WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross spoke to the Two Man Power Trip Of Wrestling Podcast recently to promote his one man show and more. You can read some highlights below and hear the full interview at this link.
During the interview Ross talked about how he didn’t like knowing the finish to matches as he preferred to call them as they happened.
“How can you listen to The Undertaker/ Mick Foley Hell in a Cell match and say I wasn’t emotionally involved in that. I thought he (Foley) died. I thought “we” killed him, “we” meaning the company and booking that match and putting the pressure on this big main event that he had paid the ultimate price to have a great match. Everything you hear on that sound bite was nothing rehearsed because (Jerry) Lawler and I didn’t even know what they were going to do that night. I was talking with Jerry the other day and asked if he remembered us sitting down and going over finishes and he said “we never did”. We didn’t want to know, we wanted to be surprised. Even Bob Caudle, we hardly ever knew. I think sometimes with announcers in today’s world, the less you know about what is supposed to happen the better off you are. You broadcast what you see and you communicate it in an organic, natural fashion. I think that’s why at one point in time my work was accepted well because my style was physical, it was snug, it was athletic and as my first wrestling boss Bill Watts wanted it was called as a “shoot”.
He also commented on the current state of heels in wrestling.
“I would not take the championship of Seth Rollins until WrestleMania. At WrestleMania if I have something that I believe works then that is where he would drop the title. By then he would have had a full year and if he is not over and he is not a “made man” after being champion then you can’t blame the promotion. He’s like any of the villains on TV whether it is WWE, Ring of Honor, TNA or Lucha Underground there is not enough of guys that cheat to gain an unfair advantage. Villains must stop working for the “pop” or the “this is awesome”. If I were a villain in a true sense of the word that would piss me off to no end. My work should be menacing, dangerous and dirty. It is supposed to enhance your dance partner and make the baby-face more of a bigger, stronger and powerful ticket selling, merchandise selling entity. Too many heels would rather work for a “pop”, then work for “heat”. When you take that angst away there is a fine line between good and evil and if it disappears I say good luck to the business. When you take away the “heel”/”villain dynamic I don’t know what you have got?”
