Jim Ross Comments on Whether He Was Forced to Retire From the WWE

As WrestlingRumors.net previously reported, WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross recently announced that he had retired from World Wrestling Entertainment after serving the company for twenty years. Rumors immediately began to spread by people like Dave Meltzer that stated that Ross was forced to retire. The story is Ross was fired by Vince McMahon and the media was told it was Ross retiring for PR purposes.

Ross appeared on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani on Monday, September 16th. The first question he was asked was about his retirement. Ross responded with,

“I’ve had a very blessed 39-year run in the sports entertainment world, the world of pro wrestling, so it seemed like a time to give with some other opportunities knocking on the door to give them a shot. No regrets. It’s all been great and more adventures ahead, hopefully.”

Helwani then asked Ross if he was actually fired, or forced to retire by Vince McMahon and the company that he served so selflessly for twenty years. Ross answered,

“After a good discussion and expressing myself and things I’d like to do and just the timing of everything I think it was… when you say mutual it means partially to somebody that you’ve been forced out the door or been treated poorly or what have you, which really wasn’t the case. It was something that we had talked about kind of casually and it just seemed like with the lay of the land, it was good timing. 

“I’m not really a negative guy. You and I have talked a few times and I’m pretty upbeat. I’ve always looked at the glass as half full as opposed than half empty. I had some health issues and thank God I’m over those. I’m taking good care of myself… I just think it was the right time. With everything presented as it was, it was just the very best decision to make and now we’re going to move on to the next thing.”

You can watch the entire program, in which WWE Hall of Famer Rowdy Roddy Piper is also featured on, at MMAFighting.com.