During the latest edition of his “Grilling JR” podcast, Jim Ross commented on the pyro botch at AEW Revolution, Christian and Paul Wight signing with WWE, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On AEW Revolution and the pyro issues after the main event: “It bombed. It was a malfunction of the pyro. The irony of that was, because of all the fire marshals and safety precautions and so forth, they had run through that several times. They worked great. Just what we needed. But then when it came to showtime, you never know when you’re doing live television. [Vince] McMahon always said nothing could go wrong when you’re doing live TV – well, there is an exception or two. But nonetheless, I really loved the pay-per-view itself. If you can exclude from your mind and get off the hill of just talking about one issue, I think most are gonna say it was a pretty damn good show. I thought the show was strong except for that miss on the pyro at the end.
“If the 30 seconds at the end is gonna be your only criteria of whether you liked a show or not, whether it was a good shot or not, you might be overanalyzing just a little bit. All the stuff leading up to that, I thought was strong. I’m sure the talents, they were very frustrated because they worked their asses off and got pricked with barbed wire from head to toe. So, now, all we’re talking about is not their work or effort, but the malfunctioning pyro becomes the story. To me, that pay-per-view was much more than the pyro. It was a pyro failure, but I don’t believe it was a wrestling failure whatsoever. Other than the pyro situation, I thought it was the best pay-per-view we’ve had.
On Christian and Paul Wight signing with AEW: “What we brought into the locker room was two veterans that should be able to help our young roster. A lot of people don’t understand that as well as they should. I don’t know how many matches Tony Khan plans on using Paul Wight for, I have no clue. But he’s got himself in pretty good shape. I think what we’re looking for with those guys is there’s some name identity there, and there’s a tune-in factor there. I do believe, and it’s one of the reasons I was able to get Mick Foley signed way back in the day, was we needed freshness in the locker room from positive examples. Mick certainly fit that bill.
“I can tell you from the minute Christian got in our compound, he was talking to talent. He was coaching up and giving guys great pointers that were very objective and beneficial. The additions of those guys are a positive. It’s not just, ‘Well they’re taking WWE castoffs.’ That’s a defiant, easy way to put it, but I don’t believe it to be true with those guys. They’re both mature guys that want to contribute. Short-term, Christian, he’s ready to go. He can illustrate his teaching so much better when talents can watch him work. I’m very happy we’ve got both of those guys on board.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
