Jim Ross Isn’t Planning On Returning To WWE
Fans of the legendary wrestling announcer Jim Ross shouldn’t expect to see him anywhere but on AEW and on podcasts for the foreseeable future.
For many wrestling fans, both current and former, Jim Ross is the voice of wrestling. His passion, emotion, and dedication to selling the gravitas of what he’s seeing have made him into a legend. Some of the greatest moments in modern wrestling history were improved by Jim Ross calling the action, whether that meant him screaming off the top of his lungs or expressing disgust.
More recently, however, Jim Ross has played a different role while in AEW. His role has been to add importance and a sense of legitimacy to whatever’s going on in front of him. And while he isn’t screaming at the top of his lungs and pouring emotion into AEW matches as he has done decades earlier, his presence on AEW programming is still appreciated by many people.
But with Vince McMahon’s departure and Triple H’s ascent to the top of WWE, many fans have wondered if the constant roster shake-ups seen in recent months would extend to the commentators as well. As it turns out, it doesn’t, as JR said on his Grilling Jr [available on AdFreeShows.com] that he plans on ending his career in AEW.
“I’m a businessman and I’m very happy to be in the business with the company that I’m doing it with. I told Tony Khan this that I’d like to finish my career, my full time career, at AEW. Maybe it’s coming in and doing a pay per view. Maybe it’s coming in at a special like Battle the Belts, or the pay per views. Like I said, it’s something that would be interesting to do. It’s hard to sort of position yourself there because the last thing I want to do is get another full time job.”
“I don’t want to be on the road every week at that stage of my life. I want to fulfill this contract as great as I can and earn my keep, and stay where I’m at until it’s time to move on. We have to be honest about it, realistically. At some point in time, you got to reevaluate. You just have to, and at my age, it’s especially important. I don’t know about another job. Would I want to do another full time job at AEW or WWE or anywhere else? Probably not. Again, if I was 40, or 50, or 60, I would probably reconsider that answer. But I’m not.”
Jim Ross appeared on the first-ever episode of AEW Dynamite and has also served as a senior advisor. Then a few months ago in June, AEW switched up the commentary teams, so now JR does commentary with Taz full-time on AEW Rampage.
h/t WrestlingNews.co for the transcription