Jim Ross On If Pro Wrestling's Popularity Is On An Upswing, His Future In The Business
The Orlando Sentinel recently interviewed WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross, who was promoting his upcoming RINGSIDE shows during WrestleMania week. Below are a couple of highlights:
If the popularity of wrestling is back on an upswing:
"It's a great time to be a wrestling fan. There's a lot of content for people to enjoy of all different types. An example is my overseas work. The U.K. is a great marketplace?the [World of Sport] special I just did for ITV, if anything comes from that, it could be the show with the biggest potential audience of anything I ever worked on. Think about that. It's the power of a terrestrial network in a big market, plus the power of the Internet. There are opportunities out there, is my point. It's a great time to be in the business and a great time to be a fan.
"As ubiquitous as WWE is, and they're the big dogs, but they're not the only dogs. The others are not in WWE's yard, but there's room for others. People want variety. WWE has the [streaming] network, which scratches a lot of people's itches, but they still want diversity."
His future in wrestling:
"I always say I should have a sign, 'Will talk for food.'" I feel young and I'm feeling good. ? I do work in an environment that can be very competitive, and I'm good at it. If you understand the business at all, in the world of independent contractors and egocentric bosses, you've got to have a little bit of an ego to survive. When you work with Cowboy Bill Watts and Ole Anderson, it's not always peace and love. But I can do these shows. I did shows in November in Toronto, took December off, then did Phoenix and San Antonio in January, now I'm off until I come [to Orlando]. But the uniqueness is the diversity of the audience. We don't care what religion you are, what race, gender, orientation. You can leave all of your prejudices and all of those big divisions at the door. We're fans, first and foremost."
JR also talked more about his RINGSIDE shows, how often he watches NJPW matches before he calls them and more. You can read the full interview by clicking here.
Source: The Orlando Sentinel