Jim Ross Discusses How FOX Might Promote WWE Differently Without The COVID Pandemic
On the latest episode of the Grilling JR Podcast, Jim Ross talked about the current relationship between FOX and WWE while Smackdown airs on FOX Friday Nights. Ross talked about how we see the promotion of Smackdown on Sundays during Football games on their network. He also suggested that without COVID, we may see more from FOX to get people to watch the show on Friday nights.
“You notice how FOX promotes Smackdown inside an NFL broadcast,” Ross said. “If the COVID wasn’t here, you could bet your ass there would be a lot of on-site sightings of WWE guys on NFL games. They do it right, that’s largely because the Senior VP loves wrestling. He’s been at FOX for over 20 years, and he knows how to promote.”
This episode of the podcast was dedicated to Clash of the Champions XIII. Ross also mentioned how during those times, WCW was asked to do a lot of cross promotion with Turner Broadcasting. JR continued to say that’s where Kevin Nash’s OZ character came from, and mentioned how that ruined part of Nash’s great career.
“They came to us to do some cross promoting even though they weren’t willing to do it on their side,” Ross said. “Kevin had a lot of upside. Even though Kevin was green, he was given so many bad gimmicks in the early going. It’s a wonderment to me that he was able to not only stay in the business, but he became so successful and earned himself a lot of money.
“You had me until OZ. It was a great deal; he had a great career, but then he had OZ. OZ was never going to mean anything. It was an eye rolling, are you shi**ing me type personality. The creative contingent went through the motions with that deal.”
Ross also talked about Brian Pillman, who faced off against Buddy Landel in a dark match before the show. He mentioned how Dave Meltzer went to bat for Pillman, putting in the Observer that it was ridiculous Pillman was on the pre show, and the reason he did that is because they were friends.
“Pretty much,” Ross said. “Dave had the same vision that I did and many others did – Brian was a keeper. We brought Brian in, and I thought it was one of our better hires. I’m a big Pillman fan. I love Brian like a little brother.”
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Grilling JR with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.