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JR's Blog: Samoa Joe on Ross Report Podcast Tonight, RINGSIDE/BALTIMORE, Happy Birthday Cowboy!, RAW/Montreal Feedback, Patterson, Grill w/ WWEShop.com

Posted: May 6th 2015 By: Jim Ross

Our much anticipated podcast with @SamoaJoe on the Ross Report drops tonight (Tuesday) at 9 ET on iTunes and podcastone.com as well as here on our website's home page. We talk a length about Joe's career including the potential of him signing with @WWE which I see as a given at some point sooner than later. This is a great conversation that provides us a more in depth look at the wrestling business's hottest and most marketable free agent than many have heard before. You can subscribe for FREE at iTunes to the Ross Report and never miss a show and help us a great deal at the same time.

As of Monday afternoon at the close of business, we only had 9 VIP tickets remaining for our upcoming, inaugural show in Baltimore @RamsHeadLive on Saturday May 16. Plenty of general admission tickets are available and you can save money by purchasing them in advance at ramsheadlive.com. RINGSIDE w/ Jim Ross takes the stage the night before WWE is in Baltimore for their next PPV WWE Payback. We will also have JR's products available at RamsHeadLive at our show so come ready to take some great sauces and condiments, suitable for main event grilling, home with you with no shipping costs.

Montreal RAW Thoughts after watching it via DVR:

I have found that my enjoyment of watching RAW via DVR is increasing as it's great to be able to skip the 15 commercial breaks that the three hour program brings with it.

Happy that the much deserved and anticipated Pat Patterson Night came off without a hitch and with no heart attacks. Pat is a Montreal native and left home as a teen speaking no English to embark on a Hall of Fame career and along the way became one of the all time great in ring performers many of us have ever seen. Plus, Pat had to keep his sexuality a secret as best that he could because of the homophobia that was prevalent in the good, old boy network of alpha male promoters who ruled the wrestling roost back in the day as well. I'm told that the post match celebration for Pat was one of the most enjoyable and emotional moments to occur in a RAW ring in years. I learned a great deal fromPat who created the Royal Rumble and is considered to be one of the great "finish men" in the biz.

Thought the show was one of the better RAW broadcasts in a good while.

I like the fact that Dean Ambrose returns to more relevancy as he's now in the main event of Payback along with Seth Rollins, Randy Orton and Roman Reigns in a WWE Title bout that will feature the three former members of The Shield which speaks well to the productivity of WWE NXT. I'd love to see this be an elimination rules four way but it's likely to be a traditional Fatal Four Way where the first man to score a pin or submission is declared the winner which means that the WWE Title holder has no championship advantage and cannot retain the title via disqualification or count out. These bouts can be feast or famine but have the potential to provide adequate drama in the expected Payback show closer.

Hopeful that New Day really studies some of the great wresting villain groups IE the Freebirds and others to begin to acquire the traits that will propel them to the next level. Opportunity is here for these three and with out of ring preparation and study they can become much more valuable to WWE as they are already easy to dislike which bodes well for antagonists. I'm much more encouraged by their current positioning than them being fan favorites but they n eed to learn a variety of villain nuances.

Surprisingly good match between the teams of Cesaro/Kidd vs. Ascension. Cesaro is a legit beast.

Excellent TV main event between Rollins and Ambrose. They have chemistry and we can expect to see plenty from this pairing as the years go by one has to assume.

Curious to see how this Lana/Rusev business plays out. Lana has 'it' and may end up being a bigger star than Rusev as stranger things have happened....see Sable and Marc Mero. I still like Rusev's upside no matter his present creative role.

BTW...really nice feature on Reigns after RAW on the WWE Network and let's hope the boxing business was watching because they have no clue as to how to make a new star. These type features also have worked well for UFC in recent times.

Thought the utilization of Bret Hart in Montreal was spot on as he gave Sami Zayn a magnificent "rub." Zayn and John Cena had an excellent presentation that the fans genuinely cared about and it seemingly suspended the audience's disbelief and the fans emotionally invested in their home towner who made his RAW debut. It played well on TV. Good booking.

Liking Tamina's in law related 'heater' role with Naomi. It gives Tamina 'something' with which to work at developing and a reason to be on TV on a regular basis. Still feel that Naomi is one WWE's best female athletes.

Would liked to have seen King Wade Barrett cheat to beat Neville instead of beating the new talent straight away in the tag bout.

Next week my podcast will welcome Taz to the show and we will talk about variety of topics including Taz' future and some of our exploits together over the years. That show drops on Tuesday night May 12 at 9 pm ET at iTunes and podcastone.com.

I will soon start writing for FoxSports.com again and will keep you apprised. It gives us a wonderful, global platform and provides the resources to promote a variety of projects, etc.

ESPN airs their long awaited feature on WWE NXT at 8 pm ET on E:60. Should be a good feature as ESPN has been working it for parts of two years. I did along interview for it in Bristol that is likely laying on the edit room floor and it was so long ago I can't even remember what we discussed. Make sure that you watch it and I'd also suggest DVR'ing it if you can.

Happy birthday to my mentor and the man who gave me my break in the wresting business Cowboy Bill Watts who turns 76 years young today. Cowboy was the most brilliant 'booker' for which I ever worked. If you haven't listened to our podcast together I strongly urge you to do so. Some have listened to it multiple times.

Tickets are on sale now at www.ticketmaster.com for RINGSIDE w/ Jim Ross Show in NYC at the Gramercy Theater set for Saturday August 22, the night before WWE Summer Slam.

Remember that www.wweshop.com has JR's products in stock and ready for immediate delivery right to your front door and just in time for grilling season.

www.prowrestlingtees.com/jimross has several designs to chose from in a variety of styles and in sizes up to 5X plus we ship worldwide.

Did someone actually get DDT'ed on the floor on RAW and continue the match? Wow. Someone either has a thick skull or the other person isn't a master of the DDT....or am I over thinking this matter? I guess I missed this but got hammered on Twitter about it.

Thanks for stopping by....

Boomer Sooner!

J.R. @JRsBBQ