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JR's Blog: JR's NOLA RAW Thoughts, Friday May 9 Toronto, Jake on Ross Report, Heyman/Lesnar/Cesaro, Daniel Bryan's Mic Work, Grilling Season

Posted: Apr 8th 2014 By: Jim Ross

It's great to be back in Oklahoma after six, fun days in New Orleans. Lots of ground to cover so let's stop burning daylight....

Thanks to all the fans who attended my two shows in NOLA at the House of Blues Thursday night. I thought we had two, fun shows especially with Jim Cornette doing a walk on in the first show and Steve Austin doing the same for the late show. Two great friends who added a great deal to the presentations. Really good crowd for show #1 and a standing room only crowd for show #2 in the 500+ person capacity venue. These were our best shows to date as a live audience who's emotionally invested in what they are seeing always makes every thing better.

My next stop will be in Toronto on Friday May 9 at the Danforth Music Hall with one show only and tickets are on sale now at ticketmaster.ca and you can go to JimRossLive.com for all the info that you need. We will do the VIP Meet and Greet with photo and autograph opportunities BEFORE the show in TO but VIP tickets are limited to only 100 tickets.

Toronto has long been one of my favorite cites and I look forward to seeing many old friends there on Friday May 9 and attending the ROH-New Japan show the next night.

Check out my WrestleMania 30 thoughts at http://www.foxsports.com which was posted Monday. I wrote it as the event was in progress at the WWE hotel as I did not go to the Super Dome to see the event in person.

While answering the Q&A's here on the site, I've received a ton of questions about my thoughts on the STREAK being broken at WM30 by Brock Lesnar. I was legit shocked that it happened and I still find it hard to believe that it occurred. What's done is done and I'm interested now to see where the Undertaker goes from here notwithstanding if WWE takes advantage of the major win for Lesnar. Brock has never truly been on a legit roll since returning to WWE from UFC and if there ever was a time to pull the trigger on that matter, that time is now.

I could see Brock eventually becoming the WWE Champion and defending the title at WM31.

After a long and challenging travel day Monday, I arrived in Norman weary but in time to watch all of Monday Night RAW and thought that the three hour broadcast was one of the better RAW's in quite some time. The introduction of several new talents was refreshing as 'new' generally is.

Memorable night for Daniel Bryan who continues to dodge 'authority bullets' as the new, WWE World Champion and had a stellar night Monday. Bryan is beginning to feel more comfortable on the mic which is essential for him. This goes for anyone as the verbal side of pro wresting is and always had been imperative to one's success.

The more natural the better when it comes to mic work but the more one appears to be reciting lines from a script the more of a disconnect that it is.

Enjoyed the vignettes introducing the new talent as Bo Dallas and Adam Rose both have viable in ring skills. I like their chances.

The Shield declaring their true colors as the show went off the air was significant. This gives WWE creative plenty of options going forward and the chance for Reigns, Ambrose and Rollins to take another step vertically not to mention when one or more of them 'changes jerseys' how big a deal that will be. I'd hope that metamorphosis is not any time soon as the hotter The Shield becomes as fan favorites the more impactful they will be as antagonists when the time is right.

Great night for Antonio Cesaro as he's taking his wrestling persona to a new and more upscale address. I do feel it will be challenging for fans to boo Cesaro on a regular basis as his work, consistency and the Cesaro Swing certainly seems to make him prime, fan favorite material even if he is a Heyman Guy.

Speaking of Paul Heyman, Paul had a magnificent night on RAW delivering a home run on the Lesnar beating Taker promo. Heyman is the best talker in the business and continues to do amazing work and has to be considered as one of the greatest managers of all time on a short list that includes Bobby Heenan and Jim Cornette. Before all is said and done, Paul may be the best, pure manager to ever fulfill that role in the history of the business.

Heyman's duo of Cesaro and Lesnar, who I'm sure some fans have already started fantasy booking to face each other down the road, may be destined for strong, fan favorite roles if the Monday night audience has any thing to say about it.

Helluva night for the Wyatt Family with a definitive win in the six man tag over John Cena, Big E and Sheamus.

I'm optimistic that Alexander Rusev and Lana can be hits within the WWE. Rusev is an athletic big man while Lana is one of the most unique and marketable females to arrive in WWE in a long while. I love her accent and delivery.

Paige has a significant upside and I can see her potentially having a Trish-Lita type rivalry with the talented AJ Lee who is still WWE's most consistent, in ring diva. Both ladies have marketable, bell to bell skills and both can be aggressive in the ring which translates well to all audiences.

Based on what I saw Monday night, the new talents that are flowing into WWE make the WWE's future exciting. Now we see how creative utilizes these talents and how the talents themselves diligently work on getting better and not allowing themselves to get in a comfort zone which can be the kiss of death.

It's getting close to grilling season and I hope that you will go online and order JR's products from http://www.wweshop.com, http://www.americansoda.co.uk and http://www.beyondtheropes.co.uk.

Check out http://www.prowrestlingtees.com for all the JR's T's that they have in all sizes and that are shippable to anywhere in the world.

Check out my podcast, the Ross Report, this week as my guest is WWE HOFer Jake the Snake Roberts. Jake talks in depth about in ring psychology, today's wrestling scene, what talents must do to 'get over' in today's world and so much more as we go inside the wrestling mind of one of the great in ring generals ever to step into a ring.

You can download the Ross Report for free at http://www.podcastone.com and via iTunes.

Thanks for stopping by and be well. We appreciate all that you do for us.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R. @JRsBBQ