Ross informs that AXS TV is going to have a 3-hour WrestleKingdom 12 Special on Saturday, Jan. 6th. Ross mentions that the highly anticipated match between Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega will be one of the matches that will be presented during the 3-hour special. Ross says he’s really looking forward to calling these matches with Josh Barnett.
He was quite excited to see ‘Woken’ Matt Hardy make his debut on WWE programming this week. He says that this is a very original, compelling character and Hardy should be very proud of what he’s accomplished in creating this character and successfully brining it to Monday Night RAW. Ross says he’s very proud of what Hardy has accomplished in the business, and he compares Hardy to Chris Jericho in the sense that he continues to successfully redefine his character.
Ross says he has heard rumours that Alberto El Patron is planning to retire in the next couple of years. He points out that El Patron has had a very long, successful career and he’s made a lot of money so he should be able to retire comfortably. However, he adds that wrestlers say they’re planning to retire all the time only to continue working for another decade, so he’ll wait for the official news before believing that El Patron is actually hanging up his boots.
Ross welcomes Matt Riddle to the show.
Speaking about his departure from UFC, Riddle informs that he failed a drug test in 2012 due to his marijuana use and UFC decided to fire him. He says that he wanted to stay in UFC and continue to fight because he was on a 4-fight win streak at the time, but he respects UFC’s decision to let him go. When one door shuts another one opens, and he always wanted to try professional wrestling so this gave him a perfect opportunity to do just that.
Ross says that Riddle created waves within the online wrestling community almost right away, with Dave Meltzer praising how quickly Riddle was learning the business. Riddle says that Meltzer has been a big fan of his for a long time and he has nothing but good things to say about Meltzer.
Ross points out that Riddle works a very aggressive, snug style in the ring which he really likes. Riddle says he works that way because he likes that style as well, but he also points out that there’s no hiding things on the indie scene. The crowd is right on top of you and if you don’t lay in your offence, the crowd will know.
Riddle says he’s really enjoying what he’s doing right now, working for a different promotion every weekend and making his own schedule. He’s doing very well on the indies and he’s gaining notoriety daily, so while he admits that he wouldn’t turn down a chance to work for NJPW, WWE or NXT at some point in the future, he loves the place he’s in right now.
Ross welcomes John Morrison to the show.
Morrison thinks that professional wrestling’s purpose is to give fans what they want. The hardest part of that in his opinion, is figuring out exactly what it is that the fans want to see. On the indies nowadays, fans have become accustomed to seeing incredible athleticism with performers taking unnecessary risks from time to time, and if that’s what fans want, performers will continue to try to give that to them.
Ross mentions that the hardest task in the wrestling business today has to be main-eventing a ROH show, because every single match on a ROH show is ‘balls to the wall’ and by the time the main event comes on the fans have already basically seen everything. Morrison informs that the same thing applies to most indie shows, because most promoters urge all performers to go out and put on a main event match regardless of their spot on the card.
Morrison informs that he’ll be returning to Lucha Underground for Season 4 and he’s very much looking forward to that. He mentions that his name, Johnny Mundo, translates to Johnny World, which was initially going to be his name in Lucha Underground. They switched ‘World’ to the Spanish translation, ‘Mundo’ because they thought that’d be an easier name for the fans to chant.
That sums up this week’s episode of The Ross Report. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!
