Trish Stratus Memory, Schiavone and more…
Here are a few exceprts from JR’s recent thoughts on his bar-B-Q website….
I can still remember the day a few years ago that Trish Stratus walked into my office on the 4th floor of the WWE headquarters in lovely Stamford, Connecticut to meet with me about a job in the company. Any one with sight could see that Trish had an amazingly marketable look (she still does for that matter) but what stuck with me the most upon reflecting back on that first meeting was her positive attitude and her overwhelming desire to be successful. No Diva that I have ever been around in the WWE ever worked harder at getting better in the ring than Trish Status. Trish always gave great effort and was extremely reliable and low maintenance. Her new TV show which airs in Canada on Monday nights on the Travel and Escape Network is called “Statusphere.” On this 10 episode series “Canada’s Greatest Export” travels the globe enduring some amazing physical challenges. For those who don’t live in Canada, after September 8 the program will be available on line at www.travelandescape.ca. I have seen PR photos from some of Trish’s many adventures for this program and not surprisingly she looks amazing and shows no fear in attacking challenges of which most would never dream of attempting.
If Trish ever needs a “gopher” for some of these jaunts, I might be able to clear some time on my schedule. 
Nice to read a recent on line interview with my former broadcasting colleague Tony Schiavone who is now doing radio in Atlanta and is the sports director for WSB AM750 which is the same station that I worked at back in the early 90’s while on the Atlanta Falcons broadcast team and “Wrestling with Jim Ross.” Tony’s passion was always baseball and I am really pleased to see him able to be living his professional dream broadcasting baseball for the Gwinnett Braves AAA club. Tony and I used to travel together some while working for Jim Crockett Promotions and I enjoyed talking sports with him as he was always so well informed. I can recall us sharing a room in Atlanta most weeks when we had to do late night, post production at the TBS studios. We were only being paid $35 a day per diem which had to cover lodging, rental car and food. Sharing a room and a rental car made economic sense for two guys trying to earn a living in the crazy world of wrestling back in the late 80’s. I enjoyed working with Tony on many broadcasts including the first Clash of Champions. Later in our career, some in upper management tried to create an unhealthy competition between the two of us for various broadcasting assignments including the Saturday night SuperStation TBS wrestling program. Wrestling politics are a part of the business but not a good part. Nonetheless at the end of the day I always liked Tony and when I left WCW in 1993 it gave him the chance to gain a higher profile role which served him well for many years.
I am truly happy and somewhat envious of Tony’s broadcasting career these days with him being able to work in baseball which, again, as been Tony’s passion since he was a young kid. It’s akin to yours truly ever being able to become the radio voice of Oklahoma Sooner Football which is my own personal, boyhood dream.
As has been said, “boyhood dreams do come true.”
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