Tony Khan Reminds Jim Ross Of Cowboy Bill Watts

Jim Ross has lived through the changing eras of the wrestling world to witness it all. Mainly known for being a long-time commentator for WWE, Ross is now a senior advisor for AEW.

Ross did serve as EVP for WWE at one point in his career, so he knows pretty well how the industry operates both on-screen and backstage. Recently, he was a guest on the JMart and Ramon Podcast, where he compared his mentor Cowboy Bill Watts to his new boss Tony Khan:

“What I’ve noticed about Tony Khan is that he reminds me of Cowboy Bill Watts in as much as Tony will confide, and converse, and pick the brain of his talent.”

“It’s no different than putting together a gameplan with a football player, it’s the same deal. Here’s our plan, here’s what we think that if we execute, we will win. Tony is still such a great fan but he picks the brain and gets the contributions of the talent. Bill Watts told me years ago he’d bring these big villains in because he was a big 300-pound babyface Cowboy, and he would bring these monster heels in to work with him. They’d beat everybody in the territory and then they’d get to the Cowboy, and that’s where the big main events were and they’d have that for six months or a year.”

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Ross talked about the subjects that Bill was attentive to and noted how Tony Khan is similar to Bill in that regard.

“Bill was interested in his philosophy with a lot of that stuff but Tony does the same thing. If he’s going to do something with Jon Moxley, for example, you can bet your sweet ass that Jon Moxley is involved. He has contributed to the creativity of his presentation, and if you shut your talent out and you’re so corporate, there’s a problem there for me. I think Tony’s doing a good job there listening to the talent and we’ve got some talents that are invested now. It’s an exciting time to be there. I’m the oldest guy there.”

Ross has the experience and is one of the oldest guys in the industry, and he is well aware of it. He knows how the company works. As Ross continued to speak about Tony Khan, he pointed out how AEW Wardlow will be a big name soon:

“I believe in what Tony is trying to build and it’s got some football elements in it as far as the psychology,”  “Signing some big guys, signing some high-flying guys so you have a diverse roster that doesn’t look the same. Everybody can’t look like Brock Lesnar, everybody can’t look like Wardlow who’s going to be a big star, by the way.”

This is not the first time Ross has praised Wardlow. Just a day ago or two, he called him “A big player for years to come.” Ross certainly seems to have high expectations for Wardlow, but we’ll have to see what becomes of it.