Jim Ross Says WWE Had Early Talks to Bring in Dennis Rodman Before WCW, Why It Didn’t Go Through

– On the latest Grilling JR episode, Jim Ross discussed Dennis Rodman’s foray into professional wrestling and confirmed there were early talks between WWE and Rodman before the NBA star eventually went to WCW. Rodman famously appeared in WCW after being suspended from the NBA over controversial behavior. He would join the nWo at Uncensored in March of 1997 and would step in the ring at Bash of the Beach in July alongside Hulk Hogan in a tag match. This would end up leading to the famous Rodman and Hulk Hogan vs. DDP and Karl Malone match at Bash at the Beach 1998.

Highlights from the conversation, as well as the full podcast, are below:

On if there were early talks with Rodman in 1996: “Very preliminary, Conrad, very preliminary. A lot of us never had the confidence that others did in Dennis. You know, we’re not talking about rebounding, or the all-defensive team in the NBA. As a matter of fact, here’s a little pearl for you. When I was officiating college basketball, Dennis was playing at Southeastern Oklahoma State in Durant. And I called a couple of his ballgames. He was a skinny as hell center. Played the post, and he was so fast — he was an extraordinary athlete, it was freaky. But I remember that, and he wasn’t a bad citizen on the court. He wasn’t like you would think he might be.”

On why the talks didn’t go anywhere: “But we didn’t have the confidence that a lot of other guys did in that deal. And it was spending a lot of money on an attraction match where one-half of the attraction doesn’t know how to work. So he has no fundamental skills. So to spend a million bucks or so, whatever it might be, for a package of dates didn’t make a lot of sense to me. But you know, if Vince had wanted to do it, we’d have gone aggressively to try to get it done. But I just, the negotiations were not easily appeased, and it all came down to the same old deal. If somebody says, ‘It’s not about the money!,’ bulls**t. It’s all about the money. And we just weren’t gonna pony up the cash for an unskilled performer in an attraction match, a special attraction match-type thing. Just didn’t make a lot of sense at the end of the day.”

On Rodman’s WCW run: “And they did well with it. But that fit more their stuff, too. We’re trying to be, get Stone Cold and these guys, hard-hitting, Bret Hart. We were in a different offense, and they did well with it.”

On running the Mike Tyson angle six months later: “Yeah, but Mike Tyson was a bigger star than Dennis Rodman, by far! It wasn’t even a comparison. I mean again, Dennis is a good basketball player. And he became a big pop culture character with his outlandish and bizarre behavior. Piercings and tattoos, and all this stuff.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Grilling JR with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.