WWE Hall of Famer and AEW personality Jim Ross recently spoke on his podcast, “Grilling JR,” about a variety of professional wrestling topics including an update on his foot:
“Life is good. I’m fine. I’m healthy. Good news on my foot. My wound has reduced in size by 43%. I think that’s a win. I still go back every week for the wound doctor to clean it up and make sure there’s nothing funny going on. They take cultures to make sure of that.”
On Cody Rhodes failing to win the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 39:
“I like the longer story to be honest with you and it really doesn’t have anything to do with Cody as much as it does with storytelling. The chase that he can embark upon, if done properly, can be extremely successful for Cody and WWE. Fighting for something, battling it out, earning the opportunity just like he just got here and he’s in a title match type thing. Now would I have liked to see Cody for his own personal edification win the title? Absolutely. I’m a Cody fan. But I do like the fact that they’re going to make him earn it so to speak, and get on this journey. You know that Heyman and company will have a million roadblocks and it’ll involve a lot of different characters. It’ll give a lot of people a rub, as they say. So I had no problem with it. I know a lot of people did, and I can understand that. If they would have gone the other way and Cody had gone over, I’d have been happy, but I think it was not a disaster for Cody to not win the title because it gives them a potential story that has a a very, potentially anyway, a very long arc, and easy to understand, easy to follow storyline that all roads will eventually lead back, no pun intended on the roads, but all roads will eventually lead back to Roman Reigns and and Cody somewhere. If it were me, I know where it’d be. It would be at WrestleMania next year. After everything he’s gone through, blah, blah, blah,after coming close last year and he’s overcome, overcome, overcome, finally, the day has come for the rematch. So that’s one idea. That’s just a matter of using smart booking. That’s my take on that deal. I know a lot of people were pissed off. I understand the disappointment. I’m not even criticizing it whatsoever. I just think this long term arc to get him back to the promised land is the way to go. It’s good storytelling, especially for a company that produces five hours of big time live television a week with three hours of RAW and two hours of SmackDown. They need stories. They need stories that have a direction and a purpose and a reason, and certainly, there’s plenty of reason to promote the eventual return match.”
On AEW’s booking of Wembley Stadium:
I really admire Tony Khan for being brave enough to be willing to invest serious money in promoting this massive venue. I hope the tickets go well. I like how they’re doing the ticket sales. People are registering and they’re trying to make it fair for everybody to get a ticket. I don’t think that’ll be a problem. I don’t have any idea what to predict as far as how many people are going to be there. I don’t know what the capacity is going to be for wrestling, but it’s a great move. We’re growing. I think he’ll put together a hell of a card. I think, and this is me with my old school booking hat on, you got to bring in some new people to make the show, I think It’s gonna be great for the company. I hope we make money on it. I think we will. It’ll give these talents a chance to see going from Daley’s Place to Wembley Stadium. That’s a hell of a journey. So I’m pulling for everybody to have their best preparation. The card will be outstanding. When you got to book one card, and you got this list of names, you got to wonder how many names are going to be added to that list that weren’t previously there. I think that’s important. I think you got to have something new. Even if it’s a one off, so be it. I’m excited about this.”
On whether the stories or matches are more important:
“The stories. Stories are where the money is and then you hope that the guys that you have involved in your stories, and if they have helped nurture and contribute to, you hope then at the next phase, is how they execute in the ring. Then you certainly hope that they deliver in the ring as well as they did telling their story. It’s got to be a package affair, but the story comes first, and then following it up with the appropriate physicality in the ring, is the next step.”
On Michael Cole’s recent comments that he does not want to be a 75 or 80-year-old man still calling wrestling:
“Well, you know, to each his own. I’m in a situation, and we’ve talked about this before. It’s a unique thing to be alone. It’s a unique thing to have your life partner not with you, speaking of Jan, so I work because I still love pro wrestling and I love having somewhere to go every week. Michael’s in a different situation. He’s got a family at home. He’s got a wonderful wife. I’m sure he saved his cash. He always was thrifty, and that’s good. I don’t know how much longer he’s gonna go, but I don’t perceive that as a shot at me whatsoever. Look, when I was his age, I would have never thought that good old JR would be doing a weekly show at 71 years old. Not many have done this. I do it for my own mental health and I do it because I love it. This is gonna sound horrible, but I still think I’m pretty damn good at it, at least I try to be. I didn’t look at it as a personal thing whatsoever. I like Michael. He’s a good friend. We exchange texts from time to time. When I hear him do something I think is really, really good, I’ll let him know because that’s what we all should do in our business.”
You can listen to the complete podcast via AdFreeShows.com.
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
