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PTB Episode 194: James J. Dillon, Part Two


Bigelow34

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In this long awaited new episode of the PTB Podcast, Scott & Justin are once again joined by the legendary James J. Dillon for an in depth retrospective interview on the latter half of his career. This is another must listen for all fans as JJ has done and seen it all across five decades in the business.

 

They talk about JJ's transition to the WWF office, his role in the company, relationship with Vince McMahon, the steroid trials, JJ's departure for WCW, his relationship with Eric Bischoff, thoughts on Chris Jericho & Goldberg, plus much more. JJ also wraps with a very emotional story about his reunion with McMahon at the 2012 Hall of Fame ceremony.

 

So sit back and enjoy this newest styling and profiling episode of the PTB Podcast!

 

http://placetobe.podbean.com/

 

https://www.facebook.com/placetobepodcast

 

Twitter: Place2BePodcast

 

Also, the PTB Podcast is now available on the Stitcher Radio app! Visit www.stitcher.com for more information!

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Another great interview with JJ. I especially like the insights into Vince as far as office business and strucutre lies. I think that is particularly interesting and integral to get as much information as we can since we will never have a complete picutre from Vince himself.

 

JJ really seems like someone that has come to grips on his wrestling career and is proud of what he acomplished. Kudos to him.

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I really enjoyed this and definitely you two should be proud of yourselves to say you got a 3-hour interview out of Dillon, where he was that candid, open and interesting. He might be the best wrestling interviewee there is because he goes so in-depth and it helps when the interviewers aren't some idiot trying to get mindless shoot comments.

 

The stuff about Vince and the way he worked was very insightful. I don't think I appreciated how ahead of the curve he was even as far back as 1992 -- we can argue about whether the way wrestling has changed is for better or for worse, but Vince seemed to know even back then where things would be in a decade. Someone who just knows his trade inside and out. And the contrast with Bischoff couldn't have come through any clearer than it did in this interview. The thinking about Hogan-Flair and the thinking in general, demonstrates that Vince was really on the ball in the way I don't always see him credited for. We can disagree with his decisions, but it's nice to know how much reasoning he had behind them.

 

The Jarrett stuff was interesting too, I didn't know he actually came in to replace Vince's role and it was interesting that Dillon credits him with showing Vince that you could beyond away from the Hogan prototype.

 

Finally, before I listened to this -- and I've listened to quite a few Dillon shoots in the past -- I don't think I realised what a big player he was in the office. I knew he was involved, but not to the extent where he was Dusty's righthand man and then Vince and Patterson's. Imagine being a fly on the wall at some of those weekend meetings at Vince's condo.

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Will listen soon, as Dillon is an interesting interview subject.

 

My favorite Vince logic story: Some in his inner circle were challenging him on signing Mike Tyson for Wrestlemania XIV, because his sticker price was so high that they may lose money. But Vince knew what they needed more than anything at that point was eyeballs watching them.

 

He said he'd rather lose money on 500,000 buys than make money on 300,000, which I always thought was genius.

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Thank you Chad and Parv...appreciate the comments greatly. We really were honored to get that much time from JJ and were sure to let him know.

 

I really love how he takes your question and resets the whole story for you...takes you back to what lead up to everything and just when you think he dodged the question, he answers it with great depth because he placed you in the setting that led to it.

 

The business is definitely better for having a guy like Dillon involved for as long as he was. And the emotional HOF story at the end left us both speechless...great stuff and an honor.

 

And the fact that he had so much power surprised me too...as well as the fact that he had one foot out of Titan as early on as he did. I had so many things I wanted to ask him about WWF at that time, but wanted to respect his wishes to keep this one shorter. Regardless, I couldn't have asked for anything more at all.

 

Loss, hope you enjoy...look forward to your feedback.

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