Good Ol’ JR brings his spoken word to Knoxville
Those of us who grew up watching Monday Night RAW in the late 90’s and through the beginning of the new century can remember an iconic voice narrating the action that was taking place inside the squared circle.
We lived through the “Oh my Gawd!” and “Stop the d*mn match!” shouts from an impassioned color commentator. The man in the black cowboy hat was just as big a star as anyone performing in the ring on any night. For over four decades Jim “JR” Ross has been involved in every aspect of professional wrestling that the industry could offer. “I got what I thought was going to be a summer job and it ended up lasting 40 years, and through that time frame I moved my way up from entry level ring crew, grunt work, to the VP of a publically traded company.” JR told Blank in a recent interview. During that time he has accumulated many stories from his time on the road and he’s been telling those stories to live audiences ever since retiring from announcing. Knoxville is to be on the receiving end of one of his spoken word shows on September 10th at The International and it looks to be a “sloberknocker.” It would seem that Knoxville’s favorite college football team is to thank for this chance. Although JR has been through Knoxville many times with different promotions this will be his first time in the state of Tennessee as a solo act. When asked why he chose Knoxville as a stop in his tour Jim Ross informed Blank that it was because The Vols would be hosting the Oklahoma Sooners that weekend and he was going to be here for the game anyway. “I was coming to Knoxville that week to go to the Oklahoma, Tennessee football game and so I thought “I wonder if it would make any sense to do one of my shows.” I talked to my agent and we found The International and he said they had Thursday night available…”
Ringside: An evening with Jim Ross, has played to sold out audiences around the world including Wales, England, Scotland, and Canada & in the USA in NYC, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, San Jose, New Orleans, among others. The show will feature JR telling stories from his time in the industry and a Q & A session for audience members to participate. “I’ll tell some stories that are humorous…some of them are just extraordinarily crazy but they’re funny, for about 20 or 30 minutes, and then we go right into the Q & A. That’s really a charming part of the show in my view. Unpredictable, it’s unique, you never know what you’re going to be asked.”
Tickets for the show are $20 in advance or $25 the day of the show and there are special, limited, VIP tickets available that allow entry a couple hours before the show for a meet & greet with other fans and Jim Ross himself. The VIP tickets run at $50. Tickets for the event are available at ticketweb.com. This looks to be an entertaining event and something no true wrestling fan should miss. The show is all ages, starts at 8 pm and should end by 10 pm.
https://soundcloud.com/ryanrodio/jim-ross-interview
