RECAP AND REVIEW: The Jim Ross Report with Marty Scurll on the autobiography that inspired him to change his look, his future, American wrestlers not wanting to tap out to his finisher, and David LaGreca on working with Bully Ray

The Jim Ross Report

Release Date: November 7, 2018

Running time: 2:29

Recap by: Joe Aguinaldo

DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD

0:00 – Intro

Welcome back to another week of Slobberknocker audio. Dave LaGreca and Marty Scurll will be on the show today (and he said Marty’s name correctly). They are both great guests and the interviews were recorded on the Jericho Cruise.

1:21 – What’s On J.R.’s Mind

Jose Lothario

• Jose Lothario passed away on Tuesday in Texas at the age of 83. He was a unique Latin star. His Hispanic descent gave him extra juice in that he had all the elements that every babyface must possess to be successful; his ability to sell, authentic passion and the fact he never gives up. Those characteristics helps you build a trust with your audience and you become an dependable investment for them. He was a heel at certain times as well but overall he was a great babyface and had some of the best punches J.R. had ever seen.
• He’s best known for training Shawn Michaels. Jose told Bill Watts he had trained Shawn and that he wanted Bill to give him a shot. Bill had never seen Shawn because Shawn was a rookie and hired him strictly on the word of Jose Lothario. That’s how trusted and respected Jose was.
• Thoughts and prayers to go Jose’s family and friends.

On The Food Front

• J.R.’s products are now at all the Ingles markets throughout the southeast. If you live near an Ingles, go check out the sauce aisle. Tweet a picture if you can to @jrsbbq.
• His sauces are also at www.wweshop.com.
• Portion of the proceeds go to Headlock on Hunger. J.R. will be representing Headlock On Hunger at Wrestlecade on Saturday November, 24.

Thoughts on the Jericho Cruise

• It was amazing. Chris and his team did a phenomenal job and was impressed from start to finish.
• J.R. loved the Alpha Club vs. the Bullet Club match but there weren’t any bad spots for Jim.
• Mick Foley got pretty seasick but was great during his one man show on the cruise.

General Comments

• J.R. is trying to get a J.R. and The King show at WrestleMania. He’s also looking at doing something Westwood One but those are still in the planning stage. Stay tuned for more info.
• Sunday morning, April 7th, 2019 – J.R. will be a guest of John Pozarowski (Two Man Power Trip podcast). This event will take at the Meadowvale Plaza Hotel and will have a football and wrestling theme.
• J.R. talks about Big 12 College Football. No one in that conference has a great defense.
• J.R, gives a shout out to Conrad Thompson for the work on his podcasts
• Les Miles may be going to Kansas University
• The Pittsburgh Steelers are atop their division without Le’veon Bell. J.R. is not impressed with this situation
• PWI’s top 100 has Ronda Rousey #1 and Becky is #11.
• Becky and Ronda will face each other at the Survivors Series. J.R. thinks Rousey is going to go over because one loss won’t hurt Becky because she’s that over. J.R. likes Ronda going for the armbar with Becky not giving up and passing out. If it’s executed and explained properly, it’s a great finish. It makes Becky look tough and puts over Ronda’s armbar even more.
• AXS TV called the Tanahashi vs. Jai White match this weekend. J.R. loved the match. J.R. has loved working for AXS TV. He likes the people and network but J.R.’s contract ends at the end of the year. If he wanted to get his AXS contract suspended he’d have to get permission from the WWE who he also has a contract with. It looks like his last voice over with Josh Barnett will be next week. Josh may also be moving on.
• The Wrestle Kingdom card is coming along nicely.

Around The Wrestling Horn

• November 8th, MLW is in Chicago and have TV Tapings in Miami December 13th and 14th. Check out www.mlw.com
• Impact Wrestling will have TV Tapings in Las Vegas November 11th to 13th. Their new 10:00pm  time slot on Pop TV doesn’t help them. They have a great product but their TV is not there.
• ROH will be hosting their Global War streamed on their Honor Services. Check www.ROH.com for details
• In an interview back in December, J.R. said it was inevitable that Hulk Hogan would be back on TV which happened at the Crown Jewel event. He’ll most likely never wrestle but he’s an attraction. J.R. believes we’re supposed to forgive people and if Hogan’s sincere about where he’s going then give the guy an opportunity to repent.
• Get well wishes to Triple H who tore his pec during the match at Crown Jewel. He’s a tough dude for continuing on with the match. He got operated on this week in Birmingham.

Thoughts on RAW

• Monday Night Raw was an interesting show.
• They are planting the seed between Nia Jax and Ronda. Got it.
• J.R. wasn’t a fan of the handicap tag team thing. It’s been done a million times but it’s illogical. You would not put a man in the ring against two monsters in a tag title scenario.
• If J.R. was the booker, Drew McIntyre would be in his on-deck circle as the next guy.

Thoughts On Smackdown

• Becky Lynch stole the show on Smackdown. Talking trash is nothing new and worn out. There has to be something tangible for the winner of the match. J.R. talked about the finish earlier in the podcast where Rousey wins by referee stoppage.

The World Cup

• J.R. hopes Shane winning the World Cup at Crown Jewel leads to a major storyline. Logically, he’s challenged to see the merit of that creative. Shane winning didn’t click for J.R. but he’s going to wait and see how it pans out. If something big doesn’t come out of this, that will be a massive failure.

33:41 – Dave LaGreca

J.R. welcomes host of the Busted Open radio show Dave LaGreca to the podcast.

Dave is having a great time on the cruise and it’s one of the best vacations he’s ever been on.

J.R. says it’s a great time to be a wrestling fan otherwise it would have been challenging to have a 5 day a week wrestling show on Sirius XM.

Dave says it’s an honor to be on the Jericho cruise doing J.R.’s show. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Q: What was Dave doing prior to Busted Open?

A: In radio, Dave has worked for ESPN and WFAN. With Sirius XM, he was the morning show producer for their NFL channel and did that for 13 years. He pitched his boss to do a wrestling show. It took almost two years to get that opportunity and it was for one day a week for one hour. It’s grown from there and the popularity built to what they have now, a 3 hour morning show with Bully Ray, Mark Henry and Tommy Dreamer involved.

J.R. says Dave has a unique synergy with each of those guys because they’re different. J.R. thinks it was a big win for the business when Dave’s show went 5 days a week. On the cruise, Dave has run into a lot of wrestlers especially with Impact and ROH who have thanked him for having them on because it’s exposure for them. Dave likes that J.R. tries to promote everything and Dave tries to do the same for example, the NWA.

The Okada/Omega match from Wrestle Kingdom is how the relationship between Dave and Bully Ray started and how he got on the show. On the air, Dave said it was one of the best matches he’d ever seen and Bully texted him saying it was good but not among the elite. The text got so heated that Bully called him and started arguing so Dave invited him on the show. J.R. says Bully is an alpha male and could be argumentative.

One of the problems Dave had when Bully started working with him was that he was the alpha male. Dave would agree with Bully even if he didn’t agree because he initially was intimidated which did not make for good radio. Eventually, Dave started arguing back which Bully Ray embraces because he has a combative nature and that makes for a good on-air product.

Dave and J.R. compare stories about their fathers not necessarily buying wrestling as legitimate.

J.R. says social media has been a game changer in wrestling. It allows you to get your message out without needing a big budget. Dave says if there’s one reason why his wife would divorce him is because he’s always on social media on his phone. His show isn’t over when he signs off at noon, the second part is the social media aspect. He’s on the phone constantly which is good and bad.

Q: What does Dave have planned for their big 10th anniversary?

A: They’re just putting the plans together now but at WrestleMania they’re going to have their 10th anniversary show. He hopes J.R. will be part of it and they want to do something big to celebrate the Busted Open nation. There’s nothing better than doing the show in front of a live audience. They’re going to have something huge planned.

Dave recently a show did a show about Bob Roop and loves when J.R. comes on his show because at the end of the day, he’s a fan. J.R. agrees and says every job isn’t about just the money.

J.R. ventured into a topic about women headlining WrestleMania. Some of the old timers don’t agree but J.R. says it’s not that far off. Dave thinks the main event for this WrestleMania will be a women’s match. Dave says the best thing going on in the WWE on the main roster is the Women’s division and the hottest wrestler in the WWE is Becky Lynch. J.R. texted Becky, congratulating her on winning the last woman standing match at Evolution and she responded it was the most fun time she had had in a wrestling ring ever.

The ROH/NJPW show will be going head to head with NXT Takeover on Wrestlemania weekend. They will most likely be sold out and Dave says everything in wrestling is selling out these days. J.R. heard their might be an All In 2 in May but nothing is confirmed.

J.R. was a little surprised that Cody lost the NWA title to Nick Aldis at the NWA 70th anniversary show but guesses it might be related to Cody’s unwillingness to re-sign with ROH.

J.R. doesn’t know the story behind Aries doing what he did at the end of Bound For Glory but it’s not something J.R. would have done. He thought it was awkward and didn’t feel good for the other guys. J.R. would find it challenging to believe that was warranted. Dave thinks it makes it awkward and difficult to move forward with Johnny Impact. There should be professionalism and you have to be a certain way when you go out. Although, this could be a big angle.

J.R. is curious to see what happens with the ROH/NJPW Garden show. It could look completely different because you may not have Cody or the Bucks. If fans knew that before they bought their ticket, would they still have sold out?

Listen to Busted Open Radio on Sirius XM, Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to noon ET.

J.R. thanks Dave for being on the podcast and they sign off.

1:10:32 – Slobberknocker Of The Week

Candidates include:

• Kurt Angle and Drew McIntyre who wrestled on Raw this week.
• Daniel Cormier who retained the UFC heavyweight title against Derrick Lewis.

The Slobberknocker of the week goes to Chris Jericho who executed a flawless Cruise.

1:15:03 – Pet Koon Goofy

Candidates include:

• Alec Baldwin who punched someone over a parking spot
• MLB and the writers for not naming J.R. Martinez as one of their 3 AL MVP finalists partly (maybe) because his teammate was one of the finalists
• Matt Patricia for patronizing a writer for the writer’s posture while asking a question to the coach

This week’s winner is Pete Davidson from SNL who made some off taste jokes about Dan Crenshaw.

1:18:39 – This Week In Wrestling

33 years ago – Rosemont Horizon – The Wrestling Classic, the first WWF nationally televised PPV – JYD defeated Randy Savage in a tournament that included Ricky Steamboat, Iron Sheik, Terry Funk and Paul Orndorff. Hogan vs Piper for the title was also on the card.

25 years ago, McNichol Sports Arena – Denver, Colorado – UFC 1 – J.R. was intrigued by MMA in 1993. No weight classes and no judges. Ken Shamrock (pre WWE) lost a semifinal match to Royce Gracie

November 9th, 1997 – Survivor Series  – Most people remember the Montreal Screwjob but the card also included Austin winning the IC from Owen Hart and Kane defeating Mankind. There was lots of good stuff on the card.

13 Years Ago, Bankers Life Fieldhouse – 2005 – Eddie Guerrero’s last match defeating Ken Kennedy by DQ. 5 days later Eddie was found dead in his hotel room.

9 years ago, 2009, NJPW Destruction – Tajiri defeated Okada. The Dudleys defeated Bad Intention (Karl Anderson and Matt Bloom) to retain the IWGP titles. In the main event, Nakamura defeated Tanahashi to retain the IWGP title.

Birthdays:

King Kong Bundy (61), Tony Schiavone (61), the late Ilio DiPaolo would have been 92, Ted DiBiase Jr (36), Kazuchika Okada (31), Nick Patrick (59), Chris Jericho (48), Pete Dunn (25), Cowboy Bob Orton (68), Bill DeMott (52), Katie Lea Burchill (38), Ryback (37), Marshall Von Erich (26), Matt Ghaffari (57), Billy Gunn (55), Eli Drake (36), Crystal Marshall (35), Lio Rush (24), the late Frank Tunney would have been 106, Mills Lane (81), Lena Yada (40), the late Matt Capitelli would have been 39, Hiroshi Tanahashi (42), Sara Del Rey (38) and Sunil Singh (34)

1:36:20 – Mailbag

Send comments and questions to thejimrossreport@gmail.com

Q: J.R. was once in a match with Triple H (and even got color). Who’s idea was it?

A: It was creative’s idea. They pitched it to Vince who liked it. The key thing was using the J.R. character as a vessel to facilitate Batista making the save and causing Triple H to lose building the match between Triple H and Batista. J.R.’s wife was pissed he got color.

Q: Person is not a fan of champ vs. champ matches.

A: J.R. says there should be something at stake for the winner of Rousey and Becky. He feels current wrestling fans aren’t interested in investing in causes. That said, there’s not a match at Survivor Series that J.R. wants to see more than Rousey vs. Lynch. Also, J.R. doesn’t think this has anything to do with WrestleMania. J.R. suggests an idea of Charlotte vs. Ronda and Becky vs. Asuka if they can get her hot again.

Q: What is the day after like (for a performer after a hard match)?

A: As sore as hell. But the WWE have the best trainers and medical personnel whose priority is to keep the talent healthy.

Q: Person is a manager and asks J.R. for ideas for his gimmick

A: J.R. suggests trying to consume as much material as possible of the greats such as Jim Cornette, Paul Heyman, Gary Hart and J.J. Dillon. Watch them work and their psychology. Establish an identity and realize you’re there to get the talent over.

1:43:01 – Marty Scurll

J.R welcomes Marty to the podcast. He has gotten heat for not being able to pronounce Marty’s name but Marty says a lot of people get it wrong.

Q: Did Marty start wrestling in England as a teen?

A: Yes. He started in 2003 or 2004 as an amateur. He also did MMA, shoot training. He didn’t have any MMA matches, it was more to toughen himself up for pro wrestling. Marty grew up in Cambridgeshire which didn’t have a wrestling scene. He had to go out and find it.

Q: What were Marty’s influences

A: Marty started watching wrestling at 5 years old and knew he wanted to be part of it. His parents split up when he was young and he grew up with his mom, Aunts, grandmother and had mainly female teachers in his life. He didn’t have many male figures as a kid so wrestlers like Bret Hart and Steve Austin were the guys he looked up to.

Q: What kind of influence did World of Sport have on Marty

A: Initially he watched VHS tapes of Nick McManus’s World Of Sport. However, World Of Sport was taken off the air and replaced by WWE so as a young fan, World Of Sport wasn’t a thing. When he started training he realized his coaches were from that era and that’s when he started really watching World Of Sport and learning that style. That’s when he found a passion for it. Even though he loves American stuff he was proud to be a British man and represent his country. He became obsessed with the World Of Sport style and wanted to incorporate that style to do something different. That’s the stuff he studies and enjoys watching

J.R watched the matches on the cruise and saw a little bit of everything. But he’s not a fan of the big high spots. He’s not big on talents taking bumps on the apron because it increases the chance of injury.

Marty agrees and is not a fan of building matches around dangerous high spots. It’s not good for the boys or the business. It’s one thing to do a pile driver on the floor to get rid of someone for the year but not mid match to try and get a pop. He wouldn’t get any creative satisfaction from that. If he can get the same reaction by doing something smaller, that is more satisfying. Marty has been able to make a name for himself especially in NJPW which is more high flying. He’s the one guy that is different because he’s more character. He likes to think he gets the same reaction out of grabbing someone’s fingers and breaking them as opposed to powerbombing someone on the rail

J.R says wrestlers should try to be different and special

Q: J.R. asks about Marty’s ring attire.

A: It’s a developing thing. There was a point when Marty concentrated on his wrestling. He had good matches but nothing that captured the fans imagination. He read The Road Warriors biography and they talked about what they did to stand out with the spiked shoulder pads, the Mohawk and the face paint to capture the imagination of the fans. That’s when he realized he needed to do things to stand out.

That’s when he started growing facial hair and getting a silly haircut. He started wearing the fur coat to get heat. The umbrella was to represent he was British. He kept adding stuff and the fans would make a big deal out of it. Matt Groening says a great character can be recognized by their silhouette and realized he needed something which is where the mask came. He saw it on an album cover and thought it was cool. It was only supposed to be a one time thing but the fans caught onto it. He likes the idea of coming to the ring in this armor and doing a big production for his entrance. Marty is not big in stature but he can come to the ring like he’s going to war and when he takes it off, he’s in boots and trunks ready to fight and win. Plus wrestling is a spectacle and he has to pull out all the stops

J.R says it’s a huge part of Marty’s presentation. Also Marty has great facial expressions, body English and reactions.

Q: Does Marty give ideas to the promoters and how does he give ideas for NJPW

A: Marty is fortunate because a lot of promoters have trust in him. He’s been able to perform and do good business with his ideas. There needs to be structure but you also have to be real and authentic and let performers use their own ideas to get over. If you give Marty a script that could be a problem because he’s not an actor. He’s a pro wrestler. But, he can go out there and be Marty Scurll. Some of the best things in wrestling are the improv and moments you do on the fly when it feels real. Sometimes it doesn’t work but he’s willing to take the chance. He has a lot of creative freedom with a number of promoters and even NJPW. For example, at Wrestle Kingdom, he was going to do a big elaborate entrance with mechanical wings. There were a lot of big stars on the show and he wanted to maximize his minutes to steal the show. In ROH he is the super villain and suggested they bring in Hurricane Helms as a superhero to combat him and it was a great story they could do without having to kill each other in the ring.

Marty has been wrestling a long time and knows what works for him. It varies from promotion to promotion but he gets more creative freedom than most.

J.R says there are a lot of rumors that a bunch of talent (including Scurll) that are going to have opportunities. Sometimes those opportunities don’t come along often.

Marty says this speaks volumes about how much the business has grown in the last 5 years. When Marty first came in the business there weren’t a lot of options. It was WWE or not. With the growth of NJPW and ROH it’s given wrestlers another platform to make money. Plus they have merch and are running stadium shows to the point that they don’t have to go to WWE to make good money. There’s also something satisfying about being an independent contractor where he can call his own shots. He thinks he’ll work best doing things on his own terms. WWE is a great company but it’s something he’s not sure he’ll do. At the same time he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t had thought about doing his entrance at WrestleMania. It has to be on the right terms and what’s best for him.

J.R says Marty will do well wherever he goes because he understands psychology It’s hard to replace road tested trained talents like Marty. He has a great personality you can verbalize.

Q: How old was Marty during SummerSlam ’92

A: He was 4 and watched that later on. He was a massive Bulldog fan. In Europe it was evident in the wrestling the difference between the cultures were between Europe and America. America was more colourful and larger than life whereas Europe was more traditional and they liked it more strict and serious. In Europe they were more into Bulldog and Brett compared to Hogan or Warrior. In Europe they liked the wrestlers to be more sports driven.

Q: What does Marty think of Will Osprey and Zack Sabre Jr? During an event, Zak went through the roster and beat people by submissions and J.R. thought that was good booking. Also, those guys did business and tapped out when a lot of babyface Americans would not want to tap out. That tells J.R. those people still don’t get it.

A: One of Marty’s struggles when he came to America was that his finish was the cross face chickenwing submission that guys didn’t want to tap out to because it would hurt their egos. In a real fight, it would be easier to catch someone in a submission than pin someone’s shoulders to the map for 3 seconds. It’s much more believable. In Japan it’s more sport based. Zack Sabre Jr. is a great story. He’s not the most intimidating figure but he has a very trained skill set and could catch you in a submission. J.R. says a broadcaster could use that story to put him over.

J.R. has always enjoyed Osprey’s work and doesn’t know how he’s still alive. Osprey and Scurll have great chemistry. Scurll agrees and says the stuff Osprey can do in the ring is second to none. He feels like it’s a great contrast when you can put Osprey in the ring with someone like Scurll. Osprey would be using using his athletic moves while Scurll is more of a bully and does more mat wrestling. When Osprey goes into the ring with Ricochet, they can do crazy athletic stuff which is great but Scurll thinks Osprey’s best matches are with Scurll because it’s an easy story to tell and they have history together. People have gotten behind their story and when they wrestle together, people don’t necessarily want to see Osprey’s move but want to see him win. J.R. says Osprey is really good a selling and sells Marty’s spots well.

J.R. thanks Marty for being on the podcast and they sign off.

2:22:46 – Show Wrap

JR goes through some 5 star ratings, plugs the Westwood One wrestling podcasts. Send questions and comments to @thejimrossreport@gmail.com. Next week J.R. will have guitarist Nita Strauss on the podcast. And that’s a wrap

Rating – 7/10

This was an OK podcast. I would have rated this higher but I wasn’t a huge fan of the Dave Lagreca interview. It felt like J.R. spoke more than Dave and at one point, it sounded like J.R. was getting interviewed with Dave throwing comments in here and there. Also, there were times when they would start one thought and switch mid-stream to another thought (admittedly, I point this out because it made this hard to recap). The story about how Bully Ray got involved with Busted Open radio was pretty cool though.

On the other hand, the Marty Scurll interview was really good. Lots of interesting info about Marty’s background and his character. The story about his ring attire and ring entrance was great to hear and in this part of the pod, J.R. took on the role as an interviewer. Plus, I like hearing and learning about wrestling in Europe.

The rest of the normal segments like What’s On J.R.’s mind, Slobberknocker Of The Week, Pet Cook Goofy, etc. were OK but nothing to write home about. Overall though, I’d recommend listening to the Marty Scurll interview. The rest didn’t really do it for me.

Timestamps:

0:00 – Intro
1:21  – What’s On J.R.’s Mind
33:41 – Dave LaGreca
1:10:32 – Slobberknocker Of The Week
1:15:03 – Pet Coon Goofy Award
1:36:20 – Mailbag
1:43:01 – Marty Scurll
2:22:46 – Show Wrap

About Joe:

Joe is a long time wrestling fan from Toronto. He is a co-host on the Pull Apart Podcast with Jeff Rush and Caitlin Lavelle as well as a contributor to www.pwpodcasts.com. One of his life goals is to be a guest host on one of Wade Keller’s post show podcasts.  He doesn’t consider himself any sort of expert, he just likes wrestling. Check him out on twitter and instagram @ja113.