WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross recently spoke on his podcast, “Grilling JR,” about a variety of professional wrestling topics including booking talent for the in-studio promos they had to do in Stamford to promote different house shows in 1993:
‘Great pain in the ass. A magnificent pain in the ass. Randy Savage cornered me one day and almost wanted to fight because he thought I was taking advantage of his time when it was orders from headquarters that we wanted to use Savage. That’s Vince’s deal, but he didn’t tell Randy, so Randy found out he was doing some promos for markets that didn’t even have live events, but I was under the orders of the chairman. Savage had a screw loose anyway. Very talented. Very, very talented. Very unique, but he was very, I won’t say weak. He was insecure as hell.”
Announcing with Randy Savage on Monday Night RAW:
“Working with Savage was not easy. It really wasn’t. Again, he’s paranoid all the time. He didn’t trust anybody. ‘Why did you say that? What did you say? What did you mean by that? Shut up. God damn it. It’s pro wrestling. Hell, I don’t know what I meant. Do you know what you meant.? That was not fun.”
His thoughts on Hulk Hogan winning the WWF Title at WrestleMania IX:
“I didn’t see the commitment that Hogan had. I didn’t see it, and a lot of talent didn’t see it either, so it caused a lot of unrest. You got guys on the road full time, working a very heavy schedule, having strong matches that were less meaningful because they weren’t champions or they weren’t in an established program. I don’t understand the lack of commitment especially when you’re being paid, you made a fortune, and that’s why you’re there. It’s all about the money. Cash and creative is always gonna be the king, and this for Hogan was about the cash. He wanted more money. He knew to get more money, he had to be at the top of the card. It just didn’t seem right. I never did understand it. If Hogan was going to be committed enough to come back, reestablish himself, and try to get on to another run, we got those answers eventually.”
On Hogan not working matches between WrestleMania IX and King of the Ring 1993:
“I don’t think Vince ever was sold on, after he saw what Hogan said at a time or two, and this, that, and the other. I just don’t think that Vince was comfortable with the Hogan situation because he didn’t want to work full time. You can’t have the star of the show not be available.”
“Talents now that think, ‘Well I can leverage my way off this week’s TV or this week of TV’, or whatever it may be, it’s silly. Take as much TV exposure as you can get. If your boss is offering you TV time, take it. ‘Well, I don’t want to get overexposed.’ Hey, f**k that, idiot. You ain’t gonna get over exposed. If you go out and be entertaining and kick ass, now you’re talking positive business. Talents that do that now are showing their little muscles that I can get by with this. Roman Reigns takes off an enormous amount of time. MJF takes off a lot of time. If their bosses are happy with that arrangement, then so be it. Good. I don’t think it’s a good policy. I think as a team, we’re a team, and the team needs to be together more often than they’re not. and I’ve always believed that. I always will believe that. That doesn’t mean you have to wrestle a match every week, but you need to get your face on television. I need to hear from you if nothing else.”
“Hogan sent those interviews in and all the interviews were backdrops from his TV show. We all get it. You’re promoting your television show, Thunder in Paradise.”
You can check out the complete podcast via AdFreeShows.com.
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
