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Ross Takes Time To Celebrate Upon Return To Home State

Posted: Jul 4th 2008 By: CMBurnham

The look on his face told the story last week. During the WWE draft, Jim Ross and Michael Cole were switched from RAW to Smackdown and vice versa. This came as an unexpected (and for many fans unpleasant) surprise, but it seemed no one was more surprised or upset than Good Ol' J. R. himself.

For the remainder of the broadcast, Ross was hardly his jovial self, depsite the encouragement of broadcast partner Mick Foley. According to later reports, Ross spent much of that night pondering the possibility of resigning from the WWE. For over 10 years, he had been the voice of Monday Night RAW and was seen in many people's eyes as being synonomous with wrestling on Monday Nights. After many hours of consideration and soul searching, along with a somewhat scathing blog on his website, Ross came to the conclusion that it would be in everyone's best interests for him to simply go along with the flow and begin his new career on Friday nights.

The irony of the whole situation was that his draft came one week before the WWE was scheduled to roll into his old stomping grounds in Oklahoma City.

So, with Monday Night RAW eminating from the Ford Centre, it appeared that Ross would not have a part to play and, while he insisted that he would be there, it seemed like this was his best chance to be a fan in the stands, But, in a move that shows the level of respect that the WWE has for its head play-by-play man, Ross was given the opening segment of the broadcast to make a farewell speech to the fans.

This was not announced ahead of time, so when Ross' music (the OU fight song) played, the crowd was overjoyed that their favourite son was going to make one last appearance. Ross made his way to the ring and told everyone that it was an honour to be standing there and it was "damn good to be home". He explained that he was excited about going to Friday Night Smackdown (a statement that elicited some boos from the crowd) and hoped the fans would follow him over as they planned to "raise some hell on Friday nights". He looked forward to working with Mick Foley and said many complimentary things about his 10 years with Jerry Lawler, including the FACT that being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame with "The King" made that moment the most special. He also gave compliments to Michael Cole, which brought about even more boos from the crowds. But Ross put Cole over, saying he knew from the beginning that Cole would do a great job and he hoped the fans would give him the respect they gave Ross for so many years.

Ross took some time to think back on his history in Oklahoma City. He said that the first time he saw wrestling live was at the Stockyard Collesium, where he enjoyed seeing Danny Hodge. He also said that he spent many memorable years at the Myriad calling the action for MSW and UWF. Mention was made of some of the somewhat unfortunate series of events orchestrated by Vince McMahon that seemed to happen to Ross every time they were back in Oklahoma City. Perhaps the most memorable of these was when Ross joined the Vince McMahon "Kiss My Ass" Club. But Oklahoma City was also the home of some high points, such as when Ross & Lawler defeated then Lance Storm & William Regal in one of Ross' very few in ring ventures. Ross got the pin on that occassion and these were the type of events that Ross chose to dwell on.

Ross closed by encouraging everyone to eat more barbecue and that "nothing could put a damper on tonight". The latter half of that statement was soon to be proven wrong as WWE RAW World Champion Edge came out, accompanied by Kurt Hawkins and Zach Ryder, to interrupt the farewell. Edge said he never ceased to be amazed at Ross' arrogance and asked why Ross thought anyone cared about him or the Sooners. He said no one cared about Ross' relationship with Jerry Lawler or Mick Foley and then never did. But now, Ross would get to start his real Hall of Fame career by moving over to Smackdown and covering Edge's match. Edge encouraged Ross to practice his new phrases. Instead of "Stone Cold! Stone Cold! Stone Cold!", it was going to be "Edge wins! Edge wins! Edge wins!" When offered a chance to show how that might sound, Ross brushed the microphone away and Edge said this was an amazing instance because J. R. was speechless.

Ross was escorted from the ring by Hawkins and Ryder and his part on RAW was over. But Ross wasn't done in Oklahoma. The next night, in Tulsa, Michael Cole came out before the broadcast began to address the crowd in much the same way Ross had addressed the OKC fans. He reminded them that he had been drafted and knew that he was probably not the most popular person Oklahoma at this point. At that point "Boomer Sooner" played again and J. R. marched the ring in front of another standing ovation. Ross said that Cole sounded disingenuous in his speech to the fans and asked if he had let them know that he was a Longhorn fan from "deep in the heart of Texas" He said that he was proud to let everyone know he was a Sooner whenever they were in the Lone Star State and recommended that Cole vacate the ring and "get the hell out of the arena".

Ross now begins a new step in his career, as does Smackdown. Beginning this fall, Smackdown will move from the CW Network to the MyTelevision Network. And if the rumours are true, Ross won't be totally away from live action as it's possible the Smackdown events immediately prior to the Pay-Per-Views may be broadcast live on Fridays. Smackdown is usually taped on Tuesdays.

Tags: WWE, Jim Ross, J. R., Mick Foley, Jerry Lawler, Danny Hodge, MSW, UWF