WWE.com broke the news last night that the WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross has announced that he is retiring from the company after 20 years of service.The legendary broadcaster announcer intends to now focus on his "personal business endeavours." The news came with a statement from the company that said:
"Jim has had a long and storied career at WWE, both on the corporate staff as well as his television persona, calling some of the most memorable matches in WWE history as the voice of Monday Night Raw and Smackdown for more than two decades. He made his debut with WWE at Wrestlemania IX in 1993 and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007 by his long-time friend "Stone Cold" Steve Austin...Jim has made many contributions to WWE and the sports-entertainment industry, and we thank him for his many years of service and wish him well."
Jim Ross (or JR) is the voice of a generation of wrestling fans and the best play-by-play guy in the business, in this writer's opinion. He has called most of the marquee matches from that era and a few after it. Yes, it is true that his work has slipped in recent years but you cannot take away the corpus of work that he has to his name. Now this is where the story gets some more teeth. Most are probably asking "why the sudden release of JR?"
F4wonline.com are reporting that Jim Ross is retiring due to the mandate of Vincent Kennedy McMahon. The report claims that "aside from Jim Ross wanting to focus on "other business ventures" (most notably his JR's Barbecue company), the Wrestling Observer reports that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon had a role in his departure... According to the Observer, Ross and McMahon met yesterday (Wednesday) to discuss Ross's future with the company, which led to the decision for Ross to retire." The belief is that Ric Flair's unruly behaviour at the WWE 2K14 panel during SummerSlam weekend was a large contributing factor in his sudden departure. The report continues:
"WWE management felt that Ross (who hosted the event) should have cut off Ric Flair when he went off-script and also made several controversial remarks in front of WWE & 2K Sports executives."
http://youtu.be/glAcWq0fWb8?t=2m48s This is both sad and disappointing news for long time fans of WWE/WWF TV. Jim Ross' seat at ringside is a vacuum that has never really been filled in that company, and yet the future is bright for "Good 'OL JR" so we will have to wait and see what happens. Are you sad to hear that JR will no longer be a part of the WWE Universe? Let me know in the comments below.