Jim Ross On If NJPW Could Do Well In The US

WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross appeared on The Rack Radio Show, which you can listen to on Thursday nights at 10pm ET. They sent us the highlights below, you can listen to the full interview by clicking here.

His thoughts on the College Football Playoffs and if he thinks they worked:

“Yeah, I think it works; I think, well, for the teams that were omitted from the final four, I think it speaks very clearly that eight teams would be better than four and I think, eventually, the eight-team playoff system will be initiated. But, in any event, that fact that the game, the championship of college football, was decided by the teams on the field as opposed to balloting or voting or polling, whatever, is, I think, a real good thing. So, I enjoy the tournament format; its great episodic programming a tournament is, that’s why NCAA Basketball in March is the big deal, because of Mar5ch Madness; the NFL Playoffs, it’s the same thing. So, I like the system and I’d like to see more teams get the opportunity to participate and if the television ratings are any indication, fans would certainly invest their time in watching a tournament an extra week.”

What it was like commentating the “GFW Presents New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 9” event:

“It was fun. Once you get past the travel, and you can navigate around the language barriers in Japan, then everything else is really positive. The event was in the Tokyo Dome, 40,000+ fans on hand I think, and it was the first time we’ve aired, or anyone aired, a New Japan pay-per-view in North America and it did really well. It’s been critically acclaimed as one of the better pay-per-view wrestling shows in years and it was really neat to be able to be part of that. For me, after 40 years in this business, and then being out from the play-by-play table for a while, you have those doubts and wonder how much gas is left in the tank and are you going to endure this four-hour pay-per-view with the last hour is your most important because your matches, those are the main event? So, I had a great time; it was unique, not quite what I’m used to here in Oklahoma, but it was a good, fun experience and I hope we get to do some more; those talks are ongoing. I signed a contract to do one, but I’d certainly be interested in doing more if it’s the right place, right time and all those clichés. But, I had a great times and it’s good to know I hadn’t forgotten how to do my old job so there’s a lot of nostalgia in that regard.”

If he thinks New Japan could do well in the US market:

“I think they could if they started airing; I mean they started airing on Friday nights an hour-long TV show with English commentary on AXS TV, formerly HDNet, Mark Cuban’s outfit. Depending on what kind of audience they pick up, they’ll be able to measure the popularity and then once all the pay-per-view numbers come in on that show that will be another gauge that they can utilize; as long as you have English-speaking commentators, who can explain who all these men and women are, then I think they’ll do well because their product is really sound and their in-ring psychology is very old-school oriented but is surrounded with all these modern accouterments. So, I think it has a real good chance of being bigger; I’m not sure how it’s going to do on weekly TV, and I don’t know how well AXS TV does in general, but if it did well on pay-per-view, then that gives you some indication that there’s people willing to invest in it and if that the case, just like with any other entity, it’s all about the cash. So, if it does well, I would think you’ll see more.