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JR"s Blog: @SSBilly Graham on Ross Report Tonight, RINGSIDE Baltimore @RamsHeadLive, Jericho/Cena Interview, @steveausinBSR, OVWrestling.com, Neville, What Now? Is A Hit!, Shop Online at WWEShop.com for JR's Products for Grilling Season, @Mic

Posted: Apr 8th 2015 By: Jim Ross

We are very excited to be working with a great venue in Baltimore, Rams Head Live, on our first Baltimore show which will be Saturday night May 16. VIP tickets are really moving fast with less than 40 VIP Meet and Greet tickets still available on sale now at ramsheadlive.com. Get them before they are gone and come join me in one of the USA's most prolific, wrestling cities loaded with personal memories for me. Plus, we are close to finalizing our next New York City date that will be held on Summer Slam weekend so stay tuned for that.

Tonight (Tuesday) at 9 ET our Ross Report podcast will feature the life and times of the incomparable Super Star Billy Graham who influenced a ton of major stars with Billy's look and his amazing promo skills. You can download this show for FREE tonight on podcastone.com and via iTunes where you can also subscribe again for FREE and you won't miss a single episode. This was one of the most interesting and fun interviews I've done with any guest and I think that you will really enjoy it.

Next week at this time we will be preparing to drop our latest conversation with New York Times best selling author Shawn Michaels on the Ross Report, which, as always is a great listen with HBK.

Smart move by WWE/USA Network to move Smackdown to USa in 2016 as that move should significantly increase viewership for the Smackdown brand. USA will apparently also be airing Tough Enough which will premier on Tuesday June 23 at 8/7 central time. I haven't heard who will be hosting the reality show or who will comprise the coaching staff. The concept of Tough Enough is potentially compelling but it all hinges on the cast of characters that the viewers are exposed to each week in hopes that fans will invest emotionally them and in the process. Curious as to how the cast was selected and by who as that's always the key to the show's success in my view. Hopefully some "wrestling people" were involved in the process because viewers do like the reality show/soap opera aspect of the process but they also want to see athletes compete who have a legit chance to be stars in the ring also.

Watched the Jericho/Cena post RAW interview last night from start to finish. It had a 'feel good' undertone and covered a wide variety of topics that Cena addressed without reservation from my perspective. Nice to see John give props to our recruiting class that I sent to OVW in Louisville to be coached up by Danny Davis, Jim Cornette and company. That was a helluva group that included Cena, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, Dave Batista and arguably the best natural athlete in the camp in Shelton Benjamin. Cena came off as he is just a regular guy who has an insatiable work ethic and he is legit/honest in his love for the business as John being a lifelong fan totally jumped off the page at me when I decided to sign Cena out of UPW back in the day after his try out match with Samoa Joe of which I watched. Funny note...when John was the 'Prototype' he reminded me of a young Sting.

RAW/Austin Thoughts....

Raw missed Michael Cole but it made creative sense for him to miss RAW to sell the Lesnar assault. I thought the Brock suspension and subsequent additional punishments should have been addressed more. Many have been critical of Byron Saxton but those doing the criticizing obviously don't have a clue as to how challenging that job is. Byron is a fine young man who will evolve into an excellent broadcaster some day but I'm not sure if play by play is going to be his strength but only time will tell. I am proud of Bryon and WWE has a quality human being in him. Cole's value to WWE is immeasurable.

Not a fan of every RAW starting out essentially the same and that's with a long in ring promo which seems to happen every week. That makes RAW somewhat predictable which is not what built the brand back in the day.

Seems as if the audience could use a better explanation what the TV persona of Stardust is. I'm not sure myself what he's portraying.

I admire WWE trying to get New Day established but they need to be villains and allowed to talk in that persona. It's a no brainer to me and the trio has some upside if they are on the other side of the fence.

Good to see WWE Champ Rollins kept strong and with steam going off the air notwithstanding the fact that Rollins needs to beat Orton at Extreme Rules by any means necessary and w/o the entire Authority lending a hand in the final three count. Smart move by WWE to anoint Seth Rollins as WWE Champion.

If Sheamus can take a page out of UFC's colorful Conor McGregor's verbal play book and become an obnoxious, overbearing ass on the mic, I think the Irishman can become a huge asset. I am a fan of Sheamus the man and feel that Sheamus the villain can be a main event player in WWE to a much bigger degree than he was as a fan favorite.

An argument can be made that WWE has over exposed the number of multi person matches that they have been having on RAW including handicap bouts, etc including the triple threat variety. I like those matches but only when they feel special.

Really impressed by Neville and feel that he was nicely protected vs Rollins but it's always the soundtrack going forward that makes Neville or any newcomer grow more rapidly. Neville can be special, knows how to sell, which many on TV in all companies struggle with it seems, and he has a unique skill set that fans will enjoy. Plus, he's a respectful professional that no company can get too many of in their locker room. WWE did right by signing him and polishing his skills in NXT before elevating the Brit.

Even though many outsiders wanted to believe the story that Steve Austin was scheduled to be at M31 iin San Jose, I knew for weeks prior to the event that he was not booked. If he had been booked we would have done my RINGSIDE show together. He was in South Texas at that time working on his ranch doing some time sensitive projects that he has been postponing for weeks due to his CMT production schedule. The rumor that Austin was to be on the same flight at Undertaker also made zero sense as Austin would have flown out of San Antonio while Taker lives in the Austin area.

Oh, BTW you are going to get a kick out of what @SSBillyGraham says about how much money @HulkHogan owes Superstar for "back royalties" and for what on this week's new Ross Report. Plus, Billy's tales of when he was a tent evangelist are too crazy to not be true.

We should know within a day or two about our NYC Summer Slam weekend show as we are talking to various venues and considering Saturday night and the Sunday afternoon before the big event.

Really happy with the business that is coming through on all our JR's products via wweshop.com and it's just getting better. Grilling season is upon us and we appreciate everyone ordering our products for their summertime grilling needs notwithstanding folks giving JR's for gifts including birthdays and the upcoming Father's Day.

The Q&A's here are updated. Go to Ask JR.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.