Steve Carrier on April 18, 2018
Ross opens today’s show by speaking about WWE’s impending television rights negotiations. ESPN and FOX are reportedly interested in splitting UFC’s broadcast rights, and Ross thinks that’d be a great idea for both companies. He believes those negotiations will have an impact on WWE’s negotiations because FOX is reportedly interested in WWE’s broadcast rights as well.
He notes that UFC is in desperate need of stars right now, and that’s why they’ll probably be brining Brock Lesnar back for a fight in 2018. Lesnar has also signed a new contract with WWE last week and Ross believes that’s tremendous business by Lesnar, who’s clearly hoping to balance his wrestling and MMA careers at the same time.
Ross sends some get well wishes to his old commentary partner, Jerry “The King” Lawler, who suffered a stroke prior to WrestleMania weekend. He also sends get well wishes to Leon “Vader” White, who underwent open heart surgery last week. He considers Vader to be one of the greatest big men of all time, and he has fond memories of signing Vader to wrestle in WWE in the late 1990s.
Ross says he really enjoyed HBO’s Andre the Giant documentary. He had high hopes for the film and he wasn’t let down, even though he would have loved to get more new information surrounding Andre’s life. He loved the interviews with Andre’s family in Paris, and he thought it was very interesting to see Vince McMahon in such an emotional state of mind. He also thought Gene Okerlund and Jerry Lawler were great in their roles in the film.
Ross was happy to see Paige announced as the new General Manager of Smackdown. He notes that this is a second chance for Paige and calls her an “amazing woman in more ways than one”. He also gives credit to Jeff Hardy for making the most of his recent return, winning the United States Title from Jinder Mahal. Ross notes that Hardy has the “It” factor and is still one of the most over performers on the roster, so hopefully Hardy can continue to help resurrect the U.S. Title.
Ross is critical of the wrestling’s media’s reaction to WWE’s Greatest Royal Rumble event which will take place in Saudi Arabia. There are several gender equality restrictions in that part of the world and because of that, WWE’s female talent will not be making the trip. Ross understands the point that some people are trying to make, but he notes that it’s not WWE’s place to upend the social standards of a country they visit.
He also points out that Saudi Arabia is slowly bringing pieces of the Western world into their culture, and WWE’s involvement there is a big example of this. This is also a huge business move for WWE, who’ve locked into a 10-year agreement with one of the richest countries in the world.
Ross thinks WWE’s Superstar Shakeup did an effective job of putting several performers in a fresh, new environment. However, he notes that it’s up to the performers now to decide whether they want to take advantage of this new opportunity. He thought the Smackdown roster improved greatly this week, and he’s intrigued to see how all of this plays out in the coming weeks.
Ross welcomes Bruce Prichard to the show for part 2 of his interview.
Ross asks Prichard if he was ever offered a contract by WCW back in the day. Prichard says he was never offered a contract by WCW, and he jokes that he’s offended by that now. He ran into Eric Bischoff years later and asked him why he was never offered a deal.
Ross asks Prichard who he enjoyed managing the most as Brother Love. Prichard says that’d be The Undertaker on all fronts. Prichard and Undertaker were good friends and they had a great time working together, and for those reasons Undertaker would be choice.
Prichard notes that when Ross first came to work for WWE from WCW Vince McMahon wasn’t completely sold on him. McMahon wasn’t sure whether Ross was “one of them” or not, but after one specific night at a bar when Ross made McMahon laugh with comical stories Ross was able to win him over. McMahon looked at Prichard and said, “Jim’s one of us now”.
A listener writes into the show and asks Ross if he thinks a character like The Undertaker can ever work nowadays. Ross doesn’t think anybody can be The Undertaker other than The Undertaker, and he wouldn’t want to try to replicate that character in today’s product. He notes that a character such as Bray Wyatt is probably the closest we’ll get to an Undertaker-esque character.
That sums up this week’s episode of The Jim Ross Report. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!
April 18, 2018 11:46 pm
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