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JR's Blog: JR To Asheville, NC, @InglesAdvantage, Headlock on Hunger, A Rare, RANT on Today's Wrestling Business, @BretHart Podcast Rocks, WWEShop.com Record Sales of JR's Products

Posted: Jun 7th 2015 By: Jim Ross

Looking forward to being in the Asheville, N.C. area next week to work with Headlock on Hunger on a massive, food drive and to usher in our JR's products into @InglesAdvantage aka Ingles Markets. I'll be at various Ingles stores Wednesday-Friday and I hope to see many of you there. Ingles has over 200 stores and we ae excited about JR's products finding their way to all of them.

I've said here many times that I hope that all wrestling promotions are successful and make it through their respective rough waters that many are currently encountering. Nonetheless, some within these organizations can't handle constructive criticism and seem to take some things that I say personally which is both childish and unprofessional. It is my prerogative to criticize bad acting, over scripted promos, no selling major moves, illogical creative and other eye rolling creative content in an attempt to re-invent what isn't broken. I think that I've paid my dues, earned a decent track record within the biz and, above all, I am still a fan of over 50 years.

The vast majority of wrestlers these days are not good promo talents. Reason being is that creative staffs seemingly have to justify their existence by role playing with these individuals and scripting virtually every word that the talents say. That system is both outdated and unproductive as fans today can recognize a wrestler reciting a promo from memory instead as from their heart within a few sentences.

Wrestling is best when it comes from a logically, realistic place and is executed inside the ring as an athletic contest built on common sense and not an acrobatic show that exposes the business as a sham with no selling and the complete lack of some talent's ability to properly apply an actual wrestling hold.

The faster some talent perform the louder that they tell us that their skill set is lacking and that they are trying to get by on sensationalism instead of realism.

I get taken to task because of my 21 years in WWE as if I'm picking on the TNA's, ROH's, Lucha Underground's, etc of the world when nothing could be further from the truth. I've dedicated 40+ years of my life to the wrestling business, proudly I might add, and would do it all over again if the opportunity presented itself. But that isn't going to happen. I want the business to be healthy and to prosper long after I'm gone for future generations to enjoy. At the rate of some of the things that I'm watching each week on TV are happening, I'm not sure sure that's going to occur.

Some feel that we are allegedly in a pending "boom" period because there is so much TV wrestling product available o n a weekly. Does average, at times at best average, TV product indicate "Boom" to any one who actually thinks about it? I think not.

The product is by and large over thought and those in creative charge seemingly feel compelled to take a tried and true product and put their personal finger prints on it as if they are going to be the one who is forever known as "changing the wrestling business forever." The wrestling business changed forever when the territories died due largely because local promoters got lazy and complacent and did not want to move into the modern era of marketing and producing TV programs plus they stopped developing new, young stars. Blame who you want but the territory system stopped doing what brought them to the dance and that was featuring new stars in compelling rivalries that were based in easy to understand, common sense story lines produced in weekly, episodic television. Plus, the talents back in the day were, by and large, better story tellers than we are fed today with some exceptions.

An essentially, easy to watch, non complex hour of TV that virtually anyone could understand and enjoy was what worked best for many of us lifers.

Where have those days gone?

Yes, I've been involved with many lame, ineffective and impotent TV storylines in my career but I was always a team player and had no problem cashing the checks to do what my employer instructed me to do in the fictional, show business word of pro wrestling. It was like an actor being cast in a role in a film. Some days were better than others...some shows were better than others, too.

Perhaps some day someone in a promotion will understand that simpler is better and the majority of fans don't want bad acting or predictable promos but instead want to get lost in personal issues featuring the stars settling the conflict in the ring utilizing superior athletic representation.

It's just not that hard to figure out from where I sit or perhaps the feedback that I receive from some young fans on Twitter @JRsBBQ is true....times have simply passed me by.

@BretHart and I get into this and other topics about our life's work on this week's Ross Report Podcast at podcastone.com and iTunes as well as on the homepage of this website. It's some damn compelling conversation.

Next week's podcast will feature both Kimbo Slice and Jim Cornette which together made for a helluva unique show. Kimbo talks his upcoming Bellator fight vs. Ken Shamrock while JC is simply JC and we talk a great deal about www.nwalegends.com.

Thanks for supporting us at www.wweshop.com as our family of JR's products is having record setting sales the past few weeks.

June is going to be a hugely busy month for yours truly and you can check out all our bookings including in London & Manchester, Providence, RI, Charlotte, Washington, D.C. and New York City plus next week in Asheville, N.C. at the Ingles stores here on our site.

Thanks for stopping by....

Boomer Sooner!

J.R. @JRsBBQ