Jim Ross one-man show report
March 1, 2014
New York City at Gramercy Theatre
Report by PWTorch VIP member Ken B. from New York, N.Y.

I attended the "Ringside with Jim Ross" 8:00 p.m. show Saturday night and I wanted to chime in with some thoughts on the excellent second show at Gramercy Theater.

From reading the first report at PWTorch from the afternoon show, many of the stories remained the same in the second show. Throughout the evening, J.R. wove a compelling narrative, taking show attendees from a dairy farm in Oklahoma to the “Grandest Stage of ‘Em All” at Madison Square Garden.

Ross let a lot of his personality shine through during the show, taking fans through a hysterical story about stopping promoter Leroy McGurik from murdering Ted DiBiase for dating his daughter (and for those playing along at home who might not know, ended up marrying Brian Blair and serving as a WWF ring announcer).

J.R. didn’t focus a ton on his time in the WWF, but I suspect that was because he wanted to save some stories for his eventual autobiography and his “Ross Report” podcast.

After about an hour of storytelling, Ross began the Q&A session – he didn’t hold back, and addressed topics that ran the gamut from blood in wrestling to the main event at WrestleMania to how he’d book Raw in Chicago tomorrow night. “They should embrace it,” said Ross in reference to the potential for fervent crowd interaction at Raw.

With about 20 minutes left in the show, Ross brought out Mick Foley to tell a few stories and field Q&A. Foley told an excellent story about how he wanted to text Brie Bella to give Daniel Bryan a hug after the Royal Rumble, but ended up sending the text to Vince McMahon instead. One thing that learned is that apparently, Bryan hates hugging in real life, and the Team Hell No “Hug It Out” gimmick was a bit of a rib.

The final question of the night was a doozy, as an audience member asked Ross why there were not more African-American WWE champions, pondering whether Vince McMahon liked black people. J.R. was quick to shoot down that theory – and Mick Foley also reminded the audience member that The Rock was very proud of his African-American heritage.

The only thing that I will say about the evening that was disappointing (besides the BBQ sauce selling out, of course) was that some of the crowd went into business for themselves. There was a particularly obnoxious fan in the front row that Ross eventually had to tell to “shut the f*ck up.” Following the question about African-American WWE champions, Foley wanted to end the show on a high note and so he took another question. It came from a member of the audience who was obviously developmentally disabled and he was quickly booed and heckled. I found it to be disgusting, but not even a few annoying fans could ruin what was an amazing night of insightful and hysterical stories.

I purchased a V.I.P. ticket and was able to meet J.R. after the show was over. He was extremely polite, took pictures with all the fans, and was happy to converse with the crowd long after the show was over. If the show itself was about 90 minutes, J.R. probably spent another 75-90 minutes signing and talking with the fans.

If you’ll be in New Orleans for WrestleMania, I’d highly recommend checking out the show – you won’t be disappointed.

[Torch photo credit Wade Keller (c) PWTorch.com]

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