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Jim Ross MIT Speech Recap

Posted: Mar 23rd 2007 By: CMBurnham

I Attended the Jim Ross lecture at MIT on 3/23 and he gave a great talk going through his career and talking philosophically about the business. It was part of Sam Ford's media convergence class at MIT that is looking at pro wrestling as a business and performance art through the years and how it's been linked to the birth of new television and media technologies.

- They started by showing a WWE promotional DVD that seems to be something they would show potential investors. All kinds of clips of their massive crowds and high production values. All kinds of stats about how many live events the company runs, how many PPV orders they get and all that other portfolio stuff. J. R. jokingly referred to it as propaganda throughout the night. The piece was interesting. The only voice in it was John Cena, which J. R. said was due to him being the "guy de jour" for the company in the years ahead, putting him in a pantheon with Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin and The Rock (no HHH?). They hyped Stacy Keibler's exposure on Dancing With The Stars as if she still works there. They showed dozens of clips of the different celebrities that have been involved in angles over the year including Arnold Schwarzenneger, Ashton Kutcher and Donald Trump. They also showed Jay Leno getting the pin at WCW Road Wild, which I found interesting because they had nothing to do with that one and pass it off like it was something they made happen.

- The class also took a look at two clips of J. R. in action, including the 1997 sit down interview series with Mick Foley when they went into his past for the first time and showed the home video footage of him jumping off a roof. The class of like 40 people, made up of a lot of wrestling fans, laughed at a few of Foley's lines which were supposed to come off as deadly serious, but overall they appreciated the bit and strangely didn't laugh much when Foley put the mandible claw on J. R.. J. R. commented that he hadn't seen that bit in years. They also showed J. R. going crazy after Foley got thrown off Hell in a Cell in 1998.

- J. R. said he did not know about Foley's plunge off the cell ahead of time and said he liked it that way so he could ad lib, which J. R. called one of the great qualities about the business. He said his reactions to what he doesn't know is coming are genuine, and therefore he said he is definitely not an actor. He said the less he knows about what's going to happen in the ring the better so his emotions are more genuine. J. R. said he convinced McMahon to hire Foley, who was against it because he didn't have the WWE look.

- J. R. talked about how wrestling fans get ridiculed in their peer groups growing up. He used the Foley line about their being more fake people in the real world than in wrestling, including network TV executives "and their posses" as well as people on Wall Street. He called many of them "phony as a 3 dollar bill."

- J. R. said the wrestling biz is running out of great storytellers. He said new guys are in too much of a hurry when they perform and are brought up too fast.

- J. R. said some parts of the world have a much brighter line between good and evil, while in other places it's more blurry. That's the case even within the United States, where J. R. said Cena in DC was once booed "like he was Osama Bin Laden" and then in Indianapolis the next week cheered "like he was the second coming."

- He talked about his Bells Palsy and how it got him fired from WWF, which he "didn't think was a real cool deal." He said the palsy forced him to tape his eye shut to get to sleep. He said he was scared to death to go out at Wrestlemania 15 for his return to announcing for the Austin v. Rock main event. He said he had to hold the paralyzed side of his face up with his hand that night while announcing so the words could come out of his mouth clearly.

- He stressed the fundamentals of storylines and that fans have to clearly understand why Wrestler A dislikes Wrestler B.

- He said he first saw wrestling at age 5 (he's 55 today). He got into the business in 1974 fresh out of college. He said the territories at one time were run by legitimate sports promoters, usually boxing guys who figured it made sense to get into wrestling because the arena and promotional structures were so similar. He said eventually the star wrestlers became more powerful and began to buy ownership in pieces of the territories. Eventually the boxing types were leveraged out. He said wrestlers were loyal to top draws in those days because they meant more money for everybody. J. R. called the wrestlers who rose to ownership positions in these days "alpha male, school yard bullies who were great athletes and imposed their will on their employees." J. R. said these guys were in the TV syndication business and didn't even know it. He said when legit sports promoters ran wrestling in the Oklahoma territory, for instance, the guys worked 6 days and had Sundays off. But when wrestlers took over, they were running on Sundays just because they could make more money.

- JR told some great stories about Leroy McGuirk, who ran things in his neck of the woods. J. R. described himself as an office gopher for McGuirk when he broke in, and felt like he had gotten into the Mafia once he got into the business. He said he would run around and buy everything McGuirk wanted, from a half pint of whiskey to presidential cigars. He bought them everyday. J. R. said Leroy would often lash out when he would get drunk and become self-conscious and angry about his partial blindness. J. R. said he learned a great deal listening to Leroy, including basic tenets like: you have a hero and you have a villian, and they need to be fighting over something everyone can relate to.

- J. R. said Leroy once flew off the handle when he heard his daughter was intimate with Ted DiBiase. Leroy started drinking the next morning and clutched his "Dirty Harry"-esque handgun. He told J. R. to accompany him from Tulsa to Shreveport with the gun in tow as J. R. realized "he was about to be an accessory to murder." "I was going from Tulsa to Shreveport to kill Ted DiBiase with my boss' gun," J. R. said. The crowd laughed hysterically at this. J. R. was 20 at the time. He said Leroy drove with his gun in his lap, barrel pointed at J. R., and flicked the ashes from his cigar into a Folgers can as he drove. He said one of the ashes fell off the cigar into Leroy's lap, burning through his pants and sending the gun flying onto the dash. They pulled over to put out this fire in Leroy's crotch, and it was there that the hunt for DiBiase was called off. J. R. said Leroy's daughter went onto have unsuccessful relationships with two other wrestlers anyway. He said at the time a wrestler's daughter dating another wrestler was "the kiss of death."

- J. R. said he soon became a referee earning $25 to $40 a night. He said to save money the wrestlers wouldn't eat all day but would hit a cheap buffet at 2 a.m. until the waitstaff told them "you must go." J. R. said wrestlers would ride with him when he was a referee and pay him 2 cents a mile (300 miles = 6 bucks). He said said that extra 6 was a hell of a lot of money when you were making $40 a night. He said some of the wrestlers had pity for him because he was a guy who loved the business and took a lot of abuse in the ring and on the road but kept showing up. He said some of the wrestlers started to let him stay in their hotel for free and sleep on the floor.

- J. R. said he got into announcing one day when the territory's announcer didn't show up one night. He had experience from college radio so he said yes (he would've done anything as an alternative to getting roughed up all the time as a referee). Someone asked him "think you can do this kid?", he knew he could, he did, and his announcing career was underway.

- J. R. blew through his years at the NWA and WCW and jumped to Wrestlemania 9 when he made his WWF debut. He mentioned wearing a toga for that show and that Bobby Heenan had dared him to go commando under it. "I was too smart for it. I knew he was going to do something," J. R. said. Then in Jan. 94 he was stricken with Bells Palsy and fired when Vince said the company was going in another direction and didn't have a place for J. R. in it. "Then he got indicted," J. R. followed to laughs. He ripped on the feds for the McMahon investigation, saying they wasted millions of dollars "for a witch hunt." J. R. was needed back without Vince there, as no one was sure if Vince was going to be back. J. R. started back as an assistant in the talent relations department but not on TV because of the Bells Palsy, his southern accent and because he wasn't "a pretty little guy like Bob Costas."

- J. R. said Jerry Lawler on broadcasts wants to know even less than he does about what's going to happen in the ring. He said Lawler is much more talented in this respect than he is, as J. R. said he at least wants to know the finishes and where angles are headed. J. R. said Lawler sits at the annnounce table and doodles during commercials and then jumps right back into form when they return to the air.

- J. R. talked about what he looked for in talent relations. "I don't care about bodybuilders," he said. He talked about all the guys he hired in WWE including Austin, Foley and Rock. He said he hired Undertaker into WCW and told him to leave because they weren't going to do anything with him and J. R. didn't have the stroke to make upper management push him. J. R. said he had to fight Vince on hiring Foley and Austin. He said Vince agreed on Austin because he saw him as a tactician who could have good matches with lots of guys at the mid card level. He said Austin went on to make $13 million in one year. J. R. said he signed Rock to a $150,000 a year starting contract after he saw him work out and saw his physical attributes. J. R. said that kind of starting money was unheard of at the time in WWF, and Vince thought J. R. had lost his mind signing him for so much money.

- J. R. told the story of when he was announcing for the NFL's Atlanta Falcons and he was trying to set up an interview with star player Deion "Prime Time" Sanders. Sanders told J. R. to hold on a minute while he asked "Prime Time" if he could grant the interview. Sanders returned a minute later, said he'd spoke to "Prime Time," and that the interview was on. Years later, J. R. suggested to Rock that he should try referring to himself in the third person in the same way, and thus "The Rock Says" was born.

- J. R. talked about WWE then going public and Vince got $160 million out of the initial public offering. He said they were on Spike TV, which he called a lousy network that nobody watched. Then the return to USA. He said two weeks before they were to return to USA, he was told by executive producer Kevin Dunn they were going to debut a new guy in the lead announcing slot. He asked if he could say goodbye to the fans for his last broadcast and was told no. J. R. said he was hurt and pissed at that, but refused to take on a "poor me" attitude, which he discouraged everyone from ever doing no matter what happens to you.

- J. R. said his replacement Mike Goldberg (who he named later) was hired for a half million dollars to work one day a week. So he went back home to Oklahoma and hung out in his backyard listening to the radio and barbecuing by the pool when he got another call from Dunn asking him if he could be in Dallas Monday. So he came back and tried his hardest to give a great performance. J. R. said Vince was angry because his return performance got a lot of top-shelf wrestlers behind J. R., telling Vince not to let him go. J. R. said the guys wanted him because "he embellished their stories" and got them over. He said one of his qualities is that he doesn't take on the posture of a con man or hype man as an announcer, and you never feel like he's pitching you something with phony enthusiasm. He said he's a fan who works as a wrestling announcer, and that's why he has the connection and trust with the audience that he does. He called his then-replacement Joey Styles a good kid and said there's nothing wrong with him.

- J. R. then went into his surgery that year for a tumor in his colon. He said he had 13 inches of his intestines removed. He went home from surgery on a Monday and got a call from Vince, urging him to watch that night's RAW for a tremendous piece of business they were airing centered on J. R.. That was, of course, the skit where Vince pulled all the objects out of J. R.'s ass including his head. J. R. said the bit should have been 1 or 2 minutes max or not aired at all, but instead it went 9 or 10 minutes. He said he "still doesn't understand what that message was supposed to be" with his head getting pulled out of his ass. He said he wasn't sure what it accomplished other than maybe make Vince more of an ass in the fans' eyes.

- He said once Styles took over he took on a role as a talent relations consultant. They called him again to do Saturday Night's Main Event. J. R. said he was very specific that he was only coming back to announce, not to get lit on fire, get beat up, or have anything pulled out of his ass. He said WWE wanted J. R. back to SNME because it was a duel-brand show and J. R. was "neutral." "I'm Geneva," J. R. joked. He was then asked to come back for Wrestlemania. J. R. said he was worried about what that would do to Styles in the eyes of the fans that they didn't have the confidence in him to put him in the chair for Mania. J. R. said he told WWE officials "you've just emasculated" Styles, and was told that Vince wanted J. R. back. So he came back. He said Vince always did what he felt was right for business, but sometimes it "doesn't go down right."

- J. R. said everybody blames Vince for killing the territories. He said he totally disagrees with that, blaming it on old-line promoters who didn't know anything about marketing, contracts, and a more sophisticated outlook on the business. "They were not prepared for business," J. R. said.

- J. R. said he expects astronomical growth in digital media in the years to come. But he said if PPV goes away, the WWE is in big trouble. He said he believes WWE helped create the PPV industry and conditioned people to buy it.

- J. R. said merchandise is a huge part of things, and that he likes fans who are defiant when they wear their WWE gear despite being ragged on by others their age for it.

- J. R. said 24/7 was his idea and patted himself on the back for it. He said he had the idea to purchase all kinds of tape libraries. He said they have 90,000 hours of footage now.

- He talked a bit about WWE films and gave some figures that made the Kane and Cena movies sound very profitable. He said it cost $8 million to produce (actual figure was $24 million)
The Marine. He put over The Condemned as a neat movie. He said it's based loosely on McMahon, as an evil promoter scours prisons to find hardened bad asses for a reality TV fight to the death on a remote island. He said Austin does a great job in the movie and he's happy for him

- He said WWE will produce good TV as long as they don't deviate from the fundamentals. He said RAW should be formulaic and episodic like "Dynasty and Dallas with headlocks and bodyslams."

- J. R. was asked about pushing wrestlers based on their ethnicity and appeal to different audience segments. He said WWE isn't as direct about that as you might think. He said WWE assumes Misterio is popular with the Hispanic audience in the same way Oscar de la Hoya is, but doesn't go much further with it than that. He said when he worked for Bill Watts they pushed Junkyard Dog even though the attitude from a lot of wrestler-turned-promoter guys was that blacks should be in the semi-main so they didn't overshadow the caucasian alpha males.

- J. R. said they're trying to make WWE.com an attraction for news slowly but surely and not beating fans over the head urging them to log on every 10 minutes. He said it's a good way to get information out there from a company perspective. He said WWE knows the mainstream media is only going to cover them if something negative is going on, and mentioned the Sports Illustrated steroid story or whenever a wrestler gets arrested for drinking or brawling in some town somewhere. He said they'll cover steroids but not the fact that Wrestlemania next week is going to bring people together from all over the world and probably do 1 million buys on PPV. "That's good news and they don't want you to know that," he said. He called it the wrestling bias in the media. He said when Owen died, all anyone was asking him was whether the show should have continued. He said he shocked many people when he said he didn't think about that because he was too busy trying to process what had happened to his friend a few feet away from him in the ring. He seemed really agitated at the emphasis on the "should the show have gone on?" question. He said he can't remember what he said during the PPV where Owen died, and he has never gone back and watched the tape. He said if he writes a book he'll go back and watch it, but not for any other reason. Same goes for the tribute show the next night.

- J. R. said at his father's funeral a friend of his dad's came up to him with a quote. He said his dad once said he felt like J. R. "ran off, joined the circus and never came home." J. R. said he didn't disagree with that.

- J. R. said the next thing he's pushing hard for is a weekly, two hour XM or Sirius WWE live talk show.

- J. R. said he has trouble answering certain fan questions. He said he's sick of being asked if Randy Savage should be in the Hall of Fame. He once wrote that Savage earned it, should be in, and maybe should be brought in as a special attraction for Wrestlemania 25. He said WWE website brass told him to put the kibosh on putting Savage over.

- J. R. was asked about womens' role in the WWE. He said he used to work with some bad ass women but now the emphasis is undoubtedly on sex appeal and the women are asked to do a lot more than the men in terms of looking good and also being able to wrestle. He said the move toward looks might have contributed to Stratus and Lita deciding to get out. "I don't know if we'd have anybody working there if we didn't have breast augmentation," J. R. said.

- Chris Nowinski was in attendance, and J. R.. referenced him when talking about bringing guys up too soon. He said Nowinski should have worked territories for five years before he was brought up, but "we killed him . . . he was picked too green." He said Nowinski was brought in at least 3 years too soon.

- He said he doesn't like to point to any particular guys in developmental, especially now that he's not heading talent relations, as the next big stars. He said it puts pressure on them when they get the J. R. endorsement. He did say that there's not one guy who jumps out at him in developmental right now that will be the next big thing. He said he knows Ring of Honor has good talent and that WWE should scout all ROH shows to see who they could use. He said this like he was tired of being aksed when WWE was going to bring in ROH guys. One fans asked about Paul Birchill, and JR said he has tremendous upside.

- J. R. mentioned that Vince Russo at one time wanted his job in talent relations. Russo not only wanted to write the shows but also control the hiring and firing and all that. He said Russo did a good job for a while but burned out and there was tension between them.

- J. R. was asked about wrestlers unionizing and said it would never happen because you can't get 10 wrestlers to agree where to go to dinner. He said Jesse Venutra had an idea like that at one time but Hogan found out and told Vince and that was the end of that. He said if he was a wrestler, of course he would like the tax-deferred income and benefits that he gets as a WWE corporate officer. He clarified the way road expenses work for the talent. He said all flights are paid for, and internationally everything from meals to rental car is paid for. Domestically you have to get your own rental car, which he said isn't that bad because a lot of guys split the cost. He also said all injuries and surgeries are covered.

- J. R. was asked about UFC's PPV success. He said he doesn't think the two audiences are as similar as we might think sometimes. He said their challenge is going to be creating new stars, especially since star fighters don't have the shelf life that a wrestler like Hogan or Flair can have in a worked environment. He struggled to come up with any other UFC names besides Shamrock and Ortiz when talking about who has made UFC successful. He didn't seem too aware of how UFC has done as good of or better a job creating stars in the past two years than WWE has.

- J. R. said Mania should be a great show because it's not overbooked.

J. R. did a great job, was real honest, accessible to fans afterward. It was an intimate and lively talk. He should definitely write a book. Mick Foley comes to MIT to speak next month.