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JR's Blog: 'NAITCH'..Okada-Omega vs Flair-Steamboat..@HeymanHustle in NYC..KANE to Ross Report podcast..

Posted: Aug 15th 2017 By: Jim Ross

Greetings everyone and thanks for stopping by our site. It's another great and busy week for yours truly that I am blessed to be able to have in the biz that I love. Let's roll...

The word that my long time friend and the greatest pro wrestler to ever live, Ric Flair, is in the hospital in intensive care has many of us concerned. As I write this, no official info has been released on the nature of Ric's condition but heart issues are reportedly in the mix. Our thoughts are with Natich and his entire family on a speedy and full recovery.

Ric and I were sitting next to each other on a USAirways flight in the late 80's when we both met my late, wife Jan. Ric likes to tell the story of how he "introduced Jan and me" of which I encourage because it makes him smile.

I had the privilege of commentating all three of the famous Flair-Steamboat trilogy of classics in 1989 and did it with three different partners, Magnum TA, Terry Funk, and Bob Caudle. Ric and Ricky were simply amazing in those bouts that still hold up very well today.

I get a kick out of some people trying to intelligently compare the recent Okada-Omega bouts to Flair-Steamboat as I feel that it is impossible to make valid judgments on matches that were held in totally different eras. I do agree that everyone has their own opinions of which we all should respect but to honestly say that any match is the greatest of all time, including the amazing, Flair-Steamboat bouts is iffy.

Too many people rush to judgemental to declare "The Greatest Ever..." connotations when there is no documentable way to quantify and to decern what truly is the greatest match ever or the greatest wrestler ever for that matter as we all have our takes.

Before NJPW loyalists revolt, I am not disrespecting any of the work done by Okada vs Omega and look forward to calling their G1 bout on AXSTV in a few weeks. Both are amazing talents.

Excited to hit NYC and Stamford this week for WWE work and for our RINGSIDE Show this Friday night at the Gotham Comedy Club featuring the great Paul Heyman joining me live onstage. Tickets are available in limited quantity at www.gothamcomedyclub.com. We feel that it's a great way to kickoff Summer Slam weekend. I hope that you will join us if you can.

In Stamford, Amy Dumas and I have a ton of work to do to finish the Mae Young Tournament bouts that we recorded in July in Orlando.

As I compose this blog, we have a total of only 69 tickets remaining for our NYC Show with @HeymanHustle.

While in NYC, I will join the Busted Open radio crew on Thursday and old pal Taz in his studio on Friday morning.

Thanks to the DC Improv and all the folks that joined us last Thursday night in DC for our RINGSIDE Show. We had a packed house and a wonderful time. Same for the Icons of Wrestling appearance in Philly Saturday with Tony Schiavone and, of course, 'King' Jerry Lawler.

Read about 8 more chapters Monday of SLOBBERKNOCKER: My Life In Wrestling for our audio book. Emotional assignment to say the least but one that I am happy to be doing. The audio book will be available in October with the hardback version. I think that you are going to like the audio version of this labor of love.

Glenn Jacobs PKA Kane will join me this week on an all new Ross Report Podcast that will be live, as usual, at 9 PM ET/6 PM PT on www.podcastone.com and at Apple Podcasts where I encourage you to please subscribe for FREE and leave us a comment and a five star rating at Apple Podcasts of which we are truly grateful.

Regarding Summer Slam, of which I have high expectations, I am anxious to see how Jinder Mahal and Shinsuke Nakamura mesh bell to bell as this one could be a sleeper. Both men have much to prove, IMO, on this stage and in this specific match. Also, I am not of the mindset that it is automatic that Brock Lesnar will lose the Universal Title Sunday. I could see, however, this huge main event setting up Lesnar vs Strowman down the road on another big stage.

I will be dropping by the Barclay Center Saturday night to watch the NXT Takeover which has quite the lineup itself. The Takeover events seemingly never disappoint. Great weekend of TV on the @WWENetwork.

Follow me on Twitter @JRsBBQ and on Facebook and Instragram at JimRossBBQ.

Have a blessed day and maximize life's minutes that you are blessed to receive.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R. @JRsBBQ