WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross updated his blog at his official website, JRsBarBQ.com, with his thoughts on UFC star Conor McGregor getting the pro wrestling world riled up, cross-promotion between RAW and SmackDown Live early into the WWE brand extension and more. Below are some of the highlights.
On UFC star Conor McGregor getting the pro wrestling world riled up:
McGregor has realized that his remarks are often times polarizing and they spread like wildfire. He has become a great, self promoter of his fights and his own enhanced public persona which is not meant to be an insult in any way. To the contrary, fans of pro wrestling should admire that McGregor is a talented talker like many of the pro wrestling greats in history and who knows how to stir up controversy which creates cash more often than not.
The great ‘heels’ in pro wrestling had the ability to touch the raw nerves of the fan base aka consumers in such a way that those fans would pay hard earned cash to see these ‘heels’ get their asses handed to them in the ring or, in this case, the octagon. Insulted wrestling fans can live out this theory by buying McGregor’s next PPV fight against Nate Diaz who beat the talkative Irishman in their last battle.
I certainly plan on buying this PPV and had planned on doing so long before Conor’s controversial remarks.
It’s somewhat amusing and incredible that some wrestlers who definitely should have known better took McGregor’s bait, hook, line and sinker. I’m curious if they now realize that they have been ‘worked’ in their own genre’s game?
I remember when I was a boy that my late father, J.D. Ross, would have the same reaction when Muhammad Ali would cut promos on TV to piss off the fans who would then make the emotional investment to watch or listen to Ali’s fights in hopes that someone would shut the mouth of the Louisville Lip. Later in my life, Ali told me straight up after I shared my Dad’s story with him that he knew what he was doing and that he was simply doing what he saw on TV from the likes of Freddie Blassie and other pro wrestling heels because Ali realized early on that he could earn more money getting people to invest in his fights to see him lose than to see him win.
Bravo to Conor McGregor for using the correct ‘bait’ to catch naive and emotional ‘fish’ in his latest, entertaining rant.
On Mick Foley, Daniel Bryan and the cross-promotion between brands early into the WWE brand extension:
I do like the casting of both Mick Foley and Daniel Bryan on their respective shows but I’m not overly wild about the cross pollination, for lack of a better term, of the RAW and Smackdown Live talents on each others shows. I’m hopeful that this will be an occasional matter and is only being used to promote Lesnar vs Orton at Summer Slam.
On WWE needing talent to truly establish themselves as the new top stars of the company:
Considering that essentially Brock Lesnar and John Cena are the only true, ‘over’ talents on WWE TV these days when it comes to selling out live events, scores of merch, and motivating a multitude of fans to enjoy major events and more on the @WWENetwork, I applaud WWE for continuing to do all that they can to get other talents elevated to that elusive, next level.
This is by far no indictment on any talent as ‘getting over’ as a true and complete main event level talent is a daunting task in any generation and arguably even more difficult today than ever before thanks in part to the social media information flow and the fact that the lack of territories has slowed the in ring growth of many talents that are featured on today’s TV broadcasts.
On reports that Joey Styles was released by WWE:
Sad to hear that my friend Joey Styles has left WWE. I know that Joey enjoyed his work there and was a life long WWE fan while growing up in Stamford, CT. I’d love to tag team with Joe on some RINGSIDE Shows in the future plus get him on our podcast too. Joey Styles is a great guy who has plenty to offer..
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