• Look Back In History
• Pmessages
• Quiz
• Stump The Staff
• Top Fifty
• Close

Jim Ross talks about leaving, then returning to, the WWE

Posted: Sep 1st 2006 By: CMBurnham

World Wrestling Entertainment fans know where to find Jim Ross every Monday night, but it isn't hard to track down the storied announcer on Saturdays in the fall.

Ross is such a die-hard University of Oklahoma football fan that he tries to attend every contest on the Sooners' schedule. He purchased a home in Norman, Okla. just three miles from Memorial Stadium specifically for that purpose and books his travel for Monday Night Raw telecasts based upon Sooners road games.

Ross also contributes articles to two Sooners-themed media entities and wears a 1973 OU national championship ring that his wife bought him at a sports auction as a "good luck charm."

"The OU stuff has always been in my blood," said Ross, who will attend Saturday's season-opener against visiting Alabama-Birmingham. "All the years I lived in Connecticut (near WWE headquarters), it was nothing for me to leave on a Friday after work and fly to whatever city OU was playing in."

Listening to Sooners games on the radio as a child in Westville, Okla. provided Ross early inspiration to pursue a broadcasting career. Ross, 54, has subsequently called scores of college and pro football games but is best known for more than three decades of wrestling announcing, including the past 13 with WWE.

But Ross' tumultuous professional relationship with WWE owner Vince McMahon has resulted in his periodically getting yanked from the announcing table.

Last October, it appeared that Ross' days as the voice of WWE had ended.

Ross was replaced as Raw's lead announcer by Joey Styles shortly after the show moved from Spike TV to USA Network. Ross was fired on the air in a reality-based storyline and even had his recent colon surgery mocked by McMahon in one of the most tasteless skits in WWE history.

"Upper management had made it very clear they were looking to make a change to someone younger who looked more to their liking," said Ross, whose speech and physical appearance was affected by several bouts with Bell's Palsy during the 1990s.

"I looked at it like I had a great run. I had other things I could do with the company. One thing about being in the business for generations is that I can tell stories and share experiences that very few can articulate, so I thought I had value there."

But when Styles (real name Joe Bonsignore) struggled in his new role, Ross was summoned last March to call a Saturday Night's Main Event special on NBC. Two months later, Ross was back on Raw with long-time announcing partner Jerry Lawler.

"I want do this job as long as the company will have me," Ross said. "When my run is over, I will not look back and say, 'Woe is me.' It's been wonderful. I feel like I've left a great legacy. I was the voice when there was a golden era in this company and that will last forever."

Ross is now trying to build a legacy in another area close to his heart (and stomach). Ross is preparing to open his first family barbeque restaurant in Norman and will be selling his trademark brand of "Slobber-knocker" products through his own web site (www.jrsbarbq.com).

Ross has one more major career goal remaining: He would someday love to replace Bob Barry Sr. as the radio voice of Sooners football.

"That's one of those jobs I would do for nothing," Ross said. "I hearken back to the days when I was a kid sitting with my family around an old AM radio. All that storytelling theater of the mind elicits emotions and still affects me.

"I'd like to be able to affect another generation of people who are spoiled with ESPN and watch six or eight games a day to have a different game experience. It would be cool looking down from the announcing booth and seeing 85,000 people listening to the radio."