On the latest episode of “Grilling JR”, Jim Ross discussed Brock Lesnar’s back tattoo that he got without first obtaining permission from the WWE. According to Ross, he had a lengthy conversation with Lesnar where he explained the financial ramifications. Here are the highlights:

On Why The Tattoo Caused Problems:

Well, I explained to him that it had an impact on business, and that impact took money out of his pocket. Because if we have to slow down the production or the release of, let’s say an action figure. You know, a guy can make six figures-plus quite easily if his action figure is accurate, authentic and out in a timely basis. So that was the issue there, is that we had an agreement with action figure people and video game people on these guys’ likeness, and to make sure that they look good, and they look authentic and so forth. And then all of a sudden you’ve got this giant tattoo on a guys’ back that is missing from all the other stuff. It looks like you’re buying dated material from the get-go.

On Having To Talk With Lesnar About The Issue:

So it’s not a good marketing thing, and I explained it to him that way. And pretty much in this tone, you know. There was no yelling and screaming, or threats or all that Wild West minutiae. We just had a great — we had a conversation, he got it. And he apologized and said, you know, ‘I understand.’ He said, ‘I didn’t think of those things.’ He was a young kid, Conrad, he was a young guy. And look, when you’ve got Michael Jordan looking you in the eye, you know, you’re gonna be smart in how heavy you’re gonna go on this deal. I couldn’t erase the tattoo. I couldn’t solve the problem other than provide the talent with information as to why we can’t do this. And I explained to him, ‘It’s not a personal rule for you, Brock. It goes for everybody. These people pay us a lot of money, and therefore we’re gonna pay you a lot of money on these video games and all these things.’ And when you’re jacking around with money that’s a fat six figures, half a mil. More than that. And if you get really hot like Austin did, seven figure royalty checks, then you know.

On The Conversation Not Being Confrontational:

You don’t want your talent to be — you have money taken out of their pocket. So trying to protect him, trying to make him understand what we’re doing. It’s not against him, nobody’s picking on him, so to speak. And it was fine. I always — I used my own philosophy with a lot of the boys, that I’d give advice about Vince. You know, you can communicate and converse, don’t confront. So that wasn’t a time to confront him. He needed information, I gave it to him. And he took it like a man and we moved on.

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Credit: Grilling JR. H/T 411Mania.