Jim Ross stepping away from AEW after scary injury
Legendary professional wrestling announcer Jim Ross will be stepping away from his duties with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) to heal after taking a fall Saturday morning.
Ross made the announcement following the debut episode of “AEW Collision” on TNT, in which Ross admitted he didn’t sound like himself on commentary alongside Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness.
“I apologize for the way I sounded tonight,” Ross tweeted. “Going to step away to heal. Thanks for your support.”
Ross, 71, has spent nearly five decades in the professional wrestling business, most notably as the lead announcer for WWE. Following a 22-year run with WWE across two stints (1993-2013, 2017-19), Ross joined the upstart AEW in April 2019, signing a three-year deal. Ross served as lead commentator on Wednesday night “AEW Dynamite” until the summer of 2022, before transitioning to the commentary team on Friday night “AEW Rampage.”
This past Friday, AEW founder and co-owner Tony Khan announced that Ross would be part of the “AEW Collision” announce team with Kelly and McGuinness. Ross had been open of his interest of being on the “AEW Collision” commentary team, even if it impacted his ability to watch his Oklahoma Sooners every Saturday during the fall.
Jim Ross opens up on debut of ‘AEW Collision’
“I don’t know a lot about the show,” Ross said on his “Grilling JR” podcast last month, via Colin Tessier of Fightful. “I don’t know who’s the broadcast team is. It’s all been kind of kept close to the vest, shall we say. Saturday night’s a challenging night for television. It just is. Doesn’t mean people don’t watch TV on Saturday, they do, and I believe that they will if there’s a reason. I don’t know what the roster’s gonna look like. We’ll see what happens. But I’m excited to find out who’s gonna be…
“I hope to broadcast that show, even though it’ll kill my football on Saturday nights. So we’ll figure that out. That’s not a big deal. That’s the great thing about streaming and all those things. I can watch my ball game, I just may not be able to watch it live.”