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JR's Blog: Busy Week in LA w/ AXSTV and NJPW, HOFER to Ross Report, Happy 91st Lance Russell,WrestleCon, GO VIP in Orlando!

Posted: Mar 21st 2017 By: Jim Ross

Greetings all and thanks for the drive by...we appreciate your visit. It's Saturday and a huge, NCAA Hoops day for yours truly. My bracket is on life support but filling it out made me want to watch the games more closely. What a gimmick, right?

Grab a copy of 'Looking at the Lights: My Path from Fan to a Wrestling Heel'...a really enjoyable read. Happy for Pete Gas that he's getting so much social media love while out promoting his new book. Pete is my guest on the current Ross Report Podcast and was terrific. @IAmPeteGas has one of the more incredible stories of anyone I can think of as it relates to entering the wacky world of pro rasslin.

Our show is a free download at iTunes and if you subscribe iTunes will automatically download our show to the device of your choice. Please take a minute to visit iTunes and leave a comment for our show and a five star rating. This greatly helps us in our marketing efforts. Thanks!

Next week's show will feature WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash and a litany of your Twitter and Facebook questions. Plus, I will be recording Debra Miceli aka Madusa for an upcoming show. A new Ross Report drops every Tuesday evening at 9 pm ET.

Enjoyed a rewarding few days in Los Angeles this past week doing voiceovers for AXSTV and NJPW for our Friday night shows on the Mark Cuban owned network. Josh Barnett and I called several more G1 bouts from the 2016 tournament that Kenny Omega won. Really fundamentally sound pro wresting content bell to bell. AXSTV allows Josh and I to focus on the in ring action that we are seeing in the ring.

NJPW and AXSTV will be greatly lessening the turnaround time from the time the events take place and when they finally air on our Friday night shows. That will likely necessitate being in LA monthly for voiceovers which is certainly fine with me. I'd guess that we will also be much more current as in perhaps even only a month delay by the summer of this year.

There is also ongoing discussions regarding AXSTV and NJPW producing a big time broadcast when NJPW comes to Long Beach, California July 1-2. This isn't a done deal but I'm optimistic that something will be finalized sooner than later. Not sure what the plan will be as in going live both nights in July on AXSTV or not.

Seems to me that a live, prime time broadcast of NJPW on AXSTV in July would be a hit. It would allow more fans to sample a live, NJPW event in North America than ever before and certainly no better way to promote their digital service, New Japan World, in the USA.

We had a productive meeting Friday in LA with representatives of Bushiroad, the company that owns New Japan Pro Wrestling.

We have less than 50 VIP tickets remaining both Saturday and Sunday for our Wrestlemania weekend shows in Orlando at Plaza Live. Both shows will kick off with our VIP component from noon-2 PM, and our shows start at 2:30 and are scheduled to end by 4 pm which gives everyone plenty of time to move onto their next event i.e. NXT on Saturday night and Wrestlemania on Sunday. General Admission tickets are available for only $25 at www.ticketfly.com.

Our Saturday show features acclaimed author and wrestling fan Paul O'Brien, also my writing partner for our autobiography, and my former WCW broadcast partner Tony Schiavone while Sunday's show sees Jim Cornette and Bruce Prichard joining me on stage. These two panels should deliver some memorable Q&A's during Wrestlemania weekend. www.ticketfly.com

Looking forward to my two appearances at WrestleCon in Orlando, first on Thursday afternoon at the opening ceremony where I will join Ric Flair and Sting for a Q&A hosted by Matt Striker and then on Friday morning with Jerry Lawler. For all the info on my two bookings and the entire WrestleCon experience, visit www.wrestlecon.com.

Q&A's updated here as of Saturday morning.

Happy 91st Birthday to the great, Lance Russell who is on Twitter @MemphisLance. Lance had an amazing career as a broadcaster and TV executive in Memphis and in WCW and was a big influence in the career of Jerry Lawler. Lance has always been the consummate pro and is such a wonderful human being. One of the great rewards in my journey in the biz was meeting Lance and his late wife Audrey.

If you are going to Wrestlemania, remember that you can find a full assortment of JR's delicious products at the WWE Super Store at Axxess.

Circle Saturday night March 25 on your calendar for our next foray into CBS Sports Network boxing live from Wichita and the Kansas Star Arena. The broadcast kicks off at 8 pm CT.

Like us on Facebook at JimRossBBQ.

Grab a new tee from www.prowrestlingtees.com/jimross.

I get this question a great deal regarding when WWE is going to call up Shinsuke Nakamura to the 'main roster.' It's inevitable that he will be moved up, likely after Wrestlemania, but his success is going to be largely dependent on how well the charismatic star connects with the audience without him having the advantage of speaking good English. The 'King of Strong Style' can speak some English and hopefully he's being encouraged to work on that specific skill set.

Our $5.99 PPV available now on the FITE APP which is a culmination of our three shows from the Dallas House of Blues last year at WM32 and is a fun, 60 minute show with guests and stories galore. Check it out and see what we do on our stage shows.

Check out www.caulifloweralleyclub.org and see why you should become a member if you aren't. It's a crime especially for those who earn a living in the biz not being a member of the CAC.

Have a great day and enjoy The Ross Report Podcast available right here on the homepage of this very site.

Count your blessings...

Boomer Sooner!

J.R. @JRsBBQ