10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Jim Ross
None more humiliated.
Jim Ross is a cherished wrestling institution.
If you're a fan of a certain age, JR was the voice of your adolescence. He is the definition of a tremendous play-by-play announcer - a man capable of elevating a moment from good to great, or great to monumental, with a single call. Nobody can better the emotion, gravitas, and importance he brought to every match he called, and his Attitude Era partnership with Jerry Lawler remains the benchmark against which all other announce teams are judged.
Sadly, JR is also one of the most widely disrespected figures in WWE history.
Ross is rightly paraded as a legend whenever he appears, but WWE have ritually embarrassed, humiliated, and mistreated him throughout his various runs with the company. You won't find anyone who's been made a laughing stock so consistently over such a vast timescale, yet Ross remains with WWE today, albeit in a part-time role.
He has accrued considerable ill will from certain segments of wrestling fandom over the past few years, but nobody deserves this level of disgrace. Let's look at the moments WWE (and JR himself) would love to delete from your memory.
10. Failed Heel Turns
The idea of Jim Ross playing a heel character is inherently ridiculous. He's one of the most popular personalities in the sport, a sacred cow during his prime years, yet WWE still tried to turn crowds against him on several occasions.
February 1994 saw WWE fire Jim Ross amidst reports that he'd refused to let the company reinvent him as a comedic colour commentator, but the promotion actually pulled the trigger on a turn two years later. Playing on JR's anger at being fired days after his first bout of Bell's palsy, the storyline saw him instigate the awful Fake Diesel/Razor Ramon angle, introducing both characters to the audience as a way of sticking it to the company, presumably.
It flopped, and the fans refused to jeer the favourite announcer, but WWE repeated the stunt in March 1999. Relegated from his play-by-play role, JR returned from another Bell's Palsy related absence as 'Dr Death' Steve Williams' evil manager, starting a feud with a young Michael Cole, who'd replaced him in the booth. It was the pits, and quickly died a death - much like Williams' WWE career itself.