Jim Johnston Blasts How WWE Books Talent: "There Are No Breakout Stars"
Jim Johnston was a recent guest on the RRBG podcast recently where he discussed the current talent in WWE. He admitted that he feels sorry for them due to the fact that the company isn't putting things together to create stars.
"I feel so sorry for the current crop of talent there," Johnston said. "I feel like they're being served so inadequately and so poorly. There are no breakout stars because they're not putting the right combination of things together to create stars. I am sure there are stars there, I am absolutely confident. I remind everybody before Steve broke out and became one of the biggest stars in the game, he was The Ringmaster. He was a pretty low-card player."
Jim Johnston then spoke about music in detail. He gave his feelings on wrestlers using mainstream music rather than themes specifically created for them. He believes that doing that can take people out of the moment and the character.
"One reason I always thought wrestlers using mainstream music absolutely defeats the purpose is because people have different emotional associations with those songs. A song comes on that's an AC/DC song," Johnston said. "A guy comes out to that, it makes him feel all puffy, 'oh, I've got an AC/DC song.' But the problem is, half the fanbase is thinking about some association they have. 'This is the night I had that car accident, this is the first night I kissed my girlfriend.' You've effectively taken them out of the story and now they're not thinking about that guy.
"So, when Taker's music plays or Steve's music plays, people are only thinking about Steve Austin, not when they kissed their girl," he said. "They're thinking about Steve Austin, what he did last week, I wonder what crazy thing he'd going to do tonight and that's what you want. It's not just intellectual focus, it's got to be an emotional focus."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit the RRBG podcast with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions.