Jim Ross says his job is to help create new stars, and the armchair bookers that are unnecessarily critical of his commentary aren’t going to sway him from getting All Elite Wrestling’s talent over.
Ross addressed the negative know-it-alls from Twitter who have been majorly critical of his commentary choices on this week’s new episode of Grilling JR, noting that he’s seen the feedback about his work but he doesn’t see the issue. Ross starts out by talking about the flack he’s been receiving for using Jungle Boy Jack Perry’s full name when announcing his matches, noting that he’s trying to help get Perry over in the same way he’s given nicknames to those in the past.
“I did, I succumbed to it and he said, ‘JR, it’s time to hang up your black hat.’ It shows you how misguided some fans are. They say they love wrestling, but those of us who have dedicated our lives to the business get no breaks and a lot of this is over—I’m a big fan of Jungle Boy—big time. I think he’s gonna be a big star for us,” Ross said, “he’s a great kid, very athletic and I’ve been calling him Jungle Boy Jack Perry since day one. That’s like I call Steve Austin ‘The Texas Rattlesnake’ or The Rock ‘The Brahma Bull,’ ‘The Great One,’ whatever. They’re just nicknames that come to my head and sometimes they stick and sometimes they don’t, but for God’s sake, Conrad, is it a peaceful offense to say ‘Jungle Boy’ Jack Perry?”
JR went on to welcome the criticism with open arms because he’s confident in his abilities and the chemistry he has with his broadcast partners, Excalibur and Tony Schiavone. “So for you attention-starved little bastards out there that knock my work, have at it. I don’t care,” Ross said, “all I’m gonna do is the best job I can, and quite frankly, and I know this is going to sound very poor of me, I think our three-man team is evolving into one of the better teams in the business, period, but I’m bias.”
JR also mentions how muddy and dangerous it can be for all these fans with negativity to have a platform to voice their opinions and to write it as expert analysis and further explains his reasoning to adding “Jack Perry” to Jungle Boy.
“Everybody’s a booker, man. Everybody’s a creative genius, everybody’s a booker. They got enough knowledge to be dangerous and this is a very sensitive time in our business for all the information flow on social media gives people the right, in their view, to profess to be somewhat experts. You’re not! You’re a fan! So, differentiate the two things. You’re not an expert, I’m an expert. You’re not an expert, Conrad’s an expert.” Ross stated. “I’m trying to give ‘Jungle Boy’ Jack even more personality, he’s gonna be a player, man. What is he gonna do when he’s 35? Is he still gonna be ‘Jungle Boy’ or ‘Jungle Man?’ Or ‘Jungle Boy Jack?’ I don’t know what he’s gonna be, but right now in my mind’s eye, I’m giving you all I can because I wanted to get him over and that’s what we did Wednesday night. Our goal is to create new stars and to get these guys over.”
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone)
On a related note, Cody Rhodes talked to Wrestlezone earlier this week and commented on AEW’s choices for commentary on Dynamite and Dark, and how he leaned toward giving fans a “buffet style” show. Cody spoke about the benefit of having different voices in the booth, citing the pairing of Ross and Excalibur of why having two different voices works well.
“Modern fans who are critical of Jim Ross love Excalibur, and then old school fans who love Jim Ross are critical of Excalibur. That’s why they’re together. That’s why. Excalibur gives the rub of the west coast and the new generation and the hyper-indy culture of wrestling,” Cody said, “and Jim gives the biggest rub of all of having been everything in this industry and entering a new phase in his career as the greatest announcer of all time, so I like to make that balance and that buffet.”
Check out our full interview with Cody below:
