Jim Ross has been around the pro wrestling business for a long time.
“Good Ole’ J.R.” recently reflected on the launch of the iconic WCW Clash of Champions series during the latest installment of his “Grilling J.R.” podcast.
Featured below are some of the highlights where he talks about this, as well as Dusty Rhodes’ “Midnight Rider” gimmick.
On Dusty Rhodes booking himself as the main event star in the NWA as the Midnight Rider gimmick: “Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. More objective. Dusty was really hell bent on getting the Midnight Rider over and was gonna do anything he could as far as TV time was concerned. It was tough. It was too tough. It was too much. And like I said, the Midnight Ride gimmick was not new and it was very predictable. Once all the suspensions and all this other stuff went down, it was very predictable. It was almost like he felt like that might be his last gasp to regenerate his persona. And I don’t know that to be in his head, but, it felt that way. It seemed that way. Wasn’t a real good idea as it worked out.”
On the launch of Clash of Champions: “With the success of the first one, the business brain kicks in and says, well, ‘Why wouldn’t we do another one of these?’ Make it an annual affair. Yeah. Make it an annual affair and put it on the calendar for going forward. It was fun to do. It always got you excited because of the live element. Excuse me. You knew you didn’t have a net. And, I know that first one, I can’t remember who I worked the second one with. Was it Tony Tony Schiavone? But nonetheless, I know Schiavone and I worked together on the first one in Greensboro. Was it green? I think it was Greensboro. Anyway, but it was always fun to do those shows. I enjoyed them a lot. Cause of the fact that they’re alive. You can’t go back and redo, you can’t go back and rethink. So let’s, uh, let’s rock and roll here. So I enjoyed those shows. I always left there thinking that we gave ’em a good show. Shows were always solid. You know, some were, some were better than others. Conrad, like any other series of events. Sure. But I enjoyed the hell out of them.”
Check out the complete interview via the YouTube player embedded below. H/T to WrestlingHeadlines.com for transcribing the above quotes.
