19 Burst results for "Kevin Nash"
The Jim Ross Report
"kevin nash" Discussed on The Jim Ross Report
"Kevin has secured a role in the new punisher movie. And as such, he's going to need to cut his hair. So in typical old school wrestling fashion, why not set it up for Chris Jericho versus Kevin Nash in a hair versus hair match? It's not a great match, but still we got to do something with the hair, which is old school wrestling. A week later, we've got SummerSlam and there's a world title Elimination Chamber match. Kevin Nash is the first eliminated, and that's his last match in the WWE for quite a while. Were you talking to Kevin much in this era? Yeah. Yeah. Hey, Conrad, what do you make? It's so hard to get trusting relationships and pro wrestling. Yes. And maybe it is in the NFL, maybe it is in other mainstream sports and entertainment. But when you make a friend in a challenging world, like pro wrestling is and it has always been since I've got it in 74, things just, you don't just walk out on your buddies. Right. Let's just keep in touch with them. And so yeah, did we converse as much as we used to? No. But we didn't see communicating. Because he's a friend. And you know on a more sick friendships, especially in pro wrestling when things are so fickle. And things change on a grunt and a grown. He spends a lot of time in T and a off and on for the next 7 years before returning to the Royal Rumble in 2011. He's going to come back as diesel as a surprise. And works a program later on that year with C and punk and Triple H and ultimately, hunter beats Kevin Nash in a ladder match at TLC, that sounds like a rib on Kevin to have that big dude trying to climb a lighter, but still they did it. He would have one last batch in the WWE in 2014 at the Royal Rumble before being inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015, and then again, a two time Hall of Famer now going in with the NWO what do you think his legacy is in pro wrestling, Jim? Probably going to be known as one of the more underrated superstars because of his controversy that he sometimes surrounded himself with. As Eric Bischoff said in his famous book, controversy creates cash. And Kevin professed to that philosophy I believe, so it was real, it was a legacy should be good. He's a Hall of Fame guy. He set many, many years at walking that trail. So I think he's got an amazing legacy. And I'm glad that I had a small part in helping facilitate it. I still believe in that guy. start mentioned earlier to show I'm going to start doing more personal appearances. And one of the things I look forward to in doing these personal appearances is the opportunity to reconnect with my old buddies. Right. Don't get to see much. And maybe I appreciate it more since my cancer scare. Even though I'm cancer free right now, I go back to the doctor every week just to make sure I take a lot of samples of my skin and all that tissue, tissue samples. No fun. But I think since I saw my own mortality kind of slapped me in the face, those are opportunities that are important to me. Because this is my life. Pro wrestling is my life, Conrad, and when I can go back and reconnect with the guy, go have a beer. Go grab a steak or something. I want to jump with those opportunities. And that just was a realization for me in the last few months. And my medical, my medical updates have been positive. I'm not paying free. But you know, hell, I may never not be pain free. I don't know. I've tried every med and every new concept to heal these damn wounds. But I don't know. I want to take those opportunities. But one of those things I try to mention is that Kevin and I maybe will reconnect as some of these appearances. It's just like a family reunion in a way. To see all these dudes. And some of them are on their good list, some of them are not. Some of them I let go, some of them think they got screwed on a payoff. Whatever, whatever, whatever. But I hope that I want my reconnect with a lot of guys. And if that were to happen, I hope that Kevin Nash is at the top of that list. Well, sad, I and I hope that you're with us a long time here. I appreciate you talking about your mortality, but I know you're doing what you can, including starting every day with athletic greens.
The Jim Ross Report
"kevin nash" Discussed on The Jim Ross Report
"That kind of money as a guarantee, you've got to use these guys a lot. And they're none of them are kids. They all got, they wanted limited schedules and things of that nature. They could spend more time at home or a more specifically more time off the road. And if you're going to pay that kind of cash, you need to get every date, squeeze every amount of blood out of the turnip that you can. Well, we know we've talked about Kevin Nash's return to WWE in 2002. We did it last year here on our 20 year look back. Let's talk about the unfortunate end of that run though. He blew his knee out on live Monday Night Raw. And that really is the end of this NWO rerun, if you will. What do you remember of that moment? I mean, you're on the call for this. You've been on the call for some pretty big major moments. And I know you've been pretty clear in saying Kevin Nash is one of your best friends. And you see one of your best friends go down with a pretty debilitating injury right in the middle of a match when you're trying to breathe new life into this angle, the seemingly on life support, you just gotta feel bad for the guy here in this moment, no? Heartbreaking. Yeah, heartbreaking. Because you knew coming back was going to be challenging. Again, we've established Kevin getting in the business later than norm. His knees running that hardwood, all those years because you got to think he had high school basketball, he had college basketball, he ran a lot on hard surfaces and so it didn't surprise me that he was going to he had knee problems. Certainly didn't know there were going to be that severe. And I believe that it was just so depressing and so, you know, it's just tough. It had knee surgeries before. So he knew what he was up against, but it was just such bad timing. And to me it was a little heartbreaking because I always been a proponent of Kevin's fan of his which comes down to strange people because at times he could give you problems. But that's just working with people, Connie. Right. Worked with highly motivated alpha male type people and Kevin certainly checked all those boxes. But it was just a sad thing because it showed you he's got to start all over. He's got to do all the rehab. And it was a very distressing and very and just sad. God damn it. Just was horrible. You don't want to see anybody get hurt. Especially a former athlete that, you know, is doing what he's got to do to keep running a living. And now he's going to start back over and rehab and get all this body back ready. And that's not easy, because you're rebuilding these. You rebuilding those joints and boy, that's a daunting task. Well said, he's going to return in early 2003 and the story is that Vince actually wanted him to come back here as diesel. We know he comes back as Kevin Nash, but do you think these are coming back in O three could have worked? If it booked correctly, sure. But I had no issues with Kevin ash thing. He had established amazing name identity and street Cred, shall we say, as Kevin? So I had no problem with him coming back as Kevin Nash because that's what, you know, those big ratings that WCW was getting was a great exposure for Kevin. And it enhanced his name identity over that period of time. So I didn't have a problem with that situation whatsoever. With a diesel thing of work, probably. But Kevin Nash would work too. Because he had already had that resume updated from his NWO days. Kevin is immediately put back in the top spots, building towards a match with Triple H for the world title. I'm sure he had a lot of fun here. Working with his opal and he gets a shot at hunter and Judgment Day. It ends in a DQ that builds to a match at bad blood and Hell in a Cell match. And the build for this doesn't go all that great. It's the side of the Mick Foley as needed to put the match over the top. He's made the special guest referee and of course he's had some pretty memorable hill in the sales. Hunter gets the win and everyone's bleeding, including the referee after a sledgehammer shot and a pedigree for the rear and for the win. Kevin Nash, just two weeks later, is going to be losing the test in under two minutes. Crazy. It's hard to look at that logically. And I understand a Tess is younger. He was healthier in some ways he was healthier. In some ways he wasn't. There you go. And I thought that was just I understand that logic, you're trying to get a young guy over big guy. Fairly athletic. You know, part of that Canadian connection that I hired, but it was just, I don't know. It was just, it doesn't make any sense. I'm just trying to figure out, was the logic? Right. And I can't see it even to this very day where the logic was in Kevin losing the test. And two minutes. Short matches. Just illogical. A month
The Jim Ross Report
"kevin nash" Discussed on The Jim Ross Report
"Long stringy ass hairs. I love it. Yeah, don't need it. Manscaped dot com and the promo code is Jim Ross. By Kevin has said an interviews. That's solidified his need to jump in his mind is when he did the in your house steel cage match in Louisville, it's a match between himself and Bret Hart. They're supposed to be a powerbomb finish or undertaker comes up from underneath the ring to stop him. Brett would climb out and undertaker what I have a hold on diesel, so Brett doesn't have to take the power bomb. And of course, that leads to, I don't know, a pretty legendary story. Where the undertaker pops off and diesel's really frustrated about this and supposedly afterwards he asks Scott hall, what kind of money are you getting? Do you think he can get me a mating? Do you remember hearing this sort of straw that broke the camel's back story? Yeah, that was, yeah, I do. And also I think about that time, diesel was asked for Kevin was asked to put over test. And a lot of us believe that Tess wasn't ready for that sort of push. That's when he comes back later. That's not in this room. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, anyway, I'm timeline, sir. But yeah. There's so much start stop. And inconsistent booking. Inconsistent planning. And like I said earlier, we've established this fact Kevin national smartest guys ever in wrestling. He knew that his time was short lived and he wanted to fix it and protect his money. And because, you know, these guys are, he wasn't a strange chicken, as we said earlier. We established he started in the business when he's 30. Right. He had bad wheels. Surgeries and things of that nature. So I think that I think Kevin made the only decision that was right for him and his family quite frankly. It's just there's a no brainer to me that that's what he was going to do. And he would think, after all this, talk, that, okay, and then he goes to WCW, not so fast, my friend. Along the way, he's going to have one hell of a pay per view. It's against his old pal, Shawn Michaels, it really is a tremendous match, we've discussed it over in the archives. It's the second episode of grilling GR where we talk about the curtain call, man, we said all there is to say on that one. So if you want to learn more about the curtain call by all means, go check out episode two here. And as we know, Kevin Nash leaves the company. He starts with WCW and forms the NWO with Scott hall and eventually Hulk Hogan and goes on to become world champion himself and he becomes the guy who ends Goldberg streak. He gets a role in creative and did you see that sort of future in wrestling for Kevin when he left the WWF? Yeah, absolutely. As I said, he's smart guy, good instincts. He had learned his lessons well along the road of becoming a seasoned main event level wrestler. So yeah, I always thought Kevin had a future in booking or creative, I think his issue was he didn't have the patience to deal with incompetence and who does. And he was just, you know, he had the brains to do this job. Is he wanted to do it? And I know he liked doing things for his entity. His group, for the NWO, for, you know, all that stuff. So but I thought he had a great future in that world. And I think at the end of the day, he just comes down to the fact that he wasn't ready to commit because dealing with creative and dealing with guys like himself and others is challenging. It's a full-time gig, man. And he was a capitalist. He wanted to make more money. And he wanted anybody else, I guess, on earth, he was willing to make he wanted to make more money and. Affect his own booking, his own creative. And when he went to WCW, you know, Eric gave Kevin and Scott that opportunity to contribute strongly to their TV personas. So he got what he wanted. And there's just nothing wrong with that. Do you remember there being a conversation with Vince where once he sees them out the door and clearly the NWO now has been the match that let WCW and the wrestling business on fire fairly quickly, WWF is playing catch up ball. Do you think there was a time where Vince regretted letting Kevin Kevin go? Because eventually we do know, guaranteed contracts were here to stay. It became the new norm. He was going to have to start doing that for guys like Marc mero and so forth. And Kevin Nash, a guy who had been a proven draw for him. He let him go because he was afraid of setting that precedence. That was all. As the whole deal right there, blowing up the model. Yeah. And I don't know how I don't know how great a shape we were in financially to finance that sort of expansion. Because as we said, it's just coming knowledge that's common sense. You know, if you're going to do that for Kevin and Scott, here comes Brett. Here comes taker. Here comes all these good guys that feel like they also deserve guaranteed money. And big money at that. I just think it's inevitable that you're going to have to start handling your business that way you're going to have to start offering these guarantees. And we know in 96, he offers guarantees even to Brett later that same year. My question is, did he regret not pulling the trigger on Kevin Nash? Because ultimately everybody wound up getting those deals anyway. Probably in hindsight, he probably did a little bit, which is I think why Kevin circle of wagons who came back eventually. But yeah, I think it was just mathematics at that time. Accounting. Yeah. Just didn't have the bank roll to make that kind of commitment because if you're going to give that kind of money as a guarantee, you've got to use these guys a lot. And they're none of them are kids.
The Jim Ross Report
"kevin nash" Discussed on The Jim Ross Report
"That Kevin was going to leave. I didn't want him to leave, because I thought he had so much unexplored potential. That we hadn't got to touch yet. So it was a disappointing to me. We're losing a big 7 foot athlete. Who's very bright? It could have helped in a lot of different ways. I always thought one of Kevin's great assets was his finishes, booking ideas, had good vision. You could see things, he knew what guys were what he thought were. Eligible for more consideration. But I didn't want him to leave. And you know, he got, he got a guaranteed money offer. You know, it's like Lamar Jackson. He wants all his money guaranteed. Right. Like, Watson and Cleveland and our boy collar Murray there in Phoenix. He wanted, you know, he wanted all this money guaranteed. And I don't blame him for that because that was unheard of. Especially at the amount of money that those guys are getting. And then they were smooth and slick about doing that favored nation thing. And so they're guaranteed to make the most money on the card. I recall it. You may know more about this than I have, but I think that was kind of the deal. The favored nations is about to get above or somebody comes in and because of that clause in your contract, you get the same money. How do you beat that? I don't know. I don't think you can. We couldn't. No. Well, there's a lot of moving parts here in this era. Scott hall suspended for a failed drug test and it's reported that both Scott and Kevin are being offered deals to jump to WCW. And the story has always been that Kevin said he didn't want to leave, but Vince wasn't willing to budge on a contract offer. And Bruce has said on his podcast that Kevin Nash kept saying, I'm staying. I'm staying. I know he's leaving. I'm not going. I'm staying. I'm staying. And then I bought that bill of goods. At some point, I believe Bruce said on his podcast that they asked Kevin to go up and speak to the crew and assure everyone, he wasn't leaving, and he wouldn't do it. And that's when Bruce knew, okay, he's not really staying. What do you remember about this? I'm in. I'm out. Hokey pokey conversation here before it becomes apparent. He's leaving. Worst kept secret. Theory. That I can recall. He's leaving. And Scott's leaving. Scott's gone, right? Didn't Scott leave before Kevin? Scott put it in notice ahead of time. I think as the story goes, he met with Vince and said something like, hey, listen, can I understand where we are and where the business is? Can I go work some dates in Japan? And Vince shut that deal down. And he wanted to know, hey, what can I do to make more money? If I can't go to Japan and the answer was, there's not much. This is what it is. And I understand the business was down, but do you think there was a combination of deal points. You could have put together to keep Kevin Nash and Scott hall, or were they gone no matter what? No, there was nothing we could do. If you did, you had to change your whole modus operandi. You said a president for everybody else is what you're saying. Absolutely. If you give those guys guaranteed money and big money, then why wouldn't everybody else want it that was somewhat deserving and was a main event guy. Right. They're going to want the same thing. And this financial marvel was not flexible enough to make that happen. Just the finances of that deal, just undoable at that point in time. So like I said, when I first heard the rumors and all this stuff, I talked to the guys. You know, I believe there are going to be more honest with me than they are with Vince sometimes. Right. And I just knew that Kevin was gone. He was out of there. And I don't blame you. What other decision could he make? No, that's the best decision for him and his family. It was the right call. Absolutely. So right call. So, you know, and I get WWE loyalists, how they were thinking. I get it. But there was to me, I was disappointed those guys left, especially Kevin. But I don't know, man. It was very frustrating. It was an one of the worst things as an administrator and that role is getting in the situation, Conrad, where you're in a place where you can't solve a problem. And Jimmy Johnson, the football coach, said one time that if I can't solve a problem, the only thing I have left to do is to eliminate the problem. And I didn't know that I didn't think there's anything else we could do. I'm just going to cut to come from Vince. Period. One and only. And it just was going to happen. And we had to prepare for their exit and go to plan B and at the end of the day, I think everybody came out pretty good on that deal. Oh, yeah, I would think it worked out just fine. Yeah. Well, listen, you mentioned at the top of the show, you're going to be enjoying 80° weather this
The Jim Ross Report
"kevin nash" Discussed on The Jim Ross Report
"Say, so yeah, that could be a pain in the ass. And because they knew they had a knit. Right. And that was the old man's adoration of Sean. Vince told me more than one occasion. He reminds me of me. Oh, wow, yeah. Yeah. Attitudinal. You know, and all that good stuff. So, but they parlayed that card sometimes a little too much. And then you get them by themselves. And you say, well, why don't you guys do that? How did you think that's going to help the company or yourself or anybody else? It's being like a child. Right. And that's how I talk to them. I didn't confront them. I converse with them. And more often or not, they'd have remorse. But that's what we got a lot of heat on them. Because they're taking advantage of Sean's relationship with Vince. And kind of seeing where the damn balls on the land wasn't good, it was one of my more challenging times in that role as a head of talent relations. Do you remember there being any specific instance with Kevin Nash? As far as this quote unquote, click bad behavior. Specific not only is almost a group effort, Connie. Okay. Almost a group effort. They were together. Right. They were together and they were loyal to each other, which I did admire. They had too much to offer to conduct themselves the way that they did. And it just bred this content. And that's kind of how I see that thing. It's just, it just, it was unsettling. And lolli talents, for example, like a Bret Hart didn't have much patience for that shit. Be honest with you. But he wasn't the only one. Right. So those things are sooner than later going to change. Kevin's going to enter the Royal Rumble and be last eliminated by Shawn Michaels here. It's the 96 for a rumble. And then he gets involved in Bret Hart's match with the undertaker for the world title. He's going to pull the riff out of the ring and that saves the title for Brett. Of course it sort of screws off the undertaker in the process. And Kevin Nash flips off everyone in the ring. This is important because this is the first time that we've seen the middle finger used on WWF TV. This is January 96, several months before there's a hint of an Austin three 16, so to speak. Yeah. The edginess is this a calculated measure decision measured decision by Vince because if you listen to Eric Bischoff, he would say, well, Vincent started doing any of this attitude shit until after the end of yo got hot. Well, the NWO's not even a thing here because Kevin Nash is still in the company, but we've got a middle finger here, but again, it's from Kevin Nash. Do you remember that being a hot topic or discussed heavily? Oh, yeah, a little bit of a hot topic because it's controversial. And I don't see it as a big deal to be honest with you. Sure. I thought much was made of, but kind of undeserving. Too big a deal was made of. Yeah, there you go. And that's when the universal hand signals in the world. It is. It is. So it kind of crossed a lot of barriers, a lot of boundaries. A lot of borders. But I never thought I thought it was a little bit overblown quite frankly. I don't have a problem with us doing it. But I don't think it was a deal breaker, our deal maker. It's just one of those nuances that, you know, we talk about it. I don't know. It's just funny to me what the big deal and what's not a big deal. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, we know that we've got a new edge of your diesel here, listen, you're helping run talent relations, when did you know that diesel's contract was coming up? Was there a conversation about how the business might be shifting or we just had him with the title? We got to hang on to him. What do we need to do to make him happy? Talk to us from your perspective about when that process started and what he felt the chief concerns would be for me the Kevin or Vince. Well, I think that, you know, you're always putting up fires in that talent relations role. And anybody that's got that job is in for a challenge. I think Vince wanted to keep, I think this like Kevin a lot. Because of Kevin's relationship with Sean, especially was to open the door for dialog with the chairman and Kevin. And then Kevin will take that ball and run with it. I think the answer didn't want to make it a hardship for Kevin to get out of there. At least that's my take on it. But I wasn't surprised. That Kevin wanted out. But I was, and I never dreamed at the NWO which thing. Right. And what a thing at that time. It became a thing. Quite frankly, it became a big thing. Maybe the biggest thing ever is certainly in the analyst of WCW. They didn't do anything down there bigger than the NWO. That was don't you think that's Eric's claim to fame? No deal. I think it's arguably one of the biggest angles in the history of wrestling. Yeah, all right. Smart booking. Yeah. Maximizing your minutes of the talents that are willing to make a commitment.
The Jim Ross Report
"kevin nash" Discussed on The Jim Ross Report
"So listen, after that in your house, where Vince was pretty upset at the end of the Bret Hart. The British bulldog diesel match. He's going to program Brent against diesel at Survivor Series. And that's going to end Kevin's one year title reign, Brad's going to win with a small package and the camera is going to get a tight shot on diesel's face immediately after he sits up out of the small package finish as diesel Yale's motherfucker and then he powerbombs twice after the bell and destroys referees. So our baby face diesel is frustrated that he lost, cursing got this harder edge, powerbombing Brett twice after the bell, no regard for the referees. This attitude change is probably much needed for the character here now. Yeah, it was. But listen, this is Vince's idea. Yes. It was about what a Kevin Nash did this. Kevin S followed orders. He ran the plays that the head coach wanted to be run. And I remember that day, Kevin was, you know, nobody likes to have your run or your reign, whatever you want to say, ended. No. Especially when he believed it to be premature. And he did. He thought he was still, you know, he thinks it's sort of continue on. And he said, well, what do you think about the finish? I said, Kevin is a wrestling hold. Inside cradle is not a con, please. It's not a bad thing. Right. And I said, you know, the commentary is going to take care of that. You know, it was a strategic in how you use it. You get you off your feet. And it was a simple one, two, three kick out. And there you go. I was watching last night, so many things you pick up that they were talking about the undertaker and finishes and things like that. It showed him beating King Kong Bundy. Taker. And the unfortunate thing, I would middle edit here if I was those guys, but they showed me kicking out at a good fat. Three. Yeah. Kick out. It was chicken shit. And I always liked it. I was the best at talking about it. I said Bruce has done this. You stealing money. It's stealing money. So he kicked out at two and a half or almost, he got the three. Three K and that's not good. That didn't help anybody. No. And also ironically, you didn't see a lot of Bundy after that. Oh, yeah, that's right. It's all riding on the wall. The Bundy was more concerned about doing the honors than he was doing what was called for and doing the right thing. So that's how that works sometimes. But Kevin McKeon was concerned about the finish, not necessarily doing the favor as much as what are we going to do to make this happen? And I told him the logic behind an inside cradle and how I was going to call it. And he got, it got the match in the ring and it got the finish that we needed. And then finish we needed was for it to go over. To the best of your understanding, to the best of your knowledge, and the champion make more money back then. What do you mean? Like, as far as, you know, Kevin Nash losing the title. Will that have represented a pay cut for him on his payoffs? Eventually it could have, yeah. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's the bottom line that people look at, Connie, you know, cash. Yes. Cash is king. And all of our lives. Well, that's what I wanted to bring up, because I know you said, you know, he was concerned about this or that or whatever. Well, here's the reality. Creatively, maybe you might be saying, hey, who gives a shit? Well, if it's going to affect your income and this is your job, then yeah, you might care. If your job came, if your boss came to you and said, hey, we're going to have you do something else. You want to be willing to do it. But it's okay to ask questions about. Do I still get paid the same? Because I think that's logical. I think in that, I don't remember what we paid there's too many payoffs I did back in those days. But I believe that I would be surprised that both those guys didn't make the same and I may have paid Kevin a little bit more money than Brent because he was the incumbent champion, passing the torch. Right. So the model would have logic would be, well, let's take care of him on his way out, so to speak. Put a little extra cheese on his whopper, and she's like, say a little bit more sauce in the ribs. All her today. So the next night on raw, you and Vince McMahon are talking about Kevin Nash's or diesel rather's new attitude on commentary. And even in an interview, Kevin would complain about how the company packaged him and that wasn't the real diesel, and of course we're trying to explain our behavior. Hey, you're just now seeing the real me. Well, behind the scenes it's around this era where we started seeing the newsletters that they were reports that the quote unquote click that we referenced earlier were causing some pretty major morale problems in the locker room. There are some people who are upset that Sean seemingly never loses a title in the ring. He always forfeits it or surrenders it or there's something going on and supposedly the click is held up some house shows from starting on time and maybe they've been problematic about refusing to do jobs, you're a part of talent relations here, spearheading the doggone thing. What sort of headaches if any is the click representing for you? They were ample headaches. They were very strong. And again, the catalyst is if you're watching on YouTube right now, that young man in the middle. Shawn Michaels. He was a communicator. He was the he was a liaison between that group of news X park and Scott.
The Jim Ross Report
"kevin nash" Discussed on The Jim Ross Report
"Try it? Why not try it, because it's not going to, it's not going to break the bank by any stretch the imagination, and what you're doing, you might not be aware of it right now at this moment, what you're doing is you're buying the best razor blade on the market. Give it a shot. I think you're going to love it. I sincerely do. Check it out right now. Hanson shaving dot com slash JR. And use that promo code JR. Let's jump back into the program here. His first big pay per view is champ. They sold that is, is the 95 Royal Rumble where he's taking on Bret Hart. So this is a baby face versus baby face match that ends in a no contest. Maybe in hindsight, not exactly the best way to present your new champion. Could we agree? It wasn't. It was not maybe. It was not the right way to promote the new champion. Sometimes we get so wrapped up on the win loss column. The record, you know, unless there's a Goldberg story in there where you know, over a hundred matches and all that good stuff, then records are not all of a sudden they're meaningless. But they're not as important as some people give it credit. Give it credit for. And so. That was a misstep. That was a missed it. They didn't do the champion or the championship. Any favors. Sean's going to go on to win the rumble. So that's that's up diesel versus Sean for the title at WrestleMania. Although that's not really the main event spot, that's not what goes on last. That honor goes to Lawrence Taylor versus bam bam Bigelow. And listen, let's just start right here. For all the flak that Kevin has gotten over the years about being the worst drawing champion in history, first of all, they didn't light in main event WrestleMania. They put a football player in his first match and there against bam bam Bigelow. And I think we all agree LT did a more than passable job. But the world title didn't go on last. So he wasn't even the featured storyline. And even then, his first storyline after winning the world championship and going on to have his first pay per view, the Royal Rumble. It's babyface versus babyface, which we've proven in this era. It just doesn't work. Hulk Hogan and ultimate warrior was not the return we hoped for, Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart later in 1996 was not the return we hoped for, this babyface thing, like we've got snake bit booking for lack of a better word. If this is what we're gonna judge Kevin Nash on, we got at least add some context to say, the creative sucked. Yeah, you have to ask the context of that without question. I said, there are a lot of this test and how caven was booked in the early going. But going back to what we said earlier, it didn't deter him. Right. He didn't get frustrated to say, you know, screw this. Right. I'm not going to, I'm not going to, I can't stand it. I'm not going to take any more. I want Kevin. He knew the process. And when something got hot and Vince could recognize something was hot. Then that's where you go. No matter what his name was. Diesel or Kevin Nash or whatever it may be. Still the same guy. Still the same guy and I like the reality based stuff. I like it now and I'd like to then and I'm going to share as hell like it tomorrow. I'm going to lock it in a lot this Sunday on pay per view. Yeah. Just it's a no brainer. That's how I, that's how I process for my job. And you know, but I understand Bruce's passion is one of the great things about Bruce. Yes. Passion for the product. He still does. And I asked you before we started taking it, I saw picture the other day, I said, is this hair white? So in that schedule he's got. It wouldn't surprise me quite frankly. So, but anyway, that's just personal opinion, personal take. And if we're mature adults, and some of us are at times, then it doesn't matter that you disagree. I think this disagreement, especially in the creative process, is good for good for business. And so I got no issues with Bruce about that whatsoever. And I understand his logic. And I don't totally disagree with it. But on this particular case, on the diesel versus Kevin Nash argument, I err on the side of Kevin Nash being fine. And again, just go back and look at the end story, the endgame. If you look at the endgame, the guy that's famous is a diesel. The guy that's famous and made his most money as what? Kevin Nash. Well said, we know that when he does get his world title match at WrestleMania against Shawn Michaels, it's quite the performance. I think diesel has come out and said, Sean was trying to blow him up, but Sean gets over big time as a babyface for his performance in this match. The very next night on Monday Night Raw, they're going to have him be attacked by his bodyguard said. So now
The Jim Ross Report
"kevin nash" Discussed on The Jim Ross Report
"And I think that's kind of what we wanted to do. I think that some of the consensus was, and Bruce, and I would be able to as well. He fell in love with some of these characters that you are involved in helping nurture. And, you know, obviously Bruce like diesel. And which is cool. But I didn't have any issues with the transition from a diesel to Kevin Nash. And it wouldn't have caused you as a basketball player. The owner wanted more reality based storylines. And it's hard to sell that concept if you don't have something real tangible that people can believe in. And if they want to go do a Wikipedia search or something, there's this information we're talking about. So I don't know. I can see Bruce's point to certain degree, but I think as it worked out at the end of the day, Kevin Nash became one of the biggest stars in the history of pro wrestling. Not diesel. Well, you're talking about an interesting time for the company here. We want to add context. This is the worst year financially for the company since Vince has taken over. And he's on the heels of the whole steroid trial and Hulk Hogan's no longer here, and he's trying to find his next big hit. And one of the things he does is a sit down interview here with Kevin Nash, and our buddy Bruce would say, I remember almost begging to not do that. A goddamn sit down interview the way they did back then. Tell me about your college career. Tell me about Kevin. We killed him right there. And that moment we killed what we had spent all that time building, that's the 100% truth. Jim Ross was pushing that in order to have a champion that people would believe it, believe in. You had to give them real things to believe in. They had to know the real story. But yet not one time, would you sit there and take Hulk Hogan and go, tell me, Terry, when you were in the band, you played bass, right? That's a different deal though. Bruce is trying to make justify his opinion when you're in the band. Yes. God damn it, being in the band are being a bass player and got shit to do with being a division one, college athlete. And so go ahead. But I could see her framing his argument, like an attorney. Yes. Who would bring that up and why? Why would you want to? Diesel was a character. Kevin Nash was a person, and the audience was in love with the character. They didn't know the person. You keep the person mysterious and a mystique, when he becomes just like your buddy that went to college and played a year on the team, what's special about him anymore. You don't want people to relate to your top megastar. That last line resonates with me because I don't think I've ever heard someone phrase it like that before. You don't want people to relate to your top megastar, I don't get that. Yeah. Sell me on that concept, Conrad, because I don't get it. Well, listen, I mean, I think, you know, I don't think anybody could relate with The Ultimate Warrior. You know, that sort of thing, but I think Steve Austin, everyone could identify with, man, I hate my boss too. You know, so that sort of thing clicks. I don't know, but it's an interesting take, and clearly you and Bruce saw it different ways, but ultimately, we know where events fell on it because we know what happened. Yeah. And you know, I met, I'm not sure and Bruce probably had more meetings with Vincent I did. At a certain time, but you know, Conrad, this says he wants to be more reality based. And I don't know what we were doing wrong. To follow the mandate of the owner. That's what he wanted. It doesn't matter if it's the right thing or the wrong thing to do. That's what the boss wanted. And if you're a smart businessman, you try to acquiesce. Right. You try to provide the boss. What do you want? I guarantee you, you do. Right. And your company. Sure. Your people know what's their pardon me. They're marching orders are. Yeah. So I don't know. I mean, you know, I think the world of brucey and his kids and all that. And he's a friend. And he's always going to be my friend. But that don't mean we always had to get along and agree on every point. So I think Vince knew that. And so what it did, I gave this filter in and processed Bruce's opinion. And he could filter and process my opinion. Sometimes Bruce had better ideas than I did. Probably more often than not, quite frankly. But I knew what the boss told me he wanted to do. That's not what he started to evolve in the women's portion of the presentation. He wanted me to go out and recruit and find athletic tens. And so that's not easy. And we did our best to find athletic tens and that has led to this women's division that we currently see on WWE. AWS women's division is growing exponentially and I like the Jamie haters gotten over. And for deferred one example and she's a tough physical waltman and I love her game. But what we've done, I think we've done a good job. We did a good job of hiring athletic tens, traditional leaders or two examples. And they closed the raw. That was historic at that time. And that got and the guys didn't understand it. Because they were used to that segment in 11 or 11 at that time in two hour shows. 11 segments on Monday Night Raw and those that segment ten and 11 were essentially reserved for the guys. Female had never been in a match or in a key presentation. Key casting or keep booking
The Jim Ross Report
"kevin nash" Discussed on The Jim Ross Report
"He figured it out early as we've established and it kept adding to that resume. So yeah, he was, he was a keeper in all phases. That's what he was saying well, I don't understand what the magic was. So the magic is simple. It's called a data. It's called 7 feet tall. It's called 300 pounds. It's called being athletic. And not being a box of rocks and not being very smart. Nobody could ever say that about Kevin Nash. Well, the smartest guys ever in pro wrestling. By the time you come back, we see that diesel is still the Intercontinental Champion, but now Sean is at ringside for him and him and his little buddy Shawn Michaels are going to win the tag titles from the headshrinkers, the night before SummerSlam 94, but at SummerSlam, diesel loses his intercontinental title to razor. Thanks to a miscommunication with Shawn Michaels, and I guess it's time to tell that story, these will actually turns babyface at the 94 Survivor Series. When Sean again accidentally hits a superkick on diesel, and they vacate the tag titles. Just three days later, November 26th, 1994, diesel defeats the new WWF champion bob backlund in just 8 seconds at Madison Square Garden unheard of and becomes the world champion. Yeah, you know, that guy on Kevin, some of the guys in the locker room because, you know, backlin was a legendary figure long, longtime champion, very popular guy. It's hard not to like Bobby batlin for God's, if you did, didn't like Opie Taylor. Or any other redhead that you could think of. So big and Bobby in the garden. Or he had had some of his greatest successes. It was a shocker. Especially amplified when he went bob did the favor in 8 seconds. So a lot of the talent didn't understand that. I just wanted to get younger, I wanted to get some different looks, different feel. And Kevin could do that if he was given that opportunity. I don't know the former champion, the legendary champion in 8 seconds. It sounds good. But I don't know at the end of the day, quite frankly, how good I don't know if it was as good as it sounded. But I don't know if people were shocked about it. And there are some veterans that didn't understand Vince's logic and looking at that way. Listen, I understand why you would book it that way in terms of you don't want diesel. You want to launch diesel, but you don't necessarily want to quote unquote hurt Brett. So you need a transitional champion, a bad guy, somebody who's easily hateable. I get it from that respect. But Bruce Pritchard has said on his podcast, the disagreed with how the company started to present diesel, once he became champion. So we had this transition from the diesel character where he's this voiceless giant bodyguard on the outside of the ring for Shawn Michaels. And we've told that horsham, that whole Shawn Michael's story, but now we're going to have him just talking a little maybe too much according to Bruce. Bruce would say, well, I don't think it was necessarily working and it goes back to day one of, okay, here's diesel and he's your champion. And we wanted to be this big baby face. So he's going to lead everybody in prayer and then let's sing, we wish you a Merry Christmas. He seized being diesel, and it became, well, diesel is Kevin Nash. He was at east Tennessee playing basketball in one quarter at one time. He scored four points. All of a sudden everything I loved about diesel went away because he became Kevin Nash from east Tennessee university in a basketball player. Now, of course, Bruce is just tongue in cheek here, but he says, everything that was cool about him went away because everybody, because somebody felt goddamn, we've got to have credentials. You've got to have a real story about these guys. He could have been a two and a half time all American. Nobody gives a shit. They thought diesel was cool. He kicked people's asses, and when he ceased to become diesel, the audience, or an intrigued by Kevin Nash at this point in time. Well, Rosie's got satisfaction. Obviously, he got the wrong university. Yeah, it's Tennessee. He was saying that to be funny. But I think the gist is, he's trying to say, sometimes we create a character that's larger than life, but when we humanize them, it does them no favors. I can understand that statement. And he was saying, respectfully, that no matter how we're bragging about him, actually having an athletic background at the university of Tennessee, he didn't go on to become Michael Jordan. So let's not necessarily brag about the fact that he played ball if he didn't become this larger than life superstar there because he already is one as diesel and of course, I mean, let's just call it like it is. He's basically saying he's laying this at your feet because you were there always the guy that we fans are most associate with, giving us their athletic background. And I offer one as a fan like that when he would say, you know, doctor death was a two time all American or whatever. And when you started to tell us about Ron Simmons, I remember that like it was yesterday. I had no knowledge of that. He was just a guy from doom, but now that he's the babyface champion, you're telling me all of that and I'm seeing him run the steps at the stadium in the Jersey. Man, that's cool. I dig it. But I could also see Bruce's point here that you do that when you're trying to get a guy over, maybe it's a step backwards if he's already over. What do you make of this? I don't think decent was that over. I would argue that point with Bruce a little bit, he was the most over that he had ever been in his career. There's no doubt about that. But I didn't think that the transition from diesel to Kevin Nash was nothing but good. And I think it worked out to prove my point was accurate.
The Jim Ross Report
"kevin nash" Discussed on The Jim Ross Report
"I'm curious, you know, this group is going to start to form here because it's a relationship between Kevin and Sean and we know razor and diesel and the one two three kid, Shawn Michaels, they become the real-life click and a lot has written and been said about that. When do you remember seeing them all together in thinking, not like with a capital K or capital C or whatever? Hey, look, this is a new little click of gots here because a lot of little pockets of talent, these guys are friends and those guys are friends. That's not really new in wrestling, right, Jim. No, no, it's not new at all. Factions are one of my favorite things to follow and talk about, see evolve and stuff. All those guys were hungry. They're all talented. They all have product knowledge, which I thought was very, very important. And they had chemistry. They all got along. They all traveled together and they share information and, you know, those car trips that people were here talking about, well, he worked 500 days that year. Come on. But nobody worked 500 a day. Right. But you know, they just, it was just a perfect marriage with those dudes. And I think it and Scott hall was one of the great minds in pro wrestling. Some people may not really be aware of. Scott was, he was brilliant. And he held Kevin so you got now you got a tutor in Shawn Michaels, you got another tutor in Scott hall, and they're both streetwise. Yes. They will have product knowledge, and they all were hungry. They all wanted to make more money, and they knew to do that, they had to get over. And that's what these guys did. They were all unselfish with each other, which I thought was kind of cool. The big breakout moment for diesel happens at the 1994 Royal Rumble Match. He has a dominant performance here. He eliminates 7 other guys in the match, and this is always something that we talk about now. Yes, we talk about who won. Yes, we talk about who lasted the longest, but we also talk about who had the most eliminations. And, you know, it's used that stat of being dominant and throw in so many guys over, has gone on to establish a lot of talent over the years, sort of their breakout performance. I remember Roman Reigns had one like that before he became world champ and things and people often refer to that now in the course of a rumble match is, oh, he's in the diesel spot. So it really is a planned breakout performance for him and probably a good way to do it. Just show his size and how he can throw guys around. Yeah, I think that's a no brainer. I think you're right on the money there. He just kept evolving and learning and getting smarter and he had a good mind for finishes. And the execution of a game plan and so forth. Kayla is no dummy, man. Kevin Nash is one of the smartest guys that I was ever around in all my years in wrestling. He got it. And he also knew how to get reminded every day, hey, I'm 7 feet tall. I got good feet. Meaning he's got good athleticism. Coordination, so forth. So he was, he was paying attention, Conrad. Let's put it that way. He was paying attention and he had aligned himself with the right people because if you're Sean side at that point in time, you soon realize that he wielded a lot of power. And then he had his big buddy there and I think sometimes Kendall was believe it or not, it may not look like it. But I think Sean was a steadying influence to Kevin, but more importantly, I think that Kevin was a stating influence to Sean. And at that time, Sean had me more stability and if it's coming from is a big bodyguard, then so be it. But I think this was just a real, it came along with the right place at the right time, the right guys were affiliated with each other at the right guys for on each other side. They had a good team effort. So I was trying to get better and get more upwardly mobile on the booking because again, if Kevin had an idea, all he's got to do is tell Sean and Sean would talk to the old man. Right. So that was a good line of communication. A lot of guys did not have. Somebody would say, well, this is the troublemaker dot org. No, it's just Kevin was never a troublemaker. Kevin just didn't take no for an answer very often, and he's also very bright. He knew what worked and what didn't work. For him. And every time I got to figure that out, what's it going to take? What's it going to, what's it going to take to get me to the next level of consistent main events where there's more money to split up? Well, we're going to talk about him drawing money, but before we do, we should mention that for most in 1994, you're not there in the company, but we would see diesel become the Intercontinental Champion. And I'm sure you're at least keeping up with the product. What do you think of the evolution of Kevin Nash? He was certainly getting more comfortable in the character and becoming more comfortable in front of the camera now. Yeah, oh yeah. He was getting better and better every student of the game. He wouldn't
The Jim Ross Report
"kevin nash" Discussed on The Jim Ross Report
"Of this red dye number two. Parents all around America were buying frankenberry, so only a few days after the cereal was released, kids all across the country started being rushed to hospitals, all of them had one symptom in common. Theories of the third kind on YouTube or wherever you listen. I wonder from your perspective, when you're still here in WCW before you leave and join Vince McMahon and the WWF. And we're going to talk about that. Before that happens, you know what's going on in wrestling. You know that wrestling is on a down and really there's two companies here. You can make a living out in America. WCW, which is the company you're part of and you've seen what they've done with Kevin so far. And the other is Vince McMahon's WWF. There's no third horse in this race. You got to work in one of these two spots or go to Japan. That's kind of understood in the industry at the time. Did you think just seeing Kevin's natural size? His height and weight and what's going on in the WWF with their pushback on the whole steroid trial. They can't be promoting ultimate warrior body types right now. Just reading the tea leaves and knowing the industry, did you know in your heart he's only going to make money or find massive success with Vince. Well, I thought Vince would probably utilize him more objectively. There you go. And I thought that Vince could see that when you got a guy that's 7 feet as we estimate, you know, almost 300 pounds. Maybe he was 300 pounds at that point in time. He was a big man. I think that events had a better vision. And Vincent had to go through a panel of people to get validation that Kevin was worth the risk. You don't run across too many 7 foot athletes. That have an aptitude for pro wrestling, and Kevin Nash did. McMahon, you know, you don't have to have one meeting with Kevin. If you're Vince, to get sold on it. Because he said that engaging. He's smart, he can converse. And all that good stuff. So I like the, I like what he brought to the table, but more importantly, make a man like what Kevin brought to the table. And saw something in it. And Kevin had what you call stage presence. He looked great. He said the right things. You know, he was a good representative to the company. I mean, hell, he all of a sudden became the champion. And that didn't happen that often. So I just, I love his story that we're telling here because it just shows you that he is a, he was a keeper. And he was going to be successful, come hell or high water. And he made the right contacts, business wise. He became friends with Sean and Michael that helped with the McMahon led company being on the good side of Shawn Michaels is the right move. For Kevin, and they became thousand and so forth. I know he was Sean's bodyguard. I thought that was a real good booking. Although those two together had something that was different special. And it led to great things. It's a great pairing and that's actually how Kevin Nash debuts happens on June 3. Just a few months after you jump ship and join Vince McMahon's company, he's going to be the bodyguard for Sean, as you said, and even helps Sean win the intercontinental title for Marty Jan and house show, and I think the first time we see Kevin and Sean and yourself all together, is king a ring 1993. Yeah. Is this one of those deals where you just knew, listen, there's not a lot of news stories in wrestling, right? You can often see the same storyline sort of recycled and different generations. Oh, this is like when they did this with so and so. When you see this pairing of this guy and quote unquote, his big buddy. And we just saw this play out a few years ago with wardlow and MJF and more modern wrestling. You just know eventually these guys are buddies, but eventually they're going to be opponents for each other, right? It's inevitable. Yes. That's how the formula works. Yes. You'll be able to personal relationship on screen. And then you take it on a little journey. Kevin and Kevin, Kevin was helped, I think, by his relationship with Sean because Sean was very street smart, he's a territory guy. I remember when Sean came in as a rookie, thanks to his trainer, Jose lothario, down there, San Antonio, a great legend, and a good man, so Sean had a good, solid, fundamental background. And so he had knowledge. And he was willing to share that knowledge and that street smart ability that Sean had with Kevin. So Kevin got a break there, I think, because he traveled together. They conversed, communicated well, and so it was a marriage that seemingly had a chance to make good money. The business cycle was not good at that point in time. And so I know I've read where, well, Kevin Nash was the he drew less money than any WWF champion blah blah blah. I don't know that to be true, be honest with you. And if it were, it wasn't his fault. You can't take the blame for the downward cycle in pro wrestling at that point in time. But he got put with the right guy and that was good vision. I know that it seems to me like that Shane McMahon gave Kevin his name diesel. That's how I recall it. And so it was the whole evolution of Kevin Nash was compelling to me. And it still is. The narrative about him being the worst drawing champion. I do want to talk about that. But before we do, I just want to talk about, you know, sort of reiterating what you were saying about what a good pairing this is for Kevin Nash. I mean, he's in there when he starts his WCW career with other green guys. But now he's getting to stand and watch and be a part of putting together matches with Shawn Michaels. It's a no brainer. He's going to be the voiceless bodyguard for Sean, but he's paying attention of what works and what doesn't work and all that. And eventually he does start to become more and more involved in the ring. Some of that happens when Sean has some out of the ring issues.
The Jim Ross Report
"kevin nash" Discussed on The Jim Ross Report
"He carried those young ladies around with him. And I'm sitting at the Alamo Plaza hotel, there are two element places in Shreveport, one was the old one that was $8 a day, and the other one was probably 15. You know which one I stayed at, the $8 a day job. So. I don't know. He just, he never would, he never would quit. that tells me that he had, he was all in. And I always admired that with Kevin, because he hasn't allows he asked gimmicks. That he didn't create any of them. Right. What he did create was Kevin Nash. How simple is that? I mean, I didn't think he's an intelligent guy. He's a college guy. He served his country. He did all the right things. So I really, when I looked at the notes today, the one thing that stuck out to me is the fact that he wouldn't go away. Right. He knew what he wanted. He wanted to be in the business. He wanted to be a star and 99% of the talents that I've ever known. He wanted to make more money. And eventually, that happened. All right, let's try to time out right now and this is an important message that I'm passionate about. Press pause. You know, they say that you got to know the rules of the game in order to win.
The Jim Ross Report
"kevin nash" Discussed on The Jim Ross Report
"And so anytime you can get close to a pro wrestler in a gym, you know, you get pretty good communication skills. These renters are guarded. And they're careful about who they talk to or what they say so forth. So he met the right people to kind of get him started. And I used to have him early, early on. I had a radio show in Atlanta, WSB radio, a and 7 50 WSB, every Sunday Night, and 9 o'clock Eastern Time for an hour. And at that time of the night, the signal went into 37 states. So I had a good audience and a big audience at that time, but what I needed to guess, and I hadn't had anybody booked, either talked to on the phone or in the studio, Kevin was kind of my go to. Because he said he could talk about anything. I could talk about the falcons, I could talk about the hawks, whatever it may be. And so he was the right place right time. Again, and we all can learn from this. Just don't take no for an answer if you love something is strong enough. Don't let anybody deter you, and he was, I think that's the critical kind of where he was. So and he made the right call. Joining WCW and getting into the power plant was the right call, eventually we see him make his television debut for the company as one half of the master blasters, his character's name is steel, and his partner, of course, is iron. He sporting an orange Mohawk, well, maybe not their finest attempt at debuting a new person, but still, they'd be Brad Armstrong and Tim Horner at clash of the champions in September of 1990, and after a couple of weeks, iron is replaced by blade and the team lasts until early 1991 when Nash's partner leaves, again, so Nash is just the master blaster for a few months. Man, you know, this is not a story like anybody else's. I mean, obviously he's a physical specimen, big old dude, but now we're just rotating tag team partners and then when they all abandon ship, he's like, okay, we'll just we'll do it by yourself. Clearly you got saw potential. I mean, this is a monster of a man who's well spoken and you just got to find the right secret sauce, right? Yeah, pretty much. And it's not there's no formula for it. You got to have some luck. You're going to have a willing participant on the other side. And that wants to be a star, as willing to pay the price and work hard to learn or craft. And so he was always that way to use that way to me. I just thought he had the right attitude and he was a great communicator. You know, anybody that works on a bar in a successful club, like the cheetah, knows how to defuse things, which means he knows how to communicate. So that's kind of where I see I saw Kevin in that regard, but he just really highly intelligent. Highly intelligent. He learned how to play the game. And I say that respectfully, because we all got to learn to play the game. It also should play in the game. And so Kevin, I consider Kevin with my best Friends and wrestling. To this very day, I used to spend a loyal guy. I felt so hurt for him. He lost his son, you know. And he was so young and the love of Kevin's life. His personal was a good kid. And I felt really bad about that. I talked to Kevin about that. At length, I want to happen. And it's hard to figure out, you go make a phone call. That's a hard phone call to make. I wish your condolences to a father, this lost his son. So he's had a tough year in that regard. But nonetheless, he's kept a pretty good attitude. You know, I really admire what he's doing in that regard, how you handled it. I don't know that I could handle it that well. Yeah. But I will never find out. Well, sir, we know that we're going to find out what a gamer, mister Kevin Nash is, because by later in 1991, we're going to try something different. Not just the master blaster. Now we're going to try him as Oz. We're going to die his hair silver and clearly this is a reference to the big balls. Ted Turner picking up the rights for The Wizard of Oz. And we're trying to colorize those things and preserve them. And it's crazy to think. I mean, at the time, people were questioning the wisdom of Ted picking up some of these historical films like Gone with the Wind and all that and having it as part of his library. Knowing what we know now, that was pretty damn smart. Yeah, it was. We're going to monetize and maximize your investment. I did not lock the os character. No, I didn't think that was his fit. Everything's had to be a gimmick. I think that might have been best idea. That's the rumor. That's the word. I'm not real sure, but I think that's right. I'm not damning dusty. I mean, all of us have done some booking, have had successes, and we've had failures. I just didn't think that fit Kevin. I thought we're underscoring his abilities and, you know, he just had more to offer than an extension of a cartoon character type thing. And so, but you know, the thing about it, when you get a guy that looks like him, good-looking guy,
The Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast
"kevin nash" Discussed on The Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast
"Up in the show. Let's try to get in a caller to in an email or two nine five to you're up next state what city you're from moscow. This is brian. I'm calling from minneapolis. Minnesota one question and that's just in regards to the new championships that wwe has as the brand. Listen my my questions. You is perspective to someone who is a newer viewer to product. How do they how do you explain. There have been finding veteran in these championships that look almost identical and in many ways are what's the difference between the champions and why should you care. I mean it almost becomes like boxing worth so murky and so many different federations who is the true world champion. And it'd be it's never really answered unless www wrestlemainia. But i don't think they're ever gonna really wanna do that until they if they decide to end this again and go back to a unified product What is your thoughts on the look at the championships and then how do you think people in the end of this perceived the look of those championships being so especially the women's tag team and the world's universal looking so much alike. Thanks guys and a great show. Thanks brian appreciate your call and get here. Titles kevin i. I'm not a fan. You know but then again a fan of that. The the spinner. Or you know the thing is this is if you know if put up a graphic once a week Each it's the it's the champions and has like you know the ms cic champion and then underneath that there was a top ten like in boxing like the. These are the next ten guys. This is the first you know this one. Two three four five six zero and lying for that shot. And then that way of if six i ten happens at night and ten goes over. There means something. But i think if you're gonna if you're gonna make it evolved doubts and make the belts looks so generic. Then you've gotta take you got to pick the the psychology of a fighting for these belts right. This is what we're doing. 'cause all of a sudden i can tell that his belt illinois have is when he was a difficult about like they all fit the personalities of the people. It's just. I don't know i to me. It's like boxing. You know it's not the real belt. It's not green so some british some british tavassoli number world. Bella what does that. What does that so that i agree with that but it is. It's just it's it's very complicated box you. It's i compare it to the stanley cup. I don't want you know the pittsburgh penguins leading a stanley cup. Skating around with black and yellowish gold cups shaped.
The Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast
"kevin nash" Discussed on The Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast
"Trump be president. What prompts you to say that. What scares you and causes you to look at international house hunters with the prospect office punk trump. I number one. I mean i mean just just since since since he's been on the scene like the hate levels that's the last thing you need. You know i just. I really thought at some point in my life that sort of talking about kind of people who just talked about like mankind. That would be the only kind of people just man. China's we're still talking in shades and tones sexual preferences it's just like you know for it but we don't just sixty seven hundred. Eighty got pledged trump rally. Two days ago laying there with their oxygen. But gimmick hitter knows is what i want. I want i want these people All right only people that have have less economic like let's economic sense that i do because they have some really good really good jobs and bring jobs back. You'd better hurry up four. Just put out yesterday the day moving all the small car plants to mexico so those are going like you know how do you get them. Back for tariffs and. Us automakers just six months. What are you gonna do. I haven't heard. I've never heard one piece of strategy. He's wavered on everything everything he's talked about. He's waiver that Do you think you'll build the wall. If he was nominated. Now tell though. It's just i know i know you know i know strongpoints you on politics. That's why why. I thought i'd ask with eric. Here's my thing is. I just can't wait for the first debate yup has has to be dolts. Are real desolate. I believe it goes head to head with monday night raw. So you've got a football game and the first debate going against raw. I'm steering this wrestling for a minute. But it's relevant. I cannot imagine. Why can't imagine i can imagine that ratings going to be. I would be surprised if we see a one five one four that day. I don't think they've ever faced that level of competition given the ratings straw that trump is compared to most politics. That's going to be. Trump says eighteen of those things. Yeah crazy just okay. Let's let's let's bring a caller in here on new york city home of hillary end donald Seven one eight stage name and where you're calling was going on gentlemen. This is from brooklyn doing doing right. Don't way thanks for calling mike Last time i spoke to you we we or way. We all concurred. And you stand bottom agreement of you know show coming up and being a phone. Ideal opponent for brock lesnice adults to that. Do you think like it would be more suitable for him to come in like all smackdown and being such like they brian. That you know can't go. No but he got the no surprise opponent for the ms and it ends up being joe and then you just ask go on its head from you know from i guess maybe the next table you all the way up until mania hasn't be like the guy that saying you know shame mitch is. The goal is brought also How would you like. How would reform the my. How would you have done. You know the club and wwe because to me like it makes no sense to have the role in move. You know having smackdown sacrifices now and now you got h. s. world chen. And that's all i got to the thanks mike.
The Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast
"kevin nash" Discussed on The Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast
"U. f. c. also his thoughts on darin corbin a tall wrestler maligned by ardent fans for not being great unring worker. And maybe being called up too soon. Got kevin ashes evaluation to him also his reaction to the ratings. Wwe's pg rating problem. Shinsegei nakamura's upside on the main roster. His thoughts on kevin owens. He's a fan spoiler alert and also the rise of aj styles. Kevin nash has some great insight into aj rising at his age at that time and his huyton with southern accent and he still won over. Vincent man also thoughts on the new. Wwe belts raven in also his thoughts on the prospects of donald trump as president of the united states this aired five years ago. A live stream on september fifteenth. Two thousand sixteen. Kevin ash speaks his mind. He does so in an entertaining fashion. One of the smartest guests i've ever had on my show. I've probably spent twenty hours interviewing him over the last fifteen years and he is one of my favorite people to talk to about pro wrestling and and really the world. So settling enjoy this. I think you will If you haven't heard this before you're gonna learn a lot be entertained and if you did here when we originally aired it liked me. I think you'll enjoy listening to it reporting comments from From kevin nash had some ups and downs. W w booking But he is in astute observer of pro wrestling and the people involved in it and he's been around just about all the big the big names so here. We go with today's wade. Keller pro wrestling podcast. Weekend flashback four saturday. September eighteenth twenty twenty one. Welcome to the. P w torch live cast. I am wait. Keller editor and publisher of the pro wrestling torch weekly newsletter established in nineteen. Eighty seven back when ronald reagan was president. And i'm also host of this. Dpw torch live cast. Monday's right after tuesday's right after smackdown wednesdays at one eastern with the mid week flagship talking all kinds of current events is pro wrestling and thursdays at one eastern with the interview thursday format.
The Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast
"kevin nash" Discussed on The Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast
"That's the wade. Keller pro wrestling po. Show just search wade. Keller you can also stream the show live at wade. Keller post show dot com about five minutes. After the shows end on monday wednesday and friday night. I want to go to final call. Just a of a plug out to to a new feature on people torch dot com called true false not be d. a. longtime friend. John kudo is joining as a at least for an interim basis as specialists doing a weekly call them raw just taking something that from rod that he learned his true or affirmed that raw firms true and something that raw affirmed is false and then also something that we're keeping an eye out to be determined some nice comment so far from people by email on in the comments section on it. It's in the specialist section or you can look for kofi kingston's picture. He's next to it because john wrote about him. A new feature today on torch dot com. Check it out on the website or on the app. Well now go to a funnel collar up today seven six. Thanks for calling. Please state your name and where you're from. Hey guys todd from augusta georgia. How're you doing. I do go. Thanks for calling holding Your last caller. Or what have you got. Two quick things First one is just a real question. See if you know The global wrestling federation. They'll gw from the early nineties is wwe on that tape library or do you know who does good question I've never seen any footage from it. So i don't think they jason answer to that i don't and you would think that Because they were aired on espn and they air all the classic awa and even you wf stuff at like eleven o'clock central. You'd think that that would have worked. Its way into the mix by now if they own it. So it's a fair question i. I don't know it's something that i'll ask around about. I'm curious now. Yeah i am too. I mean you know one. Two three kid Wilkes You wanna try to think of. W w w w wrestlers who who would show up on a dvd You know that might be worth putting on. I mean it was a fun little ron. It was fun. Promotion to watch For the most part. But i don't know that the library has a tremendous value To vincent man compared to some of the other territories. Go ahead. todd no. I was just i was just thinking about it because i remember growing up watching a little bit of it. So that's why that's why i thought about. Yeah i'm going with the second question this is more about like the nielsen ratings. Because i don't really know anybody who i guess is one of the nielsen. I guess you have to have a box in order to Produce the ratings but say you have one of the nielsen boxes and this question's more for about how the dvr portion of it works. Because normally when i watch raw normally watching on a delay So i'll fast forward the commercials et cetera. And try to catch up with the live show How do the ratings the quarter hour breakdown if you say for example fast forward through a particular part or Like if divas match comes on. I'll be the first one to admit i'm on my. We'll fast forward through that. And then last night with that whole cluster. That was john cena shameless. That whole eight man tag. At the end i did right through that because it was it. Wasn't that interesting to me. But i would stop on the parts like say for example when seeing pumpkin honor and kevin nash and that was going on and some of the better matches. So how would that work out with the ratings jason. I do wanna talk about how that works very good question that i don't have an answer to you. I think you're going to have more on this than i am way. When it comes to to ratings. I mean i know there's dvr numbers that are track as far as speeding through the commercials and how that works fair question. I mean i. I do it for just about everything. Other than live sporting events. So i it's a good question. Hopefully you've got more than i do. Well i i. Yeah i wasn't sure How much you know i. I don't have a definitive answer other than saying that if you are a nielsen family if you're if you're a metered house they know what you're doing You don't have to record it in a book anymore. They know exchanged. And so there's threshold that of watching segment live. If you're not watching it live then. I think you're considered a dvr viewer. What i don't know is does nielsen. Say well if you watch it if you watch it. Within a half hour of the show completed completed are you considered a you're I don't think it matters so much if you fast if you like. Wait a half hour to start watching it and then fast forward through commercials for two hours. I don't think the advertisers care that much. I mean they do to an extent they do. But you can't. I mean it's trying to track that it's like trying to track how many people P really faster really slow and get back in time to see the last commercial like they're just a point and you kinda gotta throw your hands up and go. How many people have a refrigerator within. Tv viewer earshot of the tv. So they can at least see here the commercial while they're getting a soda. You can break it down so much. Advertisers are interested in the aggregate. If you're wired they know you're watching live for sure if you're wired isn't hilton family. They know if you watch it within forty eight hours and they register you. There's a middle ground there and that's the technical aspect i don't know but if you're not a nielsen family you're not counting at all. It's just part of the Part of the math scientifically mathematically sound law of averages that That is all anyone has to go on. But yeah you don't count if you're not a some family and with one of those boxes and by the way i actually have known at least one i think to people who've had nielsen boxes over the years including wade our our friend rob was a nielsen family. At one time. I remember that i remember talking about that. Yeah i'm gonna be seeing him this weekend Anyway any up todd or anything else you only follow up is my. My question was more direct as to how wbz views rating the quarter hour breakdowns. So they say okay well. It looks like rape spiked up. You know during the punk right Segment but at the end of the show the fact that it was yet another john zena standing tall over a whole bunch of guys people kind of fell off at that point because they're tired of seeing the same thing over and over. I was wondering if that if that even though. I'm not a meal family. I'm wondering if there's other people out there that would have just get past all of that just because they're tired of seeing the same thing over and over and it's wbz would actually get that out of the quarter hour right. They actually would They they don't get released publicly but there are minute by minute ratings. Believe it or not where they can actually study ratings patterns permitted and line up with what actually aired on the show and so. Wwe will find that out from live viewers They will not find that out from. Dvr viewers with dvr viewers. I don't even know if they quarter hour ratings for dvr so i think with dvr viewership. I think they get a straight up number. This is how many people watched it but live. Viewership is substantial enough that they would learn what they need to learn. Because if you're the only person in the whole world of you know five six million people watching it doesn't matter if you're the only person doesn't care about you but if you represent twenty five percent of their audience statistically you also don't matter because they'll be twenty five percent of the nielsen families will be recorded slipping away at that moment so the fact that you're not recorded won't matter so if you do matter you don't matter and if you don't matter you do so i just want to make that perfectly clear. Todd we're about to go to another commercial break. Why are you listening to commercial breaks. Why deal with these interruptions when you can become a vip member support the weight. Keller pro wrestling podcasts..
The 3:59
Just bought an Oculus Quest 2? Here are the best VR games
"It's lower priced. Sequel have been hot items during the pandemic lockdown but what are some of the best experiences all the hit. Vr headset roger. Chang and this is your daily charge. He'd offer us. his curated. picks is scott stein a resident. Vr expert welcome scott. Hey thanks so. Let's start with the basics. Tell me a bit about the quest. The oculus quest and quest to the end up to you. I think when you look at the question. The question with facebook is down with them. They now stand alone as a type of product. That doesn't really exist anywhere else. Which is that. they're totally stand. And as a result they're completely wireless and makes a really big deal when use the are. Vr is a is a weird proposition. It's it's kind of clunky you're putting on your head you've got to set it up it's intimidating and i think we're moving as many weirdnesses as possible helps the seamlessness of that moving around with just a headset on and makes me go back to things like playstation vr vr in really get annoyed the cables and the tangle and i think that stuff is really like a huge part of the project feeling that turns people off to vr and as we go forward the quest is only going to be the model for more things trimmed down and become more flexible. Apple's doing or if samsung gets back in the game or whatever else. So i think it's kind of like the boot of the concept and vr's been kevin nash thing. I think it definitely broke out a bit. Mortar the pandemic when we were all locked down but in terms of recommendations. Who do you think should be buying of the headset or early. And oculus quest quest to well. It's not. I keep talking medicine people and in i kind of almost approach it the way i think about smartwatches which is like you don't really need one. And so i feel like you know weird saying you gotta have it. But you don't but i do think if you're looking for something new i think if you're looking for something that's going to maybe give you sense of novelty to show you some amazing things to potentially connect with people and play games in a different way. I think it's great for that. I think the price right now. Facebook is aligned. It at a cost is not impulse purchase but three hundred four hundred dollars. Isn't that consoles soon. And i think that that's something that you could get yourself as a treat and it's pretty cool for that if you can deal with the facebook logging requirement and be okay with that. I think there are a ton of games. Which aren't too expensive. And there are a lot of apps and there's a lot of stuff to explore. But i do think it's you have to realize that it's not going to serve you for everything but i think it's experiences are really unique. Especially i look at the playstation five in the and the newest xbox series x and the experiences are not new different. They're nicer but the with the question is is is significantly different. Well let's talk about some of those experiences because you've got a story out today rounding up some of the best games and experiences for the question quest to run through of those. What would you recommend if someone's got a new vr headset. What are some of the games and experiences. They should be downloading sure. Well one thing that's funny is as soon as a new there are a lot of you know rehashed. Vr games like ones that have been around for years in vr. But they still have a long shelf life. And i think that's something to consider when you think about what things to get There are classics one classic. For instance is beat. Saber saber. you've heard about forever. But i think it's like the game obviously to get a couple of goes without saying you don't need to spend much time talking about but it's a lightsaber music rhythm game. I think it's what. Vr does best right now on. Quest is things that get you active things that you can interact with with. Really seamless reaction time. There's a lot of things like that. There are some boxing games. There's dance central and associates. Were locked down for a lot of us not getting out. It's pretty active. It stood in for exercise for me. So i'd say beat savers the best be you can also pick up other exercise a games. So that's a great start from there. You can get into things that i think it'd be a little bit social. There's a free game called eco. Vr that is basically like ultimate frisbee zero-gravity And it's great. You play with other people. It's it's technically kind of a beta but it works really smoothly and if you wanna jump in with or just want to try it yourself. It's disorienting and fun. And i feel like in that same vein. There are other multiplayer things. The problem is you wanna have somebody else to do this with. And i think it gets better. You know someone else who has a quest game called cookout. that's a good collaborative cooking game. When i do that with my nephew it actually feels like we're hanging out in the same room. I mean cartoons but it's a very different feeling than just like popping in and playing animal crossing where like playing a game on on a console and similarly population one is kind of a fortnight for vr It's not perfect. But it is really fun and i think it it. You know it again. These are things. I like games. That have a lot of replay ability because a lot of games in vr are very short. Others are like a couple of hours in length. So i think like those things and there are a couple of ones you can dabble in rec room.
Heartland Newsfeed Radio Network
Kevin Nash Among Those Picked For the WWE Hall Of Fame
"So we got hall Nash Hogan and Ex Pock going into the hall of fame in Twenty Twenty as the N. W. O.. All are already in Spin Your wacky and Batista is also going in and that leads to this person's question here. I find it weird that out of everyone that was in the N. W. O.. Only Hogan Hall Nash. And Chandra being inducted in the hall of fame might get the first three guys are important because they're the founders but sean being the only other one added his weird especially since guys like Diaz in big show joined before him. Listen really listen my friend. The hall of fame is a Gimmick. The hall of fame is a Gimmick television ratings and to get people to buy tickets. And you do that by presenting big stars and on top of that even if you consider this a real hall of fame which it's not yes. DB OSCE was in before xbox but was a manager who did nothing in one day just disappeared like there was nothing nothing hall of fame worthy about the end of the the big show was in there as in and out in and out in and out he turned fifty five times. Seems like the core of the group Shaan Waldman was a core of the group. He's actually one of the guys you think about when you think of the show as well more so than the big show but at the end of the it doesn't matter Shawn's available and they want the four guys all their. They want to sell tickets based on their names and Batista's name the fact that the announced everyone so far in advance tells me they probably weren't happy with how things went last year. So they're getting all these names out here now to sell a whole bunch of tickets and I'm sure that someday big show is going to go in as has the big show the pregnant. I want to do that when I and then later they can put him in with this faction that faction but I don't think it should over think who's going in they want and stars to be given rings that's it and obviously they got a quota so you can have a woman this year. You can have a legend this year you you can have whatever their pioneer wing is this year. I mean that's just the way things are going to go. It's a payday. It's a rang that later on. You can pawn if you need to you. You know that there's it's hey it's it's a celebration and it is what it is. So is Shawn Watson not in as a member of the X louden they deacs not lou the wwe hall of fame takes win last year. So shall Walkman in with that yes so there's a possibility now that he's in with the end of Yo that we can still. Oh get the one-two-three kid inducted into the hall of fame and Shaul Maltman can get into the hall of fame three times maybe we can give him some lightning kid as well tube. At least the one two three kid has got a chance to make it into the hall of fame. That's what you telling me. Yeah they're multiple people in Multiple Times. I'm sure that's what's the record. I want to see him. Go in. I mean could bury layers twice. He's probably go in three times. You may be in three times by now. I think he's only emphasize though we'll never run out of people people I know you think that we will because they have to bring in so many people. We've already ran out of Michael. No no we're repeating. Listen to me very dr so can make it in the repo man can make it in a demolition smash can make it in Who else was it? The Golfer could make it Mike. You're you're you're missing my point my putting in the a Golfer you've already ran at a people by putting people in twice you've already ran at a people. We ran out of people. The Madison Square Garden Ring. Bell is actually should be in the hall of fame. It's in my own personal hall of fame. That distinct Rengel should be in the hall of fame. That's the direction we're going with this thing actually is we're going to get nanometer objects objects into the hall of fame because we've already got gimmicks going in concepts like the end of your show groups I I guess that's how you're calling this but like why not just have random things things the gobbledygook egg could be in the hall of fame soon.