WWE News: Jim Ross on a possible divide between Brock Lesnar and the WWE locker room, Jericho-Lesnar Incident, Conor McGregor

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WWE Hall of Famer and former WWE announcer Jim Ross was recently a guest on The LAW: Live Audio Wrestling. Ross shared his thoughts on the controversial finish to the SummerSlam main event between Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton, in which Lesnar delivered some crushing elbows to the skull of Orton which caused him to bleed profusely.

While the entire event was reportedly staged ahead of time, the magnitude of the spot was so great that it led many to believe it was simply Lesnar going off-script:

“Well, I haven’t talked to anybody in WWE to find out exactly what the original gameplan was. You can start putting two and two together and it certainly seemed like that they were shooting for the stoppage to some sort or at least that was my impression. When you try to bust somebody open with an elbow above the eye or a hit or whatever it was intended to be, I have a hard time believing it was intended to be in the head but nonetheless, maybe I’m wrong. It is an in-exact science, John. Using a blade is a lot more efficient, quite frankly, even though it sounds barbaric, it is barbaric and all that and I’m not condoning it, don’t get me wrong. To be more efficient and safe, quite frankly less painful the blade would have been the way to go in that deal but I know that is not any place.

“So, I thought – obviously, it got carried away but I don’t know what we expect with those hardways. Like I said, there’s no exact science to it and even back in the seventies, I talked to old time wrestlers that used to have those hardways done to them or they would execute them, it is a real bizarre art form so to speak and that is probably using the term loosely. I know guys that could wrestle guys, hit it one time right there what they needed or guys that beat them to death before they succeeded so it’s really an all over the road type thing so I don’t know. I didn’t have an issue with the intended finish or what I perceive the finish to be. It was somewhat disturbing and thought provoking, water-cooler talk for sure with the end result. So, I don’t know – I guess it would be a win, so to speak because quite frankly, we’re still talking about that finish and we haven’t talked about any other finishes at Summerslam other than that one.”

Lesnar is know by many as a ‘prize fighter’ who goes wherever the money is, and doesn’t necessarily hold a love for either professional wrestling or mixed martial arts (MMA). This has reportedly rubbed some in the WWE locker room the wrong way, and Ross shared his thoughts on there always being a divide between the big money guys and the rest of the locker room:

“There is always a divide in the locker room between the main event guys and the money they claim to make and the rest of the roster in their current roles. I’ve always said this, when there is unrest in pro wrestling, it’s usually one of the two C’s, cash or creative and Lesnar’s ability to generate large sums of cash for himself I’m sure is a little bit uncomfortable for some people. He and John Cena are the two guys in WWE that are actually over. Everybody else is just trying to get over. That is not a knock on anybody, it sounds like it is but it isn’t. I’m a big fan of a lot guys on the roster that are trying to get over but in the story, at the end of the day Lesnar and Cena are two guys that are actually over. I can prove that by looking at live event grosses and tickets sold and tickets not sold more specifically and television ratings. So, those guys are in the process…

“I think WWE needed Lesnar, I think he is a great addition to the roster and quite frankly, even though he is part time and checks his balances with the world now, it keeps him fresh and you can’t say about everybody on the roster. You’re going to see a lot of the same every single week, every single week and that is challenging to keep people fresh and new in storylines when they are so overexposed. We are in a position now where you damned if you do and damned if you don’t. How do you get Dean Ambrose over if you don’t put him on TV? You can’t. So, you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. You’ve got to make sure everything is balanced out correctly and it is a very challenging science to say the least.”

Following the controversial Lesnar-Orton finish Chris Jericho, not knowing the finish was rehearsed, grew upset with what he thought was Lesnar going off script and led to a brief confrontation between the two men.

The two reportedly exchanged words and engaged in a shoving match before being broken up by Triple H and Vince McMahon. Ross agrees this is a typical ‘boys will be boys’ situation, but ultimately believes the issue was resolved amongst themselves:

“I agree, it is a little bit of the boys will be boys type situation. It’s not anything unlike – I can go down and watch Oklahoma University practice football and there will be a little skirmish here and there, just kids being kids, the heated battle. It is a very emotional playing surface that they’re on. Here, Lesnar gets confronted within minutes, seconds of leaving the ring and his adrenaline is pumping, his heart is beating and he gets confronted and he is an alpha-male to start with so that confrontation often times does not mix well. And then Jericho is very passionate, he didn’t get the answer that he wanted regarding the finish apparently and as you know probably better than I, lead to a verbal confrontation, a little shoving.

“But look, if those guys were really angry – first of all, Jericho would have been the first guy to try and grab something because he is in a disadvantageous situation like most humans are to Brock and if Brock really wanted to go, he would have nailed Jericho. I think it was just a little bit of mouthiness and I tell this to people – I did an interview not too long ago on a radio station and the guy, he wanted so much more and I said sorry to tell you but probably within ten minutes of that altercation it was over and I believe that. I believe that probably within ten minutes or so, it was business as usual and everyone was on their own, doing their own thing. It’s another day at the office. You’ve got to understand who these guys are, they are high level, motivated athletes. They’re not just entertainers, they’re showbiz guys, they’re stellar athletes and they are in a high level of competitiveness, they’re alpha-males and those situations are going to happen from time to time. I was in the locker room when Jericho had his issue with Goldberg there. Eye witness, that blew up like a tornado coming through Oklahoma and in a matter of seconds, it was over so I can kind of think the same thing happened with Chris and Brock.”

A few weeks prior to his fight against Nate Diaz at UFC 202, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor took shots at some of the WWE’s talent, as he called them ‘messed up pu**ies’. McGregor took a lot of backlash for this as he was Tweeted at by various WWE names including Roman Reigns, Ric Flair, Curtis Axel, Kurt Angle, Sasha Banks, and many more.

Ross took the opportunity to share his thoughts on the situation:

“It’s exactly the same reason he taunted the wrestling world, fans and some of the talents with that first salvo of negative soundbyte, he was just trying to sell pay-per-views. It’s very simple to me, I never got caught up in the okay I’ll send a tweet out, I’ll get him. You know, he’s working you and he threw the hook in the water and those large mouth bass disguised as pro-wrestlers, many of them in WWE, took the bait so, smart guy. He is the guy right now, who else are we talking about in UFC. There’s so many maybe’s and if’s. Is GSP going to come back? What’s the heavyweight picture going to look like? Is Cain Velasquez going to regain his allure and his aura? All these things and right now, McGregor is the guy and I just think as long as he can do a promo, John, he is the great heel. He gets people to pay money to come see him get his ass whipped and that is the art and the mark of a wonderful villain.

“Same reason that they bought so many Brock Lesnar pay-per-views in the early-going of his UFC run because he was that phony pro-wrestling guy that us die-hard MMA fans wanted to see get his butt whipped and we paid money to do that. And then, he made that transition to where he became a babyface because he put his pro-wrestling behind him and he is entirely MMA, UFC so that was the same scenario. It’s really a game of human nature and it’s so predictable more often than not so McGregor is in a good spot, UFC is in a good spot.”

(All transcribed quotes courtesy of WrestlingInc)