Steve Carrier on June 14, 2018
Ross opens today’s show by speaking about last week’s episodes of RAW and Smackdown.
He thought WWE was able to book 2 good 4-way matches on Monday, and that’s not easy to do. He points out that Braun Strowman continues to improve, and he thinks Finn Balor is set for a major push if he continues to perform the way he has as of late. He credits Kevin Owens for constantly putting in good efforts, and he feels that Bobby Roode is miscast as a babyface.
Ross also liked the Women’s 4-way match, pointing out that Ember Moon’s physicality was one of the highlights of the match for him. He’s intrigued by the Elias/Seth Rollins program because although we all know that Elias can talk, it’ll be interesting to see if he can go with Rollins in the ring. If he can, he’ll prove all the doubters of his in-ring ability wrong.
He thought the Nia Jax/Ronda Rousey segment was fine, and he didn’t think it was too long as some fans suggested. He thinks Rousey is doing fine, noting that Rousey won him over a long time ago. He thinks these two women will have a great match on Sunday and he’s really looking forward to it. He compares Rousey to Kurt Angle when he debuted in WWE many years ago.
Ross thinks the older wrestlers who complain about Rousey are complaining out of jealousy, and are probably upset at the fact that women are taking “their” time. He notes that the same thing would happen in the territories years ago. Moolah would bring girls into certain territories and they would take the spots of men, which caused some heat between the men and women. It was a bad situation and Ross is thankful that these types of issues do not exist today.
Ross thought this week’s Smackdown was good as well, and he thinks Smackdown has been better than RAW lately. He enjoyed seeing his old friend, Jerry “The King” Lawler on the show.
He thought Shelton Benjamin and Daniel Bryan had a great, believable match. He thinks Benjamin could be utilized better because he’s a terrific athlete who makes anyone who steps in the ring with him better. He also thinks Bryan looks as good as ever, and notes that Big Cass will have a great opportunity to showcase his abilities when he steps in the ring with Bryan this coming Sunday at Money in the Bank.
Ross was surprised that Rusev defeated Samoa Joe, but he was happy WWE gave us a definite finish. He notes that protecting talents is overrated, and although winning and losing still counts, losing doesn’t kill you as a performer.
He thought Jeff Hardy and Nakamura had a nice match to close the show. He thinks Nakamura is getting closer to the character we saw in NJPW, and he predicts Nakamura will defeat A.J. Styles this coming Sunday to become the new WWE Champion.
Ross credits CM Punk, who competed in and lost his second UFC fight this past weekend, for chasing his dream and showing great determination. He doesn’t think we’ll ever see Punk return to a wrestling company full-time, and he agrees with Dana White in the sense that Punk shouldn’t fight in the UFC anymore given his skill-set and his age.
Ross pays tribute to his old friend, Dusty Rhodes this week on the three-year anniversary of Rhodes’ death. He’ll never forget the day he received a call from WWE informing him that Rhodes had passed away, and he notes that the phone call floored him because he was very good friends with Rhodes.
A listener writes into the show and asks Ross if he thinks WWE will ever build a huge physical Hall of Fame, which would also include an arena portion where WWE could run shows once or twice a year. Ross doesn’t think they’ll ever go that far with it, but it wouldn’t surprise him at all if WWE builds a physical Hall of Fame at some point down the road. He also thinks Orlando would be a great place to build it.
Another listener writes into the show and says that he thinks Tommaso Ciampa is in the middle of the greatest heel run in two decades. Ross isn’t sure about that, but he notes that if that’s the fan’s opinion he certainly won’t disagree with it. In Ross’ opinion, Gargano and Ciampa are both great guys and they’re having a terrific program right now. He thinks they’re going to tear it up this coming Saturday.
A final listener asks Ross if he’d be interested in doing commentary for the new XFL. Ross says, “Hell yeah!”. He thinks the XFL will look for younger commentators because it’s a young man’s game, but if he were given the opportunity he would certainly jump at it.
Ross welcomes Don Callis to the show.
Callis comments on the criticism of Ross and Josh Barnett’s commentary on NJPW broadcasts. Callis doesn’t think the criticism is fair. He points out that Ross and Barnett only do one or two live shows each year when NJPW comes to the U.S., and some fans don’t like change. He considers Ross to be one of, if not the greatest play-by-play guy of all time.
Callis informs that the recent NJPW Dominion show was “electric”. He has a great friendship with Kenny Omega and followed him through his entire career, so watching him capture the Championship this past weekend was very special for him. He notes that sometimes people get wrestling right, and he thinks they got it right that night.
Ross points out that Omega wasn’t comfortable in the comfort zone and appeared to always want more. He’s been able to climb the ladder in NJPW, and Callis calls him a “revolutionary”. Callis points out that Omega reminds him of Bret Hart in the sense that he can tell tremendous stories in the ring.
Ross asks Callis if he thinks it’ll be tough for Omega to work for Impact given his relationship with NJPW and ROH. Callis says he’s learned to never say never in this business, especially since Impact and ROH are basically going to be working together on the upcoming Jericho Cruise.
Callis points out that they’ve had substantial roster turnover at Impact since he and his partner, Scott D’Amore took over control of the company several months ago. He’s really happy with their top 8 performers right now, and he thinks that if they can eliminate the stupid booking that angers a portion of their fans they’ll be fine.
That sums up today’s episode of The Jim Ross Report Recap. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!
June 14, 2018 1:47 pm
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