Position: Vice President (Human Resources
among others) of WWF; commentator
Before starting with the WWF, Jim "JR"
Ross was known as the premiere colourman for World Championship Wrestling
(WCW). Ross did the play-by-play for years for the NWA/WCW on their television
and PPV broadcasts.
Then at Wrestlemania 9 from Caesar's
Palace in Las Vegas, Ross made his WWF debut. Decked out in a toga, Ross
did the play-by-play for the Wrestlemania event. He was a much different
character then than he is now; more energetic, more lifelike; he basically
had a "I need a job" attitude. Ross would provide commentary
for WWF television and PPVs after Wrestlemania 9, but then he stopped appearing
on television. His role became limited to behind-the-scenes work. He also
substituted for Vince McMahon on Monday Night Raw during McMahon's steroid
distribution court case in 1994. Ross' misfortune continued, as he developed
Bell's Palsy, a disease that caused paralysis to one side of his face.
He was also fired from the WWF at one point, and was left out of work.
JR didn't give up, and was rehired by
the WWF to do a commentating position on Raw and PPVs regularly with McMahon
and Jerry Lawler. In 1996, Ross began to take on a new attitude, and even
turned heel at one time, as he began to lash out at Vince McMahon. Ross
also introduced a new "fake" Razor Ramon and Diesel, an idea
the WWF came up with to make up for the loss of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash
to WCW. The idea didn't pan out, and Ross' heel image soon disappeared.
In 1997, Jim Ross was promoted to Vice
President in charge of wrestler relations, contracts, etc. in the WWF.
He became the #2 man in the company, and now leads the broadcast team on
all Raws and PPVs.
