Jim Ross Talks Wrestling Becoming More Accepted In The Mainstream Media And More

Jim Ross recently spoke to Downtown Magazine NYC about his career, his BBQ sauce and more. You can check out the full interview here and read some highlights below.

Within the past year or two, wrestling has become more respected with ESPN covering WWE events, Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone having beat writers on their websites, and Buzzfeed being among the websites to post content about it. Why do you think it’s become so mainstream even though there isn’t necessarily a universally-known superstar like a Hulk Hogan these days?

J: The genre of pro wrestling – a.k.a. sports entertainment — is amazingly tenured and has been a TV staple for decades. So why wouldn’t mainstream media cover it as they do a litany of other entities? It’s a global product with millions of fans, so covering the business seems logical to me for the ESPN’s, FOX Sports’, etc. of the world. Plus, the decision-makers at many of the companies covering WWE grew up as fans, perhaps

In all your years of traveling, have you found there to be a lot of closeted wrestling fans among celebrities?

J: Absolutely. There are many “closeted wrestling fans,” but they are “coming out” more prominently than in years past. The acceptance level regarding pro wrestling is much more relaxed than it has ever been in my career and I debuted in 1974.