JR: Thoughts On Hulk Hogan's Week, Monday Night Wars, More

Jim Ross has a new blog entry available on his official website. Below are the highlights:

- Hulk Hogan is ALL over the news this week which re-establishes the premise that Hulk is one of the greatest, self promoters of all time...BROTHER! Now, that isn't necessarily a bad thing as any independent contractor who is entrepreneurial in spirit such as a pro wrestler has to have the ability to promote one's self in order to survive over time. Hogan is an old school guy, in many ways, so "keeping one's self over" is nothing new and many guys have raised that skill to an art form but none better than Hulk.

- Hogan makes big news this week launching his new book, talking Australian tour, and briefly mentioning TNA on what I saw of his Larry King appearance Tuesday night of which "Ol Lar" phoned it in. Thank goodness for Larry's producers and their questions. No, Mr. King, Laila Ali is NOT Muhammad's wife, she's his daughter.

- It amazes me that many fans are so obsessed with "Monday Night Wars" and one brand over taking another, etc type discussions. Firstly, I do wholeheartedly agree that competition is great for every business, without question. But every company that spends more time ragging on the "competition" or fixating on putting another company down is not focusing on their own brand. Today's wrestling business needs to simply focus on how THEY can improve what THEY do and not seemingly and endlessly focus on the "other guys" whoever the "other guys" may be.

- The bottom line, in my view, is how is the product being made better for the fans who pay the tab, watch the shows, create the ratings, buy the swag, etc? All of us who sell products in our various walks of life should always keep our consumers first...keep our creative simple and not on overload...and provide consumers with "new."

- Continuing to refine the creative direction and developing new, hot stars should be every wrestling company's top priorities. At least, that's my take on it. Short term solutions don't solve long term problems.

- Matt Striker will join Todd Grisham as the new Friday Night SmackDown broadcast team beginning this week. I am anxious to hear the duo at work and will be anxiously awaiting their show on MyNetworkTV this week. One never knows, this may become the new, young "it" team in WWE and time will tell as their chemistry evolves. I communicated with both guys on Tuesday and really hope that they do well. All TV producers love youth and look and these two young guys have those bases covered plus they are talented.

- BTW...I did agree with Hulk that pro wrestling needs to put more individualism back into the game and allow talents to explore the bounds of their abilities which will facilitate finding new stars quicker and, at the same time, eliminates some wannabes from the process. Instincts is more of a vital skill than the ability to memorize.

- Got a nice email this week from former WCW wrestler Lash LeRoux who is no longer wrestling but is establishing an amazing art business. Lash's artwork is as good as I have seen in many years and I hope to collaborate with him on some projects here on our site. God really blessed this young Alabaman with some amazing artistic skills.

- A friend emailed me and asked if I thought that Steve Austin was going to join Hogan on Hulk's latest venture. The question was somewhat amusing and as Gorilla would have said, "highly unlikely." That may be putting it some what mildly in our PG rated space. I want to make it clear that isn't something that I spoke to Steve about but I feel somewhat certain that my assumption is accurate.