Jim Ross On How He Would Book Roman Reigns Vs. The Undertaker, Reigns Turning Heel, His Show On FITE
Recently, our own Raj Giri had the opportunity to speak with legendary professional wrestling broadcaster, Jim Ross. Among many other things, Ross shared how he would book the WrestleMania 33 match between The Undertaker and Roman Reigns. Also, Ross discussed his Ringside With Jim Ross show on FITE TV.
When Giri asked Ross who should win between The Undertaker and Roman Reigns at WrestleMania, Ross acutely responded that the decision really depends on WWE's creative plans following 'The Showcase Of The Immortals'. In Ross's view, 'The Big Dog' could benefit from turning heel by cheating to put another blemish on 'The Deadman”s peerless WrestleMania record.
"Well, the smart answer is, 'where are you going with it?' If you're trying to make Reigns and you make a commitment to make him a villain, let's say, and I know WWE doesn't like to have this dialogue much because they seem to be very hellbent that he's going to be their next big fan favorite star. I can help you get to the next big fan favorite star scenario. It's very easy. You let him turn heel blatantly with a cheat-to-win move, low blowish-type thing, against Undertaker and beat Undertaker, so you cheat to beat the great Undertaker at WrestleMania."
Ross continued, "so I would probably beat Undertaker with Reigns via heel shenanigans, cheating to gain an unfair advantage to beat The Deadman and then I would stick a microphone in Reigns' face and tell him to be very natural, very arrogant, very cocky, 'I told you this is my yard. It is my yard and nobody here can do a damn thing about it' type of thing, 'and if you guys don't like it, you can kiss my ass. How's that?' Something better said than that, but make him very defiant because the longer that reign is, that run is, more specifically as a villain, when he finally turns, and it's certainly inevitable, he will be then that massive fan favorite that WWE has tried so strenuously to sell."
According to Ross, getting Reigns over is more important than whether it is as a babyface or as a heel.
"To me, as a former booker person and administrator, my obligation is to make sure Roman Reigns comes out of this match better. I've got a 50 year old Superstar that'll never be replicated, he's Teflon-proof, in my view. So for Taker to have a match in hand and then lose to a guy cheating, it doesn't hurt The Taker."
Ross explained, "so I've got to look to the future and so whether I like where he is now or not, I know what Reigns can be as a top heel. Here's what I want to do if I'm a WWE creative guy. I want to make Roman Reigns a star. I didn't say 'heel'. I didn't say 'babyface'. I want to make him a bigger star. And him having a controversial, edgy, coarse win over The Undertaker helps facilitate that goal. At the end of this run would be a heel run, which could be very successful. The guy is perfectly set up to be the next big fan favorite thing, so that would be my route to take and that's how I'd probably do the finish of it."
During the interview, Ross also talked about his Ringside With Jim Ross one-man-show airing on pay-per-view on FITE TV.
"We edited all of our House Of Blues shows into one. We're doing a $5.99 pay-per-view that [started last] Wednesday on the FITE app. It's really a cool, edited look at the material from those three days." Ross added, "It's going to air for 30 days, so you've got some time and you can order it now in advance or whatever you want to do. You can watch it as many times as you want, as I understand it. So it's $5.99. I wanted to make it affordable and I think it's a fun show. It's certainly worth the money and it kind of gives everybody a glimpse, 'I've heard about the Ringside shows, J.R. What the hell are they?' Here's your way to get a better feel for it."
Check back here next week for more on Wrestling Inc.'s exclusive interview with Jim Ross. You can order Ringside With Jim Ross here. Also, AXS TV's four-week G1 Climax 26 event with commentary from JR and Josh Barnett continues this week with three matches in the first hour at 7pm ET, including reigning NEVER Openweight Champ Katsuyori Shibata vs. fan favorite Tomoaki Honma; NJPW legend Yuji Nagata vs. reigning IWGP Intercontinental Champion Tetsuya Naito; and YOSHI-HASHI in his first ever G1 Climax match vs. Kenny Omega; then Tanahashi faces Marufuji and Okada takes on fellow Chaos member Ishii in a five-star classic match in hour two, which starts at 8pm ET.