Honestly, I’ve never really put much weight into whether or not the announcers of an event actually add, or take away, from the success of that particular show. My attitude was always mundane when it came to that, simply because I wasn’t going to turn off a program due to my disdain for the announcers. But, on the other hand , you just remember some of the great ones . . . some of the great calls.
Who could ever forget Howard Cosell’s call of the first Frazier/Foreman fight? I could recite that word for word when I was a kid. Or, Al Michaels calling the “Miracle on Ice” at the 1980 Winter Olympics? Of course, as a San Francisco Giants fan, there’s Russ Hodges’s call of Bobby Thompson’s “Shot Heard Round the World” in 1951 – “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!”
And when it comes to wrestling . . . there’s one that you’ll always remember, “STONE COLD, STONE COLD, STONE COLD!”
It’s absolutely sad that even though I had the honor and privilege to work with Jim Ross for five years, I never took the time to really appreciate him until now. It took me being away from all the noise, drama, chaos and politics that go with the wrestling business, to really understand just how great JR really was as an announcer.
Back during the “Attitude Era”, there was NOBODY who took their job more serious than JR. With every show, he just wanted to give the best call that he possible could. He wanted to make each episode of RAW memorable through words . . . something he said. And, with every show…he did.
I understand now that that era in wrestling would have never reached the heights it did had it not been for JR’s love, compassion, commitment and dedication to the company that he worked for.
