Jim Ross Comments on the NWA Legends Fanfest, Chatting with Sting and More

Jim Ross has posted a blog entry about his experiences this weekend at the NWA Legends Fanfest, Some highlights from this entry:

Greg Price and his crew do a nice job in organizing a challenging and at time thankless event that has to appease the ego's of many wrestlers and make discerning fans happy all at the same time. That's no easy feat I can tell you.

I saw 80 year old Bob Caudle for the first time since 1990. Bob was truly one of my favorite broadcast partners and was always a man of character and integrity, not always a prominent trait in the biz, and is without question, in my opinion, the most underrated, wrestling announcer ever. We had some great outings and Bob especially remembered and talked about the night we broadcast from a non air conditioned Ft Bragg, North Carolina on a TBS, live Clash of the Champions. That night we both sweat through our suits. It was over 100 degrees at ringside and I got in some hot water for saying I would enjoy a Coors Light which was sponsoring a portion of the broadcast. That wouldn't be the last time my ad libs got me in 'trouble.'

General Scandor Akbar is now 75 and we had a great visit and talked road stories, he was one of my very first traveling partners along with Dan Hodge, and of course the OU-Texas football rivalry. Ak is a Longhorn devotee and that was the topic we engaged in over hundreds of miles of highway back in the 70's. Ak could squeeze blood out of a quarter and was so instrumental in helping me understand that no one makes too little money to not save some of it. The 'squatty fullback of the Vernon, Texas Lions' will always be one of my favorite guys. Many don't know how instrumental Ak was in helping steer Steve Austin in the right direction early in Stone Cold's career in Dallas.

Danny Hodge is simply the greatest living, pure wrestler alive and at 79 could have probably whipped any man attending the banquet. Danny loves MMA and said if he was coming out of college now that he would have gone to UFC, not pro wrestling or pro boxing, and would have likely fought at 185. Hodge would have been amazing in UFC. Hodge and Mickey Mantle were my two boyhood, Oklahoma sports heroes so my being asked to induct Dan into the Hall of Heroes was a wonderful honor.

Had a great visit with Sting as he was preparing to sign for a huge line of fans anxiously awaiting to meet him. We really had a wonderful albeit quick chat. He said he looked back on some of his early matches when he was just learning his craft and how much better I made him sound than he actually was. Great compliment but I was only doing my job. That's what announcers are supposed to do, get talents over with the fans and make them better than many of the talents are. We exchanged numbers and I expect to keep up with my old friend that I had not seen in person since around '93. Sting is a class act and will always have my respect.


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