Jim Ross Interview: WrestleMania Build, Vince McMahon

Scott Fishman of The Miami Herald recently interviewed WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross. Ross was promoting his one-man show, “RINGSIDE: An Afternoon with Jim Ross,” occurring March 28, the day before WrestleMania 31, in San Jose, California.

“Good Ol’ JR” discussed how WWE has built WrestleMania thus far, hitting on how there should be more momentum in the air:

“I think the business in general I would like to see more momentum at this point in time. However, I think our expectations sometimes get out of balance. I think before we get to March 29 there will be plenty of anticipation for the event. The momentum is going to continue to grow as time goes on. It’s still WrestleMania. It’s like emotionally investing in watching the Super Bowl and the team you support is not in the game. It’s still the Super Bowl. If you are a fan of football, you know that is the game, the last game. Now this is not WWE’s last pay-per-view or big show, but nothing else they do all year is going to approach the significance of WrestleMania. That’s the way it is, SummerSlam included. WrestleMania is its own unique entity. Any of us who have been in the game at a WrestleMania know the importance and significance of it, as it’s hard to factor that out of your system.”

Ross also talked about working talent relations for WWE, discussing and Vince McMahon’s confidence in him:

“Vince was really confident in my ability to hire talent. I was talking to J.J. Dillon after my show in Philadelphia. I asked him if he was able to hire talents without running it by Vince. He said no. When I got the job, Vince wanted to change the talent relations department and steam line it and make it more effective. I ran some concepts by him that he liked. One of them was signing talent. Sometimes timing is everything. He said, ‘I’m going to leave that to you. I trust your judgment.’….Our track record by and large has stood the test of time. I’m very proud of the talent our team brought in…I don’t actually know when John Laurinaitis took the job how he exchanged with Vince, but I got the feeling they tried to replicate what I was doing in that particular facet of the business.”

“I knew what Vince wanted and knew what I wanted. We wanted the same thing. I wanted to get Mick Foley hired so bad because I was getting a veteran into a locker room that was soon going to be younger. You want guys that are good teammates and don’t mind being a mentor and it is not all about them. I knew what I liked and knew my vision was on target because I was still a fan. I was still a wrestling fan that had a job in wrestling. We always were on the same page on the guys we hired.”

Be sure to read the entire interview, here. Jim Ross also talked in-depth about his one-man show, his time in WWE, what he is up to now, and much more.