Jim Ross
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Jim Ross | |
|---|---|
| Statistics | |
| Ring name(s) | Jim Ross Good Ol' J.R. J.R. |
| Billed height | 5 ft 8 in |
| Billed weight | 210 lb (93 kg) |
| Born | January 3, 1952 Westville, Oklahoma |
| Billed from | Oklahoma City, Oklahoma |
| Debut | 1974 |
James William (Jim) Ross, also known as J.R., or Good Ol' J.R. (born January 3, 1952), is a professional wrestling executive currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment working on its RAW brand as their play-by-play commentator. To many peers, Ross is considered to be one of the best wrestling announcers in history and has been called the voice of World Wrestling Entertainment.
He suffers from Bell's palsy, which sometimes results in temporary paralysis of Ross' facial muscles. In late 1998, following the death of his mother, Ross took a break from RAW as the effects of his grief reportedly worsened his Bell's palsy, and Michael Cole filled in for Ross. Despite his condition, Ross has established himself as one of the all-time greatest wrestling commentators, often compared to Gordon Solie.
Ross is also known for his trademark black Resistol brand cowboy hat along with his own brand of barbeque sauce and cookbooks.
Contents |
[edit] Career in professional wrestling
[edit] Early career
Having watched wrestling since he was five years old, Ross finished college in 1974 and entered the professional wrestling business. Ross started off as a referee for the territories, earning between US$25 to $40 a night. Ross would earn extra money for riding wrestlers. Due to his dedication of the business, but earning small wages, some wrestlers would take pity on him and allow him into their hotel room for free.
During his time in college, Ross had spent some time commenting on college radio. With this experience, Ross was given a chance to be a sideline commentator when an announcer in one territory was unable to show up one night. Hence, this started Ross' career as an announcer.[1]
Shortly after Bill Watts bought out the Mid-South territory, Ross went to work there, becoming their lead play-by-play man in 1986. The first World Title match he called was between Ric Flair and Ted DiBiase. When Jim Crockett, Jr. bought the Mid-South (since renamed the Universal Wrestling Federation) and merged it with his Jim Crockett Promotions group, Ross joined the new company and eventually supplanted Gordon Solie and Tony Schiavone as lead play-by-play man for the National Wrestling Alliance. Ross continued to hone his skills and build his legacy as Jim Crockett Promotions became World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
Ross worked his way up the career ladder to become Executive Vice President of Broadcasting for WCW, yet along the way had a contentious relationship with Eric Bischoff. According to Ross, Bischoff, who reported to him, did a really good job of "selling himself" to executives of WCW's owner Turner Broadcasting. According to Bischoff, Ross mistreated him and when Eric was promoted to executive producer in 1993, he "justly" fired Ross from the company.
As it happened, Ross had an air-tight three year contract with Turner Broadcasting, but he took an immediate buy-out for fear that he wouldn't get work elsewhere if he was taken off television for a long period of time.
[edit] World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment
[edit] 1993 - 1994
After leaving WCW Ross was hired by the World Wrestling Federation (later known as World Wrestling Entertainment), making his debut at WrestleMania IX and taking over for Gorilla Monsoon on WWF Wrestling Challenge the next weekend. Ross worked alongside Bobby Heenan on that show until Heenan was (kayfabe) thrown out of the WWF by Monsoon following the 1993 Survivor Series. Ross was originally the main voice of the WWF's pay-per-view events when he was first brought in, calling both WrestleMania IX and the King of the Ring with Heenan and Randy Savage in 1993, although Vince McMahon took his place at SummerSlam 1993.
Ross was then made host of Radio WWF, which lasted a little under a year. In this role Ross was joined by co-hosts such as Johnny Polo and talked to various WWF Superstars and fans. Ross and Monsoon called SummerSlam and Survivor Series at the end of 1993 and the Royal Rumble in the beginning of 1994 for Radio WWF.
Ross was fired from his duties on February 11, 1994 and became an announcer for Smoky Mountain Wrestling and the NFLs Atlanta Falcons.
[edit] 1994 - 2003
When Vince McMahon was indicted in 1994, he was unable to continue commentating on Monday Night RAW. With no one within the company able to adequately fill his shoes, the WWF rehired Ross to fill in for McMahon alongside Randy Savage during the summer of 1994. When McMahon was acquitted Ross was let go by the WWF again, but the Federation quickly rehired him in early 1995, in time for WrestleMania XI. Relocated to the syndicated WWF programming for the majority of the next two years, Ross would rejoin the primary announce team in the summer of 1996.
However, in September 1996, Ross turned heel for the first time in his career. Following Diesel and Razor Ramon leaving the WWF for World Championship Wrestling and debuting there as The Outsiders Ross began to proclaim on television that he was still in touch with "Diesel" and "Razor" and claimed that he would be bringing them back to the WWF soon. Eventually, on the September 23, 1996 episode of Monday Night RAW, Ross delivered a now infamous worked-shoot promo during which he ran down WWF Chairman Vince McMahon (in turn, outing him as chairman and not just a commentator) and debuted his "new" Diesel and Razor, claiming that while working in the WWF "front office" he'd been the man responsible for so many people leaving the company as part of his "revenge" against the WWF for how they treated him in the past.
After this angle, Ross went on to host various WWF programs such as Superstars, Action Zone, Monday Night RAW, Shotgun Saturday Night and SmackDown!. Ross again became the main voice of the WWF beginning at the 1997 Survivor Series.
In 1998 Ross took a break from Raw, due to the death of his mother and the worsening conditon of his Bell's Palsy. He eventually returned to Raw as part of a storyline alleging that Vince fired him because of his condition, but that he would not go down quietly and enlisted the services of "Dr. Death" Steve Williams as his personal "enforcer". The storyline went as far as to have Jim Ross set up his own announce table in front of the official announce table labeled "JR Is War". The storyline was soon dropped and Jim Ross took his seat back as "official" commentator of Raw starting with the main event of WrestleMania XV.
[edit] 2003 - present
In 2003 he was set on fire by Kane during a segment where he was interviewing Kane, as part of the effort to get heat on Kane during his unmasking and the resultant heel turn.
He was again fired (this time in kayfabe) from his play-by-play job on RAW by Vince and Linda McMahon one week after the October 3, 2005 special edition of RAW, called WWE Homecoming, because doctors had discovered an issue in JR's colon. He was replaced by Jonathan Coachman and later Joey Styles.
Soon after his "firing", JR admitted that it was a "blessing in disguise" because if he had not been relieved of his duties, he would have continued without getting the medical treatment he needed. His colon surgery was infamously spoofed by McMahon in a skit that many considered in poor taste, where McMahon pulled random objects from Ross's colon before pulling out Ross's own head ("There's your problem JR: you had your head up your ass!"), and eventually made out with the nurse.
TV shows leading up to the November 1, 2005 pay-per-view Taboo Tuesday indicated that Steve Austin would face Jonathan Coachman with Ross being "re-hired" if Austin won the match. However, Austin backed out when WWE decided he would job to Coachman, and that J.R. would not be getting his job back. Coachman (along with new allies, Goldust and Vader) faced Batista at the PPV instead with Batista winning and nothing being said about Ross.
While recovering from his colon surgery, Joey Styles called the weekly RAW. Ross was brought back for Saturday Night's Main Event, then the RAW matches at WrestleMania 22 in Chicago, before taking back his play-by-play job on RAW on May 8, 2006.
Jim Ross' contract with WWE expired in October 2006. At that point, neither side had signed a new contract and instead worked week to week under the terms of the expired contract. In November 2006, Jim Ross stated on his official blog that he had signed a new one year contract with WWE. [2]
On the September 26, 2006 edition of ECW, Ross made a special appearance in his home state of Oklahoma, where he was interrupted by Matt Striker who teased Ross about Oklahoma before then getting a Singapore cane beating from both The Sandman and J.R.
On the March 26, 2007 edition of RAW, it was announced that Ross will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2007, alongside his colleague Jerry Lawler. Fans greeted the announcement with a standing ovation lasting over a minute.
He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 31, 2007 by his good friend, Stone Cold Steve Austin.
[edit] Outside of professional wrestling
Ross makes an appearance in the film about the life of Andy Kaufman, Man on the Moon.
In 2001, capitalizing on their natural chemistry together on RAW, the WWE put Ross and his announcing partner, Jerry Lawler, together as an announce team for the new XFL league.
In dedication to him, January 24, 2005 was officially named "Jim Ross Day" in Oklahoma by Governor Brad Henry.
As of August 1, 2006 Ross became a writer for the website OU Insider and the accompanying publication Sooners Illustrated. Both are local beat publications about the Oklahoma Sooners.
In 2006, Ross opened his own online sauce store due to the success of his cook books. The website, titled J.R.'s Family Bar-B-Q, allowed users to buy his sauces as merchandise. The website also features a blog page where Ross interacts with his fans.
Ross has been big in internet media, including a song made by Muhand Rashid called "My Ass" using a combination of Ross's voice commentaries.
[edit] Job titles
- WWE Executive Vice President of Business Strategies
- Former WCW Executive Vice President of Broadcasting
- WWE Pay-Per-View Play-By-Play Announcer
- WWE Raw Play-By-Play Announcer
- Former WWE SmackDown! Play-By-Play Announcer
- Former WWF LiveWire Show Host
- Former WCW Saturday Night Play-By-Play Announcer
- Former UWF/Mid-South Play-By-Play Announcer
- Former XFL Play-by-Play Announcer
[edit] Trivia
- Ross, despite not being a wrestler, has not been defeated by Triple H in the two matches they have had together.
- The first JR WWF action figure was made with a defect; on JR's jacket it was supposed to say, "War Zone" but instead it said, "War Tony."
- Despite the fact that he was working for the WWE at the time, JR was the last voice heard on the very last WCW Monday Nitro.
- JR's entrance theme is "Boomer Sooner", the fight song of the University of Oklahoma.
- Ross is credited for being the man to sign The Rock, Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Batista, Lita, Trish Stratus, The Dudley Boyz, Kurt Angle, The Hardy Boyz, Rey Mysterio, Edge, Christian, John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Chris Jericho, Big Show, Goldberg and other successful wrestlers to WWE. He was relieved from his talent duties in 2004.
- Ross is a member of Phi Lambda Chi Fraternity from his college days at Northeastern State University.
- Wrestler Mick Foley makes several references to J.R in all his books, and mentions that his screamed "Would someone stop the damn match!" commentary of the infamous 1998 Hell in a Cell match was the best sports commentary of all time. He also expressed his distain for the McMahon-helmed skit about J.R's colon surgery.
[edit] Awards
- World Wrestling Entertainment
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter
- WON Hall of Fame (inducted in 1999)
- Best Television Announcer (1988-1993, 1998-2001, 2006)
| Preceded by Vince McMahon |
Voice of Monday Night RAW 1997-2005 |
Succeeded by Jonathan Coachman |
| Preceded by Joey Styles |
Voice of Monday Night RAW May 8, 2006 – present |
Incumbent |
| Preceded by James J. Dillon |
WWE Head of Talent Relations 1996-2005 |
Succeeded by John Laurinaitis |
[edit] References
- ^ Encarnacao, Jack (23 March 2007). Recap of Jim Ross' speech at MIT. Wrestling Observer. Retrieved on 2007-03-25.
- ^ Ross, Jim (23 November 2006). J.R. responds to Contract Signing Feedback. Retrieved on 2007-03-25.
[edit] External links
Categories: Wikipedia articles needing factual verification | Articles with large trivia sections | 1952 births | American bloggers | Living people | People from Norman, Oklahoma | Professional wrestling announcers | Professional wrestling executives | Professional wrestling referees | World Championship Wrestling alumni | WWE Hall of Fame
