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Jim Ross Talks NYC Speaking Engagements, Podcasting, WWE Network and More

Posted: Feb 28th 2014 By: mikeiles

Having left WWE in September amidst plenty of controversy, legendary wrestling announcer and executive Jim Ross (@JRsBBQ on Twitter) has really started spreading his wings again in the last month or so. He's joined FoxSports.com's "#Buzzer" blog as a columnist (highlighted so far by a great article about Ernie Ladd), launched "The Ross Report" podcast with Podcast One, and tomorrow night at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City, his An Evening With Jim Ross speaking tour makes its American debut. There will be two shows, one at 4 p.m. ET and the other at 8 p.m. ET, and some tickets are still available at Ticketmaster, where you can also purchase tickets for his WrestleMania weekend shows in New Orleans.

An Evening With Jim Ross made its debut last Summer in the United Kingdom, where wrestling-themed speaking tours have really heated up as a booming business. Ross, working with promoters Live Nation, is the first personality to try to give the idea a shot in the United States since Hulk Hogan experimented with them on and off in the last couple years.

"The four U.K. shows I did last Summer did extremely well," Ross told Bleacher Report earlier this week. "They were very, very well attended, and I didn't know when I signed up to do them how well I was going to perform or how much I was going to enjoy the process." Only one of the events, in Manchester, didn't sell out, but it was only a few tickets short in the biggest room they played to, so it was the most successful show of the tour. "Live Nation was very motivated to bring me into the fold and to promote some North American shows."

That brings us to tomorrow night. "I'm obviously very excited, nervous, but overall really excited and looking forward to those shows on Saturday." For now, though, nothing is officially scheduled past tomorrow night in New York and the WrestleMania weekend shows in New Orleans. "More are being negotiated, but we're just being careful in not putting me on the road as a road warrior every week or multiple days a week." They're negotiating for future dates, though, including a tour of Australia.

But first things first, what can fans expect tomorrow night? "We kind of start in the mid-'70s and I talk about the territory days, some of the colorful personalities I worked with back when I was in my first job out of college, some of the jobs that I had, responsibilities that I had as a young man in the pro wrestling business, (and so on). We start there, and I take them on a little journey backed up by stories...there are some funny stories, there are some poignant stories...so we kind of take it up to there, and I try to use good time management with those stories and get into what I like to call the 'No Holds Barred Q&A' section of the show. That aspect of the show always makes every show different, it always adds a different energy when you're interactive with the audience, and I enjoy talking to the wrestling fans. I'm still a wrestling fan: That's how I started out, that's how I will end the day."

As long as fans remain within the bounds of good taste, there are no restrictions to the questions fans can ask during the Q&A session. Being completely off the cuff, he feels it's the highlight of his shows so far. In addition, V.I.P. ticket holders get access to a meet-and-greet session where they'll get some one-on-one time with Ross.

Meanwhile, as of the writing of this article, two episodes of "The Ross Report" have been released, both of which feature Steve Austin as guest. This is not his first foray into doing radio and radio-style programming: In the '90s, he hosted Wrestling with Jim Ross on WSB in Atlanta, the syndicated Radio WWF, and the original versions of "The Ross Report" on both WCW and WWE's 900 number hotlines.

So far, he prefers podcasting to traditional radio. They plan on doing call-in shows in the future, but exactly when is not close to set in stone for now. "A podcast, for the listener, is, I believe, must more entertaining than a radio show, where you have to stop and fulfill numerous breaks within the hour." With podcasting, he and his guest can talk for however long they want and Podcast One can find the gaps to edit in ads. On the radio, his interviews were restricted to artificially short segments.

Even with his plate as full as it is, he has found some time to watch the newly launched WWE Network. While he's impressed so far, more than anything, he's looking forward to the eventual addition of more older regional wrestling shows that now WWE owns.

"Wrestling does not have a season, so every week is a week of first run TV. In the territories that I worked in, specifically, we never had a rerun. So those shows that aired, aired one time to their constituency. So it's not like you're watching old episodes of Seinfeld, where you've seen them so many times you can memorize the dialogue, like a lot of us that are Seinfeld fans. You are gonna watch a show that, unless you were in that region, on one particular week, you probably have never seen it before unless it was a clip on a DVD or something like that. So I think there's gonna be a lot of vintage content that will be brand new to the vast majority of consumers."

As for what's on WWE Network right now, especially WCW shows that younger fans haven't seen? While we could have reminisced about that era forever if we had more time, he specifically recommended Chi-Town Rumble from Chicago in 1989 (headlined by the first televised Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat match in WCW), Wrestle War '89: Music City Showdown (headlined by the last Flair-Steamboat match of their '89 series) from Nashville, and SuperBrawl II (Jushin Liger vs. Brian Pillman and Lex Luger vs. Sting bookend a strong top-to-bottom card) from Milwaukee in 1992.

Coming back to the "An Evening with Jim Ross" shows tomorrow night, J.R. feels that most wrestling fans will enjoy them. "It's a fun story, it's a story that shows that whatever you decide you want to do with your life, if you don't quit, and you try to get really good at what you do, you're more likely to find the success that you're looking for."