Jim Ross Reflects On The Boiler Room Brawl At Summerslam '96

During the most recent edition of Grilling JR, Conrad Thompson and Jim Ross discussed the passing of Jody Hamilton and Bobby Eaton. Ross looked back on the 1996 Boiler Room Brawl at SummerSlam.

Check out the highlights below:

Ross on one-half of the Masked Assassins, Joey Hamilton:

“Joe Hamilton and his partner, Tom Renesto, the Masked Assasins did a traveling program where they’d wrestle the Kentuckians. They’d go to a territory, one would come in just a little before the other, and they’d renew their rivalry and shoot their big TV angle, and off they would go. It worked. It really truly worked. I can tell you that the promos Joe did on local TV for those events were absolutely frightening for a kid that was 10, and it stayed with me forever. I’m 69 now and still remember those promos and still remember his demeanor. He wasn’t a yelling and screaming heel, so when he did raise his voice or his intensity level, it was very, very significant. He was a real PHD – he had it all. Big man at 300 pounds who could move around, great psychology, and he was a big influence on my career.”

On “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton passing away:

“I have a hard time recalling [his passing] off the top of my head because I don’t want to. Seriously, I’m not analyzing myself psychology, but he was just such a wonderful human being. I loved Bobby, I really did. I don’t know anybody that didn’t love Bobby, quite frankly. I heard a piece Jim Cornette put out on Twitter, and obviously, he was very emotional and rightfully so. They’d been best friends for [40 years]. I would suggest, and I might be wrong, Corny was probably closer to Bobby than what he was to family members. He and Bobby and Dennis [Condrey], he and Bobby and Stan [Lane] were on the road together for birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, and all those things wrestlers talk about. It’s a terrible loss. I feel so bad for Bill Dundee and his family who’ve lost their daughter and son-in-law in a matter of weeks. Bobby and Donna had three kids, so nobody is talking about those kids and the impact it’s had on them. So it’s just really a shame.”

On Paul Bearer turning heel during the 1996 Boiler Room Brawl:

“It was a major deal, and that was the focus of the whole match. How do we embellish the turn? I thought we did a nice job with that. We needed to come off as incredulous, ‘I can’t believe what we’re seeing’ type of thing. I can’t believe what I’ve just seen. That’s the feeling you wanted to generate in your own verbal way……wrestlers are not taught to learn how to similate a match when you’re taking bumps on the concrete floor or you’re in that boiler room-like environment. So it needed a little bit of help in that respect, but I will agree with Meltzer in that I thought it might have been a little too long. And maybe added the three [commentary] voices may have helped that a little bit as far as the TV presentation was concerned. But that’s not what the boss wanted, so we gave them exactly what he booked.”