Jim Ross On Goldberg Vs. Brock Lesnar Closing WrestleMania, If Short Matches Can Tell A Good Story
I recently interviewed WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross before the tragic passing of his wife, Jan. During the interview, JR and I discussed this Sunday's WrestleMania pay-per-view, and what is likely to be the last match of the show, Brock Lesnar vs. WWE Universal Champion Goldberg.
"I think that Lesnar and Goldberg with the Universal title on the line is potentially an outstanding show closer," Ross admitted. "Right now, based on how the card is shaping up, it seems to me that that would be the match. When you've got a four-hour pay-per-view, you don't have to worry about match time for the main event. There's a lot of main events, first of all. It's an ensemble cast. It's not the one match [Hulk] Hogan / Warrior thing or Rock / [Steve] Austin. It's not that anymore. It may never be that again. But you've got an ensemble cast with a lot of 'main events'. That's a good show closer."
There has been a lot of preemptive criticism about the match possibly being short. JR noted that a shorter match it may not necessarily be a bad thing.
"It might even make sense logically because if you're at the end of a four-hour night, you might be emotionally invested because you know the match isn't going to last long. It don't bother me," JR said. "I [recently] interviewed Kevin Nash for my podcast and he was talking about a match he watches a lot, [Pat] Patterson and Sgt. Slaughter in a back alley brawl thing, it was called, in The Garden. And we all had watched that match, and I didn't realize because they had me hooked from the beginning. That match is only like 10 minutes long [and] what a match those guys had! So do I think that it's possible to tell a good story in 10 minutes or less? You're damn right it is, and the people that don't think that really don't understand the business.
"And also, I'll give you another spoiler, you'll see no moonsaults or probably any topés, planchas, in this match."
Ross will be in Orlando this weekend for several events and detailed his busy schedule, starting Thursday.
"I'm part of the launch party for WrestleCon on Thursday with Ric Flair and Sting. And Matt Striker, the Eddie Haskell or wrestling broadcasters, is going to do a Q&A, about 90-minute or so Q&A, I think, on Thursday with a couple of guys and myself. I've got a Friday morning gig with [Jerry] Lawler at WrestleCon. And Saturday and Sunday, I have my shows, which I'm really focusing on.
"I've made some changes on them. I've got big Tyrus, aka or formerly known as, I guess I should say, Brodus Clay, of Fox News now, God, I love this big guy – he's very talented, he's going to be our MC both days. That should be really fun. Saturday, I've got my writing partner, the acclaimed novelist, Paul O'Brien, will join Tony Schiavone and I, and we're going to ostensibly start talking about The Monday Night Wars and take Q&As of whatever they are, whatever is on your mind if you're in the audience. And Tony and I have never been on stage before to talk about The Monday Night Wars and our roles in those. And, of course, we both have experiences with Jim Crockett Promotions and Tony is one of my good friends and one of the few guys you maintain a friendship with in the wrestling business over a long period of time. It's a shame to say that and it's not me being, 'poor me'. Maybe that's the way life is in general.
"Then, on Sunday, I'm going to be joined by two great podcasters in Jim Cornette and Bruce Prichard and we're going to have the unauthorized WrestleMania pregame show. All of us have been on WrestleMania, all of us have helped write WrestleMania, produced, performed, so it's going to be a unique panel. So we're going to talk about WrestleMania and I'm sure we're going to talk about NXT the night before, the Hall Of Fame a little bit, whatever is on the audience's minds, so really two different shows, two different panels, for lack of a better term, a lot of entertainment content. Tickets start at $25 and are available at Ticketfly. So we're really excited about changing the format up, the guests that we have. And everybody bring something and it should be two really good shows to see. VIP meet and greets are at noon to two. The show starts at 2:30 and we'll be out of there around 4. And by leaving around 4 o'clock, where we are located, at Plaza LIVE, you are very quick to get to WrestleMania on Sunday. It's easy to get to the NXT on Saturday. There is a lot of time to do what you need to do after our shows in the afternoons, the matinees. So it should be fun, we're looking forward to it, it should be a fun time. That whole event is amazing and I guess all of us should thank WWE for bringing people to town because we all got the chance to pick some of their fruit."
You can purchase tickets for JR's RINGSIDE show featuring Tony Schiavone and Paul O'Brien this Saturday at the Plaza Live in Orlando at this link, and tickets for the Sunday show featuring Bruce Prichard & Jim Cornette here.