WWE Hall of Famer and AEW announcer Jim Ross recently spoke on his podcast, “Grilling JR,” about a variety of professional wrestling topics including if he thinks Cody Rhodes will defeat Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39:
“Well, it certainly seemed like a great opportunity to, but I’m not 100% sure that will happen to be honest with you. That’s kind of the magic of pro wrestling sometimes is when you can’t call the finish. You don’t know. I’m still on the fence on that deal. I would love to see Cody win. I’ve known him since he was a baby boy, but, you know, it’s hard to say, and that’s another good reason to tune in, obviously, is to get those questions answered.”
“For Cody’s sake, I hope he goes over, but if he doesn’t, look what he’s done. He’s in the main event of the biggest show of the year and that goes without saying, it’s a huge deal. So we’ll see. We’ll see how it works out. I’m anxious to see it. I’ll be watching on Peacock. So I’ll be good. Should be a good show. I’m happy for everybody that’s got booked and participating. So, we’ll see man. We’ll see how it goes for the Rhodes family. I’m sure they’ll be there in mass to see their loved one compete and perform. I’m happy for Cody. We still communicate. We text each other somewhat regularly. I’m happy for him and I’m happy with the whole crew there. This is what a lot of them have waited on and by having it in two nights, you get more of a variety. I think that’s good for all the talents, it’s good for the card, it’s good for the fans, so we’ll see, man. I love the unanswered questions. I haven’t followed them closely enough to say, ‘Well, this trend is this, so therefore I think so and so is going to win. That’s just not a big priority for me to know who’s going to win. I’d rather not know. Right now, I don’t know and many of us don’t know, so, all good. It’s all good. It’s WrestleMania, man.”
Steve Austin spent the night before WrestleMania 19 in the hospital due to a fast heartbeat. According to Jim Ross, this is most likely why Austin vs. Rock did not end the show:
“Steve was not sleeping. He was over-caffeinating himself. His body reacted by just backing away. When we all went to bed on Saturday night in the middle of the night, we didn’t know if he was going to be able to wrestle Rock or not in the main event. The only amendment that was made to that was that they did not close the show, which was regrettable just because it was them. But you know, it didn’t adversely affect too many things, I don’t think, but Brock and Kurt got a break there. They got that WrestleMania main event spot that probably would not have occurred if Steve had not had this overnight hospital stay.”
When Rey Mysterio found out he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, he texted Ross:
“I got a beautiful text from Rey after [his WWE Hall of Fame announcement], and it made me cry. He said, ‘It all started with you’, which is pretty cool. You know, the old story about me negotiating with Rey was I brought him to TV and I think it was in Southern California. I met with him and I didn’t hire him because he had a hell of a deal on one of those Turner contracts. He was still getting paid a lot of money, more than I was going to offer him, and I told him that because he needed to know the whole story. But I did tell him, ‘I’m going to hire you if you want to come and work for us, and I can’t pay you what you’re earning today, but I can fully expect if you stay healthy Rey, you’re gonna blow that number completely out of the water’, and he did. I didn’t lie to him.”
“So when he said that to me, it brought tears to my eyes, you know, “It all started with you’, because I believed in him. I’d never hired a talent his size under Vince McMahon’s payroll, so I felt a win there. I got a win on that one. Rey is still at it and doing great and going into the Hall of Fame. His angle with his son is interesting. It’s just hard to believe that kid is wrestling. When he hung around his dad, you know, all those years I was there. He was just a little fart, and he came to work with dad. It’s kind of cool, and look where it’s got him. He invested in the family business and now he’s gonna be able to earn a good living doing it.”
Chris Jericho, according to Ross, should be considered the greatest worker of all time:
“Anytime you talk about the greatest workers ever, and there’s been so many of them, and this is a very touchy subject, if you don’t include Chris Jericho in that conversation, then you’re not being true to yourself. When did he not deliver?”
You can listen to the complete podcast via AdFreeShows.com.
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
