Ross opens today’s show by discussing the massive deal struck by WWE and FOX this past week. Fox will pay WWE $1 Billion over 5 years for Smackdown’s television rights, and Ross congratulates WWE on that deal. He bets that Smackdown will still be live when it moves to FOX on Fridays next year because he thinks that’s how FOX will explain paying $1 Billion for the programming. Live content is always preferred.

Ross thought the women’s placement on RAW this past week was good, and he was specifically impressed with the way Stephanie McMahon handled the Rousey/Nia Jax contract signing. He points out that Stephanie is a “chip off the old block” when it comes to playing a heel on television.

Ross loves how WWE continues to steadily build Braun Strowman, adding that he’s not being force-fed to the audience. He still thinks Strowman is going to be the company’s next top guy. Ross also considers Drew McIntyre to be a main event player, and he can definitely see McIntyre as a WWE or Universal Champion at some point in the future.

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Ross thought Smackdown Live was a better show than RAW this week. He loves the way Cien Almas has been presented on Smackdown thus far, and he thinks Almas and Vega are big time stars.

Ross welcomes Eric Bischoff to the show.

Bischoff just debuted a new podcast called “83 Weeks” with Conrad Thompson. He informs that they try to talk about the business of the business more than most podcasts do. Thompson tackles things from multiple angles in order to get the information he wants, and he has a pretty good bullshit meter and can sense when you’re dancing around a question according to Bischoff. He adds that the podcast can sometimes be confrontational but it’s always respectful.

Bischoff talks about the Starrcast/ALL IN event. He thinks this is huge for the wrestling business as a whole and he’s just excited to be a small part of it. He adds that diversity is what made the wrestling business so great decades ago with all the regional territories. Ross agrees, noting that he loves when wrestlers can work in multiple places, allowing them a greater opportunity to feed their families and have success.

Bischoff points out that wrestling fans are incredibly passionate, almost to the point of being obsessive compulsive to a degree. They like to debate what the product should be and that’s just a part of working in the business. Everyone tends to prefer the style of wrestling that they grew up with but things are constantly changing. He doesn’t think there’s any value in criticizing things like ALL IN or Starrcast just because it’s different.

He also notes that there is a portion of the audience that exists simply to troll and he tries not to even give those people fuel for their fire. Nonetheless, in the end it’s all good because whether they love you or hate you, they just need to care one way or another. Ross agrees, noting that you can’t make any money in the wrestling business being neutral.

Ross informs that all VIP tickets for Starrcast sold out in 15 minutes which is just incredible. General admission weekend passes are available for under $60, and Ross thinks that’s an incredible deal. Bischoff says that this is such a phenomenal statement of the interest in independent wrestling in the United States right now.

Bischoff says he’d already have his eye on ALL IN 2, 3, and 4 if he was Cody Rhodes or the Young Bucks,  especially the cities and the venues. He notes that time goes by fast and they need to capitalize on their momentum, especially if the first show goes off without a hitch.

Bischoff thinks ALL IN should run for 3 hours at the most because he’s a firm believer in leaving the fans wanting more. He thinks people need to walk out of the building that night saying they had a great time, not talking about how long the show was.

He’s also a fan of storylines and arcs. A lot of the performers on ALL IN are coming in cold from a storyline perspective, even though they all have big profiles in the business. If they plan for ALL IN 2 when they layout some of their finishes, that’ll allow them to carry their momentum forward and build some storylines for the next show.

Bischoff informs that Dusty Rhodes was his own man, and he wasn’t always easy to get along with. He doesn’t know Cody very well, but it’s a bold statement for a young man his age to walk away from the largest promotion in the world in order to chance his dreams. In that sense, Cody really reminds Bischoff of Dusty.

Ross talks about the tragic passing of Owen Hart on the anniversary of his death. He informs that Owen’s death still haunts him to this day because he was such a wonderful soul. Ross remembers being told in his headset that night that Owen had died, and he only had 10 seconds to process the death of one of the nicest people he ever met before having to go live on air. He says he was lucky he got anything out at all at that moment. He says Owen had a great sense of humour and a big heart.

Ross wishes a happy birthday to Natalya who turns 36 years old this week. He thinks Natalya should have a job in WWE forever because she has a lot of skill sets and is a valuable member of the team.

Ross informs that due to the generosity of the McMahon family he was given stock options with WWE many years ago. He got the stocks at $22 and he kept a lot of it. He’s happy with the current surge in stock prices but admits that he doesn’t really know what to do with his stocks right now.

That sums up this week’s episode of The Jim Ross Report. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!

Steve Carrier

Steve is the Founder of RingsideNews. He has been writing about professional wrestling since 1996. He first got into website development at the time and has been focusing on bringing his readers the best professional wrestling news at it's highest quality.

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