The Nature Boy Ric Flair is a big fan of speaking his mind and giving opinions on prevalent wrestling topics, past or present. He recently brought out a past incident involving veteran wrestling commentator Jim Ross, who suffers from Bell’s Palsy, being ridiculed by Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara on WCW for his condition.
Jim Ross has been suffering from Bell’s Palsy, a disease which temporarily paralyzes facial muscles at times, since 1994. This was the time he started getting symptoms for the condition and aggravated further in 1998 due to the effects of the grief of his mother’s death. Jim Ross had taken a break from WWE after that to heal from this condition.
However, Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara once mocked Jim Ross for his condition on WCW television programming, which even he felt was a bit too personal at the time. Ric Flair brought up the topic recently and claimed that it was the worst thing he had seen in professional wrestling. He spoke about this on his To Be The Man podcast.
“This is a very serious statement. When [Vince] Russo and what’s his buddy’s name [Conrad – Ed Ferrara]. When they mocked up Jim Ross and made fun of the Bell’s Palsy, I thought it was the worst thing I’ve ever seen in wrestling in my life. Forget anything I ever went through personally, it was the worst thing and it’s unforgivable. Unforgivable to make fun of someone’s situation like that, which was you know, I can only imagine what it did to Jim’s mind.”
Vince Russo and Ed Ferrera handled the creative regime for WCW at the time, while Ferrera also did a parody of Jim Ross in mocking fashion. However, in the later years, Jim Ross went on to make peace with both Russo and Ferrera. Obviously, this is something that still bothers the Nature Boy.
Do you agree with Ric Flair’s comments about Vince Russo and Ed Ferrera? Sound off in the comments!