The Jim Ross Report Recap w/ Nita Strauss – Becky Lynch’s Bad Break, Ross’ Future in Wrestling, Strauss’ Interaction with McMahon, More!

Ross opens today’s show by discussing the Becky Lynch situation. He notes that he really enjoyed RAW on Monday mostly due to the women, as he feels that they’re involved in the most captivating storylines at the moment. He notes that the Lynch/Rousey angle that ended the show was great, and it’s very unfortunate that it resulted in an injury to Lynch.
He notes that this match can be revisited at some point down the road because fans already have an emotional investment in it now. He also points out that this injury could propel Lynch to even greater heights in WWE as fans have clearly gotten behind her, and this could be something that puts her over the top as a huge star.

WWE announced this past week that WrestleMania 34 brought $175 Million to the local economy of New Orleans. Ross points out that some people have doubted this number and feel it’s inflated. He’s not sure if it’s inflated or not, but he doesn’t think that number is out of the question. When you add up flights, hotels, meals, transportation and more, there’s no denying the positive economic impact that WrestleMania has on its host city each year.
Ross notes that his contract with NJPW and AXS TV is ending at the end of the year. He’s voicing over the last few episodes of NJPW for AXS TV this week, and he’s sad to see this partnership end. He had a lot of fun working with Josh Barnett and the other people involved in that show, and he’ll miss that part of his life. He also informs that his WWE contract will be ending at the end of March, and then he’ll weigh his options before making any decisions regarding his future.

Apparently Impact Wrestling is shopping for a new television network, and this doesn’t surprise Ross at all. He points out that Impact will go out of business long before they should if they stay on PopTV.
Ross is really impressed by Drew McIntyre’s presence on RAW, noting that there are few people more passionate about being “The Man” in WWE than McIntyre. Ross also enjoyed Dean Ambrose’s promo on RAW this past week, adding that it’s hard to listen to overly-scripted dialogue that the performers don’t believe in. He thought Ambrose’s delivery here was great and the promo made sense.

Ross mentions that The Rock made his debut at Survivor Series 1996. During that broadcast Ross called Rock a “blue chipper”, but the Rock took that term to a whole new level. Rock went on to overachieve for sure, dominating the wrestling world and then moving on to dominate Hollywood.
A listener writes into the show and says he always wanted to see The Undertaker vs. Sting at WrestleMania. The caller sees WrestleMania 35 as the last chance for this match. Ross says the time has passed for that match and it won’t happen. He does agree with the caller though, adding that he would have loved to see that match when both men were in their prime, and not suffering from lingering injuries.

Another listener asks Ross who he’d choose to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2019. He points out that there are a number of performers on WWE’s current roster who will eventually be inducted, including The Undertaker, Triple H and John Cena, but it’s hard to predict who will be inducted from one year to the next.

Ross welcomes Nita Strauss to the show.
Strauss is a professional guitar player, touring with Alice Cooper and her solo project amongst other acts. She has recently performed on multiple WWE/NXT broadcasts and has really taken to the wrestling world. She informs that she didn’t have a television growing up, so she was only introduced to WWE by her boyfriend a few years ago. She was immediately drawn to the product, and the Ultimate Warrior in particular.
She performed the opening at Evolution a few weeks ago, and she’s been very impressed by the Women’s revolution. She points out that there are a lot of similarities between the rise of women in the wrestling world and the music world, and she’s very proud to be a part of that.

Strauss informs that her Manager/boyfriend began knocking on doors to get her an opportunity at WrestleMania. Things weren’t looking good but at some point Mick Foley vouched for her, and apparently even sent a text to Vince McMahon, urging him to “be in the Nita Strauss business”. She rehearsed her performance for the first time at 1:30 PM that day, an hour and a half before doors opened, and that was very different for her.

Luckily WrestleMania is a finely-tuned machine and things went off without a hitch. She mentions that at one point McMahon approached her and told her to jump at a certain point during her performance. She couldn’t see the huge video screen behind her so she didn’t know what cue he was talking about. She smiled and agreed but then had to ask production assistants to help her figure out what McMahon was talking about.
Strauss mentions that she has a new record coming out and one of her songs is the current theme song for NXT Takeover: War Games. That’s a huge item scratched off her bucket list.
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!