10 Greatest Calls Of Jim Ross’ Career
2. WrestleMania XIV
And speaking of simple, at WrestleMania XIV we heard some of
JR’s simplest lines to date—but that didn’t make them any less emphatic.
Before that though, I’m going to bundle in a line that actually came in the lead up to the show, partly because it seems relevant and partly because I didn’t want to sacrifice any other of the previous entries on this list.
The line in question came on Monday Night Raw during Stone Cold Steve Austin’s historic stand-off with Mike Tyson. Once the two inevitably came to blows, all JR had to do was scream the names of these two megastars and let his unparalleled passion take care of the rest.
And then came the WrestleMania XIV show itself, where JR employed a similar strategy in calling the outcome of the main event, when Austin overcame Shawn Michaels to win the WWE Championship. Once Tyson counted the pinfall, JR simply called it as he saw it: “Austin is the champion! Stone Cold! Stone Cold! Stone Cold!”
As I said, simple but effective, and those words would soon
become something of a trademark of the WWE’s lead announcer, as well as the basis
for millions of impressions by fans across the world. JR was even parodying the
quote himself a few years later, at No Way Out 2003, and his intensity hadn’t
waned one bit.