WWE: Jim Ross responds to his Raw firing -- 'It came as a complete surprise'
by Geno Mrosko on Oct 12, 2011 7:17 PM EDT
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This past Monday night (Oct. 10) on WWE Raw Supershow, Jim Ross was unceremoniously fired in storyline by on-screen General Manager John Laurinaitis. It was later revealed that Ross was not alerted to this kink in the storyline and was totally caught off guard by the abrupt firing.
There has been an interesting split in how the fans feel about Ross and his treatment. Some (myself included) are tired of seeing Ross bullied by WWE and would like to see his gross mistreatment remedied at some point in the near future. Others feel that's a ridiculous stance because, well, it's not real. It's a part of a storyline and within that context, there's no problem with it.
Ross was recently a guest on Yahoo! Sports Radio and discussed as much:
"So many people say, 'Well, it's part of a storyline.' If it is, no one has told me about the storyline. I just think WWE upper management has made the decision, again, to go with a different presentation at the announce position and I'm not in the plans. So, we move on."
That's where I, personally, have a problem with it. With Ross' history of mistreatment being rather well documented to go along with something like this, it would seem clear that he's intentionally being picked on. Not only does it not make sense to me, it's just useless and immature.
The obvious counterpoint to that is why Ross actually sticks around to put up with such things. To that, I have no answer and actually wouldn't mind posing the same question.
More from Yahoo!:
"It came as a complete surprise. My wife -- we're celebrating our 18th anniversary today -- none of us knew. It took me completely by surprise. It was one of those embarrassing moments you endure and move on. It's like anything else in life: when you get faced with a challenge or an uncomfortable situation, you have to make some choices on how you handle it."
He's handled it with his usual class but he also maintains that he hopes to play a role in future plans with the company.
That raises a sort of philosophical question -- if Ross allows himself to be subjected to bullying, should anyone feel sympathy for him? He earns a good living and has done more in his profession than most others can claim. Is that enough to turn a blind eye to his being put through occasionally embarrassing situations?
Thoughts? Opinions?
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It’s a shameful lack of respect for one of the most accomplished guys in their company. And, by the way, a middle finger to the fans, because it looks like they’ve removed the best announcer in the business and left us with Michael “no match can’t be improved by my opinion” Cole and Jerry “I’m here to stare at Kelly Kelly’s cleavage” Lawler. Oh, and – WAIDDAAAA MINUTE, WAIDDAAA MINUTE – Booker T.
Agreed
Removing him from commentary- whether it be actually firing him, or TV firing him but shifting him to a non-TV role within the company, whichever- is very much spiting your nose to hurt your face, in that it diminishes the quality of their broadcasts and overall product from TV. Especially when they’re having Michael Cole be all over dramatic bay guy to the point that it makes me want to change the channel, or Jerry Lawler the same, but from the other point of view.
"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!" Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.
AA Gamethread Embiggening Record Holder- 458 posts (08/24/11)
3rd Place- 2011 AAOP Contest
by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Oct 12, 2011 9:22 PM EDT up reply actions
The only problem I have with it is it's been done
Fscking with JR is old. “YOU’RE FIRED!” on live TV is old.
Release...the KITTIES!
so Vince was being a Dick
what a surprise
Proud member of the fire Brian Schottenheimer club
"Grunt and Punt offense"
"To all the nonbelievers..."
You knew the game when you got into it
Ross takes himself too seriously. What the hell does an 18th anniversary have ANYTHING to do with the overall direction of the company? Ross was the first one hired for the HHH as COO angle and the first one fired as soon as Ace came in. Ross is truly living his gimmick and doesn’t know where the lines of reality and fantasy begin and end. Pretty sad.
by Ghost Battousai on Oct 12, 2011 8:57 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Him celebrating his 18th wedding anniversary has nothing to do with the direction of the company
The direction of the company is irrelevant. It’s low to publicly snob a guy like that in front of his friends and family, without him being told. It’s low to dick the guy around like he was to begin with; it’s lower to do it in front of his loved ones.
"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!" Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.
AA Gamethread Embiggening Record Holder- 458 posts (08/24/11)
3rd Place- 2011 AAOP Contest
by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Oct 12, 2011 9:19 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
wwe is making it hard to b a fan
ross is one of the best i’ve ever heard call a match.. then tony shiavone..and color guys i’d say “the brain”.. then ventura and i for some reason liked mark madden
You should have linked to this exclusive WWE.com video Geno
Classless garbage by Vince
Fuck you Vince don’t get mad because JR is a better play by play man than you are
Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitudes...
Vince doesn't hate him because he's better on commentary, he hates Ross because Ross knows more about wrestling and the wrestling business than he does.
It was the same with Cornette and with Heyman. Vince hates ANYONE knowing more than him about anything. A notorious control freak, Vince can’t stand that anyone could ever have an upper hand on him in anything. It’s why he never considered Bischoff his competition. He always considered his battle was with Turner.
He also hated that Heyman’s a liberal. But all three have had greater ideas than his hand-picked writers or sycophants, and have thusly been sabotaged by Kevin Dunn, Stephanie McMahon, and Laurinitis.
Cornette was screwed over in his OVW dealings; Let’s not forget this was the territory that fed Cena, Orton, Lesnar, Benjamin, and many others to the WWE, moreso than FCW.
Heyman do we really need to revisit the December to Dismember plus the WWECW mess?
Ross has had plenty of humiliation, but can he really go anywhere else? TNA has the main writer who birthed the Oklahoma character, as well as the man who fired him from WCW, and is in the opposite end of the spectrum to where Ross’s mind operates. He could go to ROH.
Cornette
was/is his own worst enemy. Slapping Santino did him no favors at all and really he should’ve been fired on the spot for doing it. Ross and Heyman could run talent and creative. Do they know more about wrestling than Vince does? Hell no because if they did ECW and the UWF would still be around. They are more creative and have better idea’s than Vince does. People forget often that Vince has been in and around the business since he was a teenager and now he’s what almost 70? You can’t have 50 plus years in something and have someone know more than you! But there are people smarter and more creative than him and that bugs his ass. He hated that Ross was a better play by play, he hated that Heyman felt he knew a better creative direction than he did but he trusted Heyman. Remember when Heyman was first hired he was in charge of all creative in 2001. There was speculation that Vince was setting up Heyman to run the company with Shane when he retired/died. That quickly turned around and Heyman got Smackdown when the brand split happened and Stephanie got the top spot in creative.
Vince is fearful, jealous and wishy washy. He will only be cooperative with someone when he is in a lurch. The attitude era saw Vince lean on Ross, Cornette, Russo, HHH, HBK, Austin, Heyman, Rock and others to supply new and fresh ideas.
Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitudes...
Vince has only been running it since the 80's, technically.
The problem with Vince is that he harbors the “old-school” mentality from when he was around the business. He loves tough guys, big guys. But you can tell where his ideas are stuck in a time warp, and where he pushes the envelope of modern way too far. As far as creative goes, the creative concept hasn’t been that big until the need for operatic storylines come into focus, which is why you had cowboy characters even in the mid-80’s, well after the western was a dead cinematic norm. How many terrible gimmicks have there been since he bought out his father? To be fair, almost all territories have been afflicted by the old and unchanging, and it’s probably this one’s turn.
Cornette slapped Santino Marella because he almost ruined the Boogeyman gimmick that Cornette was forced to push in order to make the character ready for television. This was not the first time he was forced to push talent on a television show that they didn’t even watch. The Bashams were two of his best workers, feuding against each other, and WWE torpedoed that storyline. How he salvaged it and what he turned it into makes him a person you want to have doing your storylines. As Lance Storm said, “You can take any period he was running creative/booking, and when you look at it, shit made sense.”
In TNA, he even tried working with Vince Russo, someone he hates and despises, but in the end, when they hired Ed Ferarra, he said he couldn’t stand behind them as a creative team. What sane/intelligent person could, given their track record?
Watts ran UWF and were really a victim of the Oil Bust. I don’t think that it’s that just fans consider JR better on the play-by-play, but the boys do. That’s Vince’s real barometer. He cares what most of the boys think.
Vince didn’t trust Heyman. If he did, he would’ve put him in charge of running RAW, not Smackdown. Smackdown has always been seen as the lesser show. It’s their Thunder. And he has a blindspot when it comes to his daughter.
Who he needs to dump is Kevin Dunn. That creature has been the most responsible for dumping on talents and producing terrible storylines since 2003. He also hates wrestling, and is the impetus behind the “we’re not wrestling, we’re entertainment” idea. This is a man who plays on all of Vince’s insecurities and plays him like a tempermental Stradavarius.
You are all so gullible
This is the WWE trying to outsmart the IWC, and they have you hook line and sinker. Cena’s constant title shots and wins are a part of it too. Maybe creative is smarter then you think and they are creating a massive heal turn for Cena and building real heat for HHH and Vince. You heard it here 2nd or 3rd folks!
Yes, and please let me know when Elvis gets here.
-They will never turn John Cena heel.
-Looking at the CM Punk storyline as an example, are you really so naive to believe that they can be patient about anything? They wouldn’t even let ADR keep the title for a month. What point did the title switch have?
-Creative has shown itself to be dumber than suspected, or at least more chaotic. Nexus, Punk, this storyline. And this is all in the last year. Creative can’t outsmart themselves, and can’t even grab their ass with both hands.
I can't wait until Vince dies because then, and only then, will WWE improve.
~Texas Massacre '09~
Follow me @The_Heat_
Friend me TheHeat
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No
Shane had horrible ideas.
And as long as Stephanie is involved the E won’t improve.
Killing smelly pirate hookers since the mid 90s...
by timetosaygoodbye on Oct 13, 2011 8:50 PM EDT up reply actions
It's been going on for years.
Why should it stop now? I mean damn, how many times have they fired him on live TV?
....and I think Tony Sparano should be fired.
Former Ayatollah of the "Draft Mike Pouncey" bandwagon. [√]
(Currently hoping that Reggie Bush isn't as useless as I think he is)
seriously
You guys really think they would fire him on air without telling him? By the way, I’m selling these magic beans and you guys seem like smart enough fellas to see a great opportunity.
dumb dumb dumb
The Bible say that people perish for lack of knowledge
I’m not going to attack you because you aren’t aware that this has happened before to Jim Ross. Not getting ‘fired’ but rib’s/jokes involving him that he didn’t know about. Angles specifically written to embarrass him in his hometown. I’ll let you do the the research on that. Here’s the thing, when Jim Ross says he had no knowledge of it, when Meltzer and other insiders confirm that only Vince, Ace and Kevin Dunn knew about it. Those are facts and you should always believe the facts. Go read JR’s twitter feed. If he knew about it why wouldn’t he do the interview backstage?
Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitudes...
I can easily see Jim Ross coming in as the permanent GM
Having a small feud with Ace before firing him… it would an interesting face GM the fans would go for.
meh...
@w_a_watts
by Chief-blinders-on on Oct 14, 2011 5:34 AM EDT reply actions
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