Ross opens today’s show by speaking about this past week’s episode of Monday Night RAW.
Ross wasn’t surprised that the show started off with a nice acknowledgment of the recently deceased Vader. He thought that was nicely done and he notes that Vader was one of a kind.
He notes that WWE Creative is seemingly ignoring the success Bobby Lashley has had in MMA. He thinks this is a huge mistake by WWE because Lashley is 15-2 in MMA and he thinks it’d be smart of WWE to promote that, specifically if they’re heading towards a match between Lashley and Brock Lesnar.
Ross is intrigued by the contract storyline surrounding Brock Lesnar. He’s not sure if any of this is real, but there’s no doubt that it’d be in WWE’s best interest to sign Lesnar. It’s fairly evident that UFC is interested in a fight between Lesnar and Jon Jones and Ross admits that he’d love to see that fight. There’s a $25 Million figure being thrown around in rumours as well, and if that’s the case he wouldn’t blame Lesnar for wanting to make that money.
If Lesnar leaves WWE Ross wonders what’ll happen to Paul Heyman. He believes that Heyman is tied to Lesnar at this point, noting that they make a great unit. Some people have suggested that Heyman should pair up with Ronda Rousey and Ross admits that those two might work great together, but he wouldn’t want to choose between Rousey and Lesnar. He’d like to have both of them under WWE contracts if possible.
Ross thought Balor showed a different side of his character on RAW, specifically during the backstage segment with Constable Corbin. Ross notes that he’s beginning to really like the Constable Corbin character, and he thought Balor showed great comedic timing during this segment.
Ross really enjoyed the last two matches on RAW, but he wishes that we would have been given a clean finish in at least one of those matches. He really liked the Intercontinental Title match between Dolph Ziggler and Seth Rollins, noting that these two guys are really hot right now and both men can really go in the ring. He would have loved to see this match end differently because the finish let him down somewhat.
Ross talks about The Undertaker’s return to the ring in Australia against Triple H. He says he’d be happy to fly to Australia to call that match for nothing because he’s been good friends with both men for years and some things are more important than money.
Ross talks about the 20th anniversary of the iconic Hell in A Cell match between The Undertaker and Mick Foley. He mentions that a couple of his lines from that match have followed him around for years and it’s a cool feeling to hear fans echo them back to him from time to time. Ross adds that the entire card was terrific that night. Kane defeated Steve Austin in a First Blood match for the WWE Title, and Ken Shamrock won King of the Ring by making Jeff Jarrett and The Rock tap out. Ross notes that’s how you get somebody over.
A listener writes into the show and asks Ross about the lack of selling in today’s product. Ross says he’s not sure about the backstage instructions that WWE performers receive nowadays, but any good wrestling person knows the value of selling. Some performers might think that selling makes them look weak but that’s not true, instead it makes them look real. Selling is essential and you can’t have believable matches without it.
Ross welcomes Kenny Omega to the show.
Omega thought the timing was right for a best 2 out of 3 falls match against Okada. He notes that he was bulking up prior to this match because he thought he’d be working a lot of tag matches for the foreseeable future. After he was told by NJPW officials that they wanted to do this match he and Okada agreed to it, and he lost 15 pounds in order to ensure he’d be able to work a long match because he knew this idea would require a lengthy match.
Also on that show, Chris Jericho battled Naito and Ross notes that those two men beat the crap out of each other. Omega really enjoyed that match as well. He informs that he spoke to Jericho prior to the event and asked him how long they planned on working because he knew he and Okada would be working a long match. Jericho told him not to worry, adding that they’d only be going 6-8 minutes. Omega knew better than that.
Ross asks Omega who he thinks will be the next big guy in NJPW. Omega thinks there are a couple of guys on the verge of breaking out, but right now he thinks Juice Robinson has the potential to be the next big star. He notes that fans are starting to get behind Juice and he thinks that’s only going to continue into the future.
Ross asks Omega to share a few words about the recent passing of Leon ‘Vader’ White. Omega notes that he first met Vader in 2009, and Vader was actually instrumental in getting him his first work Visa in Japan. Vader was a very nice man who was always great to him, but there’s no denying that he was intimidating simply due to his size and strength.
That sums up today’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!
