The Jim Ross Report
Release Date: May 9, 2018
Recap by: Joe Aguinaldo
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0:00 – Intro
On today’s show, Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler will make an appearance, to talk about a variety of topics. But right now we jump into….
1:51 – What’s On J.R’s Mind
J.R will be on Jason Powell’s podcast this week at ProWrestling.net. He got some good feedback on his appearance on Steve Austin’s podcast and had a good time catching up with the Texas Rattlesnake. You can find that podcast here. J.R is in LA recording this podcast and will be doing some voiceovers for AXS TV as they have 5 upcoming shows for NJPW. You can catch him and Josh Barnett every Friday night at 8:00 pm on AXS.
The Backlash PPV was not well received by many and J.R doesn’t think we should be overly surprised as that event followed some tough acts in Wrestlemania and The Greatest Royal Rumble. The fans in Newark were not overly kind to the presentation and while he J.R doesn’t want to get into a debate about what fans are entitled to, he felt the audience was coarse. He thought the audiences for the following RAW and Smackdown were better.
The effort was there from the talent but the talent themselves have to take some responsibility if the event isn’t an overwhelming creative success. J.R says it’s a team win or a team loss and didn’t feel the event was the best outing. He thinks the talents were tired and while they appeared to be inspired, he saw fatigue.
One question J.R keeps getting is the perceived Roman Reigns conundrum around whether he should be a good guy or bad guy. J.R says he doesn’t really care and is a Roman Reigns fan. He thinks this will play out and Roman will eventually evolve to where he’s supposed to be. He thinks being a heel is a better fit for Roman but doesn’t think Roman is lost or belongs on the scrap heat. J.R says we should let this play out and Roman will become what he will become. He doesn’t think the Roman Reigns issues is an issue at all.
J.R got some backlash about his comments regarding the women not being paid because they weren’t booked on the Saudi Arabia. He re-iterates he is a big supporter of women’s wrestling and reminds everyone that he hired the women back in the Attitude Era but still says the women should not be paid for work they did not do. (as an aside, I don’t entirely disagree that if you’re not on a show you shouldn’t be paid…BUT…last week, he also said you had to earn the right to be on a show. In the case of the Saudi Arabia show, the women did not have even have the right to an opportunity to be on the show. THEY WERE NOT ALLOWED ON THE SHOW. J.R didn’t mention that part in his comments this week).
Somebody asked J.R if it was fair that more men didn’t have roles on Total Divas (which was renewed for two more years). This was in relation to the fact the women weren’t allowed to be on the Saudi Arabia show. J.R isn’t sure what the person was getting at but stands by his view that women not being paid for Saudi Arabia and adds that because the WWE are travelling to Saudi Arabia for the next few years, we will eventually see women wrestling in Saudi Arabia.
J.R is glad to see Rey Mysterio will be working a New Japan date in Osaka, Japan. He thinks Rey’s appearance will be big and historic.
J.R wishes Happy Birthday to the great Danny Hodge. He was J.R’s hero growing up and calls him the greatest wrestler that ever lived. He may have been a smaller wrestler, but he was one of the toughest and J.R says in his prime, he would be the toughest guy in the locker room today and that includes over Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle. J.R also wishes Happy Birthday to the late Steve ‘Dr. Death’ Williams who was also another tough guy. Also, Happy Birthday to William Regal who J.R has a lot of respect for and is one of his best confidants.
Court Bauer will be doing a big TV shoot in Queen’s New York on July 19th. Tickets go on sale May 13th and you can buy tickets and get info on this TV taping at www.mlw.com.
J.R was talking to Cody Rhodes this week who is promoting the All In event along with the Young Bucks. It’s gone from a 1 day event to a 4 day event. Tickets go on sale Sunday, May 13th. J.R is rooting for Cody and the Young Bucks because he likes the entrepreneurial spirit.
J.R is going to be doing a baseball event for a huge wrestling promotion on May 26th. He will be doing a meet and greet and might throw out the first pitch.
16:41 – Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler
J.R welcomes Jerry to the show and asks how he is feeling after his stroke incident. Jerry says it was kind of scary but in the same respect, he didn’t feel like it was happening and didn’t feel anything. He says it was similar to the cardiac arrest where there was no warning or pain. When it happened, he looked in the mirror his mouth was drooping and his girlfriend screamed he was having a stroke. Her fast reaction probably saved his life as she drove him to the hospital quicker than if they had called an ambulance. When he got to emergency, his blood pressure was high and once the doctors got his blood pressure down, that stopped the bleeding on his brain. He was not feeling any pain but he was not able to talk which was frustrating. Three days later he was able to talk normally. Jerry had a follow up cat scan where the doctor showed him the results. He was fortunate the stroke was at the top of his brain because had it been down further, he could have lost movement on the left side of his body.
J.R brings up how physically challenging the trip to Saudi Arabia was asks if Jerry felt the same. Jerry agrees it was a challenging trip and brings up the time where he worked for The Rock’s mom in Hawaii as Polynesian champ. During his run, he had to fly to Honolulu every week and said that was horrendous. Coming back to the Saudi Arabia trip, at least they were flying first class which made it a bearable.
J.R says he has never worked an event where he had to go through metal detectors to get to the announce position. Jerry adds some of the rules and restrictions being in proximity of the Royal Family were ridiculous. The WWE had 500 people working the show and the Royal Family’s security wanted to clear everyone out of the stadium while they did a security check (this didn’t happen thankfully). Jerry says they had gotten a list of do’s and don’ts for Saudi Arabia, one was do not wear any military type clothing or make any fun of the Royal Family. Jerry was worried about wearing his King outfit.
J.R says he is glad he was part of the Saudi event but wishes they had a chance to call one match. Jerry says he would have loved to call Titus O’Neil slipping and falling under the ring. Jerry talked to Titus and told him as someone who owned and booked a territory for 20 years, that incident could turn into gold for Titus as long as he embraces it. Titus has a chance to show people he can laugh at himself which is an ability people admire. Jerry suggested that on RAW, he should come running down the ring, slip and fall under the ring and while his opponent is laughing, have Titus come out the other side of the ring to do a quick roll up for the 1-2-3.
J.R brings up the stage show he and Lawler will be doing. This is something they have talked about doing for years. It’s the first time where the voices of the Attitude Era will be answering questions and Jerry says it will be a great time. The debut shows will be August 16 and Zanies in Nashville and August 23rd at Zanies in Chicago. For more info check www.zanies.com. Jerry is especially looking forward to the show in Nashville as that was the headquarters for the Tennessee territory. He is hoping people who followed that territory will be on hand.
Jerry’s podcast, Dinner With The King, drops on Wednesday.
They shotgun a few topics:
- Jerry getting reprimanded for saying ‘Puppies’ on the RAW 25th Anniversary
- Why Jerry went to Wendy’s instead of one of his two BBQ places
- Memphis in May events including a BBQ festival
- If you’re hairy, there’s no Jerry
- No hair….no Flair
And with that, J.R is looking forward to their stage show and thanks him for being on the podcast.
48:06 – Slobberknocker of the Week
There are a lot of candidates for Slobberknocker of the Week including:
- Brad Stevens, coach of the Boston Celtics, for his job during the NBA playoffs considering his two best players are out for the year.
- Lebron James for his performance during the playoffs (as a Torontonian, I hate him). J.R brings up a story of meeting Lebron in his rookie year at the parking garage of the Gund arena. He had a chance to speak with Lebron who was a good kid and a fan of RAW. After that meeting, Lebron sent J.R a signed basketball and jersey.
However, J.R decided to give the Slobberknocker of the Week to Chris Jericho who was in New Japan and shot a major angle with Naito. J.R says he is everywhere from Saudi Arabia to Japan to his tour with Fozzy to the Cruise of Jericho. Chris was one of J.Rs recruit and was very successful.
53:35 – Pet Coon Goofy Award
There were a few nominees including:
- The ending of the A.J/Nakamura from Backlash with the low blows. Austin mentioned on his podcast that the low blows have been played out. J.R wasn’t overwhelmed with the mood of the match when it concluded.
- The Elias concert moment at Backlash. He’s also not a fan of the congo line.
- The Backlash crowd who made the show uncomfortable and difficult to watch
However, the Pet Coon Goofy Award goes to the person who runs the confetti machine for the Philadelphia 76ers who thought the Sixers won a game against the Celtics when they in fact were going into overtime.
58:05 – This Week In Wrestling
1987 – The Eddie Graham memorial event saw Dusty Rhodes beating Ric Flair by DQ with Flair keeping the title. It was a big time main event in memory of Eddie Graham who was a big time player in professional wrestling. Graham was a mentor in professional wrestling and J.R stresses the importance again of being a mentor
1999 – 20,000 plus saw Kevin Nash defeat DDP in a WCW World Title match which was in the middle of the 83 weeks while WCW was beating RAW in the ratings.
1985 – Saturday Night’s Main Event was first taped and aired this 33 years ago this week. That was big for the business and helped everyone in the business.
1964 – Bruno Sammartino and Gorilla Monsoon wrestled a 70 minute time limit draw in Madison Square Garden. J.R loved and respected both guys.
2011 – In TNA, Kurt Angle and Chyna defeated Jeff and Karen Jarrett at the Sacrifice PPV which J.R thought was bold booking.
2005 – Konan defeated Vampiro in front of 22,000 fans at AAA’s Triplemania.
1:03:22 – Mailbag
Send questions and comments for the show to thejimrossreport@gmail.com.
Q: If WWE were to add a Little Jim character to the Camp WWE cartoon, would J.R be open to doing voice overs or would you prefer someone to do an interpretation?
A: J.R would love to voice his own character on the show
Q: Would the WWE consider going to Cuba or North Korea?
A: After going to Saudi Arabia, J.R thinks there is nothing off limits.
Q: What is the greatest blooper J.R has been part of in his career?
A: During an interview with Sid Vicious (I think that’s who he was referring to), Sid asked if they could do the interview over to which J.R responded ‘we’re live pal’. Now if something goes wrong during a take, somebody will use that line.
Q: Someone asks about Crusher Stories
A: J.R didn’t work with Crusher a lot however says he was over big time.
Q: During the Goldrush tournament, J.R was genuinely excited and shocked at some of the matchups.
A: J.R doesn’t remember much about the event because it was 13 years ago but says what you heard was real. He tried not to be disingenuous or over the top.
Q: Is there a second installment of ‘Slobberknocker’ coming?
A: J.R and his team are starting to work on a sequel which may include the Attitude Era, getting beat by WCW for 83 weeks, the XFL and J.R leaving RAW to go to Smackdown which he still is upset about. He’d like to have the book out for the 2019 holidays if possible.
Q: WWE will be in Melbourne Australia. Will this be like the Greatest Royal Rumble or be an over glorified house show.
A: J.R says it will be a big event and that talent should work as hard on a house show as they would on TV. He is fairly confident this will be televised but isn’t sure.
Q: Final question comes from a blind person who gives J.R props for painting audio pictures so he could enjoy wrestling (which is really cool). Question is if J.R has heard rumors that Paige will be possibly creating a new Smackdown tag title.
A: J.R is all for the growth of women’s wrestling but he thinks too many titles may water down the product. Even though the women’s division doesn’t have a lot of titles, do they have enough legitimate tag teams? J.R thinks it’s a natural evolution if it does happen.
1:15:51 – Show Wrap
J.R says it was great that Jerry Lawler was able to come by and he is working on a guest for next week’s program. He pushes his social media (@jrsbbq) and a number of upcoming shows. And that’s a wrap.
Rating – 7/10
I thought this was a good show. Like I said last week…solid podcast but nothing flashy. In wrestling terms, J.R’s podcast is a good mechanic but still needs some character development which I think is starting to come around as he seems to be tightening up his podcast. Highlight for sure was the interview with Jerry Lawler and you can tell they both have great chemistry together.
Timestamps
0:00 – Intro
1:51 – What’s On J.R’s Mind
16:41 – Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler
48:06 – Slobberknocker Of The Week
53:35 – Pet Coon Goofy Award
58:05 – This Week In Wrestling
1:03:22 – Mailbag
1:15:51 – Show Wrap
Writer Bio
Joe lives in Toronto, Canada with his wife and two boys. He’s been watching wrestling for about 40 years (give or take) but doesn’t consider himself any sort of expert. He just likes wrestling. Check him out on twitter and instagram @ja113.
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