During a recent episode of Grilling JR, Jim Ross spoke on the idea behind the 3 Minute Warning Gimmick. Here’s what he had to say:
The 3 Minute Warning was a shock deal. And the irony of it was that they started getting over as babyfaces because people knew they were gonna see some shit go down. You can’t screw too many things up in the short times they were out there. They were just so big and mobile. They could make a Samoan drop look like it was absolute murder. All that was based on the shock principle, and luckily, we had some talents also in that era that could wrestle really well and do long matches if necessary. The show got to be heavy on talk, heavy on skits, and heavy on vignettes. Quite frankly, those guys were a pick part of the era. We saw that Eckie [Umaga] was gonna be a star without a doubt. He just had the attitude, and he had the physical and mental makeup. I love Rosey and god bless his soul – he was almost too nice a guy to be a heel. He just didn’t have that mean streak. His brother, Roman [Reigns], has got a mean streak. Roman did play defensive tackle in college at Georgia Tech. For Rosey, it was always gonna be wrestling. But we knew Eckie was gonna be special.
You can listen HERE.
Credit: Grilling JR. H/T 411Mania.