Jim Ross Reveals Who His Favorite Broadcast Partners Were and More

WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross recently published a new blog on his website, JRsBarBQ.com. In the article, Ross discusses who his favorite broadcast partners are, the issue of professional athletes going broke, and more.

On who his favorite commentary partner has been throughout his career: “Who is my all time favorite broadcast partner? It’s one of the many questions that I get asked repeatedly on Twitter @JRsBBQ. I’ve been really lucky to have worked with some amazingly talented men. Obviously, my most tenured and beloved partner was Jerry Lawler and we were fortunate to have had seamless chemistry almost from day one. Jerry was so easy to work with and was consistently predictable…in  an excellent way. Jerry carried me to many outstanding broadcasts.

Paul Heyman @HeymanHustle was the most combustible partner that I ever had but we had  ‘car wreck chemistry’ that one couldn’t look away from more often than not. Our work at WM17 was some of the best of my career thanks in a large part to ‘Happy Heyman.’ Heyman was brilliant more often than not in his antagonist role.

Bob Caudle and Terry Funk were likely the most underrated men that I ever worked with and their styles were completely different but oddly the same when it came to ‘getting over’ talents. They were extremely talented and unselfish broadcasters and made the story about the talents and not themselves.

Jim Cornette was much akin to Heyman only with a Southern accent and could dissect a match and embellish talent as well as any one that I’ve ever broadcast with over the past 30+ years. J.C. was another gifted with natural timing and a great pro wrestling IQ.

For those that watched my work in UWF with Freebird Michael Hayes, I felt like we had a helluva team and Hayes exceeded Jesse the Body during Michael’s peak years as a color analyst, at least in my view, when Jesse was considered the best in the biz.

Working with the legendary Gorilla Monsoon was like working with a beloved Uncle and his wisdom and presence helped me immensely. He was my closest ally much of our time together in WWE especially in the few years after I arrived in 1003.

And then there is Bobby Heenan, Wow. The most brilliant, comedic mind that I ever worked with but he could still be a stinging antagonist. Without question, when one takes wrestling, managing, broadcasting, and simply being a TV character into question, who was ever better than Bobby “the Brain” Heenan? For my money, ‘The Weasel” was the best, three tool talent in the history of the business.  I don’t even know who is in second place. No one that I’ve ever met in all three areas ever rivaled Bobby’s timing other than The King.”

On professional athletes’ financial struggles: “It’s sad to see so many pro athletes end up broke after earning so much money during their younger, playing years. It happens in all walks of life but it seems especially prevalent in sports and entertainment. If someone in WWE Developmental says me that they don’t earn enough money to save any of it, then I often times wonder how prepared for adulthood and a career in sports entertainment that they really are. If for no other reason than to save to pay one’s quarterly taxes, saving money isn’t an option but it’s a requirement from my perspective. #WhatWouldYourDadSay?

You can read the entire blog post here.

 

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