Jim Ross On What He Did That Made Vince McMahon "Extremely Irate"

Out of all the select few people to have a close relationship with Vince McMahon throughout the years, AEW Commentator Jim Ross' name is very close to the top.

After spending decades as one of the right hand men to Vince McMahon as the Head of Talent Relations and lead commentator for the company during the Attitude Era, Ross spoke on the latest episode of the Grilling JR Podcast about the do's and don'ts of working with the WWE's boss. The WWE Hall of Famer confirmed the rumour that McMahon doesn't like when people sneeze or cough in front of him and also said he would never try and change Vince's mind on his pet-peeves.

"You don't sneeze, you don't cough, you pay attention, you have to be prepared with your notes and everything laid out," Ross said. "He's a good businessman, we had so many one on one meetings, we had hundreds and hundreds of them. But you got to be on time, prepared for the meeting and absolutely, seriously, no sneezing and no coughing. Have kleenex with you if you think you're going to need them. He has his [pet peeves] in that respect but other than that he's somewhat predictable actually, he's got a routine that he's established for himself in his meetings. I'm not going to change his routine nor would I be stupid enough to try, why would you try? And why would you think you had the balls or the wherewithal to try to get that one of the most powerful men in the world at what you do for a living to change his style. That's just a lack of common sense, thats just stupid ass ignorance quite frankly. I never tried to change him in that regard."

On a previous podcast, the WWE Hall of Famer revealed that he still maintains a relationship with Mr. McMahon even though he's no longer with the WWE. Ross also spoke about his former boss enjoying the rivalry with AEW and what Vince thinks of the company as competition.

On April 3, 2012, Chief Jay Strongbow passed away at the age of 83. As someone who was very close to Vince McMahon based on his time working for Vince's father in the 1970s for the WWWF, Ross revealed the time he got most chewed out by his boss was when he posted a tweet revealing the death of Strongbow. JR said Vince wanted to be the one to announce the news of Strongbow's death and Ross revealed he received a phone call from a very upset WWE Chairman that day.

"I tweeted out the death of Jay Strongbow and Vince got extremely irate about that because Strongbow and Vince were long time buddies, very close and he wanted to be the one to do it," Ross said. "My phone rang after, I remember where I was in Tampa at the gym there and you look at your phone and the name 'VKM' and you go 'oh shit.' He gave me no chance to say I'm sorry, he was very hurt and I felt very badly that I did that, I didn't know it was going to have that kind of impact. That was the strongest I ever got, I got chewed out more on the air than live television. On that one he was emotional and angry and I don't blame him. I made a mistake, it doesn't hurt us folks when we make a mistake to admit it, understand from it and admit it, learn from it and move on."

Over the years, the WWE has had many top stars, from Andre The Giant to Hulk Hogan to Stone Cold Steve Austin to The Rock to John Cena. As someone who was apart of the company during the peak years of the WWE, Ross spoke about the superstars Vince had a different relationship with over the years.

"Warrior had one, Hogan had one," Ross said. "Austin to a much lesser degree. I would say Warrior and Hogan had the most prominent relationships of all the big stars. There were times where they were the biggest stars in the world and sometimes Vince had his hands full. Generally it was one of two C's, cash or creative. I've never gotten involved in an issue with talent that didn't involve either cash or creative, ever. You figure that out early on in your tenure and you should be able to navigate the waters."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Grilling JR with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.