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JR's Blog: Impact Wrestling, Von Erich's, Ross Report Podcast, Best Wrestling TV Show of the Week, Spurs, UFC174, ROH PPV Promotion, Order JR's Online for Grilling Season

Posted: Jun 17th 2014 By: Jim Ross - JRsBarBQ.com

Good day to all and thanks for stopping by our site. Let's start with some random thoughts from here and there while the grill gets hot...

Impact Wrestling had a solid PPV Sunday night in Arlington, Texas and their roster, which many under rate, stepped up. As I have said many times on my Ross Report podcast, Impact Wrestling has a marketable and potentially winning roster but my issues have been with the 'play calling' for the lack or a better term aka the creative booking.

Samoa Joe, Jeff Hardy, and Bully Ray all losing on the same show could be a head scratcher but if it helps get new talents over and legitimately builds for the future then I'm all for it. In other words if there is a long term, definitive plan in place then bravo to TNA.

The Von Erich's not winning cleanly was perplexing. Please don't try and sell me the worn out tale that the Von Erich's are 'part time and the other talents are not' argument. The Von Erich's had as much, if not more to do, with selling the tickets in Arlington than any one on the card so why not get two pops from the pro Von Erich crowd than one? Kevin Von Erich using the Von Erich Iron Claw was a classic touch and I'm happy it was saved for KVE. That's good booking.

Even though I am of the belief that the authority figure/owner role in pro wrestling is wearing extremely thin in general, it seems obvious that TNA is building to Dixie Carter getting the "Mae Young" table treatment from Bully Ray aka Bubba Dudley. At least, like it or not, there is a creative destination being targeted which is good.

If Impact could produce more weekly, TV shows like their Sunday PPV, and they easily could, then their brand has a chance to regenerate some momentum. In other words, stop with the long, drawn out talking elements and provide the fans what Impact's talents do best and that is to wrestle. I have much more to say about this particular topic and a potential solution for this matter on this week's Ross Report podcast which drops Tuesday at 6 pm pacific time.

Every smart promoter that I ever worked with generally booked to his roster's strengths and did his best to conceal his roster's weaknesses. Impact Wrestling's roster strength is bell to bell wrestling.

Speaking generally about the business, why many wrestling promotions don't want to promote wrestling and would seemingly rather do campy vignettes, sophomoric backstage scenes, and totally unbelievable storylines riddled often times riddled with bad comedy is apparently way above my pay grade. That philosophy that does not cater to their primary demo and their most die hard fan base.

Nonetheless....good job Impact Wrestling and let's hope that the crowd reaction you received in a fresh market motives you to wrestle more, provide more physicality, more organic drama, and logical storylines in hopes of creating more interest in your brand which is perfectly positioned to be the alternative on national TV in the pro wrestling world.

Speaking of Impact, tomorrow night (Tuesday) I will visit with Bubba Dudley on the Ross Report for a future podcast. Check out the home page for our list of upcoming guests and air dates. Bubba or Bully is one of my favorite guys in the biz and a true, old school, man's man. Plus, MVP is my guest this week and we talk extensively about his 9 1/2 year prison term and his relationship and some compelling info on the late, Chris Benoit.

RAW is in Cleveland tonight which will likely be where The Miz will be featured in his latest re-start after starring in a WWE film. WWE has lots of work to do to build momentum for the next MITB event which will crown a new, WWE World Champion. With their lack of depth and having so many of their top hands in one bout it will be interesting to see what other attractions will be added to the card so that more people will migrate to the WWE Network which is the companies biggest priority or so it seems.

I'm hoping for a Kevin Hart w/ Santino vignette on tonight's RAW as that has the chance to be legit funny.

ROH has a PPV coming up this Sunday and I have seen essentially nothing in the way of promotion on the 'barker channels' on cable. That's not good. Why is this? If I was Sinclair I would use every bit of unsold commercial air time this week on their network to push the PPV in hopes of creating new money and a financial hit within the wrestling PPV marketplace.

Great, team basketball demonstrated by the San Antonio Spurs in their dominating series victory over the Miami Heat. Curious to see if this has a trickle down affect within the NBA which has gone to much more free lancing and one on one hoops in recent years.

I wasn't wild about UFC 174 this past Saturday from Vancouver but I'm a loyal, UFC fan and I've bought many more excellent PPV's than poor ones. UFC has the same issues as does every pro wrestling company....a lack of main event stars. Plus, I'm not sure that as great as Demetrius Johnson is if a flyweight can draw on top of the card. That's TBD.

Was the best TV show last week NXT on the WWE Network? Lots of my Twitter followers think so. I can't argue with them.

You can get a FREE JR's RINGSIDE T shirt if you buy any JR's shirt at prowrestlingtees.com/jimross.

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Thanks for the visit and before you leave check out the updated Q&A's at Ask JR here on the site.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R. @JRsBBQ