On the latest ‘Ross Report’ podcast with Jim Ross, his guest for the show is Author Patrick LaPrade and his book, ‘Sisterhood of the Squared Circle’, which you can listen to the entire interview at this link. Below is a few highlights from his segment, ‘What’s On My Mind:’
On His First Assignment with WWE Post-WrestleMania:
This past weekend in Norwich, England, the WWE taped a lot of products in the two nights that will air on the WWE Network. The first show will air in the month of May. It will be broadcast with Nigel McGuiness and myself. I’m looking forward to working with Nigel. I’ve enjoyed his work in the past when he was with Ring of Honor. Very talented in-ring performer. Nigel has great awareness, great crowd psychology, which really translates to product knowledge for the broadcast Nigel McGuiness. Nigel knows the UK guys much better than me originally and initially, I’ll try to catch up in that regards so I’m very happy to get that assignment. I’m not sure, but I think we will be doing two 90 minute specials but it’s not etched in stones. The first one will be broadcast this month because I know we will be doing some voiceover this week.
On Working with Axess TV and WWE:
Staying busy, speaking of work with Axess TV in Los Angeles. It sounds weird saying that with doing WWE work and doing Axess work. It’s just contracts and legal stuff. It’s a unique arrangement for now. I understand that it’s going to be May 18th I understand that Axess TV is going to announce how they are going to broadcast the July 1-2 weekend in Long Beach, CA in New Japan Pro Wrestling. I think that something positive is going to happen with that question and I am not at liberty to discuss those plans, but I can tell you the basics, you are going to like what you are going ot hear, so when it’s annoucned we will talk more about it, but July 1-2, I’ll tell you this, I plan on being at Long Beach for both days with Josh Barnett and do what we need to do.
On Dave Meltzer Winning the Historian Award at the Cauliflower Alley Club:
I thought Dave Meltzer did a tremendous job and was introduced by Bryan Alvarez, which was classy. Dave’s remarks were equally classy. He’s really a legend in this business quite frankly. The hours spent, the words written, a lot of knowledge there man, he’s very, very gifted and I wholeheartedly endorse Dave’s work, his professional work is really stellar. As a matter of fact, when JJ Dillon came up, he said some nice things about Dave as well, as they were all true.
On Sinclair Buying Tribune Broadcasting:
We really don’t know the answer to what will that mean for Ring of Honor, and nobody knows really with the exception of the Executives at Sinclair and they’re not talking. It could mean that they are upgrading their viewership of the Ring of Honor product, and maybe they’ll get on with more stations they will be able to monetize it better with the ad sales. So, that is one thing. Certainly, if they got good clearances and built a nice rating, they will be able to work live events in key markets, or it could mean that they don’t want to grow their wrestling brand, they are as big as they want to be. To go to that level would take more bodies, more resources, more investments. They may say that they are not willing to invest on pro wrestling at this time, so I don’t know. It could take a lot of shapes, but all in all, I think it could mean that Sinclair company is healthier, which means that the wrestling brand is safe and sound. Or, has Sinclair gotten so big it may want to divest themselves of wrestling. A lot of ways to skin this cat, and soon it’ll play out, but it’s a big responsibility when you want to go national. You have to strengthen your infrastructure. At the end of the day, it’s worth it. At the end of the day, it’s all about the math, right?
On Billy Corgan Buying the NWA:
I don’t really know, but I believe he bought the intellectual property. The library, the Paul Boesch library brand that was operated by Bruce Tharpe is still under the umbrella of Bruce Tharpe. It’s an amazing library, great content truly is. It’s been preserved masculinely by Paul’s family. I don’t know, not sure what you get with the NWA. Here’s the thing, I have a lot of confidence in Billy Corgan. Very smart guy, business man, very inhibited entrepreneur. I’m not sure what his idea is with the NWA brand, but I believe he has an idea. Most of us become skeptical, so even though I don’t know what Billy bought with the exception of the intellectual property, he needed a brand that has name recognition, I get it. We’ll find out soon enough but interesting days ahead for the two brands with ROH and NWA.
