Jim Ross Talks When He First Met Tony Khan, Criticizes WWE Downplaying The Role Of Commentators

The news of Jim Ross signing the "most lucrative commentary deal" with AEW made big news in the wrestling landscape. On the latest episode of AEW Unrestricted, Jim Ross joined Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone to talk about the first time he met Tony Khan when he was doing commentary for NJPW's G1 Special in USA.

"I was in Long Beach, CA working for AXS TV calling New Japan matches on tape, voice over which is a detriment to their product quite frankly, but that was the hand we were dealt. But we had live shows to call as well. A few live shows. A double-header weekend in Long Beach. We stayed at a hotel where the company put us up, the same place where Tony Khan and Alex Marvez are staying," Ross said. "Alex I had known for a long time. Alex knows everybody. Alex was very instrumental in me being here. He introduced me to Tony, and we kind of partied over the weekend. And we talked about wrestling about strategically what I would do. I would do that if I owned a company type deal just shooting the breeze. That's all, but I had no idea that somewhere in his very able mind, Tony was thinking about something like AEW."

Ross talked more about the hirings AEW has made for their broadcast crew including Schiavone and Excalibur. Edwards gave praise to Excalibur for knowing all the wrestling moves and wrestling knowledge he possess, and Ross talked about how everyone is helping each other adjust to live TV.

"We became friends and kept in touch. Then he said, 'we're going into business, and I want you to be here.' So I don't know if I was the first person hired. I can tell you I was the first five hired, and I always thought that was good because he wanted me to be, at least, a voice for his brand at that time," Ross said. "Then we were lucky enough to be able to hire Tony [Schiavone] and Excalibur, who's doing a great job. To me, it's daunting to work with a mask on, but he's really smart. He's got great familiarity with all the talents. I don't.

"He had to learn how to translate [his] game from access TV like a cable channel type deal to a major network like TNT. Same for the talent. We've all been helping each other [learn] how to adapt to being on a major outlet, a major network, in prime time [and] doing live television. There's no net. There's no do overs. To me that's the way to do it. Live TV is the way to go."

Schiavone took time to talk about how smart of a hire it was for AEW. He said that Ross' hiring helped put AEW in the national spotlight.

"It was a smart hire realistically. I know you don't like to blow your own horn. I'm gonna do it for you," Schiavone said. "To get you on board, really put AEW in a national spotlight."

Ross was outspoken about the role commentary plays especially for the TV audience. He criticized WWE for downplaying the role broadcasters have and talked about how Khan wanted Ross to be himself.

"I hope it helped," Ross said. "Because of my previous life, I'm a big believer that you're narrator, you're soundtrack is important, and it was not always that way in WWE. And I was thought that was kind of stupid because how can you downplay you're broadcasters in a television entity. Think about what I just said. That would make no sense would it? No, it doesn't make any sense. When I started working for Tony, he said, 'I want you to be you. For better or for worse.' And I'm not perfect. "I'm gonna make mistakes. I've made plenty of them, but I'm having a great time."

Edwards furthered the point of Khan wanting people to be themselves. Khan has said before that AEW will showcase the dynamic personalities of their wrestlers.

"I think that's the uniform thing that Tony tells everybody at AEW, 'just be yourself.' I know I've seen him in post-show pressers and what not. 'Our people have personalities because they're people with personalities. Why hide that?' That's one of the things I love about AEW," Edwards said. "I like that we get the freedom to kind of do what we want to do."

Ross was also outspoken about the use of writers and credits the promos on AEW to the wrestlers speaking from the heart. He has criticized WWE before by saying that many of the people running WWE do not know anything about wrestling.

"I like the fact that we don't have writers that don't have to tell anybody what to say.

"Nobody should be more committed to their skill than the wrestlers because they're gonna make the most money. They [the fans] see [if you're] disingenuous. That's again why the promos we've had recently have been excellent because they came from the heart and the creativity of the talent presenting it, and that's different than let's say, 'here's your promo. Now become a Shakespearean actor or actress and go memorize your lines that we're gonna record tonight live in the ring.' Think about that system," Ross said. "You want me to interpret your creative and memorize to be able to deliver tonight. And I just saw that we did no rehearsals, no time to memorize. I get it now. That's not a good system, but if you give somebody bullet points, then their natural instincts start coming into play."

The three also had a conversation about Khan not being their ears all the time. Edwards and Ross talked about being ready for when things will go wrong and striving to overcome anything that might happen.

"Right, use them for what they were hired for. It's the same thing for us," Schiavone said. "Tony Khan's not in our ear. No one's in our ear to tell us what to say.

"Oh, Tony Khan's not in your ear," Edwards said. "He's in my ear all the time."

"No, he's not in our ear to tell us what to saw because he's letting JR be JR," Schiavone said. "He's letting him be who he hired him to be."

"All of us. We all have free reign to do what we believe is right. If Tony hired the right guys, then why not be a good manager and let them do their job because here's the deal, the day that we collectively or individually drop the ball and we fumble enough times in the red zone, somebody's a– is gone," Ross said. "I get that, and that's accountability. And some people are definitely afraid of accountability because they've never had to be accountable.

"And the s–t will hit our fan, and then we will found out our soldiers. Who's gonna come out of the tent, and who wants to hide?"

You can listen to the podcast by clicking here. If you use any quotes from this article, please credit AEW Unrestricted with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.