“Vince wanted me out” – Jim Ross opens up on finding out he wasn’t wanted in the WWE anymore and how he dealt with it.
Jim Ross is currently in the AEW. However, to many lifelong Wrestling fans, he will always be the voice of WWE. His commentary is part of so many childhood stories. ‘He’s got a family’, ‘As God is my witness, he is broken in half’, ‘Make yourself famous kid’, these are just a handful of examples of the stories he’s told while calling a match.
Also read: Alexa Bliss reveals what Vince McMahon told her after she suffered several concussions
Which is why, it is surprising that the WWE did not feel he suited what they wanted to present on their television. JR revealed on the latest episode of the Grilling JR Podcast, that Vince wanted to replace him with younger announcers back in 2006. He lived constantly in fear of losing his job and did so for 12 whole years in the promotion.
Jim Ross opens up on finding out he wasn’t wanted in the WWE anymore
“My contract expired and we didn’t come to terms,” Ross said. “What we were doing was doing these little extensions until we got a deal done. I was hoping for a longer term deal in 2006, and I got a one year deal.
“The writing was on the wall for me. Vince wanted me out, he wanted to go with young, pretty guys – SportsCenter guys. Todd Grisham type guys. That’s what he wanted, the look Vince was enamored with. Not me and [Jerry] Lawler. If they could have found someone to replace me that Vince was pleased with, then I wouldn’t have got those little extensions, ’cause he did want me out.”
“In 2006, I learned a great lesson”
JR pointed the irony of him and Lawler being inducted into the Hall of Fame a year later. Somehow, however, he managed to stay with the company for 12 years without a job security. The silver lining for him, was, he learned a very important lesson by the end of it all.
“The irony of that is not even a year later, Lawler and I both went into the Hall of Fame,” Ross continued. “The plan was, we’ll do something nice for JR, we’ll put him in the Hall of Fame – whether he deserves it or not doesn’t matter – and that will be his going away present, because in the fall of 2007, Todd Grisham had already been informed that he was going to be the new voice of RAW.”
“After all that turmoil and chaos, I stayed till 2018. 12 more years of that sh**, knowing you’re not really wanted, you’re not the first choice. I didn’t have the T.V. look that McMahon joneses for. I got to a certain point where I just had to stop worrying about it, I couldn’t control it. In 2006, I learned a great lesson – don’t go crazy and worry about things you can’t control.”
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