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JR's Blog: Tuesday Blog, Complete & Real Story of Stone Cold Steve Austin Returning to a WWE Ring, Professor Ed Ferrara on Ross Report Podcast Tonight at 9 ET, RAW Thoughts From Brooklyn

Posted: Oct 7th 2014 By: Jim Ross

Greetings all and thanks for stopping by our site. Tonight at 9 pm eastern time I invite you to download the latest Ross Report podcast which features former WWE, WCW, and TNA creative guru Professor Ed Ferrara who once portrayed 'Oklahoma' on Nitro and was instrumental in the Attitude Era in WWE and the Monday Night Wars in WCW. Hear it on podcastone.com and by subscribing for FREE on iTunes. Let's grill...

Talked with Steve Austin, whose podcasts on @PodcastOne are killing it, on Monday night and was kidding him about him 'training for a comeback,' which most fans thought meant Steve was returning to the ring, and, subsequently, 'taking a bigger role within WWE in 2015.' I jokingly asked Austin that if he was going to be taking a bigger role if he could get a brother some work because a man's got to eat!

Bottom line is that Steve was talking to a man who used to train with 'Arnold' back in the day at the Gold's Gym in Venice and Steve said he was training to prepare to return to Gold's Gym to train. They were talking about training, not wrestling, and how working out at Gold's in Venice wasn't for everyone. When the fans heard Austin say that he was "training for a comeback" they assumed that he meant to the ring which in turn means WrestleMania 31.

While Steve always keeps an open mind on returning to the ring for one last match, that's not an immediate goal of his or even on the back burner. If many factors involved in that process were in place, I could theoretically see Steve doing it but the chance that all the stars aligning to his satisfaction are slim plus the window of opportunity as it relates to Father Time is beginning to close as well.

Austin would never return to the ring to go through the motions and he would likely need a solid four months of in ring work/training to be in the condition that he would demand of himself to headline a major event like WrestleMania. If I were WWE, I'd more likely look at WM32 in Dallas and begin discussing that sooner than later for the Texas Rattlesnake. That's merely my personal opinion but selling 100,000 tickets in his home state might interest Steve the most if the money, the opponent and the creative were all on point.

Austin just finished another season of Redneck Island for CMT and is getting ready to tape another run of the Broken Skull Challenge for CMT in a few weeks. After that it might be challenging to find him unless you can make your way to South Texas where the deer grow large on the Broken Skull Ranch.

RAW Thoughts:

Great house in Brooklyn as the building looked sold out. The Barclay Center seems to have supplanted Madison Square Garden as the primary WWE arena in the NYC area. Nonetheless I can't see WWE NOT running the Garden on an occasional basis as not playing MSG would be like the Yankees not playing in Yankee Stadium.

The show was long on 'entertainment' content and somewhat short on in ring action.

Roman Reigns untimely hernia issue has been a boost to Dean Ambrose who has been provided the opportunity to shine and has largely taken advantage of the opportunity and has maximized his minutes. The veteran of the indy circuit has 'something' that is connecting with the fans. Those intangible qualities generally can't be taught and are often referred to as have "it." Ambrose has "it."

Ambrose, as it relates to the regular's, stole the show but the surprising return/cameo of The Rock stole the show. It was well known that Rock was going to be in NYC today and it did not shock me that he made the RAW appearance because he genuinely loves performing in front of a live audience.

Really nice pop for IC Champion Dolph Ziggler which is mildly surprising because Ziggler has had so many false starts but his athletic skills and charisma can't be denied. As badly as WWE needs fan favorites at this time and why Dolph isn't be moved into a main event role is a head scratcher.

Longer matches on RAW should not be interrupted by a commercial break which would not only give the show a different feel but also would allow the match to tell a non interrupted story. Perhaps that is something WWE will consider in the future.

Wyatt Family vignettes are intriguing but I don't know what they mean which may be the point.

The Kathie Lee and Hoda business was uncomfortable to watch.

Count out finishes have really flattened out and I'm not sure what they actually accomplish these days.

Enjoyed seeing the Edge and Christian taped piece. Looks like WWE is going to really celebrate Smackdown of which Jerry Lawler and I hosted the first SD before Michael Cole took over for yours truly.

The Roman Reigns interview was well intended but came off as "let's hurry and get Roman back on TV" than any thing else. No viable info was provided that I recall as it certainly seems that Roman is still being fast tracked. I feel that it was a good decision to not have Reigns do his promo live from the ring.

WWE's commitment to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer Research is sincere and honorable. A wonderful cause that creates amazing awareness within WWE programming.

I haven't gotten interested in the Hell in a Cell just yet that's later this month in Dallas but I'm sure that I will watch it on the WWE Network. It's always interesting to see how a PG HIAC can be produced without 'blood' of some sort as the dramatic, steel encased backdrop almost seems to cry out for that special effect. Or...I'm just very old school.

Talking to Bob Holly Tuesday for a future Ross Report. If you have questions for Bob, please tweet them to me @JRsBBQ and use the hash tag #AskJR.

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Even though WWEShop.com is out of some JR's products they will be fully re-stocked in a day or two. It's a nice problem to have when our family's products are selling like hot cakes.

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Boomer Sooner!

J.R. @JRsBBQ