Jim Ross is a veteran in the pro wrestling world, as he made a name for himself as a commentator in WWE, delivering some of the most iconic moments in the history of pro wrestling. His commentary time was changed for an interesting reason as well.
As previously reported, the WWE Hall Of Famer was moved to the Rampage commentary booth in their latest shakeup. Ross sometimes appears as part of Dynamite’s booth as well now.
While speaking on his Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross provided an explanation as to why the change happened. Ross stated that his time on commentary was changed in order to give the middle of AEW Dynamite a boost.
“That was a Tony Khan decision. Creatively, I was coming out before the show and doing all of Dynamite. The reception was humbling, fans were glad to see me and they expressed themselves. The reception I was getting was really good. He thought the middle of the show, Dynamite, needed a boost. So JR became the booster. I come out in the middle of the show, still going to call the main events. Then we all take a bathroom break and go right into taping Rampage. It’s only an hour, it’s kind of like an old school hour wrestling show. I like that deal. I didn’t have any issues with at all. I’m very Mariano Rivera, go in for long relief and get results for you. That’s the deal there. Just keeping me fresh and ‘special,’ and try to give Rampage a little boost commentary wise, selling wise. We need to, obviously, get the ratings up, which we are. That’s the reason for that. No problem whatsoever. I get more exposure now than I did before.”
Last year, Ringside News exclusively reported that AEW was planning to limit JR’s exposure on television. The company has finally started on that by the looks of it. Regardless, Ross will stay with AEW till the day he retires and that’s what matters in the end.
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