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JR's Blog: New, JR's Blog..ROH PPV, Summer Slam, & NXT Thoughts, RINGSIDE shows in Orlando & Nashville,Wellness Policy Insanity, Brisco Trouble in Rio

Posted: Aug 19th 2016 By: Jim Ross

Hello from Norman, Oklahoma the home of the Oklahoma Sooners who begin their much anticipated college football season in less than three weeks, not that i'm counting. Very happy with this week The Ross Report podcast with @OfficialTaz and @MooseNation69 plus my Summer Slam predictions at iTunes and podcastone.com. You can subscribe to our show for FREE at iTunes and get our show automatically delivered each week as soon as a new show drops on Tuesday night at 9 pm ET. We are grateful for your support and thank all of you who have subscribed at iTunes free of charge.

Great weekend for pro wrestling fans who embrace the bell to bell, in ring content of the genre. ROH PPV 'Death Before Dishonor' in Las Vegas on the FITE Tv App is going to be a good one and all you need to watch it anywhere in the world is a smart device and WiFi. The inclusion of the New Japan stars with the hard working ROH wrestlers is a nice combination that should result in a Slobber Knocker of a show.

Saturday night in Brooklyn at the Barclay Center WWE brings NXT to town for Take Over headlined by, arguably, the most anticipated main event of the weekend when Samoa Joe faces Shinsuke Nakamura on the WWE Network. I've been waiting on this particular booking for a while now and have high expectations for it. Both Joe and Nakamura are potential Wrestlemania main eventers in my eyes.

At no time this weekend in all the wrestling product that you might watch will you see a roster of more passionate and hungry talents as Saturday night with the NXT team. If I were to have my choice of calling matches for a 'one off' with WWE again, aside of Wrestlemania of course, I'd likely pick NXT as my destination.

Summer Slam has a huge card that seemingly will be a super sized production of four hours or so one has to assume. There are too many advertised bouts for this show to be contained in a three hour window and still do all the matches justice.

I made my Summer Slam predictions on the Ross Report Podcast this week that you can listen to for FREE right here without leaving the site on our homepage.

I see Dean Ambrose likely retaining the WWE title against Dolph Ziggler but not before Ziggler pushes Ambrose to Dean's best match thus far in WWE. This match could go a long way to remove the less than ideal taste in the mouths of many after Ambrose's sit down with Steve Austin after RAW last week. Ambrose did not have an ideal night with Stone Cold but can right any perceived wrongs by tearing the house down Sunday night. For the record, anyone can have an off night as I've had an abundance of them in my career.

The Seth Rollins vs Finn Balor bout for the first ever Universal title could be the show stealer on Sunday as both men have excellent skill sets, instincts and fundamental soundness. I see Rollins retaining but Balor having an eye opening performance in a losing effort and, yes, that is possible. I hope that we see some established 'villain' traits from Rollins to help him facilitate where WWE seemingly wants him to travel.

If I was starting a wrestling territory I'd be ecstatic to have both Balor and Rollins on my roster.

I'd close Summer Slam with Lesnar vs Orton as it features a star from both the RAW and Smackdown Live brands in a extremely high profile bout. I figure that Brock wins this one but if Randy wins with a RKO I won't be shocked but admittedly will be surprised. Some can make an argument that Orton should win because he's a full time talent while Lesnar is not and I won't debate that point but this card is loaded with matches that could go either way and as the old adage goes there are multiple ways to do something right and that prevails up and down this card IMO.

The performance art of pro wrestling is overtly subjective but it seems that many of today's fans do not espouse to that philosophy and are hellbent for their favorites to win even if the match that their favorites are in is a stinker.

The overlooked fact in all this it seems to be that WWE is going to sell thousands of tickets in Brooklyn this weekend beginning with NXT and ending Monday night with RAW which is no small feat and is quite frankly a good sign for the entire business.

Tickets for my RINGSIDE with JIm Ross Shows Wrestlemania Weekend go on sale this Monday morning at 10 am ET at www.ticketfly.com. Only 100 VIP tickets are available for each of the two shows and those same VIP tickets sold out three House of Blues Shows for WM32 the first day tickets were available so I hope that you will consider getting yours early. Visit www.MLW.com for all the info that you need. I hope to see you in Orlando in April 2017!

It is a good thing that WWE has a Wellness Program because it's obvious that many of today's wrestlers would not legislate themselves if they had the opportunity or so it seems. I hope that none of the recent wellness violators have lingering, serious drug problems but if they do the WWE will help them as they have so many others and on the WWE dime.

If these violations are of the "partying" variety, then how can anyone have any empathy for such matters?

Adults, especially those that are blessed to earn large sums of money in their chosen profession, should know better if they are busted for partying. If they are popped for using supplements with banned ingredients and they were not aware those supplements were on the banned list then that is another matter all together but a violation nonetheless.

At the end of the day, there needs to be more personal responsibility in many people's professional lives. By the way that includes high paid football players in the NFL who seem to be getting popped weekly.

While WWE is a times unfairly criticized by fans who apparently don't understand the program while other wrestling organizations who have no programs or impotent programs to help their athletes are generally given a free pass. That's a head scratcher.

Excited to be taking our RINGSIDE show to Nashville for the first time on Wednesday November 9 at Zanies Comedy Club and the info on tickets, etc will be available at www.zanies.com. Really happy to return to Nashville and this time to do our show. If you're in the area please join me.

So sad to hear of the sudden passing of my friend Scott E. Williams who died suddenly of an apparent heart attack Wednesday night in Texas. Scott wrote Cowboy Bill Watts and Terry Funk's books and helped me get started writing our on going work of my autobiography. Scott was a Gulf Wat Vet, a Marine, an attorney, newspaper executive and a damn good dad. He will be missed tremendously. RIP Scott.

Thanks for stopping by and I've updated all the Q&A's that have made the cut. Check them out.

WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Brisco is in Rio scouting athletes for WWE and had his pockets picked while on a public bus on Thursday. Once again the seemingly corrupt IOC has selected a poor site for the Olympic games wrought with crime and less than ideal surroundings.

Remember that you can easily listen to The Ross Report podcast right here on the site by simply going back to the home page and making one click that is clearly denoted.

Be well and remember that, once again, we are reminded that our tomorrow's are not guaranteed.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R. @JRsBBQ