How is “Good Ole’ J.R.” doing these days?
After swelling his eye shut due to taking a bad fall before AEW & NJPW: The Forbidden Door 2, Jim Ross has been on hiatus from All Elite Wrestling.
On the latest installment of his “Grilling J.R.” podcast, the legendary pro wrestling commentator gave a detailed update on his condition.
Featured below are some of the highlights.
On how he’s getting better everyday since his fall, then starts sharing the story of what happened: “I’m feeling pretty good. I’m getting better every day. I just had a string of bad luck, health wise, which is very unusual for me because, knock on wood, I’ve been very blessed with good health. But when you get to be 71, and you’re trying to live a young man’s life in a young man’s business and going on the road every week, it can get very challenging. So that’s kind of what I found myself in that situation. But what happened was, it’s a hell of a story, at least it was for me. I got up and not unlike a lot of other people, I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, so I hopped out of bed to go to my bathroom, and apparently I tripped over my CPAP cord. When I did, I fell face-first into the end table next to my bed, and the corner hit over here somewhere. So I had a huge knot immediately, eye swelled shut almost immediately. But I was so sleepy and so out of it that I just got back in bed. I think I actually went to the bathroom. Mother Nature won that match, and then I got back in bed.”
On having a headache the next morning, but not letting that stop him from traveling to Chicago for Collision and how he later realized he had suffered a concussion: “The next morning, when I woke up, that was my flight out to Chicago to do that first show, Collision, and that’s all I was thinking about. I woke up and I had a bad-ass headache, but okay, a headache ain’t gonna keep JR out of work. But I had a bad headache, which was a result of the concussion, and my only thought was, ‘I gotta finish packing and get on the road.‘ That’s kind of what I did, but I was very unstable. Everything was very foggy, and I’d have been better off staying at home, but hard-headedness and being stubborn, and I felt like I had a commitment that I’d made that I wanted to fulfill. So I got dressed rather slowly, and my driver, he knows if I’m not standing there ready to go, to come upstairs where I live. But I was downstairs waiting, and on a little unsteady ground, and flew to Chicago. As the day went on in Chicago, my voice kept going in and out, and I don’t know what the hell that was. I thought, ‘Well, I’ll get over it. I’ll drink a lot of hot tea or hot coffee or hot something, and make that work for me.’ But it was just too much to overcome, and I apologize for how I sounded. I didn’t tend to sound that way, I didn’t want to sound that way, and I know I disappointed a lot of people. I disappointed me. I don’t think it made anybody in AEW real happy how I sounded, but I was doing the best that I could. So after that show was over, I went back to the announcers’ locker room, where we all dress, and I sat there for a little bit and I thought, ‘Man, I can’t keep doing this. I don’t feel good. Something’s not right. I got here, I did the best that I could. But boy, I need to get home.’ So good old Rafael Morffi, who’s taken care of me so much on the road over the years, helped me get back to the hotel. I tucked myself in, and I didn’t even get undressed that night. I wanted to make sure I could not waste any time making the flight the next morning. So I flew home, headache and all, and I’ve been here ever since. I’ve been out of the house a few times to go to the grocery store, maybe two or three times in the last few weeks. Other than that, I’ve got people that are helping me get groceries or whatever I need, prescriptions, things like that. But I was too unsteady to drive, and sure as hell too unsteady to walk around a grocery store. So I had my housekeeper buy me a little cane, which I’m embarrassed to say I’ve used a little bit, not outside, but here in the house to help me get around so I don’t have any more falls.”
On how he has no return date as of yet, but that Tony Khan has been very kind and patient with him: “I was very lucky I woke up. I was very lucky I didn’t bleed out because I had a lot of blood on my pillow cases. I had to fight through it, and I’ve been fighting through it ever since. The concussion was one issue. I’m working on our book. I got a manuscript here that we’ve written, and I’ve been trying to get to it to read it, but I haven’t been able to see good enough out of one eye. So I’m getting back on that track. I’m trying to get caught back up on that deal, but as far as going back on the road, I don’t have a return date. Tony Khan’s been very nice as far as ‘take all the time you need, and if you want to take several weeks off or the summer off, whatever you’d like to do, just get healthy.’ So I appreciate the fact that he’s being patient with me and that he is encouraging my good health because that’s really the main thing, and it gives us all an eye-opener. There’s nothing more important than our health. So many times, we take it for granted, and I have for years. So I’m gonna be a little bit more aware of my health, I’m gonna be a little bit more aware of how I take care of myself, but in the meantime, I’ve been here at home.”
On how he should have just stayed home instead of travel: “My mistake I made was just being hardheaded and stubborn and getting on that airplane on that Saturday morning and flying to Chicago. I should have backed off, I should have stayed home, and I didn’t. I just thought I was doing the right thing for the company and the fans and myself, but it was the wrong thing for all of us. I should have stayed home.”
Check out the complete episode of the show at Apple.com. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.
