On whether he thinks The Big Show pulled the curtain back too far with some of his comments during his live podcast with Stone Cold Steve Austin last night on the WWE Network:
JR: That argument can be made about a litany of things regarding pulling the curtain back. I think the genie is out of the bottle. It didn’t strike me that it was too much. I think that the audience that is watching that by and large, I would suggest, kind of understand what is going on. At least by and large. No, I didn’t think it was too much. When it was over I was still wanting more and I think that is always a good sign that you just saw good programming. I enjoyed it. Whether we like or not, if you’re asking me, “Do I think the curtain’s been pulled back too much?” That there’s too much information out there? Yeah, in general I would say that. I think that what has happened is that with all of the social media and information flow that it’s hard to have a surprise. Sometimes the business itself, those within the business are their own worst enemies in that regard. You got somebody that’s going to do a surprise bit on RAW? You’ve got to keep them hid during the day. In other words, you can’t even protect that surprise. Your own people won’t even protect the surprise. Somebody is going to tweet somebody or text somebody or whatever so that they help their buddy get a scoop. That happens all the time. I didn’t think it was too much. In general I’m not comfortable with all of the information flow because I think it adversely affects some storylines. By and large last night’s podcast cast with Austin and Show I thoroughly enjoyed.
On whether or not he contacted The Big Show after he won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Halloween Havoc 1995 like The Big Show mentioned during the live podcast:
JR: I guess I did. 1995? Let’s do our math here. Would that be 20+ years ago? 1995? If I was trying to remember all of my phone calls from 21 years ago, even tho he’s a big call… no pun intended. He is a big call, an important call. I would be challenged. I know I was on his trail. I know we wanted to sign him. He was a high priority. Very few of my recruits did the front office vet. Basically, I was left to my own devices for better or for worse. Which is good, you kind of sink or swim on your own there with you staff. Recruiting who you think is going to be a player. The Big Show got everybody’s attention because, obviously, he was so massive. He was a huge man. He was the new Andre so to speak. That was a Vince and Shane McMahon matter where they were really excited and motivated for me to get on him and to see how we could negotiate. He (Sh0w) was also very right, as far as I was concerned I figured he was probably under contract. You can say, “You can’t tamper. Tampering can result in a big lawsuit.” Hey, look, I don’t know he’s under contract until I talk to him. He told me he was under contract and wanted to keep his obligation and I thought that was the right thing to say. I thought that he did the right thing. He didn’t go in to some sort of conspiracy to free himself of his obligation. He said it and he’s heard me say this, “You break an obligation with the other guy you’ll certainly break it with me.” He was a high priority recruit, no doubt. Young, massive, athletic so we were on him. I don’t remember the specific nature of the call because it was 21 years ago. That’s older than some of the people listening to this show.
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Transcribed quotes from Jim’s interview continue on the next page with his thoughts on Titus’ suspension, Daniel Bryan’s future in pro wrestling, how AJ Styles’ WWE run has been booked so far and what he expects from the WWE Fastlane main event.
