For years Jim Ross was a mainstay on WWE programming, and there are many people out there who considered him to be the voice of wrestling. While JR’s voice was the soundtrack to many memorable WWE moments he’s also had his fair share of ups and downs with the company.
During a recent appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet former WWE announced Todd Grisham discussed how he was being lined up to take JR’s spot, and he also talked about Vince McMahon’s opinion of the Hall of Famer.
“So eventually they said ‘All right, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to give you the keys to Raw. You’re going to be the face. You’re going to call Raw. JR, we’re retiring him.’ He had a retirement tour, or something similar to that, where he was going to retire after WrestleMania. He’s going to call the WrestleMania match, and that was it. But the receptions he was getting in all these buildings, and eventually they’re like we can’t take him off the air. He’s too big. Even though Vince tried to squash it. Vince hated Jim Ross for whatever reason. He fired him 10 times.”
“One show, I don’t remember where it was. It was in Oklahoma, in front of his home crowd. So the show ended and they were gonna have Jim Ross speak to the crowd. Thank you very much. Blah, blah, blah. So Jim Ross is in the ring, and Vince tells me grab a mic and go down there, and he gave me some questions. I go down there. ‘Sorry to interrupt you, JR, in front of the crowd, but how does it feel to be getting released by WWE and fired by Vince because he just doesn’t think you’re that good…’ and all these antagonizing things.”
“The number one rule, you probably know this when you’re an interviewer, is to never give up the mic. Boxing, UFC, they take the mic. You’re out of control. So you sit there no matter what. But at that point, Jim Ross looked at me and goes, ‘Could I please have the microphone?’ And I’m thinking, Vince is gonna kill me if I give him the mic. But I was like, I just handed him the mic. I was like, I’m not gonna do it, and I’ll take the abuse. And JR went and said, I know those weren’t your questions. Those were his. And so anyway, long story short, they don’t fire JR. Maybe that’s when they put me on. ECW, I don’t remember, but we’re gonna give you this show. Well, you’re the guy in waiting until Jim Ross is done.”