Cody Rhodes has heaped praise on AEW announcer and WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross and says he’s still one of the most over people on AEW television today.
The All Elite EVP was in conversation with Inside The Ropes’ very own Kenny McIntosh for issue 11 of the Inside The Ropes magazine when he discussed his admiration for Jim Ross.
For Cody Rhodes, he is surprised Ross gets the amount of flak he does online, considering JR was one of the lynchpins of the biggest boom period in wrestling history.
Rhodes stated:
“Well, I think people forget that JR is one of the most over people on the show. Our generation, speaking specifically about my generation, no other generations, we all think that we’re just it. We’re it. Well, I tend to be more of a pessimist, and really, are we? Are we it? Numbers are on a nice . . . they’re moving upwards, but JR is part of the most prolific wrestling period of all time, and that’s no coincidence.”
“He helped build it. He helped construct it. That guy . . . I’m always surprised to see how much flak he gets online. He’s an older guy who decided to jump ship, join us, take a chance on this. I mean, he’s going to probably retire his jersey here, take this huge chance, this massive gamble when he had a legacy and a job for life elsewhere.”
Cody Rhodes then discussed what Jim Ross brings to the commentary table both in terms of experience and in terms of the differences between JR and AEW’s other announcers:
“The announcers aren’t supposed to agree with everything you do. Have you ever watched wrestling in the ’90s? All they do is argue. So, yeah, I’m a big, big believer in JR. I don’t know if that’s even what the question was at this point. But to me, I think people forget he’s one of the most over guys on the show. When he likes something, he’s seen match after match after match, he’s seen angle after angle, after angle. That means you might have got a big fish if you’re able to hook someone of that experience.”
“Also for all flak he may get, the point of him being seated next to Excalibur is that dichotomy. Here’s PWG Excalibur talking about things and wrestlers that maybe Jim doesn’t even know who they are. And this is Jim Ross from Mid-South, the heir apparent to Bill Watts, who knows all about history and stories and grit and violence. And here’s the most neutral, greatest man on earth right in the middle, Tony Schiavone, the glue, to bring it all together. That dichotomy is the point. If we had all modern wrestling commentators, I don’t know what the show would sound like. You need that JR sound. You really do. He complains about not having an action figure, which isn’t my fault, but he needs one too. I love JR.”