Donald Wood from Ring Rust Radio, along with fellow columnists Mike Chiari and Brandon Galvin had WWE Hall of Famer Announcer Jim Ross on the show this week. The 4 talked about JR’s biggest signings while working in WWE’s talent relations department, his relationship with Vince McMahon, part-time stars like The Rock and Brock Lesnar, working as an MMA commentator and so much more.
The YouTube interview can be found at http://youtu.be/LQYIKYzz34g.
Ring Rust Radio Episode: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ringrustradio/2014/10/28/ring-rust-radio–oct-28-w-wwe-hall-of-famer-jim-ross-hell-in-a-cell-review
Below are interview highlights:
Donald Wood: While most fans know you as a legendary wrestling announcer, you have been quite busy since your WWE career came to an end. Between The Ross Report on PodcastOne and your success with JR’s BarBQ, you are still very much a part of the wrestling lexicon. How has your perspective of the business changed now that you’re more on the outside looking in and do you miss being on the front lines of the industry?
Jim Ross: Well, I don’t watch as much or religiously as I used to. I’m more dependent now on my DVR rather than watching live. I try to watch as much as I feel I need to so I can maintain my accuracy and have a valid opinion for my podcast. I feel obligated to watch as much product as I can so that the Ross Report is accurate and I can give valid opinions on things I have seen. If I told you I watch just as much as I always did and was just as excited as I was when I was working in it, I would be less then truthful. I miss game day and a lot of my friends, the adrenaline rush with a live crowd. I certainly do not miss the travel in a non-seasonal business. It’s a mixed bag. I’m still a fan. I’m not bitter or angry; just busy. I just don’t have the time to make sure I’m watching a show live like I probably would when I was working in WWE.
Mike Chiari: In addition to your announcing you played a key role on the talent relations side with WWEand were responsible for bringing in several legendary Superstars. Of all the signings you made inWWE, which sticks out to you as the biggest coup and the one you’re most proud of today?
Jim Ross: Well, it’s a difficult question. You’re essentially asking someone to select their favorite child. I think the biggest steal that we got was signing Stone Cold Steve Austin. Vince didn’t really have any familiarity with him, but I did when we worked together at WCW. When he was available and healthy after a short run in ECW,I thought that was a big get and a steal. The biggest overachiever I hired was Mick Foley. He was another guyWWE did not want. I finally through dog named salesmanship, convinced Vince to give him a try. We were running out of heels for Undertaker to work with at the time. It’s very challenging when you have a seven foot babyface to selectively match him up with heels to work with. Mick and Undertaker knew each other from previous promotions. Undertaker thought it was a good idea to bring Mick in.
The guy that’s gone on to obviously become the biggest star of the group as it relates to his movie work and notoriety around the world is Dwayne Johnson. We had a good run there with him. Several classes were good. I saw Heyman talk about the class of 2002 on Raw Monday and that was one of our better groups with Batista,Cena, Orton and Brock. I pride myself in the fact that we were diligent in finding people, recruiting and coaching up people. We had a great staff with great instructors and great scouts. It was a total team effort. I felt very honored that I got to facilitate and open the door for some of those guys to live their dreams. It was a lot of fun.
Brandon Galvin: You’ve always been credited with having a fantastic eye for talent and your track record in that role speaks for itself. I’m sure you can understand how confusing it is for fans to hear people in a company talking about wrestlers like Steve Austin, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, Cesaro and other fan-favorites not being seen as top-tier talents. Is it possible for you to give us some insight into the decision-making of a company and why a wrestler fans deem as a top-tier talent may not be viewed in the same light?
Jim Ross: Well, it’s real difficult for me to relate to management now since I’m long gone from the WWE. I don’t know how they manage their day-to-day or how their meetings are. I had a very unique relationship with Vince back when I was hiring talent. I was talking to J.J. Dillon, who is coming up on my podcast, he would get tapes and recommendations from talent, but he always had to go through Vince. When I took over for J.J., Vince wanted me to retool and redesign the talent relations department. One of the things I had to have to make it better, in my opinion, was his trust. That my judgment and seeing talents was viable. I hired talents that Vince had never seen and he trusted me. They were my responsibility and they were on my watch. I can’t really tell you what’s going on there now. You gotta believe that WWE listens. They don’t do my ideas so they don’t listen. Well, we don’t know what they are planning next month, week, Monday, Sunday, well I don’t anyways.
At the end of the day, the cream will rise to the top. The fans will steer the course and support their favorites. The business in general, is in a near crisis situation when it comes to have an adequate amount of skilled main event talent depth. There is skilled main event talent no question, but the depth issue is startling. I think fans right now are ready for something new. Some of the guys you mentioned, I believe, have significant potential to be main event stars. They have to be given the ball and they gotta be built. There is a process you have to go through, commitments gotta be made by the company, long-term planning in effect and they have to have confidence in the talent. There are other issues you and I are not aware of. There could be issues internally that within the company that for whatever reason they don’t have confidence in the talent. Maybe those reason are kept private for confidentiality reasons or legal reasons or whatever. The issue is that I’d rather look at the glass half full. Life is too challenging to go through wondering and bitching and moaning about this that and the other.
If the guy steers the course, and they prove themselves as good locker room leaders and good members of the team, improve their skill set, and add things to their game, then they have a chance to move up the ladder to the main event level and make more money. For some guys it comes late, some guys it comes easy, it will come if it’s meant to be. There’s no magic formula or secret clandestine meetings. For God’s sake, the WWE is not so aloof that they are going to say, “Well we’re going to do this because we like it and we don’t care what our customer’s like”. That thought is just so immature and so stupid for anyone to think that. There are some fans that reach out to me on Twitter that do think that. They think that the WWE is so omnipotent that they can do whatever they want whether you like it or not. Where would be the advantage to doing that? There is none. So I can’t answer your question but at least I can give you a little background on it.
Donald Wood: As one of the top play-by-play announcers in wrestling history, you have worked next to several of the most entertaining color commentators the business has ever seen. If you could commentate one final wrestling match with any color commentator of your choice, who would it be and why?
Jim Ross: Oh gosh, you know I don’t know. That’s another tough one. No matter what I say, that’s the thing about these interviews; whatever I say is gonna be dissected. I wrote a blog today about these rumors about me and New Japan. But no matter what I say, some people are going to read into it what they choose. My longest tenured run was with Jerry Lawler. We could go back to work tomorrow, probably call any sport or entity, and be entertaining. The partner that agitated me and knew the buttons to push and was a combustible delivery and presentation was Paul Heyman. The partner that goes off the radar and was absolutely outstanding was Jim Cornette. Much like JBL and myself working together, we would be considered by the mainstream TV world as being too southern, so that will never happen. Cornette would be awesome. JBLwould be very good. Taz would get such a contrast in sound. I love working with Terry Funk is the most underrated guy I worked with. Bob Caudle by far the most underrated announcer in the history of the business. I love working with Bobby Heenan. Gorilla Monsoon was like an uncle.
What I’m saying about all these guys is I have a relationship with these people, friendships with all these people. So it’s harder for me to say. The question “you got one more match and you can work with anyone you want, who would it be?” Well then the next question is “what would that match be?” Well hell, I don’t know, beats me. “Where would that match be?” Well WrestleMania of course. “What arena would it be?” So that’s where you are, there is no right answer. I love all those guys, they all made me better, and I was blessed to work with some very, very talented people. I loved working with, though it was limited and at the end of his run while he was dealing with issues, I really enjoyed my experience working with Gordon Solie. I never did get to work with Lance Russell, which I would have loved to have done. Quite frankly, the one I had the most chemistry with and fun with from day one is Chael Sonnen. We only worked once and it was a natural fit. So I don’t know if I can answer that question for you because of those reasons. These guys are like family members to me. You boys are young and you’re going to learn this maybe the hard way some day. When you get older, you’ll be able to count all your great friends on one hand. Trust me. There’s a lot of guys I named on that commentator list and I hope at the end of the day I can still call them my friends till the day they put us all away. They all made me better and I hope I contributed to making them better too.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
