THE ROSS REPORT
HOST: JIM ROSS
GUESTS: BILL EADIE & BARRY DARSOW
RELEASE DATE: SEPT. 16
DIRECT LINK TO STREAM OR DOWNLOAD EPISODE
By Thomas Grattini, PWPodcasts.com reporter
TOP ITEMS FROM EPISODE
-Ross predicted Seth Rollins would go 1-1 in his two matches at The Night Of Champions PPV this weekend, but declined to say who he would win or lose to.
-Ross said the PPV is basically a two match card and wasnt particularly excited about anything on the card besides Cena-Rollins (Which he said should open the show) and Rollins-Sting.
-When asked by Ross if Demolition was basically Vince McMahon’s personal rip-off of
The Road Warriors, Eadie & Darsow answered probably so, but stated because of WWF’s larger market they believed themselves to have a much larger fan-base than their predecessors.
SUBJECTS COVERED WITH TIME STAMPS
0:01 – Pre Show Intro, Sponsors and a Good Ol ‘Jr further expands upon last week’s anti-shopping mall tirade.
3:25 – Intro: Ross welcomes the audience, hypes up Demolition, then goes into Dusty “The American Dream” Rhodes mode while pretending to bionic elbow The Four Horseman.
6:22 – Ross brings up the positive feedback he got about the recent article about Scott Hall he wrote for Fox Sports1.
7:10 – Jr skips over various plugs from a Scott Hall appearance to several of his own upcoming
“One Man Shows”
9:00 – Ross briefly discussed WWE’s upcoming Night Of Champions PPV, calling it basically a “two match card” and noted if it was up to him he would open the PPV with Cena vs Rollins and obviously close it with Sting vs Rollins in The Main Event. Ross added he wasn’t particularly excited about any of the other matches on the card.
10:34 – Ross predicted Seth Rollins would go 1-1 in his two PPV matches, though he wouldn’t let on who he thought would go over against Seth. He quickly moved on professing his love for Houston and flash-backed to his days working for Paul Boesch’s Houston Wrestling and jokingly noted if The Ramada Inn out there could talk “he’d still be paying alimony.”
10:43 – Ross briefly noted one former WWE Hall Of Famer is replacing another on Celebrity Apprentice, as Arnold Schwartznegger is set to take over for “The Donald”.
11:20 – Ross wished TNA’s Earl Hebner congratulations for being inducted into the TNA (cough, cough, cough. cough) Hall Of Fame at their upcoming Bound For Glory PPV.
12:00 – Of course Ross had to bring up Hebner’s role in the infamous “Montreal Screwjob” and noted the irony of the situation was while Lawler and himself were unaware of the finish the night of the match, Hebner was one of the few people who were aware. Ross said this didn’t bother him at all as he called that night “ awful”. Ross finished his thought by stating he believed more referees should be in the Hall Of Fame, then hyped TNA’s Hall Of Fame Ceremony some more and advertised Ethan Carter III’S upcoming appearance.
13:35 – Ross made an “editorial” comment stating if your really a fan of wrestling you should consider buying TNA’s PPV and do them a “solid”?!?!?! Really Jr? Really?!? cause i would really like a solid from them myself, like maybe they improve their horrible product some?
14:00 – Ross switched gears to his recent stay in Knoxville for a recent show, then slipped into a Jim Barnett/Stu Hart imitation and couldn’t help himself before bringing up his beloved Oklahoma Sooners game this weekend. He moved on again congratulating Taz for his new show and gave his ex-broadcast partner a nice plug. Ross joked “ Can you imagine the mood he’s in having to get up that early?”
17:21 – Ross was extra gracious tonight, next wishing Ring Of Honor good luck with their own PPV which he encouraged all wrestling fans to purchase should it be in their budgets, He added the entire roster would bring it, though they may bring it too much for his own taste-alluding to the fact that no one in Ring Of Honor apparently knows how to sell.
18:25 – Ross discussed Diamond Dallas Page’s second career as a yoga master.
20:39 – Break
21:18 – Ross comes back from the break and introduces Demolition, calling them one of the most frequently requested guests on his podcast-take that for what its worth.Dawson is heard from firstthen Eadie as both thank Ross for having them on his show.
22:20 – Ross brings up the burying of Cowboy Bill Watts angle in Mid-South by the Russians, who Darsow worked with as Krusher Kruschev.. “I thought i knew it all til I got to the Mid-South.” Darsow stated, crediting Ivan Koloff, Ernie Ladd, Grizzly Smith and Terry Taylor and others with bringing him along.
24:34 – They also discussed Eadie’s role as a heel working with the 300lb Baby Face Watts, who constantly needed legit threats to challenge him. Ross also brought up Eadie’s college football and track career, then eventually his coaching career. He was discovered backstage while attending a wrestling match by the shows local promoter, who simply asked him if he wanted to be a pro wrestler.
29:01 – Darsow discussed his original weight of 300lbs and how he felt and moved so much better at 285 lbs.This led Ross to share that while being groomed by Watts he was told that the crowd will always pay for athletic big men.
31:30 – Ross and Darsow discussed a story Darsow had related to him about Watts basically shutting a show down, calling everyone to the back and screaming at them for their lack of intensity. During this time Watts pulled Darsow aside and went on to display how he expects someone to “lay the boots to someone”, Watts hit him so hard, he busted Darsow open, who claimed to be so scared he dare not sell it. “Everyone worked really stiff the rest of the night.” Darsow lamented.
33:33 – Ross switched guests but not topics as he discussed – you guessed it , more Cowboy Bill Watts – with Eadie. Comparing him as a cross between Vince Lombardi and George Stienbrenner. Hmmph. They discussed how Watts brought him into work as a heel. Watts role a promoter, booker and star babyface. Eadie claimed to have the utmost respect for Watts. Ross oddly asked Eadie if he thought his experiance as a coach prepared him to be an independent contractor.
37:33 – More Watts as J.R discussed how he influenced him when he was a talent evaluator, stating to improve you have to work with someone better than you, Ros added that this was one of the things WWE Developmental is currently getting right.
39:00 – Ross shared a story how he worked a match in Wichita Falls for some extra cash, that was between “two old-timers”-his words guys, not mine. The match was to be a ten minute Broadway finish, which the still green Ross had no idea what that meant. Finally, he asked someone who simply told him it would be a ten minute time limit draw.The story was pretty amusing the first twenty times i heard J.R tell it, but any veteran listener of these podcasts has heard this one several times over. His commentary on the actual match, during which the combatants talked openly about their bladder, digestive and gas problems was pretty funny and elicited chuckles from Darsow and Eadie.
44:18 – Break, with a Terry Funk appearance.
47:25 – Ross came back and discussed Darsow’s departure from Mid-South to Florida, where he went on to team with Ivan Koloff. Ross lamented the loss of territories and the overall effect it has had on the business. During this same time Eadie was working as The Masked Superstar in Georgia, Montreal and then Japan.
49:30 – Ross brought up the lucrative pay in Japan at that time, with Eadie claiming top guys could easily make 15,000 to 20,000 per week. Eadie added Andre The Giant was easily the highest paid gaijin attraction at the time.
53:24 – More Bill Watts discussion-okay this is just a rib now right?, where they discussed his rule that if you went to a bar and got beat up-you were fired on the spot. They then went over the strict kayfabe rules resulting in faces and heels having to stay in separate hotels and drink in separate bars.
56:30 – Back to Eadie and Vince McMahon Jr trying to talk him into leaving Japan for The WWF. “I really didn’t want to do it.” he said, citing that Andre The Giant eventually talked him into it. They brought him in to work with Andre as a tag team called The Machines-Eadie would be Super Machine, Andre would be Giant Machine. This fell thru however when Andre was asked to work on The Princess Bride and Black Jack Mulligan replaced him as Big Machine.
1:00:24 – While making another trip to Japan, Eadie was approached about the Demolition gimmick. Ross put over Eadie’s experience in the business being a major factor in him getting to pick his partner. “Barry and I have been together-and we’re both happily married and we spent more time on the road together than we did with our families.” Eadie stated explaining the traveling dynamic. “You don’t want to be around a butt-head, a guy you gotta babysit and bail out of jail. Someone who doesn’t want to work out, cause my philosophy in this biz is i’m going to blow the other guy up and let him know he was in the ring.
1:01:38 – Ross asked who some of the names were that were suggested to Eadie before he selected Darsow. Eadie answered there were about four or five guys, but the problem was they were all known as someone else. Ross mentioned how much of a class act Darsow was and more mature as opposed to his fellow Minnesota contemporaries or as Eadie said “People who needed to be noticed.” They seemed to be talking about Curt Henning here, but never explicitly named names. Darsow said its all about who you hang out around and said he was lucky to come up with Eadie and Mr. Fuji.
1:05:50 – Darsow discussed how he thought he would never leave Charlotte, though WWF was always a dream, but a money dispute with Jim Crockett opened the door for change. After running into Earl Hebner he asked him if he could talk to his brother and possibly set up an interview for him. The next thing he knew he was in New York meeting with Vince McMahon and being shown photos of the Demolition gimmick. “The greatest thing that ever happened to me.” Darsow offered.
1:07:40 – Break.
1:12:32 – Ross comes back by asking the duo how long they were together-7 years. Maybe that was a loaded question as his next inquiry is if they believe The Demolition gimmick was McMahon’s own rip-off of the Road Warriors gimmick. Eadie was pretty honest saying ” I’m sure it was.’ Darsow offered that the thought “never dawned on him.”, then made the questionable comment that because of The WWF’s larger market share Demolition’s fan base was far larger than that of The Road Warrior’s. Eadie followed up by saying The Road Warriors weren’t the first wrestlers to wear paint. Ross just kind of let this slide without any follow-up questions. “The WWF was powered by tag teams.” Eadie claimed, ignoring a little thing called Hulkamania. Again, this was another debatable comment, but this one had more merit than comparing themselves to The Road Warriors.
1:17:34 – Ross asked Eadie who he thought were the tag teams who stood out during this golden age. Eadie mentioned The British Bulldogs, The Hart Foundation, Akeem and The Big Bossman and Strikeforce–who Ross stated were a great team to work with for heels. “It didn’t matter who you were going against, you could have a good match” Eadie said. (No mention of The Rockers)
1:18:32 – Ross likens Vince and Pat Patterson to a head coach and offensive coordinator. He wondered if Patterson’s acumen as a tag team wrestler with Ray Stevens-who Darsow called the Greatest team ever-had anything to do with Vince running out so many great tag teams during this time. They then named some more teams from The Killer Bee’s to Roma & Hercules (still no mention of The Rockers, lol). “Back then guys were put together to stay together.” Eadie commented and added “nowadays they just put together two guys they don’t know what to do with.” Eadie and Darsow discussed their chemistry, working together, having no ego’s and relying on Fuji to teach them what they were doing wrong.
1:21:32 – Ross asked if the duo were ever victims of Fuji’s legendary ribs, they responded by saying thank god their closeness left them immune to all his hi-jinks.
1:22:57 – Ross brought up how the duo was part of the WWF during the three show era and asked if it was true that the first thing every performer did was to check the show listing to see if they were on the “A” show with Hogan? “That’s the card you wanted to be on.” Darsow answered without hesitation. “That’s the card you were gonna make the most money on.”
Eadie seemed determined to play devil’s advocate here, stating headlining the “C” was less pressure, along with a very strong payday. Hmm, i’m calling B.S here. Despite what anyone thinks of Hogan personally i’ve never heard anyone take this view point. But hey, tag team wrestling drove The WWF during the mid-to late 80’s, so what do i know?
1:23:35 – J.R asked what brought things to a close. Eadie said he had an allergic reaction to shrimp that put him in toxic shock.He claimed to have had an out of body experience, while nearly dying. The WWF brought in Crush, while he was supposed to slowly be phased out and act as the team’s manager, while also taking a backstage position. However this along with several other “promises” never came thru, though he didn’t elaborate, instead he simply went back to working his Masked Superstar gimmick and Darsow himself had the opportunity to work a new character (Heh-Heh). Darsow and Eadie then briefly brought up the Road Warriors coming into WWF, which they called their worst collection of matches because they were supposed to be heels but they were so over with the fans it was a disaster. I’d like to get Hawk and Animal’s viewpoint on that…
1:30:29 – Ross asked Darsow if he liked doing The Repo Man character, to which Darsow described “He loved it.” He explained he envisioned the character beginning as a heel and eventually turning baby-face, but Vince was never hip to it. Dawson wanted to finish his career working in WWF, doing work with the Make-A-Wish-Foundation and visiting Children’s Hospitals.
1:31:41 – Ross talks about Vince wanting him to change the atmosphere of the locker room and Vince not knowing who Steve Austin was when he hired him.
1:32:07 – Dawson relates a story about Austin asking him about the WWF, while the two were in WCW. Darsow told Austin he needed to go there if he really wanted to make it in this business. When Austin asked him what he should do Darsow told him “Be yourself.”
They discussed The Repo Man character some more, then his move to WCW and The Black Top Bully character, along with his getting fired with Mike Graham and Dustin Rhodes from his Infamous Truck Top Match with Rhodes.
1:36:22 – Ross asked their thoughts on not being a part of the WWE Hall Of Fame yet and wether or not they considered it a big deal. ” I think its a huge deal.” Darsow offered. “I really do think its big, but there are so many guys that should be in the hall of fame. But you gotta wait your turn.”
1:36:52 – Eadie added “I think it would be a good foot note for our career.” Ross noted Eadie was already enshrined in the Pro Wrestling Hall Of Fame as The Masked Superstar, a fact that Eadie was particularly proud of since it was his peers who elected him. Darsow wondered aloud what the qualifications were for the WWE Hall Of Fame, to which Ross answered its handled by a small panel-but ultimately decided by one person.
1:39:18 – Ross discussed how the WWE Network is constantly exposing him to new fans of his work, sharing a recent encounter with a fan who was stunned to find he worked for WCW before coming to WWF. “Well i only worked in the business for 19 years before then.’ Ross joked. Ross then briefly flash-backed to his own time in The Mid -South, where he thought his every word was being scrutinized-boy did he have a gross misunderstanding of what overly scrutinized was, lol. Ross said that while he started off despising it, he eventually learned his main job was to get over the talent, which was all his boss was trying to teach him.
1:41:08 – Ross wrapped things up, telling the duo it was inevitable that they will eventually be recognized by the WWE Hall Of Fame and added again that no other team in wrestling is requested more to be on his show. Both guys gave their thanks to Ross, particularly Darsow who called Ross “a huge part of his career”. Eadie stated they are only doing two appearances per month due to Darsow’s private business and his own teaching responsibilities with youthful offenders.
1:45:50 – Ross ran down some plugs, revisiting The Ramada Inn story from earlier in the show, which led to another “egg-sucking dog” Tirade by Terry Funk. Good stuff, waaaaay better than his version of Stu Hart who comes off sounding like a creepy pedophile.
1:48:36 – More Terry Funk, this time beleaguering Ross’s beloved Sooners, before one final appearance after Ross put over his BBQ Sauce.
1:52:35 – Ross call Eadie one of the four or five best masked wrestlers of all-time.
1:53:06 – J.R hypes the next wave of upcoming guests starting with PWTorch’s own Bruce Mitchell, World TNA Heavyweight Champion Ethan Carter The Third, Ring Of Honor’s Steve Corino and finally former WWE Tough Enough winner Jackie Gayda and Alicia Webb.
1:58:49 – End of Show
SCORE & REVIEW
6.0 out of 10: I guess if your a big Bill Watts fan, this podcast was awesome as that was all they seemed to discuss for most of the podcast’s two hour show. I just think its a shame that after proclaiming how tag team wrestling powered the WWF during their time, they barely went into what admittedly was a golden age for tag team wrestling. As a long time Road Warriors fan growing up, Demolitions comparison with them was cringe worthy for me, somewhere akin to The Nature Boy Buddy Landell comparing himself to Ric Flair. Other than that there wasn’t much not to like here, as Darsow and Eadie came off as good guys who loved the buisness. While I felt Ross steered the conversation too much towards Bill Watts and missed for example exploring why Demolitions feud with The Road Warriors didn’t lead up to expectations younger WWF/WWE fans might be surprised to learn the duo’s history before becoming Ax and Smash.
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