On Jim Ross‘ latest Ross Report, JR gives his take on some of wrestling’s biggest topics of the moment and this episode is packed full of news, including Asuka being added to the three-way TLC match at WWE TLC, his fellow Eagles fandom he shared with Edge‘s late mother Judy Copeland, Daniel Bryan‘s performance at WWE Survivor Series against a monstrous Brock Lesnar, and so much more as he talks to Wrestling Observer‘s Dave Meltzer and recounts his time at WrestleCade over the weekend (more in another WZ article later today.) Quotes are below (transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo at WrestleZone):
Jim Ross on adding Asuka to the TLC mix:
Got a lot of marquee value, got a lot of sizzle. And I got a feeling with Dave Finlay at the steering wheel that they will probably have one hell of a SmackDown Championship match coming up at TLC. The one thing about this scenario, whether you agree with the three-way or not, is the fact that Asuka is a major star, that somehow that got lost along the way after WrestleMania. Just one of those things that can be explained in a lot of different ways, I’m sure there’s a lot of right answers, but the bottom line is that Asuka should be in the mix of all the top women competing currently in WWE. She’s big money.
On the All Elite Wrestling trademark news before he talks to Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer:
But if this thing happens, it’s either going to be one or two things in my opinion: it’s either going never happen because a television deal could not be acquired or a television deal is going to finalized and it’s going to be big. Feast or famine.
On Edge’s mother, Judy Copeland, and their mutual enjoyment for the legendary band, The Eagles:
We bonded years and years ago when I first signed Adam and Jay Reso, Edge & Christian to their WWE contracts, I think it was around $210 or $250 a week back in the day, two independent wrestlers from Ontario that just had a great passion and a great zest for life and you couldn’t wait to get them in a training program. Dory Funk, Jr. helped them a lot and Tom Prichard, great students. But Miss Judy, she was a fellow Eagles fan. And of course we’re both fans of Adam and so she made a lot of sacrifices to get him raised and to get him in wrestling school and to let him to try to live his dream in which he has done and exceeded many times over. So Adam, I love you buddy, it’s a gift to know you, it was an even better gift to know your mother, she’s in a better place and maybe she’s ran into to Jan up there in heaven and maybe they hook up with Glenn Frey and do a little singing, who knows. But seriously, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
On Daniel Bryan’s performance at Survivor Series:
Daniel Bryan showed you that having great crowd psychology and letting me roll my eyes at your material will still work, even though he looked like a small child compared to Brock Lesnar. That’s two pros making it work.
On currently making top babyfaces in WWE:
It seems like that’s not the focus right now, and maybe it is. Okay, folks? I’m going by what I see on television, that’s my extent of my interaction with this company. I watch the product religiously and those are my observations and they’re not tainted, they’re not influenced, they’re just what I see and what I feel. The fan favorite machine, the babyface machine needs to get back into business. There needs to be less run-ins and less predictability. And please don’t take me out of the moment. Let’s wrestle and let the entertainment be a garnish where the wrestling is always the entree. I don’t wanna eat no damn garnish. I want a steak.
JR also celebrates the success of The Young Bucks, Becky and Charlotte’s segment on SmackDown, the Tito Ortiz vs. Chuck Liddell fiasco and a bolting tale of “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan. To hear all that and more, you can subscribe to The Ross Report by going here.
