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Jim Ross: A Life After Professional Wrestling

Posted: Jan 12th 2016 By: Paul DeBenedetto

On Sept. 11, 2013, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) formally announced the retirement of legendary broadcaster Jim Ross. In its press release, the company wished him well, stating Ross was ending his 40-plus years in the pro wrestling business--about half of which were spent with WWE?to focus on ?personal business endeavors.?

In reality, Ross didn?t quite retire. Instead, he was called into an office at WWE?s Stamford, Connecticut headquarters and told his contract wouldn?t be renewed.

Throughout his career, the 61-year-old broadcasting firebrand has survived his share of obstacles, including three bouts of Bell?s palsy, which left his face partially paralyzed. Still, Ross? Hall of Fame career thrived despite those setbacks, leaving a legacy as indelible as any inside the ring.

And so, as he sat in a car during the roughly 40-minute ride from Stamford to LaGuardia Airport, trying to process what had just happened, Ross came to a stark realization: Either he had to to truly retire, or he?d have to rethink his entire career going forward.

?Where else is there to go play, that will motivate me and will be at the level that I was accustomed? There is none,? Ross told me during a recent interview. ?What do I do? Do I wallow in it? Write a country song??

?I reorganized,? Ross said. ?And I reinvented.?

Now 64, Ross is in the business of selling Jim Ross: Through a popular weekly podcast and a traveling one-man show called ?Ringside: An Evening With Jim Ross,? he remains loosely connected to his former pro wrestling life while providing fans a more intimate and personal portrait of the man behind the microphone.

I spoke to Ross in September, between takes of his podcast, ?The Ross Report.? That week?s guests were Ax and Smash of the 1980s WWE tag team Demolition, though Ross said he?d recorded the interview weeks earlier in London.

?Most of my interviews are conversational, and somewhat evergreen, so they?re not necessarily about what happened last week on [WWE?s Monday Night] Raw,? Ross said. ?Unless something major comes up, you know, I like to get it in the can.?

Not that Ross doesn?t still watch the product itself. Some of the most interesting parts of Ross? show?released every Wednesday through PodcastOne?are when he gives his own expert insight into the industry, be it WWE itself, smaller companies like Ring of Honor, or even New Japan Pro Wrestling, for which Ross made a special guest commentary appearance in 2015.

But part of what makes Ross? show so interesting is how it can so often sound like you, the listener, are being blessed with some secret, insider knowledge. He?s never had an active WWE superstar on his show. (The company is reportedly very selective in its approach to podcasts for its wrestlers.) But Ross has hosted WWE legends like Shawn Michaels, along with popular wrestlers from other promotions, including TNA?s Ethan Carter III and Ring of Honor?s Adam Cole. He?s had wrestling and MMA journalists, and even a former contestant from the wrestling reality show Tough Enough. He?s even shot the ish with MMA superstar (and noted WWE fan) Ronda Rousey. Each guest brings their own unique take on the business, and Ross plays off each of them masterfully. During our interview, Ross recalled one such event:

?I interviewed Lance Russell, who is about 90 years old, but he?s sharp as a tack. He?s one of the great broadcasters of all time, and a man I look up to immensely. And you know he started in the early fifties. And so for me to go and interview Lance and say, ?Lance, what?d you think about Raw last week?? Come on. I don?t know if he even watches the product anymore. I want to talk about his career, and his life, and the things he saw change, and some of the personalities that he worked with, and all these type of things.?

Ross? career began as a hand in a ring crew?an entry-level position that earned him about $125 a week. After that, it was a stint in Bill Watts? regional promotion, Mid-South Wrestling. There, Ross worked with Watts, Leroy McGuirk, and ?after the company partnered with Houston Wrestling?Paul Boesch, three men he credits with teaching him both the history of the business and its underlying fundamentals. Through a series of sales, Watt?s promotion?and much of the talent?eventually wound up in the hands of Ted Turner, who founded World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1988.

It was at WCW where Ross got his first taste of the bigtime. This after Turner allocated a prime-time, live-TV slot on TBS to a wrestling show called Clash of the Champions, something Ross cites as one of the most memorable moments of his career. But just five years after coming on board at WCW, Ross? tenure there was cut short. Bill Shaw, a TBS vice president at the time, reassigned Ross after the announcer was told he was ?too Southern.?

That move led to what is in Ross? eyes the most important moment of his career: When he accepted an offer from Vince McMahon and made the leap to the WWE as a play-by-play announcer during Wrestlemania IX in Las Vegas.

?At that point, I realized that I had reached the NFL. And not only did I get a jersey, I got to go play,? Ross said. ?All these years, 19 years that I?d invested, they all came together on that day in Las Vegas.?

His initial tenure at the company was not a long one: Owing to a series of internal disagreements, Ross was fired about a year after landing the job. Around that time, Ross? career also was threatened by his first bout of Bell?s palsy. He?d return to WWE, eventually becoming the voice of the company?s flagship television show, Monday Night Raw, alongside color man and Memphis wrestling legend Jerry ?The King? Lawler. Almost immediately, the two men played off one other perfectly, with Lawler?s humorous (and sometimes villainous) personality seamlessly complementing Ross? professional, good-guy air.

Behind the scenes, Ross eventually would rise to Executive Vice President of Talent Evaluation, where he?d be responsible for scouting and signing some of the most popular wrestlers of all time, including one recruitment class that included John Cena and Brock Lesnar. By the turn of the millennium, the WWE had transformed itself into the most dominant wrestling promotion in the world, as well as one of the world?s most recognizable brands, thanks in no small part to the yeoman work of JR himself.

In 2001, Vince McMahon and the WWE officially purchased WCW. Ross continued with the company through the decade, but two more bouts of Bell?s palsy forced him to the sidelines, where he would make only sporadic returns until his 2013 release.

For fans that came of age during the late 1990s, Jim Ross was and is, quite simply, the voice of professional wrestling. Everyone, it seems, has their favorite catchphrase or call, and Ross? unique cadence and delivery has even spawned its own meme. Whatever the state of the sport or status of the business, his passion and enthusiasm for professional wrestling shined through each time he slipped on the headset.

I asked a couple of friends for their favorite Jim Ross-isms, which they eagerly provided.

?It?s hard to beat: ?As God is my witness, he is broken in half!?? exclaimed one. ?Favorite catchphrase? Probably a tie between ?good God almighty!? and ?getting whooped like a government mule!?

?I think the thing that Jim Ross did better than anyone was just heighten the drama of everything,? another friend added. ?And you believed it.?

For his part, Ross is at once humble and well aware of his own nostalgic pull.

?I get this all the time, and I?m very flattered when someone says, ?Hey JR, you were the voice of my childhood,? Ross said. ?And I get this from guys who are now in broadcasting positions, that have significant jobs. My passion, the love of what I did for my vocation, my consistency, was in some way motivational for them. And I find that to be very gratifying.?

Indeed, it?s precisely this rabid fanbase?those who see past the PR-poor goodbye?that has allowed Ross? second act to thrive. ?The Ross Report? nets about 500,000 downloads per week, with many of those same listeners turning out in droves for Ross? semi-regular one-man ?Ringside? show, where he shares personal stories from his 40 years in the business, and participates in a fan Q&As.

Ross describes his show as lighthearted, humorous, anecdotal, even motivational. More interestingly still, he says, the Q&A has a unique tendency of making every show seem different?with each audience shaping the tone and tenor of the show itself.

?To me, that?s the best part of my show,? Ross says. ?Because it?s unpredictable, unrehearsed, and I have no idea what they?re going to ask.?

The live shows generally fall on the same weekend as WWE pay-per-views, thereby maximizing the potential audience. In September, Ross performed live at Houston?s Warehouse during the Night of Champions weekend. In April, Ross will return to Texas, performing three shows at Dallas? House of Blues during Wrestlemania. In addition to standard, general-admission tickets, Ross also offers up a ?VIP? meet-and-greet-photo-op session. More exciting still, fans can also expect to see the occasional special guest; ?Stone Cold? Steve Austin and former wrestling promoter and WWE personality Jim Cornette have made cameos in the past.

Ross says the idea of the one-man show spawned from his love of connecting with a live audience?the one thing that can?t be replicated on a podcast. And while Ross said there isn?t anything that can replace the ?without a net? feeling of working live on Monday nights, ?Ringside? has managed to fill a nagging psychological hole.

?These one-man shows are small and intimate, and they?re in front of a live crowd,? Ross said. ?And so they replace what I miss. It?s not the same, but it?s the same theory. It?s me and the audience.?

The WWE?s decision to part ways with Jim Ross came just weeks after a 2013 panel discussion that went off the rails. The event, which Ross moderated, featured a host of superstars, including legendary wrestler Ric Flair. The panel was filmed not long after Flair?s son had died of a heroin overdose, and the result was a mess: deep in grief, an inebriated Flair broke down at the event and mostly took it over. Ross has publicly acknowledged that he lost control of the panel, and that it led, at least in part, to his own dismissal.

Still, Ross has never been one for regrets?particularly when it comes to the industry he loves?and says he and WWE managed to avoid parting on bad terms. He?s occasionally brought in to do interviews, including an appearance on the new Owen Hart compilation DVD. And while he no longer has a professional relationship with Vince McMahon, Ross says that hasn?t affected their personal relationship.

Oh, and the company still sells his patented barbecue sauce in its official shop.

After years of serving the beloved-but-brutal behemoth that is WWE, the only brand Jim Ross peddles now is his own, and he does it well. More important, and in spite of everything, it?s a second-act that makes him happy. Jim Ross has found life after wrestling in a way that precious few can claim to?a long and winding road Ross can proudly claim was navigated despite an often unfair share of the odds.

?A chubby kid with a Southern accent who along the way gets three bouts of Bell?s palsy, which I still have remnants of, is not supposed to be successful on television,? Ross said. ?But I didn?t get that memo.?