10 Most Unprofessional Performances In AEW History
3. Jim Ross Ogles Anna Jay
The (primary) job of a pro wrestling commentator is to put the action over. They can’t be completely undiscerning, otherwise they’d lack credibility, but they do need to be rather enthusiastic.
It’s a difficult balance to strike, and Jim Ross struggled with it when he was full-time in the AEW booth. It should be pointed out here that Ross has experienced a wide and brutal range of health problems over the last five years, which have likely contributed to his mood. At times, Ross was impatient and irritable, wondering aloud why certain wrestlers would do certain moves or why there was even a referee in the ring, if they weren’t doing anything. He was guilty of breaking the spell of suspended disbelief. He wasn’t the right fit for around 90% of the promotion’s output. His job was to “get it”, within reason, but too often, he used Dynamite as a forum to express his quiet disgust over wrestling’s stylistic evolution.
Again: Ross was in a low mood because a lot of scary things were happening to him. It’s a complicated and unfortunate story. Ross also used his time in the booth to lech over certain women. That wasn’t “complicated”: that was unprofessional, unnecessary, disgusting.
At All Out 2020, he asked if the then-22 year-old Anna Jay had experienced a wardrobe malfunction, adding “maybe that’s just wishful thinking”. While he apologised for the remark, that wasn’t the only occasion on which he reduced a woman to objects of his desire.
During an edition of Rampage, when the heels Penelope Ford and the Bunny made their entrance, Tony Schiavone tried to put over their wrongdoings and such.
Ross wasn’t having it. He didn’t put the heels over as heels. “I kinda like ‘em,” he chose to say instead. His libido was apparently more important than their characters.