On a recent edition of his “Grilling JR” podcast, AEW broadcaster Jim Ross reacted to WWE scaling back live events from next year onwards.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On WWE cutting back on house shows: “Well, I can understand from a financial standpoint. They’re expensive to run, you still got all those airplane tickets and all that stuff. So it’s a challenging thing. But the key thing I think, just for me, from my perspective and my background, is that it gives the talents a chance to get better. They’re in the ring, it’s a live scrimmage, shall we say. It’s a preseason game, it’s whatever you want to call it. But to me it’s a good thing to keep those talents busy and working.”
On WWE is shifting to more TV events: “That’s a lot of television. So, I don’t see it making a huge difference, other than gives your talent a chance to practice. And you’re talking practice, and I am because I think it’s good. You also — some guys just are more comfortable on the road than they are at home. Sad to say, but it’s true. So I’m glad they’re not eliminating the live events, because they’re needed to get your talent to improve and get better at what they do for a living. So I don’t think we’re going to — as fans, I don’t think we’re going to notice much difference. It’s just that they’re not going to be so readily available. That’s never a bad idea to keep the fans wanting more. And so they’ve done a good job with that, you know, they’ve done a good job with the live events. I don’t think they’re making any money. I really don’t. I hope they are, but for the talent’s sake and the company’s sake and all that stuff. So it’s going to be interesting to see how that evolves.”
