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Jim Ross

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James W. (Jim) Ross, also known as J.R., or Good Ol' J.R. (born January 3 1952 in Westville, Oklahoma), is a professional wrestling executive, and a former play-by-play announcer working for World Wrestling Entertainment on the RAW brand. Ross made his WWF debut at WrestleMania IX in 1993. Despite being hailed by fans and critics for many years as one of the best announcers in wrestling, Ross was "fired" on air by WWE Chairman Vince McMahon (or you could say it was the WWE CEO Linda McMahon who kicked him in the crotch) in the storyline of the October 10, 2005 edition of RAW. It is currently uncertain if Ross will ever return to the announcing booth.

File:Jimross-1-.jpg
Jim Ross

He is known to be a sufferer of Bell's palsy, which sometimes results in temporary paralysis of Ross' facial muscles. In early 1999, Ross was absent from RAW following the death of his mother. The effects of Ross' grief reportedly worsened his Bell's palsy, thus SmackDown! host Michael Cole, filled in for Ross for the time being. Ross though, was well enough to call the main event at WrestleMania XV. Despite his condition, Ross has established himself as one of the all-time greatest wrestling commentators, often compared to the legendary Gordon Solie. Ross has his own brand of barbeque sauce and his own selection of cookbooks.

Career

Early career

Ross started as a referee for Leroy McGuirk's Tri-State Wrestling in the early to mid 70's. When McGuirk's booker Bill Watts split the territory and started Mid-South Wrestling in 1979, McGuirk made Jim Ross his lead announcer on the show. He stayed there until 1982, when Watts bought out McGuirk. Shortly after, Ross went to work for Watts in Mid-South.

In 1986, Ross became the company's lead play-by-play man. It would be re-named Universal Wrestling Federation in the spring of 1986. The first World's Title match that he called was betten between Ric Flair and Ted DiBiase. When Jim Crockett bought the UWF 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 until his eventual falling out with the NWA.

Ross left World Championship Wrestling in 1993 following a conflict with the upper management. Besides his play-by-play work, Ross had worked his way up to the job of Executive Vice President of Broadcasting for WCW. According to Ross, Eric Bischoff, who had reported to him, had done a really good job selling himself to executives at WCW's then ownership Turner Broadcasting. According to Bischoff, Ross mistreated him and once Eric was promoted to executive producer in 1993, he justly fired Ross from the company. Either way, Ross had an air-tight three year contract with Turner Broadcasting, yet took the buy-out for fear that McMahon wouldn't hire him after a long hiatus.

World Wrestling Entertainment

Having been fired on-screen several times before, Ross was "fired" once and for all as a commentator on RAW on October 10, 2005, as part of a storyline on that night's live RAW broadcast. Vince McMahon had beckoned Ross and co-announcers Coachman and Lawler to the ring to demand an apology for their inaction during Austin's Stone Cold Stunner rampage against the McMahon family on the WWE Homecoming broadcast a week earlier. He accepted apologies from Coachman and Lawler, but refused to accept Ross' apology. Instead, Vince called Stephanie McMahon to the ring so Ross could make an in-person apology. Afterward, Linda McMahon came to the ring, seemingly to admonish Vince and Stephanie for publicly reprimanding Ross, only for her to make her surprise heel turn.

He claimed off-air (after RAW ended, footage is on WWE's unlimited service) that he was fired because Vince did not have the "balls" to fire Stone Cold, but did not harbor ill feelings toward Stone Cold for being scapegoated that way.

It was revealed on WWE.com, that Ross underwent surgery to remove a blockage from his colon recently, which might lend credence to the entire "firing" being a work as Ross would need time to recover from the procedure. Ross has been mentioned or parodied on recent RAW shows (such as Jonathan Coachman mocking Ross by wearing his traditional black cowboy hat, and Vince McMahon's "surgery" on Ross' colon), and wrote a tribute to the late Eddie Guerrero on WWE.com, which would further lend credence to this being a work (prior WWE stars who truly have been fired or released by the company have not been mentioned on later shows).

TV shows leading up to the November 1, 2005 pay-per-view Taboo Tuesday indicated that Stone Cold Steve Austin would face Jonathan Coachman with Ross being "re-hired" if Austin won the match. However, Austin allegedly backed out when WWE decided he would job to Coachman and Mark Henry. Coachman faced Batista at the PPV instead, and nothing was said about Ross. This makes it uncertain if a Ross "re-hiring" was ever part of the storyline at all; however, it could also have been delayed due to unforeseen complications in Ross' recovery.

Ross was replaced as lead announcer of WWE RAW by Joey Styles on a trial basis in November and permanently in December 2005 after Styles signed a five-year deal with WWE. Styles' hiring as lead announcer for RAW makes it unlikely that Ross will return in his previous capacity.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma was an on-air wrestling character portrayed by former WWE head writer Ed Ferrera when Ferrera was working for rival company WCW. Ferrera's spot-on portrayal of Ross (including mimicing the Bell's palsy from which Ross suffers) was so convincing that many people thought that Oklahoma was Ross. The Oklahoma character was eventually retired, but not before winning (in an obvious jab at Ross' obesity problem), the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. Ferrera and Russo later apologised to Ross for the impersonation, some years after Ross's friend Jim Cornette had spat in the face of Ferrera in a show of contempt.

Matches

Ross has participated in six wrestling matches during his time in WWE, and has a current win/loss/draw record of 4/2/0:

Other storyline confrontations

Ross has suffered multiple (kayfabe) injuries and indignities, mainly during in-ring interviews, including:

Job titles

  • WWE Executive Vice President of Business Strategies
  • Former WCW Executive Vice President of Broadcasting
  • Former WWE Executive Vice President Of Talent Relations
  • Former WWE Pay-Per-View Play-By-Play Announcer
  • Former 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

Trivia

Wikiquote has quotations related to Jim Ross.
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