By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

WWE announcer Jim Ross says talent rosters in the wrestling business are "dangerously thin." Ross says WWE needs to be hiring and developing talent that could one day realistically headline a WrestleMania.

"I think very few will argue that the talent rosters within the business in general are dangerously thin," Ross told Kevin Eck of the Baltimore Sun in an interview to promote tonight's special edition of Smackdown. "The mantra to develop new main event stars I think should be a business-wide referendum. It certainly is a priority in WWE."

Ross didn't have headline-grabbing quotes, but he went into great detail on his overall view of the current state of the wrestling business. He took a hard look at WWE's business from his perspective that comes from years of being in top management positions. Ross says WWE constantly needs to develop more main event talent for all three brands.

"I think that in the long term the brand separation is an absolute necessity for individuals to be able to get face time on television and get ring time on television in a viable way," Ross said. "Short term, it certainly has its critics, and people are seeing that the rosters are thin and that the talent base is not as deep as one would like in a perfect world. But in order to get back to that level, you’ve got to expose more people to the right kind of environment to make them a star."

Caldwell's Analysis: It was interesting reading Jim Ross's in-depth view of the wrestling business as if he were back in a management position hiring talent and looking for wrestlers to fill spots on a show line-up. Ross didn't just limit his perspective to WWE, but also spoke about the "wrestling business" in general. The evidence is in the first quote I referenced above that seemed to include an evaluation of TNA and, to a lesser extent, ROH.

Link: Read Jim Ross's entire interview on the state of wrestling, his move from Raw to Smackdown, and tonight's 10-year Smackdown on the Baltimore Sun website.

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