1: thing I want to ask you is about Shelton Benjamin
Speaker 1: and if you agree with my premise that he didn't
Speaker 1: fully reach his potential during his first run in WWE,
Speaker 1: and from your observations, if if you agree with that premise,
Speaker 1: if what was missing and what could have changed to
Speaker 1: make him more of a money player during his time
Speaker 1: with WWE.
Speaker 2: Well we we, and I said, I take full my
Speaker 2: share this responsibility, never have a shirt from that and
Speaker 2: as a team thing, Sheldon could have done more as well.
Speaker 2: But looking at the company, we could have done more
Speaker 2: to develop his personality and to give him more opportunities
Speaker 2: to talk and connect with the audience. There was never
Speaker 2: any doubt if anybody that had you know, had any logic,
Speaker 2: had vision, you could see he was a frequent athlete.
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you this that we had a great
Speaker 2: class with I think two thousand or so with Shelton
Speaker 2: at less Or seen, Batista and Orton. Pretty good recruiting class.
Speaker 2: Uh And none of those guys were a better athlete
Speaker 2: than Shelton. None of them. And I'm not knocking any
Speaker 2: of they're all big stars, they're all millionaires. But Shelton
Speaker 2: was the best pure athlete of the group, including brock Lesser.
Speaker 2: So he and I talked to him. I saw him
Speaker 2: in Japan when I did Russell Kingdom nine and we
Speaker 2: had a breakfast. We had a long talk about that.
Speaker 2: You know, he realizes that he needed to bring more
Speaker 2: to the table with his personality and talking, and you
Speaker 2: can't just say, why did he get the opportunity To
Speaker 2: get the opportunity, you got to create opportunities sometimes. Sometimes
Speaker 2: you got to come up with an idea. Sometimes you
Speaker 2: got to go to the preta room and cut some
Speaker 2: promos at the decision makers and the creator. Guys can see, uh,
Speaker 2: may not even thinking it's going to err on television,
Speaker 2: so you can think, can hear what you do when
Speaker 2: you're when you're doing your best verbal work. So it
Speaker 2: was a combination of things, you know. Uh, But I
Speaker 2: think that I think that'll be addressed this time, and
Speaker 2: and I think he'll I think he'll step up to
Speaker 2: the plate and do a really cool job of talking
Speaker 2: and communicating. You got to communicate to connect. If you
Speaker 2: don't connect, you can't get over. So it's it's kind
Speaker 2: of dominoes falling here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally makes sense. Jason from Austin did email the
Speaker 1: follow up question. He said, what was it that made
Speaker 1: Bill Watts different in a positive way for most other promoters?
Speaker 1: What was different about his Mid South shows that made
Speaker 1: them so good?
Speaker 2: He was a fundamentalist and he didn't waiver on what
Speaker 2: he believed to be the the necessities that you have
Speaker 2: to have to be a talented pro wrestler, you know,
Speaker 2: all the fundamental skills of logic, physicality, selling, facial expressions,
Speaker 2: being believable, not doing things that are eye rolling. Just
Speaker 2: you know, he just a very sound fundamentalists. If you
Speaker 2: put it in football parlance, he really believed in blocking
Speaker 2: and tackling. You know, it's great to run reversus, it's
Speaker 2: great to run gimmick plays or gadget plays as they
Speaker 2: called them. He didn't have a problem doing that from
Speaker 2: time and time either. But he really wanted you to
Speaker 2: block and tackle, so to speak. The fundamentals needed to
Speaker 2: be in place, and he wanted people to believe in
Speaker 2: you to the extent that we talked about before. You know,
Speaker 2: if you if you're going to work in his territory
Speaker 2: and you've ventured to somebody's tavern and a civilian you're
Speaker 2: getting a fight, and a civille and beat you up,
Speaker 2: you lose the fight, you lost your job. Because he
Speaker 2: wanted to keep that illusion that the pro wrestlers were
Speaker 2: the toughest guys in town, and he had that much
Speaker 2: pride and respect for the business that he believed that
Speaker 2: and the KFA was alive and well with him, and
Speaker 2: you know, and again, you know what about today, I
Speaker 2: don't know about today. I don't know what you know.
Speaker 2: I see a lot of talents that they care less
Speaker 2: about the KFA, and they can care less about suspending
Speaker 2: this belief. They just want to get their spots done.
Speaker 2: And to me, that's a short term solution and to
Speaker 2: facilitate a short term career.
Speaker 1: I do want to sneak in a plug for the
Speaker 1: towards via. If you're listening to us on the Apple
Speaker 1: podcast app, on Spotify, or any other app that allows
Speaker 1: you to rate our podcast, please take a moment to
Speaker 1: give us a five star rating. It really helps us
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Speaker 1: And of course, thank you so much for listening. All right,
Speaker 1: I got that done and out of the way. That
Speaker 1: is probably the last hard pitch I'll give for the
Speaker 1: one dollar sale. So thanks for bearing with me on that, everybody,
Speaker 1: and I hope if you haven't acted on it yet
Speaker 1: you'll take advantage of this really special deal. All right,
Speaker 1: We now go back to Jim Row and we go
Speaker 1: back to the phone banks. If you want to join
Speaker 1: us on the phone lines, the number is six four
Speaker 1: six seven to one ninety eight twenty eight six four
Speaker 1: six seven to one nine eight two eight. Jim Ross
Speaker 1: is my guest, and our next caller comes from area
Speaker 1: code three one zero. Please stay tore name and where
Speaker 1: you're calling from.
Speaker 2: Hi.
Speaker 4: My name is Josh from Los Angeles, California, and I'm
Speaker 4: a VIP member as well.
Speaker 1: Excellent, Josh, thanks for being a VIP member. Really appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Thank you, No, thank you for having it open. Honestly,
Speaker 4: it's amazing. Every day I'm reading more and becoming better
Speaker 4: of a fan. Well, I wanted to first before I
Speaker 4: ask my question to j I just wanted to say,
Speaker 4: actually just a thank you. I think, thank you for
Speaker 4: pretty much being a part of my youth as I
Speaker 4: was growing up in the attitude era. Uh, you are
Speaker 4: as comparable to me being from Los Angeles, as Evince
Speaker 4: called with some Dodgers the chick late grade chick hern
Speaker 4: from the Lakers, and it's just been great to see
Speaker 4: some passion and commentating. It's not something I get to
Speaker 4: see often in sports. Not a big fan of any commentators.
Speaker 4: So I just wanted to first thank you very much
Speaker 4: to Demarks for all your hard work and your passion
Speaker 4: and what.
Speaker 2: You do well. Appreciate that very much. Kind words ron
Speaker 2: always well received. Thank you very much, No problem.
Speaker 4: I just had just two quick questions and then I'll
Speaker 4: get off the line. I know in past interviews that
Speaker 4: I have listened to you here on the PW Torch
Speaker 4: that you talked very song, you know, the Shelton Benjamin
Speaker 4: and saw a great aspect and potential in it. So
Speaker 4: now that news.
Speaker 8: Has broken back, if you were the booker, what would
Speaker 8: be his first program in order to rebuild his brand,
Speaker 8: especially with a new audience that many may not know
Speaker 8: who he was when he was first in his first tenure.
Speaker 8: And then my second thing is if you had you know,
Speaker 8: the w W gave me the option to work one
Speaker 8: show first, you know, between smackun a Raw, and then
Speaker 8: you have the ability your or two show to go
Speaker 8: to the other show if they need a new rebranding.
Speaker 8: Which show would you lend your voice to first?
Speaker 4: And that's all my questions.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys, thanks appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Well, it's hard to say, you know what what what
Speaker 2: talents you parent Shelton with. I think that you've got
Speaker 2: to Sheldon. Would you got to get Shelves in more
Speaker 2: some RNE time and repremieerize his work and his abilities
Speaker 2: to today's audience. And one way you can certainly do
Speaker 2: that is kind of how they did Tuesday Night with
Speaker 2: some uh, some videotapes, because he has done things in
Speaker 2: his ww career that were absolutely fantastic. He did some
Speaker 2: scinillating things and and TLC match his ladder matches. Uh,
Speaker 2: he had a great match I think with Shawn Michael.
Speaker 2: So I can recall just off the top of my head,
Speaker 2: I started to read acquaint the audience and was in
Speaker 2: his first trip through. I'd probably want to do a
Speaker 2: set down interview with him to show people that he
Speaker 2: can talk and find out why you're back. You're forty
Speaker 2: one years old, what do you expected? What do you
Speaker 2: want out of this run in WWE, which will probably
Speaker 2: be your last one? So and give a sense of
Speaker 2: urgency and a need to succeed now, and then you know,
Speaker 2: do you go all the way with him with a
Speaker 2: let's say a intercontinental title or a US title shot
Speaker 2: or something along those lines. I would have no issues
Speaker 2: of that whatsoever if the table was set correctly. So
Speaker 2: I think the key thing right now is Shelton is
Speaker 2: to make sure people know who he is and his abilities.
Speaker 2: But as far as you know, I get this all
Speaker 2: the time about you know, when you when you're gonna
Speaker 2: go to WW or would you go back? You know,
Speaker 2: first of all, there's been no dialogue about that. I'm
Speaker 2: very happy working for Mark Cuban's company. I'm very well
Speaker 2: compensated to fly to Los Angeles about eight times a
Speaker 2: year and going out there next week. We're going to
Speaker 2: voice over eight shows in two days on Tuesday and Wednesday,
Speaker 2: before I fight to Charlotte for the NW Legends fan
Speaker 2: Fest on Thursday through Sunday. So busy week. Next week
Speaker 2: a fun week, great week for me as a wrestling fan.
Speaker 2: So I I really, you know, I already thought about
Speaker 2: the w W stuff. I'm not. I love watching our shows.
Speaker 2: I watch all the programming I can, I cheer lead them.
Speaker 2: I'm happy for the guys. It's you know, you can't
Speaker 2: spend twenty one years there in the role that I
Speaker 2: was in and not have an emotional investment into the brand.
Speaker 2: And I'm not Hey, even when I was there, I
Speaker 2: didn't like everything that we did. I didn't like everything
Speaker 2: that I did much less to the company. So I
Speaker 2: don't know. I they got what they want, you know,
Speaker 2: they got Michael Cole is so underrated and undervalued and
Speaker 2: tomorrow you know, he's a hell of a broadcaster, kind
Speaker 2: of a throwback guy. I just see that they're they're
Speaker 2: played by play seats are full for the foreseeable future,
Speaker 2: and I'm I'm thinking, you know, the next thing they're
Speaker 2: going to do is try to get Tom Pillows ready
Speaker 2: for one of those roles. You know, you got to
Speaker 2: think that Cole is somewhere somewhere down the road, is
Speaker 2: going to come off the road, uh, as much as
Speaker 2: he is, because he's really involved with the n XT.
Speaker 2: The poor guy works as he works as ass off
Speaker 2: and he's just he's a really has an amazing work ethic.
Speaker 2: It as a good human being.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: And I've always felt really badly, you know, the angle
Speaker 2: that we did way back in the day, where you know,
Speaker 2: he and I had our issues. I thought that was
Speaker 2: so ill conceived and knee jerk. I just I and
Speaker 2: it didn't do him any favors. People didn't like him
Speaker 2: and a lot of people still don't like him because
Speaker 2: of that, and it's silly. It's just it was fiction.
Speaker 2: So uh but I don't really have any today. If
Speaker 2: Vince called me and said, hey, j are you going
Speaker 2: to come back to work, I absolutely I consider it.
Speaker 2: And if it's the right thing, and it would fit
Speaker 2: my schedule and all the ducks were the stars are
Speaker 2: lyned and ducks for an order, all that good stuff,
Speaker 2: all those spichtes. You know, sure, sure I'd go back
Speaker 2: to work, but I would pick my spots. I want
Speaker 2: to go back. I've always been a team guy, Wade.
Speaker 2: You can't have guys that make the help have helped
Speaker 2: build your brand that aren't team players. And I'm not.
Speaker 2: I want to practice what I preach. If Vin's call
Speaker 2: is said JR. Newgaveca at the WV Okay, where do
Speaker 2: I start? I wouldn't be saying, well, what am I
Speaker 2: going to do? And you know what's you know this
Speaker 2: that and the other. I know it'd be paid well
Speaker 2: because it's always paid well, extremely well in the last
Speaker 2: several years. And I know that he would take care
Speaker 2: of my travel and I'd have good working conditions, so
Speaker 2: I wouldn't even question that. But that's not really what
Speaker 2: I'm looking for right now. I like my schedule, like
Speaker 2: doing the boxing. It's a new challenge for me to
Speaker 2: see if I can be a good solid boxing broadcaster.
Speaker 2: And so far CVS likes what they hear, so that's
Speaker 2: good for me. And you know, I like the rest
Speaker 2: of the I'm doing, and I'm going to do other projects.
Speaker 2: You know. That's you know, we're still talking about other things.
Speaker 2: So I don't know, man, I that ship's kind of
Speaker 2: sailed and they they're moving on, and I don't blame them.
Speaker 2: I'm sixty four years old. Do I really want to
Speaker 2: go back on the road every week and do wrestling?
Speaker 2: I don't want to go back on the road every
Speaker 2: week and do anything. And if anybody travels, it deals
Speaker 2: with TSA and laid airplanes and over soul flights and
Speaker 2: reservations and hotels and things. Would say, I know exactly
Speaker 2: what JR. Is talking about, just at the stage of
Speaker 2: my life where I don't want to invest my time
Speaker 2: in that laborious a situation of challenging travel. If I
Speaker 2: don't have to if I had to, don't get me wrong,
Speaker 2: I'd do it, but I'd rather not if I don't
Speaker 2: have to.
Speaker 1: The Shelton Benjamin matchups on SmackDown Jim are intriguing to me.
Speaker 1: If Shelton comes in as a baby face and you
Speaker 1: kind of think he will, because returning stars fans tend
Speaker 1: to be excited to see, and it can be kind
Speaker 1: of a head you face aheadwind if you try to
Speaker 1: get fans to boo them. But on SmackDown, I like
Speaker 1: the idea of Shelton against Bray Wyatt, Shelton against the Miz,
Speaker 1: Shelton against aj Styles, Shelton against Alberto do Rio, and
Speaker 1: Baron Corbin. I like all six of those matchups, all
Speaker 1: five of those matchups with existing top heels on SmackDown.
Speaker 1: If he came in as a heel, there's plenty of
Speaker 1: intriguing matchups too. He could make it all the way
Speaker 1: up to Dean Ambrose if they worked a program where
Speaker 1: Shelton won some matches and built up to a title shot.
Speaker 1: If Dean is still championed by then, but heel Shelton
Speaker 1: against sena heel, Shelton against Ziggler, or he'll Shelting against
Speaker 1: Randy Orton or even Chalice do want Apollo Cruise? All
Speaker 1: those are good either TV or pay per view or
Speaker 1: horse show matches. I really do like Shelton coming back,
Speaker 1: and I like that he's identified primarily with SmackDown historically.
Speaker 1: I think people see him maybe as a SmackDown guy.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of intriguing matchups. Which of those
Speaker 1: one or two matches most jump out to you?
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, I would say, you know again, I go
Speaker 2: back to my philosophy. It would probably help Baron Corvin.
Speaker 2: If he's going to make it, he needs to work
Speaker 2: with people that are better than him and have more
Speaker 2: experience than him. So Shelton could probably be a great
Speaker 2: asset to see exactly what you got in Baron Corvin.
Speaker 2: How much more can he can Baron Corvin improve? Is
Speaker 2: he does? He have the aptitude to get really really good?
Speaker 2: You know, obviously he's past the w of the eye test.
Speaker 2: He looks like a star buying, large, big guy, believable guy,
Speaker 2: good legitimate athletic background. I like that as I always have.
Speaker 2: But you know, a guy like him would be a
Speaker 2: good good for me. Shelton and working with a Cruise
Speaker 2: that he wouldn't be bad because Cruise is also green.
Speaker 2: I would stick with these. Hey, there's no doubt is
Speaker 2: Shelton work with Dean Ambrose? Uh, Sheldon gives anybody on
Speaker 2: that roster a run for their money workwise, anybody anybody there. So,
Speaker 2: but where can he best contribute? Well, if he needed,
Speaker 2: if you get if he got hot and all of
Speaker 2: a sudden his character got over and people want to
Speaker 2: see him, then you want to run in with the
Speaker 2: top guys that are there now. But if you're if
Speaker 2: you're looking at bringing him in as a facilitator and
Speaker 2: not a job guy. Everybodys gon to understand the difference
Speaker 2: in you know, it's just so I get frustrated sometimes
Speaker 2: even talking like this that people you could almost way
Speaker 2: in hugs forty the same thing. You could almost envision
Speaker 2: or hear the descending opinions when you and I are talking.
Speaker 2: Well we ah, but you know, wait a minute, you
Speaker 2: know it's that kind of deal. Just let things play
Speaker 2: out a little bit and let's see how it evolves.
Speaker 2: But there's just put it this way. There's nobody on
Speaker 2: the WW roster, on either brant that Sheldon couldn't have
Speaker 2: a great match with if they have the skill set,
Speaker 2: if their skill sets are still evolving, then he is
Speaker 2: a valuable guy to make them better. So he's a
Speaker 2: real hate you look at what they're bringing in and
Speaker 2: what he can bring to the dance. He's a very
Speaker 2: valuable piece of talent. So you know, but I think
Speaker 2: right now, for me, I would have him booked on
Speaker 2: the road the fifteen or twenty minute matches, probably fifteen's
Speaker 2: with the Barren Corvins of the world, and in hopes
Speaker 2: that Sheldon can make them better, and I know that
Speaker 2: he can excellent.
Speaker 1: Let's go to our next caller. Six one six, you're
Speaker 1: up next. Please state your name and where you're calling from.
Speaker 9: It's their congrat That's how you guys doing doing good?
Speaker 1: Eric, Thanks for Colin. What do you got well?
Speaker 9: Russ No, I just have a question who when he
Speaker 9: had his time at Smoking Mount Wrestling, who was who
Speaker 9: was the best guy? Who you think of our best
Speaker 9: worker was? And I saw an interview with him and
Speaker 9: Al Snow and you abom and he El Snow was
Speaker 9: just funny. That was the funniest problem when he put
Speaker 9: the Ricky Morden wig on because I found I found
Speaker 9: on YouTube the entire the whole career of Smoking mount Wrestling.
Speaker 9: I just want to know what he saw thought about that.
Speaker 10: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank I enjoyed Smoking Mountain Wrestling because I had kind
Speaker 2: of uh gotten out the game on a weekly TV
Speaker 2: game at that point, I had the instrict back to work,
Speaker 2: and I always enjoyed working Jim Cornett. I think he's
Speaker 2: one of the great minds I've ever worked with in wrestling. Uh.
Speaker 2: And I had, you know, I had I had a
Speaker 2: lot of fun that working with Les Thatcher uh as
Speaker 2: a partner. But you know, he had some good talents there,
Speaker 2: you know, Chris Jericho and Lance Storm or Hell Team,
Speaker 2: uh the thrill Seekers I think they call themselves. So
Speaker 2: they were very good. Uh. I you know, I don't
Speaker 2: know who the best was, but those two guys jump
Speaker 2: out at me as being really really good.
Speaker 11: Uh.
Speaker 2: But they had some very underrated guys there that Cornett found.
Speaker 2: Cornette was much like Paul Hammon, and they both learned
Speaker 2: from great bookers that you your best asset as a
Speaker 2: booker is to recognize your talents, talents, skill set, and
Speaker 2: you and you book them to what they do best,
Speaker 2: and you try to make sure you avoid what they
Speaker 2: don't do well. So uh, the Cornette did that extremely well.
Speaker 2: Learned a lot from Bill Watch when he was there
Speaker 2: as a manager of the Midnight Express. So uh, but
Speaker 2: you know, rock and Roll was still I saw the
Speaker 2: rock and Roll work two weekends ago and uh so
Speaker 2: they're still working at Ricky Wharton sixty uh and so
Speaker 2: they were good. They Jericho and land Storm were going
Speaker 2: to jump out at me on that. It's been a
Speaker 2: while back. I needed to go back and refreshmen memory
Speaker 2: who I was there. But it was fun. It was
Speaker 2: it was fun, and I remember al I first ofmever
Speaker 2: met Al Snow was there and ironically, how does people think?
Speaker 2: Al Snow and Glenn Jacobs got to the WWE. You know,
Speaker 2: I saw them and I and I was getting faid,
Speaker 2: I'm still working for events, and I said, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm getting involved in that ret role of talent relations.
Speaker 2: And so we brought them both in. So uh and Glenn,
Speaker 2: my god, how how good a hire was Glenn Jacobs.
Speaker 2: I'm not tired of break my impatting myself in the back. O'tenty.
Speaker 2: Glenn Jacobs, He's such a value. He's been so valuable
Speaker 2: that company over the years that it's not even funny,
Speaker 2: and so he was one of those guys I've mentioned earlier.
Speaker 2: Wait about Shelton great in the locker room? If anybody
Speaker 2: ever heard any negatives about Glenn Jacobs not being a
Speaker 2: great leader of a locker room or a real pro
Speaker 2: nobody doesn't happen THERESI didn't heard it because it's never occurred.
Speaker 2: So that's what you look for in perfect world. It's
Speaker 2: just it's really hard to find that. So but but
Speaker 2: smoking out was a fun run for.
Speaker 1: Me, excellent. I do want to make a quick note
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Speaker 1: Of course, that's MMA torch. All right, we are live
Speaker 1: with Jim Ross here at PW torchlivecast dot com. Tomorrow,
Speaker 1: Bruce Mitchell and Travis Bryant get together to talk to
Speaker 1: you once again about all the events in wrestling this week.
Speaker 1: The look on Travis and Bruce's face when I told
Speaker 1: them full of shame that they missed last week's program
Speaker 1: in the middle of the Hall of Fame ceremony was
Speaker 1: pretty priceless. I wish I had the video camera going.
Speaker 1: I told Bruce first. I said, Bruce, you know, we
Speaker 1: completely forgot about your Friday live cast. We were so
Speaker 1: throwing off by driving to Waterloo for the Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame and we had planned to do it, and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, it's like sixty five or you know,
Speaker 1: six forty five local time, and I'm like, Bruce, You've
Speaker 1: got to live casts. He's like, oh crap. And then
Speaker 1: I went over and told Travis and It's like I
Speaker 1: told him his cat got run over by a car.
Speaker 1: It was like he was devastated. So they are going
Speaker 1: to be very happy to be back in the normal
Speaker 1: slot Tomorrow's seven Eastern, sixth Central, taking your phone calls
Speaker 1: and talking about the ten they spent with me in
Speaker 1: Minnesota and Iowa last week. We had a really good
Speaker 1: time with a we got to I'll watch Battleground together
Speaker 1: and then do a long roundtable review for VP members
Speaker 1: right afterwards. But the highlights certainly was the Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame weekend in Waterlo, Wiowa that Jim Ross and I
Speaker 1: talked about at the top of the show. All right,
Speaker 1: let's go next to Tampa, Florida. Please state your name
Speaker 1: of the city or calling from, or I think you're
Speaker 1: in Tailor.
Speaker 14: Hey, hey, Wade is Jay from Tampa.
Speaker 1: Yeah? Absolutely, thanks Jay for Colin. What have you got
Speaker 1: for Jim and Jim and me today?
Speaker 14: Hey, yes, sir, I have two quick questions. My first
Speaker 14: question is do you think it's too soon to say
Speaker 14: that SmackDown may have made their own decision based off
Speaker 14: of going with Dolf Ziggler or not, or maybe they
Speaker 14: just have another trick up their sleeve that we don't
Speaker 14: know of just yet. My second question is about the
Speaker 14: just the friendly competition in general between the two brands.
Speaker 14: How are we, as see the general viewers going, how
Speaker 14: do you what do you think they're going to do
Speaker 14: to and keep us informed? Do you have to go
Speaker 14: through it every week after this about what the ratings
Speaker 14: were between the two brands? I mean, how are they
Speaker 14: going to relay that information across to the viewers.
Speaker 2: Then?
Speaker 14: So something maybe the viewers may not even know what
Speaker 14: that may consist of. So I'm just kind of curious
Speaker 14: of what you're going to do to roll that out
Speaker 14: to let us know what's going on.
Speaker 1: Two great topics Jay either order Jim, the spirit of
Speaker 1: competition between the brands and how they relay that on TV.
Speaker 1: And the surprising push of Dolf Zigler into a main
Speaker 1: event title match at SummerSlam.
Speaker 2: Well, I, first of all, regarding the ratings, I think
Speaker 2: I like a lot of fans don't care about the
Speaker 2: ratings and don't understand them and don't know how they're
Speaker 2: acquired and don't know what they mean. Raw numbers are
Speaker 2: easy to do. One show did three million viewers, the
Speaker 2: other show did two point eight million viewers. That must
Speaker 2: have been the shows did three million viewers is better
Speaker 2: than the show those two eight two point eight million views,
Speaker 2: And that's certainly not accurate. It's the show was best
Speaker 2: is the one that you watch them both and you
Speaker 2: decided by your own standards that one show is better
Speaker 2: than the other. Than that's than you're than you were
Speaker 2: right because it's so subjective, you're right where one you
Speaker 2: like the one that's the best? Uh Again, it's the
Speaker 2: entertainment content a show, so which one to entertaining the most?
Speaker 2: So I don't know, I'm not the ratings things. Is
Speaker 2: the ratings issue in pro wrestling is a byproduct of
Speaker 2: entities like the Pro Wrestling Torchs and the Wrestling Observer
Speaker 2: and blah blah blah. They they have they have covered
Speaker 2: it and they talk about it because it is a
Speaker 2: TV show that has ratings. But I do believe that
Speaker 2: the average casual fans tuning in uh more often than
Speaker 2: not or whatever, doesn't really care about their TV numbers.
Speaker 2: They care about being entertained and liking what they see.
Speaker 2: But as far as Ziggler is concerned, I have absolutely
Speaker 2: no issues whatsoever with Dolph Zigler finally getting an opportunity
Speaker 2: to wrestle in the main event level match at a
Speaker 2: major pay per view for the WW title.
Speaker 13: Uh.
Speaker 2: He's He's been a loyal, hard working guy. He's probably
Speaker 2: been undervalued at times in his run. There's been a
Speaker 2: lot of frustration about how he's been booked over his tenure.
Speaker 2: I have no issues at all. If you're looking. If
Speaker 2: if anybody thinks that he and Ambrose once that bell
Speaker 2: rings in Brooklyn won't have a great match, then I
Speaker 2: really feel badly for you because there's no doubt in
Speaker 2: my mind that Dolph Ziger will will deliver a great match.
Speaker 2: And if Zigger doesn't win and he and he gives
Speaker 2: Ambrose an amazing match, so that ambroses stock rises that
Speaker 2: Zigger did everything he was asked to do. It was
Speaker 2: a win. It's a win there. And same thing with
Speaker 2: fn ballor everybody. Everybody's alone with Finn Baller and I
Speaker 2: am a huge fan of his, but there's a lot
Speaker 2: of fans that don't know who the hell he is.
Speaker 2: They don't watch an XT thet they watched USA Network
Speaker 2: and they're not If you and look, just do the math.
Speaker 2: You know you mentioned earlier, I think you said that
Speaker 2: THEW Network at one point five million subscribers right now worldwide.
Speaker 1: Right yep?
Speaker 2: And so at the point I don't do this, Okay,
Speaker 2: So what Raw did over three million viewers this week?
Speaker 2: Right yep? Okay, So I'm wondering how many of those
Speaker 2: three million viewers subscribed to thew network. Obviously many more
Speaker 2: don't can do So my point is, I would assume
Speaker 2: that my point is is that Ben Bower is no
Speaker 2: more ready to be a title match of seth rawlins
Speaker 2: than Dolph Zigger is. You're pushing the reset button on
Speaker 2: this step brand separation. There's got to be a step back,
Speaker 2: There's no way around it. There's got to be a
Speaker 2: step back. And what that requires is what many thinks
Speaker 2: don't have patience. So Fiv Vala has been wedding his
Speaker 2: entire life to be in a WWE main event at
Speaker 2: a huge event like SummerSlam all his life. He's mid thirties.
Speaker 2: I say he's mentally ready, he's physically ready, and he
Speaker 2: and Allis will have a dynamite match. But I'm not
Speaker 2: going to tell you they're gonna have a much better
Speaker 2: match than Ambrose and Zigner, or they'll have a better
Speaker 2: match at all. So you know, I don't have any
Speaker 2: issues to that. I'm glad this Zigger's get an opportunity.
Speaker 2: I think it'll be the product built to Bill. Product
Speaker 2: is going to be outstanding. And I think at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, isn't that what we want? That
Speaker 2: we want a great match for a big show like that,
Speaker 2: and if we do, then they're gooded to you.
Speaker 1: Excellent. Let's go to our next call here, Eric code
Speaker 1: seventy three two. I think Scott is back with us.
Speaker 1: Hopefully we have a better connection. Scott is you?
Speaker 5: It's me? Is a better connection, gentlemen, Yes, it is.
Speaker 1: Go ahead and get right to it in case we
Speaker 1: lose your connection.
Speaker 5: Though, we'll do too quick. Kid. It's an honored to
Speaker 5: talk to You've been watching you for twenty five years.
Speaker 5: Love everything you do. Keep up the great work watching
Speaker 5: out Access TV. Keep it up, it's great. But two
Speaker 5: quick points, guys, and questions related to them. Jim. One
Speaker 5: of the things I loved so much in your career
Speaker 5: during the rebirth during the Attitude era was the interview
Speaker 5: segment you did with Nick Foley with gold Dust, etc.
Speaker 5: Do you, guys foresee something like that being brought back
Speaker 5: with the new era with Smackdowvin Raw because like interviews,
Speaker 5: like the days of Piper's Pitt and all those things
Speaker 5: being brand exclusive, I think could be a real draw
Speaker 5: for the shows. What do you guys think about that?
Speaker 2: I think that the innering talking segments need work. They
Speaker 2: need a fresh coat of paint, buying large, they seem predictable,
Speaker 2: and they seem to at times depending on the topic
Speaker 2: and the guests to pull the shows down a little bit,
Speaker 2: kind of stopped the momentum. Most of the stuff that
Speaker 2: I did with Foley and Golden. As you mentioned, there
Speaker 2: are several other guys. I remember doing a interview sitting
Speaker 2: in the middle of Rock in Austin before one of
Speaker 2: their I think it might have been Wrestlemanti in seventeen.
Speaker 2: I said down, and of course it was done in
Speaker 2: pretape but no script and no rehearsal, just as a
Speaker 2: point of reference. But that didn't slow the showdown as
Speaker 2: far as stopping the you know, having the middle of
Speaker 2: the ring and all that. It was a it was
Speaker 2: two big stars that we that we did, and I
Speaker 2: thought it was just a phenomenal, But I believe it
Speaker 2: was part of the storytelling process. And now that WV
Speaker 2: has their own network, which I subscribed to since day one.
Speaker 2: I would think that there are several places on that
Speaker 2: network that that something like that would fit on a
Speaker 2: on a timely basis. But I do think that to
Speaker 2: make it get over, they got to have a shelf life.
Speaker 2: In other words, you might do the WV network exclusive
Speaker 2: and then let it and then drop it back in
Speaker 2: raw and smack down in some form if it's really
Speaker 2: a good set down interview. But the talents, she really
Speaker 2: liked those because they don't have the audience looking around
Speaker 2: that they're to memorize all their lines. It's more organic,
Speaker 2: it's more natural, it's more conversational, they're more relaxed. And
Speaker 2: when they're more relaxed and they're they're able to freethink.
Speaker 2: Generally you get a better product with it. So I
Speaker 2: can't say what w Who's going to do or they're
Speaker 2: not going to do, But I do like those set
Speaker 2: down interviews and it was one of my favorite things
Speaker 2: to do back in those days.
Speaker 5: Well, Jim, it was the pleasure of the fan, and
Speaker 5: I think it was so meaningful in getting fully to
Speaker 5: the Mick Foley over to the next level to sit down.
Speaker 5: You did in ninety seven, and just like you said,
Speaker 5: I think there were no young thing they do on
Speaker 5: the network. Guys. The unfiltered gives you a little glimpse
Speaker 5: into that, But with all the time, I think it
Speaker 5: really could give you enough the depths to the wrestlers
Speaker 5: and the characters and Jim before I lose you. I
Speaker 5: have too quick old questions based on some of my
Speaker 5: favorite moments from your career. Of course, oh awesome. First
Speaker 5: one is this when you guys came in. When uh,
Speaker 5: Jim Crock Promotions bought UWS in eighty seven, Steve Williams
Speaker 5: was so good. Was there ever any talk of Steve
Speaker 5: Williams versus Rick Player like a UWF unification match, because
Speaker 5: that would have been so good and it could have
Speaker 5: been built up so well.
Speaker 2: No, I don't. I don't remember. I don't recall that
Speaker 2: it might have been. I don't recall it quite frankly. Uh,
Speaker 2: the the UWF became a very quick afterthought and for
Speaker 2: no really good reason. Uh. In hindsight, it was ill conceived,
Speaker 2: bad positioning. I thought, I'm biased, so take that for
Speaker 2: it's worth too. But Flare and Doc would have had
Speaker 2: would have had a great series with that question. Doc
Speaker 2: was healthy then younger, he hadn't got he hadn't got
Speaker 2: dismantled by all his Japanese work. Uh, so they would
Speaker 2: have had a great, a great run. I think good, good,
Speaker 2: good matches with that question. So, but I don't remember
Speaker 2: any talk about it.
Speaker 5: I would have been, Jim, it would have been amazing.
Speaker 5: And the last thing also is about doctor because he
Speaker 5: was one of my favorites when he was brought into
Speaker 5: the WWS in ninety eighth in the situation with the
Speaker 5: Brawl for All and Everything? Was your initial plan for
Speaker 5: him to have a program with Austin over the title
Speaker 5: like that, you know later on after that Ball for All.
Speaker 5: That's why I thought was going to happen, and that's
Speaker 5: what I was hoping. I'll be listening for your answers, Jim.
Speaker 5: It's a pleasure, really in honor to talk to you. Lade.
Speaker 5: Thanks as always. VIP is the best money you can
Speaker 5: spend each month. I'll be just listening to hear about
Speaker 5: doctors that appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Guys, we would have liked to have had We were
Speaker 2: looking for a new opponise for Austin and we thought that,
Speaker 2: you know, there might be one more program with Doc
Speaker 2: and Steve, not one more for Doc and Steve befo.
Speaker 2: They had never worked in a program, but we thought
Speaker 2: Doc'll get a good program out of him. But you know, uh,
Speaker 2: that was a kind of an emotional hire me. I
Speaker 2: thought it was. I wanted to give him a shot
Speaker 2: at one more, one more go around. Uh and Vince,
Speaker 2: who was for it. Uh you know our track record
Speaker 2: that they're hiring talents that had been pretty good at
Speaker 2: that point in time. So we just thought, I thought
Speaker 2: he would be a great dancing partner for Austin. But
Speaker 2: I didn't realize you know, Doctor was really beat up
Speaker 2: and uh, you know, he was not going to be
Speaker 2: able to go as often, but he could certainly go some.
Speaker 2: But no, we didn't have any nobody forecasting as look
Speaker 2: at this this quadra set torn off the bone and
Speaker 2: rolled up his legs. So at his age, that pretty
Speaker 2: well put him out of business, you know, to a
Speaker 2: large degree. So uh, we wanted we wanted to see
Speaker 2: if we could get doctor death over and that if
Speaker 2: we could have him in a program with Stone Cold,
Speaker 2: but uh, he just we never got that far down
Speaker 2: the road before the injuries and they're wear and tear
Speaker 2: caught up with it.
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Speaker 1: throughout the week every week excellent good calls, good questions today,
Speaker 1: real wide range of topics. Let's bring in another caller
Speaker 1: and go to ericcode two one nine. You're on with
Speaker 1: Jim Ross. Please state your name in the city you're
Speaker 1: calling from.
Speaker 15: Hey, waiting Jims, Charlie from Chicago.
Speaker 1: Charlie good, Good to talk to you. What have you
Speaker 1: got for Jim?
Speaker 15: Yeah, So I think every buddy who's watching wrestling right
Speaker 15: now would agree that Seth Rollins just has unlimited upside
Speaker 15: whether he's a heel or a face. But you know me,
Speaker 15: like a lot of people were hoping that he was
Speaker 15: going to come back as a face, and you know
Speaker 15: now that they're pushing Finn ballor to the moon and
Speaker 15: he's looking like he's going to be the row babyface.
Speaker 15: I was wondering, how long do you guys think that
Speaker 15: you know, Seth.
Speaker 16: Can fill that heel roll And I mean he does
Speaker 16: it great. I mean he does it better than anyone
Speaker 16: out there right now in my opinion. But I do
Speaker 16: want to see that babyface Seth Rollins someday. And I
Speaker 16: was just wondering if you guys thought or had any
Speaker 16: opinions of when that would be.
Speaker 2: Well, when I said what happened, timelines would be would
Speaker 2: be really uh swiming upstreens because I don't have any
Speaker 2: idea of timelines. I know that he's going to be
Speaker 2: a better heel if pardon me, if he can wrestle
Speaker 2: more like a heel. He does so many sensational, athletic
Speaker 2: things it's hard to do like him. He doesn't have
Speaker 2: a retreat gear, so that's a that's a problem. So
Speaker 2: in other words, and I'm not knocking Seth Rowlin's work,
Speaker 2: he's one of my favorites, but he doesn't help himself.
Speaker 2: He's got a tweak his style a little bit, tweaks
Speaker 2: the game plan and and and acquire more heel tendencies.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying he's got to be Rick Flair and
Speaker 2: he's got to beg Off and all this stuff, but
Speaker 2: he's got to do more the settle things that make
Speaker 2: him be perceived more as a villain and less. Uh.
Speaker 2: He's the sensational worker. I mean he does, he does
Speaker 2: some amazing things, and he's a He's a terrific athlete
Speaker 2: without question. So he can help himself that heel roll
Speaker 2: right now by tweaking a little bit. There's no doubt
Speaker 2: in my mind, and I think everybody would probably agree
Speaker 2: that at some point he will be a great babyface.
Speaker 2: When that will be, I have no idea, but hopefully
Speaker 2: it won't be one of those bouncing back and forth.
Speaker 2: Let him get his run. Uh as a as a heel,
Speaker 2: he'll be a lot better baby tastes if he does.
Speaker 2: But he can help his own cause if he tweaks
Speaker 2: his game a little bit and adds a few heel
Speaker 2: like wrinkles to his presentation.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, Yeah, that's fascinating, Jim, that's fascinating in
Speaker 1: that you know, there is a ring style that Seth
Speaker 1: wrestles that is something that sometimes runs counterproductive to getting
Speaker 1: booed when you're so good and exciting at what you do.
Speaker 1: And I think Chris Jericho, somebody maybe Seth could watch
Speaker 1: to see some of those subtleties of getting booed. Are
Speaker 1: there other wrestlers historically who like Seth have a skill
Speaker 1: set that appeals to fans, but they managed to do
Speaker 1: the little things really well to go heal? I even
Speaker 1: think sometimes Seth maybe watching nineteen eighties Mid South Teddy
Speaker 1: Biassi would be a good thing for Seth to develop
Speaker 1: that heel character a little more.
Speaker 2: Teddy Biassi is a great wrestling heel. Sean Michaelos was
Speaker 2: a great Ric Flair, a great wrestling heel. Uh, there's
Speaker 2: a lot of them over the ages. Nick Bockwinkle, how
Speaker 2: good was he forgot? So there's a lot of guys
Speaker 2: and I'm not saying, well, everybody go retro, No, don't
Speaker 2: I want him to go. I acquire these things from
Speaker 2: a philosophical standpoint, and that's what That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 2: You look at the philosophy of the presentation of those
Speaker 2: guys I mentioned, and there are little nuances, small things.
Speaker 2: Could this be body English, it could be facial expression
Speaker 2: from their game, And he's going to be a better heel.
Speaker 2: That's all I'm saying. He doesn't do anything to make
Speaker 2: me dislike him. Why should I dislike seth Rawlins? Can
Speaker 2: anybody tell me why I should dislike seth Rawlins as
Speaker 2: a fan? What does he do to make him a
Speaker 2: hated or dislike villain?
Speaker 1: Well? And I think with seth Rollins, Jim, there's a
Speaker 1: modern fan who thinks their role is to cheer anybody
Speaker 1: who's really talented and who worked really hard and earned
Speaker 1: his spot. I think it's rather right or wrong part
Speaker 1: of why fans reject Roman Reigns and cheer Kevin Owens
Speaker 1: and seth Rawlins. And I think that puts extra weight
Speaker 1: on the shoulders or extra responsibility on the shoulders of
Speaker 1: Kevin Owens and seth Rawlins types. To study heel wrestlers
Speaker 1: to maybe sometimes tone down the athleticism, forego one of
Speaker 1: those exciting dives that you talked about at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the show, and instead rub the opponent's eyes over
Speaker 1: the top rope, scratch the back eye, gouch, you know,
Speaker 1: just simple little heal moves that make fans go, wait
Speaker 1: a second, he's so talented, why does he need to
Speaker 1: do that? Oh, it's a shortcut. I like, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to cheer for the babyfaces who do the more athletic,
Speaker 1: graceful moves that are within the rule book. Those are
Speaker 1: the things that I think the seth Rawins types of
Speaker 1: the world could do to help help modern day wrestling
Speaker 1: get back to what I think makes the experience most
Speaker 1: enjoyable for fans, whether they know it or not, which
Speaker 1: is as you just asked that question, and there's not
Speaker 1: necessarily a good answer. Why would I want to cheer
Speaker 1: this wrestler and boo this wrestler. When fans are engaged
Speaker 1: that way, the products so much better than when fans
Speaker 1: are sitting there with their proverbial one to ten scorecards,
Speaker 1: rating high spots and chanting this is awesome.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the I would agree with that whole hardly. I
Speaker 2: think sometimes we forget why we were are fans because
Speaker 2: we loved it, we get lost in it. I don't
Speaker 2: know that a lot of a lot of fans, not all,
Speaker 2: but there's there's a vocal minority that that they don't
Speaker 2: get lost in it anymore. They just go to be
Speaker 2: a part of the show. Seemingly. They go to critique,
Speaker 2: be critics, to draw attention to themselves in any way
Speaker 2: that they can. And I regret to that we were
Speaker 2: in that era right now, but we are to some degree,
Speaker 2: and I hope it can change that. I don't know
Speaker 2: that one thing that would help it change is the
Speaker 2: talents have got to recognize what this defiant vocal group
Speaker 2: doesn't like and try to incorporate some of those things
Speaker 2: into their repertoire. So it's just a it's a psychological
Speaker 2: you got to you gotta If you want to be
Speaker 2: a villain, you gotta you gotta have some villain qualities.
Speaker 2: That's as simple as that.
Speaker 1: Charlie from Chicago, do you have anything else for us?
Speaker 8: Hey?
Speaker 15: No, I just want to say you guys are awesome.
Speaker 15: Real credit to the Wrestling podcast World. Jim, I saw
Speaker 15: you at the house of Blues show you came to
Speaker 15: in Chicago a couple of years back and it was
Speaker 15: really great, and uh, Gay, thanks us the best, give
Speaker 15: up the good work.
Speaker 1: Excellent.
Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate that. I'm enjoy doing those shows.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: We got one coming up a week from to night
Speaker 2: in Charlotte at the much anticipated end of a Legends
Speaker 2: fan fest. I'm doing my one man show on Thursday night. Uh,
Speaker 2: Tony Fan's gonna be a Q and A that night
Speaker 2: as well, and Jim Cornett's gonna do the Jim Cornett Experience.
Speaker 2: So it's a hell of an opening night there for
Speaker 2: the NWA Legends fan Fest and a little plugs. You know.
Speaker 2: If you're want more information quickly, I'd say just check
Speaker 2: out NWA Legends dot com if you're arresting. It is
Speaker 2: a cool event. I'm really found to go to and
Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to so many great stars. I'm writing
Speaker 2: a story now. Yesterday, a couple of days ago, I
Speaker 2: talked to Cody Rhodes, Magno, Tier, Tony Shavanni, and Michelle Rhoades,
Speaker 2: Cody's mom, because I'm doing a piece for Fox Sports
Speaker 2: fox sports dot Com about Dusty going into their Hall
Speaker 2: of Heroes a week from tomorrow night. So it's gonna
Speaker 2: be a fun event. I'm a very emotional event with
Speaker 2: Dusty going to the Hall of Heroes. Road Warriors are
Speaker 2: going in, the Baby Doll Jimmy Valliant a cool group
Speaker 2: going in, and I'm a kind of excited way to
Speaker 2: hear how Hurricane Helms, Oh, Gregory Helms is gonna be
Speaker 2: the MC. I expected an held a job. He's a
Speaker 2: funny guy, sharp guy. So it's in Charlotte at the
Speaker 2: Hilton August fourth through seventh, and it is a if
Speaker 2: you're a fan, you can't not like it if you're
Speaker 2: able to get there. And I understand everybody can't get there,
Speaker 2: but there's folks coming from all the country to go
Speaker 2: to it. If you can't get there, I get it.
Speaker 2: But if you go, I promise it you'll be hard
Speaker 2: pressed to not have a wonderful time in Charlotte next week.
Speaker 10: Hey everyone, longtime PW Torch commist Sean radikin here to
Speaker 10: let you know I've rebamped and renewed the Raticant Worldwide
Speaker 10: podcast for twenty twenty six, a weekly VIP exclusive. Every week,
Speaker 10: I break down four or five of the biggest trending
Speaker 10: topics in pro wrestling. I also present my analysis, providing
Speaker 10: insight that helps you understand the story better or see
Speaker 10: it another way. Then maybe is the controversial takeout there.
Speaker 10: Then I bring on a special guest for the second
Speaker 10: half of the podcast. Sometimes it's a wrestler or someone
Speaker 10: else who works in the business. Other times it's a
Speaker 10: guest analyst who brings their specialized point of view out
Speaker 10: a particular key topic in the news. Recent guests have
Speaker 10: included Bronson Reid from WWE and PCO. One of my
Speaker 10: areas of specialty is the japan wrestling scene, so I
Speaker 10: often cover a big topic from Japan with PW Torch's
Speaker 10: own Alan for Kelly Wells and Chris Lansdell. I don't
Speaker 10: just cover the news. I don't just riff on the
Speaker 10: news and give a standard hot take. I'll bring my
Speaker 10: decades of studying this industry and talking one on one
Speaker 10: with dozens of wrestling promoters to each week's show so
Speaker 10: you understand not just what's happening, but the context of why.
Speaker 10: Get ahead of the news. Get ahead of the pack
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Speaker 1: Jim. One thing I want to ask you about wrestlers
Speaker 1: looking back at and learning from history, the history of
Speaker 1: their sport, their industry. Did you notice a change in
Speaker 1: terms of in the nineteen eighties, how much reverence and
Speaker 1: knowledge did wrestlers in the eighties have for wrestlers in
Speaker 1: the seventies and the sixties, and then in the nineties,
Speaker 1: did that change in the two thousands, did that change?
Speaker 1: Have you noticed that as you've aged in the business,
Speaker 1: you've noticed younger wrestlers either respecting and knowing history more
Speaker 1: or less or was it about the same. It's kind
Speaker 1: of an expect.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that the smart wrestlers are the guys
Speaker 2: that study DVDs now are go online digitally and and
Speaker 2: look at their predecessors. The guys that are smart do that.
Speaker 2: The guys that are defiant maybe is the word are?
Speaker 2: You know, they just aren't smart enough to figure out
Speaker 2: there's a lot more to learn than they already have learned.
Speaker 2: But the smartest wrestlers I know one example, Steve Often
Speaker 2: was a tremendous student of the game. He watched a
Speaker 2: lot of videotape, and he watched a lot of content,
Speaker 2: a lot of product during his WW run that even
Speaker 2: when he was on top of the world, nobody could
Speaker 2: touch him. So he was just he was a real
Speaker 2: student of it. And he still is, by the way,
Speaker 2: So the real up at this way, the smart wrestlers, anybody,
Speaker 2: anybody that's in the business that hears this. The best
Speaker 2: advice I could give you as far as outside, you know,
Speaker 2: being reliable and not being a problem and creating problems
Speaker 2: for yourself is to study your predecessors and take little
Speaker 2: things out of their game that you are able to
Speaker 2: transfer to today. And that's not saying you've become You're
Speaker 2: gonna wear wool tights and all the bad guys are
Speaker 2: gonna wear black boots and the baby Face are gonna
Speaker 2: wear white boots. And I'm not saying that whatsoever. I'm
Speaker 2: talking about the nuances. And some guys don't realize, and
Speaker 2: some fans don't realize that. You know, baby faces should
Speaker 2: book differently than Heels, baby Face should have different body
Speaker 2: in whish than heels. There's the little subtle things that
Speaker 2: the greats were able to do that differentia of them.
Speaker 2: If you go back to YouTube and watch old Buddy
Speaker 2: Rogers tapes from the fifties, watch how he walked to
Speaker 2: the ring. His walk to the ring identified him as
Speaker 2: two things. I am a star and I am better
Speaker 2: than you. He's a heel and he was an amazing heel.
Speaker 2: He did that simply, no pyro, no music, maybe just
Speaker 2: spotlight every now and then. But the way he walked,
Speaker 2: the way he carried himself, told his story. That's a
Speaker 2: nuance that other guys could certainly use today. Just little things.
Speaker 2: But you want to do it where it's natural and organic,
Speaker 2: not where you're trying to be a pre imitation of
Speaker 2: Buddy Rogers. Be yourself. So I really believe that that's
Speaker 2: the key thing now. And no I do my shows,
Speaker 2: these one man shows, I get these questions. I really
Speaker 2: encourage young wrestlers that are in the audience, man, pick
Speaker 2: out some of these greats. And if you're an artist,
Speaker 2: then look at some great painters, the great artists, rem
Speaker 2: Brands and Picasso's. If you're hey, look, I can tell
Speaker 2: you this. I'm watching in the background. I have the
Speaker 2: NFL network on and they're doing training camp stuff. How
Speaker 2: many NFL receivers do you think study Jerry Rice or
Speaker 2: Chris Harder or Randy Moss the smart ones? Did the
Speaker 2: smart ones due because there's little things they could pick
Speaker 2: out those guys game that will make them a better
Speaker 2: NFL player. So it's it's transferable, man. I'm sure actors
Speaker 2: do the same thing. You know, actors watched it. I
Speaker 2: used to, you know, actors watching somebody else's work, a
Speaker 2: Pacino or a de Niro or all these guys. You
Speaker 2: could just even learn things. I learned so much from
Speaker 2: watching Gordon Soley. I watched. One of the great things
Speaker 2: for me when I lived in Atlanta was Joe Petsino
Speaker 2: had his big wrestling block on there, and I would
Speaker 2: watch all these wrestling shows on Saturday night as I
Speaker 2: was between marriages, as they say so, and I could
Speaker 2: give enough product. I was immersed in it all week
Speaker 2: at WCW, and I'd watch it all weekend, and I
Speaker 2: listened to every announcer, because even the announcer that weren't
Speaker 2: perceived to be great, I could learn something from and
Speaker 2: I did so. And you never stopped. You should never
Speaker 2: stop learning, never stopped studying tape.
Speaker 1: I just think that's great advice. I think that the
Speaker 1: wealth of just little subtle tips that a wrestler who's
Speaker 1: been in the ring a lot can pick up from
Speaker 1: watching the all time greats, just makes them better at
Speaker 1: what they do in ways that some people might not
Speaker 1: notice overtly, like they might not even know why is it.
Speaker 1: I'm more into this wrestler in the role that he's
Speaker 1: playing now, But they incorporate little tricks of the trade.
Speaker 1: I'm sure like you talk about wide receivers magicians. I'm
Speaker 1: sure great magicians watch past great magicians. It would be
Speaker 1: crazy not to. Why would you want to reinvent from
Speaker 1: scratch things that others have perfected through hard work and time.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think WWE network has helped in that regard.
Speaker 1: I guess, Jim, do you think there's more of that
Speaker 1: because of technology that wrestlers over the past ten years
Speaker 1: are probably learning more from the past? Or is there
Speaker 1: more of a disregard for history among today's generation than
Speaker 1: there was in the past.
Speaker 2: Well, the technology is there to facilitate it, for sure,
Speaker 2: way no doubt. It's a matter of you know, I
Speaker 2: can tell you that one of the troubling things is
Speaker 2: a societal issues, not pro wrestling issues. A societal issue
Speaker 2: is that a lot of specially young males and I'm
Speaker 2: assuming some young females too, But it certainly seems to
Speaker 2: be more prominent in males. There's certain certain you, certain
Speaker 2: groups of young males that are very defiant and they
Speaker 2: already know, Oh I got that, I got to I
Speaker 2: understand that.
Speaker 13: I know.
Speaker 2: I'm good. I'm good. Well, you're not good because you're
Speaker 2: not learning. You stop learning. And if you've come I've
Speaker 2: said this before it and I hate to be redundant,
Speaker 2: but it's real simple. If you want to reside in
Speaker 2: any comfort zone in business or relationship, your career, whatever,
Speaker 2: you're asking to fail because when you stop growing, you
Speaker 2: start dying. It's that simple. Stop growing, start dying. That's
Speaker 2: a transition. And you know, when I left WWE in
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen, you know I had the option of driving.
Speaker 2: If I drove from road from Stanford and Vince McMahon's
Speaker 2: office to Laguardi Airport to fly back to Oklahoma, I
Speaker 2: had two options, retire or reinvent. Obviously I took the latter.
Speaker 2: I reinvented, and I stayed in the game. I didn't
Speaker 2: want to dwell in that comfort zone because I was
Speaker 2: scared of my own philosophy. I didn't want to get
Speaker 2: stagnant and start regressing and start dying and So that's
Speaker 2: how I look at every day. Every day, I should
Speaker 2: be able to do something in my life better than yesterday,
Speaker 2: and to be time management investments, selecting gigs to do,
Speaker 2: taking this project or that project, turning some things down
Speaker 2: that might not be good for my career just for
Speaker 2: the sake of a payday or something. But I really
Speaker 2: believe in that philosophy. So young guys that believe they
Speaker 2: got the world by the testicles and everything's they got
Speaker 2: everything under control, need to realize you don't. It's a
Speaker 2: false sense of security. And if you don't change your attitude,
Speaker 2: you're going to start You're going to reverse your trend.
Speaker 2: You're gonna go back the other way.
Speaker 1: Let's get one last phone call in before we wrap
Speaker 1: up today's program and go to New York City seven
Speaker 1: one eight. Please state your name and we're calling.
Speaker 11: Sure Mike from Brooklyn. How do you guys going away?
Speaker 2: Just ja do good? Mike?
Speaker 11: What have you got for Jim Ross question? It's already
Speaker 11: didn't touch, you know, touch the topic. You know, I
Speaker 11: just wanted to get you know, J's thoughts on you know,
Speaker 11: the Universal tackle and also the U four C. You know,
Speaker 11: you know AJ styles and you know what the track wants,
Speaker 11: smack down, that's a lie.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thanks Mike Man, thank you for calling.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: I'm a big Aja fan, I really am. I had
Speaker 2: him on my podcast when he was still in Japan,
Speaker 2: the Ruff King of Nine match, so I got to
Speaker 2: call one of his big matches in the biggest event
Speaker 2: that new Japan. Has. I had a chance to hire
Speaker 2: him and I we laughed about this. I passed on
Speaker 2: him and he said his best thing that happened to
Speaker 2: him because he wasn't ready for w W. I didn't
Speaker 2: think he was ready either, so we did hir him. Uh,
Speaker 2: but he was very green. I do believe today he's
Speaker 2: as good at workers w HAS. I don't think they
Speaker 2: have any I don't know that he's the best, but
Speaker 2: I can tell you that he's as good as anybody
Speaker 2: I see in the business in a long time. So
Speaker 2: I can't imagine him not getting a tenure with a championship.
Speaker 2: I think it's inevitable when it happens. I don't have
Speaker 2: any idea, but he's he's really really special. So and
Speaker 2: I don't you know as far as the Universal title
Speaker 2: is concerned and how it's going to evolve and all
Speaker 2: that I really, I'm not smart enough to tell you
Speaker 2: today how it's going to do. I got to see it,
Speaker 2: and I got to see it developed, and that's why
Speaker 2: I said all along. I think that the brand separation
Speaker 2: is we better judged more objectively with more evidence and
Speaker 2: not just you know, a personal preference over a show
Speaker 2: by WrestleMania thirty three than he can be today. Give
Speaker 2: an example, Twitter follower, I want I'm on Twitter at jrsvvq. Okay.
Speaker 2: I had a guy tweet me Monday night, excuse me
Speaker 2: on Tuesday night, about twenty minutes into the show's back
Speaker 2: down lives, and he wanted to know how I would
Speaker 2: judge or rank the announced team in twenty minutes work.
Speaker 2: So here's what that tells me. That person has no patience.
Speaker 2: That person doesn't know that you can't make that decision
Speaker 2: or make a viable, intelligent opinion in twenty minutes. It's
Speaker 2: not fair to those three guys. It's not fair to anybody.
Speaker 2: So I think that's kind of where we are sent
Speaker 2: over here. Everybody wants everything now way, it's all now, quick, quick, quick,
Speaker 2: and I think this is something that we can't have now.
Speaker 2: We have to wait until see how it evolves before
Speaker 2: we can all make an intelligent decision. You can make
Speaker 2: a decision, but you got to make it. Go to
Speaker 2: make an intelligent decision when you have more information, and
Speaker 2: the more as you have, the better the decision will be.
Speaker 1: What did you think when you heard that Jerry Lawler
Speaker 1: was no longer going to be a color commentator on
Speaker 1: either Raw or SmackDown.
Speaker 2: Wasn't surprised at all, based on the fact that the
Speaker 2: brand H separation was going to create new and they
Speaker 2: wanted a fresh approach. It's kind of like the moving
Speaker 2: the Raw announced team back to the near the pyro
Speaker 2: uh back to the stage area change. It was just
Speaker 2: to be different, you know. I experienced that once upon
Speaker 2: a time. Wasn't crazy about it. I just I fed
Speaker 2: off the audience that are surrounding me, and I think
Speaker 2: a lot of broadcasters do. It just gives you a
Speaker 2: little boost. They help you, they're drilling helps you. It's infectious.
Speaker 2: And the thing about being so far away is you're
Speaker 2: not surrounded by the audience. Your back of your back
Speaker 2: is just a wall the stage and you're in your back.
Speaker 2: You're not surrounded by the fans, so you lose a
Speaker 2: little bit of that energy. Uh. And of course then
Speaker 2: you're you're. The running gag is that you're you know,
Speaker 2: you feel like you're something from j R's barbecue, you know,
Speaker 2: on that hegel that damnpiro uh and the noise is hidious.
Speaker 2: You cannot allow yourself to have your head headset off
Speaker 2: when the pyro goes off, because it will you'll crush
Speaker 2: your ears your drums is bad, bad business. But that
Speaker 2: that kind of thing, I just uh, you know I
Speaker 2: I I think that we got to get these guys time.
Speaker 2: And I hey, I think that I'm always been a
Speaker 2: two men guy. I like the two man teams. But
Speaker 2: if the companies, if the company says they want three,
Speaker 2: then make three work. And it's and here all just
Speaker 2: be aware that it's not easy. The best three man
Speaker 2: team I ever worked with was Vince Lawler and me
Speaker 2: from from from my point of view, but I thought,
Speaker 2: when they were going to do this re shuffle the deck,
Speaker 2: Jerry and nobody's gonna want to say this, but Jerry
Speaker 2: is sixty six years old and they want they want
Speaker 2: to start new. You start new with a sixty six
Speaker 2: year old guy in any business, I mean, think about it,
Speaker 2: you know, in a prime role. Cherry's got a role
Speaker 2: on TV, and I would venture to say he's making
Speaker 2: exactly the same money he made for doing Raw and
Speaker 2: or smack Man and or the pay per views for
Speaker 2: doing exactly what he's doing. And here's the thing about it, Hey,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't mind a gig like that where you fly
Speaker 2: to one location every week. You always fly to New York,
Speaker 2: you always go to Stanford, You're always in the same hotel,
Speaker 2: you're in the same studio, the same technicians, and you're
Speaker 2: doing your your your pregame and postgame shows. I think
Speaker 2: that'd get blast. I'd love that gig.
Speaker 1: And I don't know.
Speaker 2: I haven't hit Cherry, but he's you know, when I
Speaker 2: saw him last at Oklahomania, he was happy and looking
Speaker 2: forward to to you know, he's glad. I think more
Speaker 2: we leave to get all that that domestic violence Bologny away,
Speaker 2: and domestic violence it itself is at Bologney. Don't get
Speaker 2: me wrong, But I think the situation he was charged
Speaker 2: with was he was a kind of kind of ill
Speaker 2: ill faded. I don't know if the word is wade.
Speaker 2: You know, he didn't do anything, He didn't strike the woman.
Speaker 2: He didn't do any she was she was intoxicated and
Speaker 2: he was just trying to manage her, take her car
Speaker 2: keys from her. So, you know, they say the only
Speaker 2: when I've been this way, if it was said about me,
Speaker 2: I'm nott. The plot called the Kettle Black if you
Speaker 2: the only person can stand a drunk is another drunk,
Speaker 2: And Jerry doesn't drink, so uh hard to communicate with
Speaker 2: someone that's that's uh ineviated and uh and I'm sure
Speaker 2: that matters being addressed and and she's a nice young
Speaker 2: woman and all that. But uh, you know, I think
Speaker 2: he's Hey, look, he's got a great job, he's making
Speaker 2: good money. I feel great. I feel good for him.
Speaker 2: The travel might even be more easy to manage because
Speaker 2: you know where you're going and where you're everything. Uh
Speaker 2: So uh I I watched him on the network on
Speaker 2: Whatnot but maybe Tuesday night maybe uh And I thought they,
Speaker 2: you know, potentially is a is a real cool thing.
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you somebody else is good. Scott Stanford
Speaker 2: is really good. Scott Stanfford is very underrated. He's off
Speaker 2: the radar, and he's really good in that host role.
Speaker 2: So I like the guy. I'd like, Hey, if they look.
Speaker 2: If they need somebody else to do that role, I
Speaker 2: could make myself available if necessary. I'm kidding, but I
Speaker 2: think it'd be fun. I think it'd be fun.
Speaker 1: iPhone users, if you're listening to us on the Native
Speaker 1: podcast app on your iPhone, you can unlock our commercial
Speaker 1: free versions of our free shows by searching PW Torch
Speaker 1: in Apple Podcasts. You'll see a charcoal grade logo that
Speaker 1: says PW Torch VIP on it. Click on that, there's
Speaker 1: some free samples of VIP shows and you can unlock
Speaker 1: the entire VIP lineup, which includes VIP exclusives plus commercial
Speaker 1: free versions of the free shows, by searching PW Torch
Speaker 1: in Apple Podcasts and clicking on the PW Torch VIP
Speaker 1: logo and then activate your three day free trial, and
Speaker 1: after that you can become a VIP member using your
Speaker 1: Apple account. It's that easy. Enjoy a streamline listening experience
Speaker 1: to our free shows and unlock all the vp P exclusives,
Speaker 1: including our post pay per view roundtables, the Wade Keller
Speaker 1: news bulletins, Everything with Rich and Wade, The Fix that
Speaker 1: I host with Todd Martin, and a variety of other
Speaker 1: vip exclusives. Just search PW Torch in your Apple podcast app. Jim,
Speaker 1: thank you for the last ninety minutes or so of
Speaker 1: your time, and it is always a pleasure having me
Speaker 1: on the program. I love when we bring callers into
Speaker 1: the mix and we just end up going places that
Speaker 1: we want thing to go on our own and it
Speaker 1: helps us answer questions that the listeners have that that
Speaker 1: maybe we wouldn't have gotten to. So I want to
Speaker 1: extend a big thank you to our callers for a
Speaker 1: good wide range of topics going back to the nineteen
Speaker 1: eighties to Japan all the way to to just Tuesday SmackDown.
Speaker 1: I do want to say before we let you go, Jim,
Speaker 1: that you have a podcast and a blog, and we've
Speaker 1: kind of mentioned in passing the podcast at Bruce Mitchell
Speaker 1: was on this week, but people can find that podcast
Speaker 1: at podcast one dot com. That's ow any podcast one
Speaker 1: dot com can also subscribe to the Ross Report podcast
Speaker 1: on popular podcast apps on iPhone and Android and of
Speaker 1: course iTunes also. Jim, you do that show once a
Speaker 1: week and it seems like it continues to be an
Speaker 1: outlet and a format that you are thriving in with
Speaker 1: your love and knowledge of the business to be able
Speaker 1: to make some nice money in front of a really
Speaker 1: big audience who can listen when it's convenient for them to.
Speaker 1: You sit down and talk in long form with a
Speaker 1: lot of people you've crossed paths with over the years.
Speaker 1: I mean, who would have thought this would happen ten
Speaker 1: years ago? I know you did. I mean you helped
Speaker 1: create Kevin ash and have him break out of his
Speaker 1: mold and show off his character when he's Viny Vegas
Speaker 1: on your Was it WMC Radio in Atlanta? Was that
Speaker 1: the call letter?
Speaker 2: Yeah? WSB in Atlanta A seven fifty WSB every Sunday
Speaker 2: night for a good while. There's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Yes, I think that started back.
Speaker 2: I agree, And I tell you I want to say
Speaker 2: the fans that one of the things I really get
Speaker 2: a charge with. I love doing the podcast. I love
Speaker 2: talking to different people, the different walks of life. The
Speaker 2: one I'm nomin there. Every guest I've ever had on
Speaker 2: my show has, whether it's been Michelle Beadle or Ronda
Speaker 2: Rousey or Bruce Mitchell this week, they're all wrestling fans.
Speaker 2: They have a love of the business and something that's
Speaker 2: drawn them to pro wrestling, so that way we all
Speaker 2: have that in common. I don't try to have a
Speaker 2: variety show. I'm going to do a wrestling show and
Speaker 2: I'm going to take care of my wrestling demographic in
Speaker 2: my audience with these guests. But also I'm having fun
Speaker 2: doing and I've really got to We're working on with
Speaker 2: two different new management groups on my one man show.
Speaker 2: I think you're going to see a lot more activity
Speaker 2: from me on those. We're a real good team together
Speaker 2: now that's looking to be very aggressive on booking me.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of options out there. I got this
Speaker 2: show coming up next Thursday and Charlotte as part of
Speaker 2: the Fan Fast. As I mentioned, I got another show
Speaker 2: on Friday night, September twenty third in Baltimore at Jimmy's
Speaker 2: Famous Seafoods. That's going to be a very intimate show,
Speaker 2: about three hundred capacity. Jim Cornet's going to join me.
Speaker 2: It's the weekend that they're having their big Legends FanFest
Speaker 2: in Baltimore. It's gonna be a great show. Tickets that
Speaker 2: are on sale. And this one note, and I don't
Speaker 2: want to sound like a good a telethon here, but
Speaker 2: just as let everybody know I'm doing right now schedule
Speaker 2: to do two shows at WrestleMania thirty three. Both are matinees,
Speaker 2: one on Saturday before the Hall of Fame, one on
Speaker 2: Sunday before WrestleMania in Orlando at Plaza Live. And I
Speaker 2: am under the impression that our tickets will go on
Speaker 2: sale for WrestleMania shows the day after Summer Slam, So
Speaker 2: anybody wants to spread the word on that tickets on
Speaker 2: sale the day after Summer Slam. That would be Monday,
Speaker 2: August twenty two at ticketfly dot com. And last year,
Speaker 2: the VIP tickets sold out the first day. We end
Speaker 2: up selling three shows out a little were one thousand
Speaker 2: people per show. So I hope I want to come.
Speaker 2: We'll join us. I know it's a long way off,
Speaker 2: but the tickets, you know, once you sell out, you
Speaker 2: can't you can't create more tickets. So that's all just
Speaker 2: a read. Those shows are really fun, and it's an
Speaker 2: extension on my podcast quite frankly, because all it is
Speaker 2: is answering questions and addressing topics from the audience and
Speaker 2: having fun, trying to be funny and humorous and tell
Speaker 2: stories and interact and get back. I love the interaction
Speaker 2: with the live audience, so those shows are going to
Speaker 2: be more frequent. We're working on a tour of the UK.
Speaker 2: We're working on a tour. I just got an email
Speaker 2: this morning. I think our Barbecue, Sauces and All Our
Speaker 2: Condiments is going to be in Australia, New Zealand and
Speaker 2: Singapore this fall, and with that will probably be a
Speaker 2: rollout of maybe some ringside shows in Australia. Never been
Speaker 2: there ever. So a lot of good things are happening
Speaker 2: that I'm having fun, and they all bring me back
Speaker 2: to the fan base that has supported me all these years.
Speaker 2: So it's a it's a really good time having as
Speaker 2: much fun right now as I think I've had in
Speaker 2: my career. So I'm really blessed happy.
Speaker 1: I got a taste of the One Man's Show environment.
Speaker 1: You talk about interacting with fans, and you know, it's
Speaker 1: great doing podcasts and our format here being able to
Speaker 1: take phone calls. I get to do that a couple
Speaker 1: times a week. But this past weekend in Waterloo, I
Speaker 1: got to sit next to Dave Meltzer for the first
Speaker 1: time we had ever been on a panel discussion together.
Speaker 1: We both started our newsletters back in the nineteen eighties,
Speaker 1: Dave a true pioneer wrestling journalism, and again congratulate him
Speaker 1: for winning the Jim Melby Award for Excellence in writing
Speaker 1: on professional wrestling. He absolutely deserves it. But it was great.
Speaker 1: And then Greg Oliver and Steve Johnson, two renowned historians
Speaker 1: on wrestling, joined us on that panel discussion. I did
Speaker 1: put it's the only place people can hear it start
Speaker 1: to finish. There's a YouTube clip up of most of
Speaker 1: the show, but the entire Q and A is up
Speaker 1: for VIP members exclusively. They can hear me and Dave Meltzer,
Speaker 1: along with Greg Oliver and Steve Johnson take questions for
Speaker 1: about an hour from a packed room, and we sold
Speaker 1: out the place at the water.
Speaker 2: I'm standing, well, he uh, it's fun you feed out there.
Speaker 2: The audience is good, your show is good, and you know,
Speaker 2: that's like watching all our SmackDown. When the audience is
Speaker 2: really stellar, it motivates everybody to do a little bit
Speaker 2: more better work. And and then if you're watching it
Speaker 2: home like most of us do, uh, the shows are
Speaker 2: perceived to be better because the audience was buying what
Speaker 2: they were seeing, So that's good. I was I'm sorry
Speaker 2: I missed that. I I'll check it out on on
Speaker 2: on your side because I I'd love to hear the discussion.
Speaker 2: And that's very, very bright, intelligent company you were with,
Speaker 2: and so I will check it out.
Speaker 1: The last two questions from the crowd. One came from
Speaker 1: an eleven year old boy who asked a great question
Speaker 1: and it was it was really fun answering, and then uh,
Speaker 1: we were going to wrap up at that point the show,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, somebody in the back
Speaker 1: off to the side raised his hand and said, I'd
Speaker 1: like to get a question in before we finish, and
Speaker 1: it was the Mayor of Waterloo, as he's dubbed Jerry
Speaker 1: Briscoe longtime Freddy or is Jim. He asked a question
Speaker 1: and my answer made Dave Meltzer laugh harder than I
Speaker 1: think I've ever seen Dave laugh. I did a screen
Speaker 1: capture of that on my Twitter feed at the Wade Keller.
Speaker 1: If people want to follow me, you can see the
Speaker 1: screen grab. You have to listen to the podcast to
Speaker 1: hear what made Dave almost fall over in his chair
Speaker 1: when I answered Jerry Briscoe's question For us, it was
Speaker 1: a very fun time when I have a new appreciation
Speaker 1: for the one man show format. Sitting in front of
Speaker 1: that audience and doing that it is not something I'm
Speaker 1: used to. I'm used to sitting in my home office
Speaker 1: and got the headset on and doing my thing and
Speaker 1: not really having that eye contact and body language that
Speaker 1: I have to concern myself with or feed off of.
Speaker 1: It works both ways, and both doing the live podcast
Speaker 1: with Iron Cheek and Bob Backland with Bruce Mitchell on
Speaker 1: Friday afternoon and then that Q and a panel discussion
Speaker 1: with Dave, greg and Steve on Saturday afternoon or Saturday morning.
Speaker 1: It was really a fun experience. I hope it works
Speaker 1: out in your schedule to be back next year. I
Speaker 1: know Kyle Klingman and the whole crew over in Water
Speaker 1: that works so hard to make that a really special
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame and couldn't be named after the museum,
Speaker 1: couldn't be named after a better, more accomplished wrestler and
Speaker 1: Dan Gable and I just I just am impressed at
Speaker 1: the improvements and strides they make each year in that
Speaker 1: in that Hall of Fame. So so that was awesome. Good,
Speaker 1: Well go ahead, Jim.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're a really good team. I'm sorry. They're a
Speaker 2: really good team. They love what they do, and I'll
Speaker 2: always be ready to do more for that group of
Speaker 2: people than than you know, anybody. I really respect what
Speaker 2: they do and they treated me great, and I just
Speaker 2: can't encourage folks enough not to check out the museum
Speaker 2: in Waterloo. And it's kind of like, you know, I'm conflicted.
Speaker 2: It's like next week, you know, in Charlotte. Gosh, you know,
Speaker 2: at one time Charlotte had were two hundred wrestlers living there,
Speaker 2: and people wonder why Charlotte is such a hotbed still
Speaker 2: for pro wrestling heritage and Connie they were the big
Speaker 2: stars of the of the region. Long before the NFL
Speaker 2: and NBA came to town. There was wrestling in NASCAR, and
Speaker 2: NASCAR was in this infancy. NASCAR wasn't as big as
Speaker 2: pro wrestling in that era. So it's just an amazing
Speaker 2: that roots are so deep in the culture of that
Speaker 2: community in Charlotte. So but anyway, I said, for you know,
Speaker 2: next week, they think about my week. Next week, I
Speaker 2: want to go to LA and voice over eight wrestling
Speaker 2: shows with nobody. Uh, well, the only thing I got
Speaker 2: to worry about, and I've got my notes I've been studying.
Speaker 2: I'm preparing now is just call what you see? And
Speaker 2: I love that. So I called I told somebody this
Speaker 2: by an announcer, I will remain nameless. He said, how
Speaker 2: do you do your shows? I said, we call what
Speaker 2: we see? He said, how do you do that? What
Speaker 2: do you mean? How do I do it? How does
Speaker 2: the football announcer call a football game? You call the plays?
Speaker 2: He's caught what's on your monitor. And so that's what
Speaker 2: we do. We call what we see on our screen.
Speaker 2: And it's so much fun. We could focus on one thing,
Speaker 2: and that's try to tell good stories. And then on Wednesday,
Speaker 2: after I finish those eight shows, I'm flying for Los
Speaker 2: Angeles to Charlotte and hit the ground running on Thursday
Speaker 2: on opening day of the NDA Legends fan Fest. So
Speaker 2: I have a dream weekend next weekend. And thank god,
Speaker 2: I'm healthy and I feel good and I am blessed
Speaker 2: to be able to have these opportunities. So again, OJR
Speaker 2: is not residing in a comfort zone, and I suggest
Speaker 2: everybody to follow that. If you don't remember anything else
Speaker 2: this damn thing, remember that, don't find your comfort zone.
Speaker 2: If you find it, get out of it.
Speaker 17: Move, good advice, need an extra dose of positivity in
Speaker 17: your wrestling podcasts? Will come join me Alan fourrel Over
Speaker 17: in the Progress Paradise at pedew georch VIP as we
Speaker 17: mosk on the bright side of wrestling and focus on
Speaker 17: some of the great matches and shows from around the world,
Speaker 17: be it the US, Japan, Europe or Mexico. There's always
Speaker 17: a place for restlings past in the Paradise too, and
Speaker 17: we've done fun historical shows such as the We Love
Speaker 17: Liger series celebrating the glorious career of Jusian thunder Lighter
Speaker 17: and Our Eye Was There When shows where our guests
Speaker 17: will join me to talk about a classic bout that
Speaker 17: they were in attendance for. We love variety and you
Speaker 17: can expect lots of it at the Progress Paradise. Detailed
Speaker 17: pw Torch VIP subscription information and a list of all
Speaker 17: the VIP benefits is available at PW torch vipinfo dot com.
Speaker 17: And yes, all VIP podcasts are compatible with popular podcast
Speaker 17: apps on iPhone and Android devices, or you can stream
Speaker 17: them directly from our ad free VIP mobile site. See
Speaker 17: You in the Paradise.
Speaker 1: A Dutch mantel by the way did his first post
Speaker 1: WWE interview with me two weeks ago on this very show.
Speaker 1: So if anybody missed that, Dutch is so good, he
Speaker 1: was such a.
Speaker 2: Guy as you guys, Dutch a thatch is a great mind.
Speaker 2: Dutch is really really smart, great logic. He's a logical booker,
Speaker 2: and he understands human nature. And when wrestlers and bookers
Speaker 2: and they're all that that comes together, that understand human nature.
Speaker 2: And you play upon the seven daily sins some shape
Speaker 2: form or fashion. Uh, you're you're, you're just you got
Speaker 2: a fighting chance to be really really good. And Dutch
Speaker 2: is a really really good booker, and.
Speaker 1: And he's funny. I love his dry sense of humor.
Speaker 1: He was just great. I really really encourage feel check
Speaker 1: it out a good in, really good insight. One of
Speaker 1: my favorite parts of the show two weeks ago was
Speaker 1: his comment on Donald Trump stealing his gimmick. And he
Speaker 1: means it literally. Donald Trump saw him do the zab
Speaker 1: culter ulter conservative tea party type of character, and he
Speaker 1: came up to him at Russell Median said how much
Speaker 1: he liked what he just saw, like he and and
Speaker 1: and it turned out Donald sort of converted after versus
Speaker 1: his whole public approach, and it seems to be clicking.
Speaker 1: So Dutch tells a story way better than I just did,
Speaker 1: and it's worth checking out for that reason. But he
Speaker 1: talks about the incarnation of his character with Alberta do
Speaker 1: Rio and and I don't want to spoil it. I'll
Speaker 1: just say you got to hear his answer to appreciate
Speaker 1: what that was all about, or what he thought it
Speaker 1: was all about. Really good stuff. We can't wait to
Speaker 1: have Dutch on again, and I'm honored that he chose
Speaker 1: our show to be the first place that he talked
Speaker 1: after his WWE stint. The Jim Ross blog is up.
Speaker 1: Just google Jim Ross Blog. Don't even worry about the
Speaker 1: r ls because it pops right up at the top
Speaker 1: of Google search returns. Jim writes about wrestling. You can
Speaker 1: get insight from him throughout the week and read Q
Speaker 1: and A and his thoughts on what's going on in
Speaker 1: in wrestling. I also encourage you mmatorch dot com. With
Speaker 1: USC two to one coming up, check out our coverage there.
Speaker 1: I'm really proud of our MMA coverage and right now
Speaker 1: at pw torch dot com, unmatched coverage of wwb's financials
Speaker 1: and all the information that came out today. Fascinating comments
Speaker 1: Jim about from George Barrios about whether WWE would be
Speaker 1: for sale, and of course, Jim, everybody's for sale for
Speaker 1: the right prices. The man we spoke of, Teddy Biasse,
Speaker 1: once said, but their answer about whether they are for
Speaker 1: sale like USC was for sale is really interesting for
Speaker 1: people who stuck with us through our plugs. And in
Speaker 1: this part this chapter of our podcast, Jim, your real
Speaker 1: quick thought on how the wrestling industry might change if
Speaker 1: WWE sold for an offer that Vince mcmahnon company could
Speaker 1: not refuse. You've been through that once before, or you've
Speaker 1: seen that in history, Bill Watts being bought by Jim Crockett,
Speaker 1: Jim Crockett being bought by Ted Turner, Ted Turner being
Speaker 1: bought by Time Warner a well buying Time Warner. I
Speaker 1: don't know that that always goes particularly well. Is that
Speaker 1: something that you'd be interested in seeing happen or do
Speaker 1: you fear for the industry if it did.
Speaker 2: I would rather wait and see how the UFC sales
Speaker 2: going to transition, because the sale of wrestling companies has
Speaker 2: not been overwhelmingly successful. A lot of those just was
Speaker 2: a sell and liquidate type thing. So the track record
Speaker 2: in that has not been in stellar. Not saying it
Speaker 2: can't be, I think it's going to be. It's a
Speaker 2: matter of who buys and who they put in to
Speaker 2: manage and run things that that has great product knowledge.
Speaker 2: If you put people in the you can't Wrestling is
Speaker 2: such a unique thing. Pro restu is such a unique
Speaker 2: entity that you really need product knowledge to make it work.
Speaker 2: And so I think if we follow along how the
Speaker 2: USC is going to transition with their buy out, the
Speaker 2: buyers were smart and keeping Dana White in the key
Speaker 2: role because he's the guy that helped build a damn thing.
Speaker 2: So I'd rather wait to see how the USC is
Speaker 2: going to evolve to answer that better more intelligently. But
Speaker 2: just if you exclude the USC situation, you find out
Speaker 2: that the good looking back at the wrestling sales have
Speaker 2: not been overwhelmingly successful. So you know, again it's I
Speaker 2: would say, this is somebody who's going to put the big,
Speaker 2: big money up and buy w W, which I have
Speaker 2: a hard time he fathoming right now. Uh, Then I
Speaker 2: would say, uh, it would all depend on who they
Speaker 2: put in air as a management team, and they're they're
Speaker 2: gonna pay lots and lots of money for it. So
Speaker 2: you've got to believe that they'll have a well thought
Speaker 2: out and have a great management team that has product
Speaker 2: knowledge to see you go for it. But I, in
Speaker 2: the sense of common sense, would say everything has a price.
Speaker 2: The Dallas Cowboys, Cherry chose to sell the Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 2: They got enough money. Uh and uh it's the most
Speaker 2: and I use the Dallas Cowboys because they're the most
Speaker 2: expensive franchise, most valued franchise in all sports. Everything is
Speaker 2: for sale for the right money. Uh So, But I
Speaker 2: just don't know that. I just can't see w W
Speaker 2: selling anytime soon. I think you're looking at up, you know,
Speaker 2: to make with Paulovec and Stephanie a whole generation running
Speaker 2: that company. H But make no mistake about it. I
Speaker 2: saw somewhere with somebody it was a rig revelation. Somebody said,
Speaker 2: well they found out lo and behold there was Vince
Speaker 2: McMahon that decided that them Bowler is going to go
Speaker 2: over on raw and the Dolphsigger is going to go
Speaker 2: over some back then. Yeah, it couldn't believe its man mate.
Speaker 2: He makes, he makes every major decision. It's his dream,
Speaker 2: it's his vision, it's his He's the pulse of that company.
Speaker 2: So as long as Vince is alive, you can bet
Speaker 2: your ass say, w W is selling to nobody. In
Speaker 2: my opinion, that's all just my opinion. And if they
Speaker 2: ever sell, I think that the Covenant Adviser will spend
Speaker 2: so much money they'll put a great management team in place,
Speaker 2: uh to help perpetuate the genre. So we'll see, you know,
Speaker 2: we'll see. It's it's interesting, it's not to me. It's
Speaker 2: not a surprise. What is it for sale? It'll be
Speaker 2: the best question. And I hate to answer a question
Speaker 2: of the question, but waite, what isn't for sale in
Speaker 2: a commercial business?
Speaker 1: Exactly? In a commercial business, everything is for sale, I mean,
Speaker 1: because the fact is is, if somebody came up and said,
Speaker 1: here's ten billion dollars for a commercial business that you love,
Speaker 1: that might in your mind be worth a lot less,
Speaker 1: but you love it, you don't want to give it up. Well,
Speaker 1: if they give you ten billion dollars, think of the
Speaker 1: good you can do for the world and your family
Speaker 1: and your friends. You'd be selfish not to take it.
Speaker 1: So you know, at some point there is a price. Obviously,
Speaker 1: not everything is for sale for a fair market price,
Speaker 1: because there's people who just want to live the life
Speaker 1: they're living and do what they do and don't want
Speaker 1: to sell out for a fair market price. But if
Speaker 1: somebody really wants to aggressively buy something and they're willing
Speaker 1: to what you think is overpaid for it, of course
Speaker 1: you got to consider it. And you know, usc and
Speaker 1: Dana White of the Bertiita Brothers built something really special
Speaker 1: in a and it was high risk, it was not
Speaker 1: necessarily going to work out, and they deserve to cash out.
Speaker 1: I do hope that owners treat treat the fighters well
Speaker 1: and pay them fairly. I think a lot of fighters
Speaker 1: are taking a lot of blows to the head for
Speaker 1: very little money, and I'd like to see that the
Speaker 1: management and the structure make sure that without taking a
Speaker 1: big hit to profits, that that the fighters who are
Speaker 1: filling out the undercards do a little bit better than
Speaker 1: they have been doing. But again, it's a it's a
Speaker 1: you get what your work worth on the marketplace, and
Speaker 1: you gotta win some fights to make big money, because
Speaker 1: that's what people are actually paying for, are those big
Speaker 1: money fights. But still you want to see with new management,
Speaker 1: hopefully some things being done that maybe weren't feasible or
Speaker 1: part of the process before. Jim fantastic, heviny on We
Speaker 1: never know where conversations.
Speaker 2: Are you ready to go?
Speaker 1: But I always learn and always enjoy conversations. Check out
Speaker 1: Jim Ross at the Jim Ross Report at podcast one.
Speaker 1: Bruce Mitchell, who is a phenomenal analyst and a valuable
Speaker 1: part of the Torch. I do shows with him every
Speaker 1: week and you can if you enjoy Bruce on Jim
Speaker 1: Show this week, you can hear Bruce and me talk
Speaker 1: every good job.
Speaker 2: He really, he did a real good job. We take
Speaker 2: the show after we both watched Raw. Then I got
Speaker 2: him on the phone and we had a ninety minute
Speaker 2: show and he really came to play, And I really
Speaker 2: was pleased with the show, and I think the folks
Speaker 2: who listen to it will be pleased as well. We
Speaker 2: covered a lot of ground and answered a lot of
Speaker 2: questions regarding Raw and smack Down, the draft, battleground last
Speaker 2: in our situation, all kinds of stuff. So it was
Speaker 2: a good It's real good. You'd be very proud of
Speaker 2: Bruce's efforts. He represented the Torch very well.
Speaker 1: I am proud of Bruce. I am I know what
Speaker 1: we have with Bruce as part of the Torch team,
Speaker 1: and I look forward to the Bruce Mitchell Audio Show
Speaker 1: when we do it for two hours every weekend, and
Speaker 1: it is a big part of the reason we are
Speaker 1: able to do what we do with the Torch vit
Speaker 1: site with staff like Bruce Mitchell doing what they do
Speaker 1: so well, and yeah, it's a good stamp of it,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you facilitated that well too, Jim. Thank
Speaker 1: you everybody. Here we go and again big thanks to
Speaker 1: Jim Ross for his time and insights. Your time is valuable.
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Speaker 18: Hey wrestling fans, It's Nick Barbatty and I'm back with
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