Written by Chris Siggia.

AFTER THE BELL WITH COREY GRAVES 05/14/20:  CHRISTIAN

Christian on his loss of confidence after splitting up his tag team with Edge:  “When I stepped away, I very much had the mind set of still being a tag team guy.  When I was trying to envision matches and put these things together, I still pretty much thought that way.  I put a lot of pressure on myself, maybe too much pressure.  I was having a hard time adjusting.  I was not confident.  Once your confidence goes away, it’s tuff, it’s really tuff. I saw myself as a singles guy.  I had a big opportunity with the Intercontinental Championship.  I think back to when Edge and I split up, I don’t think I did myself any favors by not really changing the Christian part of Edge and Christian.  I still came out as the guy that looked like Christian from Edge and Christian.  I missed an opportunity there to change that part of me and be different and be accepted as something different outside of that.  It also becomes one of those things with there is too many cooks in the kitchen.  I was asking and listening to a lot of it instead of listening to my instincts and I had good instincts, but I forgot to listen to them.  People would be giving me advise instead of taking the pieces I thought I could use and apply them, I was trying to do everything, I tried this, I tried that, and not that it was bad advice, but it might not have been the right advise for something in this instance, but it might work down the road…I was not having fun and I was not happy.  I went home one day, looked in the mirror and said, this is it.  If you don’t figure this out, you’re going to get fired.  That’s the worst that’s going to happen to you…I have nothing to lose, so I’m going to listen to myself.  I know I can do this.  I know my instincts are good.  I have instincts for this.  I would still take advise and say thank you, but I started trusting my instincts.  It all turned around quickly and I got my confidence back.”

AEW UNRESTRICTED 05/14/20:  EXCALIBUR

Excalibur meeting Jim Ross in AEW:  “At first he was skeptical.  He saw me in the mask and he said what the hell is this?  You know the announcer’s job is to put over the product in the ring, not themselves.  I said I know; I hope I can earn your trust.  I hope you can see the job that I do is all about promoting the in ring product.  He said, ok, we will see.  We called a few hours of matches that were on tape and initially he said he was going to do play by play, Excalibur you do analysis, Marvez you do color like statistics.  Slowly after we did a couple matches, things started shifting to me doing the play by play, J.R. doing some color, Marvez doing the color.  Depending on the type of matches, we would shift roles back and forth.  I think that’s ultimately the formula that we adopted for AEW.  On certain types of matches that are more traditional style pro wrestling, J.R. takes the lead and on matches that are more fast paced, 2010’s or 2020’s professional wrestling style, I’ll take the lead on that.  It is not something we discussed.  It is something that happened organically.”

GRILLING J.R. 05/14/20:  STEVE WILLIAMS

Ross talking about managing Steve Williams in WWF:  “I was not comfortable doing it.  I didn’t see any reason to do it.  That was another way to make J.R. uncomfortable.  The issue was for me that I made it not about J.R. enough though I didn’t like the casting.  I didn’t want to do that.  To me, it was another step in trying to pry me out of the announcing position on Monday Night Raw, hence, the little announce table.  Doc was my bodyguard.  It just was silly because who was the heel? Who was the object of getting the heat?  Me.  I’m not going to wrestle…The wrong guy was getting the spotlight.  I didn’t need it.  I didn’t want it.  I thought if I did this, it would help Doc.  I also knew the underlying current was this was not to help Doc.  This is to make J.R. uncomfortable and embarrassed, and the rib on J.R. is a continuation of previous ribs and subsequent ribs going forward because Vince enjoyed that.  When the writers found out what Vince enjoys, that’s what they write.”

Ross on the Steve Williams/Ed Ferrara skit imitating J.R.:  “You can’t convince me that the angle with Ed Ferrara imitating me with the Bell’s Palsy and Doctor Death being there in the same role he had in one of his last appearances in WWE as J.Rs’s bodyguard wasn’t personal.  I don’t know how smart that booking really is.  I know Turner finally curtailed the Bell’s Palsy facet of the impersonation.  I look back at that as personal.  I think that affected Doc and my relationship because I’m sure there was somebody who said, or could have said, J.R. could have saved you Doc if he wanted to.  They want to ingratiate themselves to him.  One way to do that is make me the bad guy again and convince him that if J.R. had wanted you to stay, he has a lot of influence with Vince.  He is Vince’s right hand guy.  He could have made that happen.  Well I couldn’t make that happen.  I tried to make it happen.  But I thought that whole thing was very personal.  I’m glad I made peace with Russo.  I made peace with Ed Ferrara over the years…People ask If I was mad at Doctor Death…no.  He was booked and this is his role.  It’s like filming a movie.  Here’s the movie.  Here’s your script.  Here’s your role.  Here’s what you’re going to do.  So, if you accept the terms of the creative, and except our money, then this is what we are going to ask you to do.  Doc needed money.  He needed a payday.”

THIS WEEK ON EXCUSE ME THE VICKIE GUERRERO PODCAST:

Vickie welcomes none other than former TNA Knockout ODB:  ODB talks about her post TNA career operating a successful food truck.  After a fire destroyed this truck last year, hear our she made a comeback and is back in business!

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