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Jim Ross on Vince McMahon’s animosity towards him: ‘I think he was jealous’

Posted: Dec 22nd 2025 By: Bryan Rose

Jim Ross has a theory on why he always seemed to be the target of Vince McMahon.

While Ross was WWE’s lead announcer for years, he was also subject to many storylines and angles that seemed to be designed to embarrass him. On his podcast, Ross shared a theory as to why McMahon always had it out for him.

“I have never understood Vince’s intense animosity, I think he was jealous,” Ross explained. “He was never the play-by-play guy that I was, but he didn’t want to give me any credit for helping build the Attitude Era into what it was. I’m not the only person responsible for that, for God’s sakes, I’m not trying to say that. All I’m trying to say is I signed all those guys that made him millions of dollars and facilitated the company going public. Those are my guys, that was my roster.”

Despite the years of grief, Ross said he never had any ill will towards McMahon and has chosen to move on.

“I always put my faith in my work. I thought I could call a good match if the match was there…as much grief as he gave me, I could always look at my bank account and get happy,” he said. “So I never had the animosity toward Vince that he had toward me and I never got it. I didn’t screw him around, I never no-showed, I didn’t phone anything in, I was doing two or three jobs…I never understood it. I worked my a** off, but sometimes that’s just the way that it is. And I had a choice to carry that animosity and that angst with me or cut it loose and move on. The latter is what I’ve done and I will continue to do.”

Ross chose not to renew his WWE contract in 2019 and joined AEW as an announcer soon after. Despite struggling with health issues, he has continued to make appearances for the company including at this year’s All In event.
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