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JR's Blog: Gramercy Theatre Sat Aug 22-8PM, RAW Atlanta, Where Are the Heels? Will Taker Gain Retribution on Lesnar?, ROH's Mike Elgin on Ross Report Podcast, Rollins Leaves St.L as Champ

Posted: Jul 16th 2015 By: Jim Ross

Greetings to all and thanks for stopping by our site. To clarify some of your questions, RINGSIDE w/ Jim Ross in NYC at the Gramercy Theatre is still full speed ahead for 8 PM Saturday August 22 and a limited number of VIP tickets remain along with ample General Admission tickets at $25 on sale at ticketmaster.com. There are lots of choices for wrestling fans that night but we wll be sticking to our guns and starting the VIP meet/greet/photo op will be from 6-8 pm at the GramercyTheatre while the show will run from 8-10ish. This will be my only New York ?City date in 2015. I hope that you will join me if you can. We will be giving away a pair of primo, Summer Slam tickets at our Gramercy show to some lucky attendee. hi show will be MC'ed by my friends from Busted Open Radio on Sirius XM.

Interesting RAW Monday night from Atlanta as the new, females from NXT had more people talking on my timelines than anyone else on the show including the combatants for the WWE World Title. Sara Del Ray has done an amazing of training/coaching the women who pass through NXT. Charlotte, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch should be stalwarts for years to come in WWE and I see no reason why they cannot move to the top or near the top of primary WWE events sooner than later. It's a sign of the times and a changing of he guard not unlike the days of Jennie Finch putting women's softball on the map or Ronda Rousey becoming a mega star in UFC. The only thing that can hold these women back is old school thinking and not being willing to take a chance on adding something new to the top of the cards.

WWE has positioned Seth Rollins to lose to Brock Lesnar for the WWE World Title Sunday night in St. Louis which is why I don't think it happens. Sunday would be a great place to add a new talent or two to the mix as allies of Rollins considering that Lesnar and Heyman have eliminated the rest. Could HHH cost Lesnar the title and then face Brock at Summer Slam? Bottom line is that I don't see Rollins losing Sunday at Battleground.

Here's one for you...Undertaker comes back to Summer Slam, causes Lesnar to lose to Rollins and then Taker faces Lesnar at Summer Slam. Yes, I'm on meds.

Next week after the Battleground event I will be joined by Canadian John Pollock of the Fight Network to review the big event. We will tape on Monday and the show will drop as usual on Tuesday night at 9 pm ET on podcaston.com, iTunes, and here on the homepage of our site.

Now on the Ross Report Podcast is ROH star Mike Elgin who talks about the ever growing promotion, his own career goals, his love of baseball, his training school near St. Louis, and so much more. It's a unique perspective of a young wrestler looking to make his mark in the business while he's still young and healthy. If you have aspirations of someday being a wrestler this is a great show to listen to.

@HeymanHustle again proved his worth by talking people into the seats for the upcoming Lesnar-Rollins match. Lesnar's strength is pure, animal magnetism and not talking while Rollins is still developing his verbal game so having a talent like Heyman associated with this storyline is imperative and valuable.

The triple threat match featuring Cesaro, Rusev and Kevin Owens, the only one in the match with two names, was excellent. WWE needs to be careful as to not put Owens into a position to where he is considered just another viable hand and keep him special after he beat John Cena on PPV. Cesaro is a main event star waiting to happen and if Rusev can get good coaching to perfect villain nuances he too can become a main event level villain for WWE of which they are so desperately short.

One can see that WWE is beginning to build some depth that will help the marathon, three hour RAWS better but within the three hour format more average shows will be produced than great shows simply due to our attention span as three hours is way too long to invest into a non sporting event on free TV. However, the extra money that the third hour generates is too good to pass up.

I feel it's going to be challenging for WWE to position Cody Rhodes as a villain after the passing of his father Dusty Rhodes which WWE admirably acknowledged.

Until wresting villains decide to retreat occasionally and work to get 'heat' and not a 'pop' no villain is going to go to the place that allows them to truly help the company and earn more money for themselves. Cheating to gain unfair advantages, being cowards IE displaying the limbertail when timely, and not out wrestling the fan favorites at every turn in the road would be good places to start.

Heels that don't retreat, bitch and moan occasionally, and cheat to gain unfair advantages aren't heels. They're merely impersonating a heel and have a higher priority to sell tee shirts & merch than to get the audience to truly dislike them.

Hope TNA and ROH have a good TV ratings night tonight (Wednesday) on Destination America. This is especially important for TNA. I don't need to see their World Champion wrestle three times on one show, that I do know and I am a fan of the talent that EC3 has evolved into. TNA needs to really hone in on their booking right now, not allow too many cooks in the kitchen and focus on the handful of stars that they know that they have access to over the long haul.

www.wweshop.com has a fully stocked selection of JR's products ready and waiting for immediate delivery. @americansoda and @beyondtheropes wil hae their shipment arriving any day now a it's long since left the USA via ship.

Thanks to those who are shopping at www.prowrestlingtees.com/jimross where we stock sizes up to 5X and ship any where in the world.

We are making great strides with our book that has Scott Williams and Paul O'Brien joining me to try and get this one completed for a 2016 release but above all else to write one helluva book. Business has really picked up in this arena.

Caitlyn Jenner getting the Arthur Ashe Award at this year's Espy's is perplexing. I admire Jenner's courage but for some reason I feel that ABC is exploiting this to garner TV ratings and additional publicity for their annual award show. It's working too.

You can order the docu-film 'Mid Atlantic Memories' and get FREE SHIPPING by checking out www.nwalegends.com. It's going to be a great production without fail.

Watched UFC 189 with former UFC/MMA star and current coach of the USA Olympic Greco Roman Wrestling Team Matt Lindland Saturday night in Waterloo after the banquet and he said that he had heard that CM Punk, or Phil Brooks, was doing well in his training and that his striking game was surprising good but that he wrestling side was what he needed to focus on at this time. I also heard it would be highly unlikely that the Chicagoan will fight on an UFC card in 2015 but that could change.

UFC's on Fox Sports 1 tonight of which I plan to watch. It's nights like this when DVR's really com in handy.

Had some urological surgery early Tuesday morning and if any doctor ever tells you that ANY surgery is "minor" you let them know that you are smarter than that. If I never see another catheter again as long as I live I will be happy. Fortunately, the surgery was a success and I will be better than ever in a few days as i plan on taking off all travel until I head to Charlotte at the end of July. This was not, fortunately, cancer related and, by the way, my old doctor, Dr. Heiney, is no longer practicing.

@ChadDukes is MC'ing my Wednesday August 19 RINGSIDE w/ Jim Ross Show at the DC Improv and less than 20 VIP tickets remain. GA's are only $25 and are on sale at www.dcimprov.com and the box office.

Enjoyed talking to @JerryLawler last week who is busier than a fruit merchant. King wrestles virtually every weekend somewhere and is getting more bookings than ever. He's healthy, too, which is the greatest gift of them all.

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Boomer Sooner!

J.R. @JRsBBQ