James William Ross was born on January 3,1952 and is an American professional wrestling commentator currently signed with All Elite Wrestling as a commentator, analyst, and senior advisor.
92 Facts About Jim Ross
2.
Jim Ross is best known for a long and distinguished career as a play-by-play commentator for the WWE.
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Jim Ross is known affectionately as JR or Good Ol' JR.
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Jim Ross has been labeled as the greatest wrestling commentator of all time.
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Jim Ross went on to do commentary for the National Wrestling Alliance and World Championship Wrestling, before jumping to the World Wrestling Federation, making his first appearance for the promotion at WrestleMania IX in 1993.
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Jim Ross was the lead announcer for New Japan Pro-Wrestling on AXS TV from 2015 to 2018 and occasionally does play-by-play for boxing and mixed martial arts.
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Outside of wrestling, Jim Ross is known for his barbecue sauce and beef jerky brand, JR's Family BBQ.
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James William Jim Ross was born on January 3,1952, in Fort Bragg, California.
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Jim Ross's maternal grandparents owned a general store in Westville, Oklahoma and his paternal grandfather, Dee Ross, owned an off-sale beer store and was a carpenter.
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Jim Ross was President of the Student Body, a 4-year letterman in basketball, and State Vice President of the Future Farmers of America.
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Jim Ross was the FFA Oklahoma Speech Champion in 1968 and 1969 and runner up for the FFA National Speech Championship in 1969.
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Jim Ross was awarded the FFA State Degree in 1970, the organization's second highest award.
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Jim Ross ran for and was elected vice president of the FFA Northeast District in 1970.
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Jim Ross was named Honorable Mention on the 1969 High School All-State Football team by the Tulsa World as a center.
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In high school, Jim Ross did well academically, reaching the National Honor Society his sophomore year.
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Jim Ross received an award for maintaining a 3.6 grade point average his junior year.
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In 1969, Jim Ross was nominated by Representative Wiley Sparkman to serve as a page for the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
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That year, Jim Ross served as the treasurer for Oklahoma Boys State.
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For 18 years, Jim Ross officiated high school and college baseball, football and basketball games in Oklahoma.
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Jim Ross remained as a referee until 1977 when he then transitioned to the promotion's broadcast team.
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Jim Ross continued to hone his skills as JCP became World Championship Wrestling, following the purchase of the regional promotion by Ted Turner.
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In 1991, WCW left the NWA and Jim Ross was teamed with former NWA broadcaster Bob Caudle.
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Jim Ross worked his way up the WCW ladder to become head of broadcasting, but had a contentious relationship with WCW's newest commentator and future executive Eric Bischoff.
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Jim Ross had a three-year contract with Turner Broadcasting, but he took an immediate buy-out for fear that he would not get work elsewhere due to being taken off television for a long period of time.
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Mick Foley claims that Jim Ross resigned from WCW's booking committee.
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Jim Ross left WCW after being taken off the air by Bischoff.
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Jim Ross was hired by the World Wrestling Federation and made his on-screen debut at WrestleMania IX at a specially constructed outdoor venue at Caesar's Palace on the Las Vegas Strip.
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Jim Ross took over for Gorilla Monsoon on WWE Wrestling Challenge the following weekend.
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Jim Ross worked alongside Bobby Heenan on the show until Heenan left the WWE in December 1993.
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Jim Ross was originally the main voice of the WWE's pay-per-view events when he was first brought in, calling both WrestleMania IX and the King of the Ring with Heenan and Randy Savage in 1993.
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Jim Ross suggested the idea of Radio WWF to McMahon, the idea was given a try and Jim Ross was made host alongside Monsoon.
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Jim Ross was fired on February 11,1994, two weeks after suffering his first attack of Bell's palsy on January 30,1994, as stated by Jim Ross on the September 23,1996 episode of Raw.
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Jim Ross subsequently became an announcer for Smoky Mountain Wrestling and the NFL's Atlanta Falcons.
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In September 1996, Jim Ross turned heel in WWF storylines for the first time in his career.
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However, the "New Diesel-New Razor" storyline was poorly received by fans, and Jim Ross's heel turn was quickly dropped.
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The narrative went as far as to have Jim Ross set up his own announce table in front of the official announce table labeled "JR Is Raw".
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The storyline was dropped as the attempt to turn Jim Ross heel failed and he took his seat back as "official" commentator of Raw Is War starting with the main event of WrestleMania XV.
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Ed Ferrara parodied Jim Ross, including doing a full impression including mockery of his modified voice due to his medical condition.
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Jim Ross, who had experience announcing for the Atlanta Falcons, was initially placed on the regional broadcasts, with his WWF partner Jerry Lawler as color commentator, even though Lawler admitted knowing and caring little about the sport, for the first regional telecast.
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Jim Ross was the "voice of Raw Is War" throughout the Monday Night Wars alongside Jerry Lawler and cemented his legacy as one of the great wrestling commentators as WWE became the sole major wrestling promotion in North America.
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Still working as the voice of Raw, Jim Ross was again "fired" from his play-by-play job by Vince and Linda McMahon on October 10,2005.
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In November 2006, Jim Ross stated on his official blog that he had signed a new one-year contract with WWE and would continue to work year-to-year.
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On March 31,2007, Jim Ross was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2007 by Steve Austin.
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On June 23,2008, during the 2008 WWE Draft, Jim Ross was drafted from Raw to the SmackDown brand while Michael Cole was drafted from SmackDown to Raw, trading positions as commentators on each brand.
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On September 23,2008, episode of ECW on Syfy, Jim Ross made an appearance on the ECW brand filling in for a sick Todd Grisham alongside Matt Striker.
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Jim Ross missed the SmackDown tapings on October 13,2009, as he asked for a day off due to an anniversary.
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On October 21,2009, Jim Ross announced that he would not be commentating the WWE Bragging Rights pay-per-view, but Grisham mentioned that SmackDown would give Ross the Bragging Rights trophy as a "get well" gift.
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Jim Ross returned on March 14,2011, to confront Cole, who had entered into a feud with Lawler.
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Jim Ross called the final four matches at WrestleMania XXVII, including the Cole vs Lawler match.
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Jim Ross later revealed that he was given no prior notice that he was to be publicly fired.
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Jim Ross made an appearance at Raw 1000, commentating the opening match.
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On June 20,2012, Jim Ross took over as a commentator on the revamped NXT alongside Byron Saxton and William Regal.
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Jim Ross served as presenter for the Match of the Year award at the 2012 Slammy Awards.
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In 2013, Jim Ross began to coach and produce new announcers at the WWE Performance Center in Florida.
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Jim Ross returned to television on the 20th Anniversary edition of Raw on January 14,2013, where he called the steel cage main event between John Cena and Dolph Ziggler.
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Jim Ross used profanity during several points and appeared to have little to no interest in the topics that were scheduled to be covered.
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On January 19,2016, it was announced that Jim Ross had signed to become the new lead announcer for NJPW's weekly program on AXS TV along with Josh Barnett.
58.
Jim Ross's contract was directly with AXS TV and not NJPW.
59.
On October 8,2016, Ross, along with Jim Cornette, provided commentary for What Culture Pro Wrestling's first iPPV, Refuse to Lose.
60.
On February 12,2017, Jim Ross returned to WCPW for commentary at the iPPV, True Destiny and for WCPW's Loaded tapings that same month.
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Shortly after the event, it was announced that Jim Ross had signed a two-year deal with the company.
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Jim Ross's last televised appearance for WWE was part of the pre-show panel for the Greatest Royal Rumble on April 27,2018.
63.
Jim Ross left the WWE on March 27,2019, after electing not to renew his contract.
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Jim Ross stated that the reason for his WWE departure was because, "I had two bookings in 2018 and they weren't using me very much".
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Jim Ross initially provided full-time commentary on the broadcast team on AEW Dynamite and occasionally part-time commentary on AEW Rampage.
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In June 2022, Jim Ross switched from full-time commentary on Dynamite to full-time commentary on Rampage in a commentary team rotation swap with Taz.
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In 1992, Jim Ross joined the Atlanta Falcons radio broadcast team.
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Jim Ross made his debut calling boxing on May 26,2014, for Golden Boy Promotions on Fox Sports 1.
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Jim Ross teamed up with MMA fighter and UFC veteran Chael Sonnen to commentate the Battlegrounds MMA one night tournament PPV on October 3,2014.
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In February 2014 Jim Ross began hosting his own podcast The Jim Ross Report for PodcastOne.
71.
Jim Ross has participated in more matches alongside Lawler, including a few with hardcore stipulations.
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In 2011, Jim Ross competed against Michael Cole on the April 25 episode of Raw, where he defeated Cole by disqualification after Cole's manager for the match, Jack Swagger, attacked Jim Ross while he had Cole mounted and was landing punches on him.
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Jim Ross has been involved in numerous other conflicts with other competitors as well such as Triple H, Val Venis, Jack Swagger, Vladimir Kozlov, Mankind, and Steve Austin, Jim Ross has been bloodied in a match by then-Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff, and was even set on fire by Kane.
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Jim Ross even main-evented the WWF's first-ever show from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, an episode of Raw is War that took place on October 11,1999.
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Jim Ross teamed with Steve Austin to take on WWF Champion Triple H and his partner Chyna.
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Jim Ross has two daughters from two previous marriages and two granddaughters.
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Jim Ross cites Steve Austin and Jerry Lawler as his closest friends.
78.
In late 1998, following the death of his mother, Jim Ross took a break from WWE Raw as the effects of his grief reportedly aggravated his palsy; Michael Cole filled in for him.
79.
In 2007, encouraged by sales of his line of barbecue sauces and beef products, Jim Ross opened up JR's Family Bar-B-Q in Norman, Oklahoma.
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Jim Ross is a fan of Skyline Chili and has mentioned them in connection to Cincinnati numerous times on AEW programming.
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Jim Ross is an avid Oklahoma Sooners fan and a regular football season ticket holder.
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Jim Ross can be spotted at some Sooners home games, and when the Sooners play top teams around the country.
83.
Jim Ross was put on life support, where she died two days later.
84.
Jim Ross had an eye operation in 2018 that greatly affected his eyesight in one eye.
85.
On October 23,2021, Jim Ross tweeted that he had skin cancer as he was on his way to AEW Dynamite.
86.
On December 29,2021, Jim Ross tweeted that he was cancer free.
87.
Jim Ross has a recurring role on the Amazon Prime Video original Paradise City as Ned.
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Jim Ross was one of the original lead announcers of the original XFL in spring 2001.
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Jim Ross has provided his voice for many WWE video games, and is a playable character in WWE '12, WWF WrestleMania 2000, WWF No Mercy and many more.
90.
Jim Ross has created a range of JR's BBQ sauces and mustard which have been inspired by his own culinary knowledge and that of his close family.
91.
Jim Ross has been labeled as the greatest wrestling commentator of all time.
92.
Jim Ross had a tremendous amount of experience and had seen a lot, but he'd never done it.