Top 5 JR'isms from his time in the WWE

Jim Ross

The attitude era was one of WWE’s most profound periods. The maverick in McMahon decided to try out untested waters in the form of the attitude era and it paid him big time. Many attribute the success of the period to factors like the Stone Cold – McMahon rivalry, the monday night wars, the rise of the Rock and what not. But, one factor everyone overlooks is the stellar contribution of veteran commentator good ol Jim Ross.

Jim Ross, the legendary voice of the WWE was at the centre of the storm calling out the occurences day after day. His style of commentary clicked well with the fans and they loved how he formed a formiddable partnership with Jerry Lawler. JR would make a leg drop sound like a nuclear bomb explosion and his expressions and quotes will always remain priceless.

Let us look at some of JR’s standard expressions that wrestling fans will never ever forget.

Educated feet

Educated feet alright

Back in the day, the WWE had a hoard of high flying superstars who would come out and do spectacular moves. In short, every show back then was packed with some high octane action as the likes of Shawn Michaels, RVD, Jeff Hardy and Ken Shamrock would make insane moves look so easy. JR too was naturally impressed by these manoeuvres and he aptly described their limbs as ‘educated feet.

Feet, that were capable of moving swiftly and with great agility to strike opponents when they least expect it. A single drop kick would get JR started on it and it would last till the final bell.

Bonafide Slobberknocker

Doesn’t get any ‘slobberknockier’ than this

This was JR’s historic expression of saying that this match was going to be ‘an out and out classic’. And trust me, there were a few in every show. With the likes of Rock, Austin, Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker participating week in and week out in competition, you sure as hell knew that all matches back then were classics.

JR also used this term to describe specific pay per view matches where intense and dangerous stipulations were involved. It is indeed ironic that there are no ‘slobberknocker’ worthy bouts in today’s WWE.

By Gaawd

The Undertaker watches a motionless body of Mick Foley in the ring

If there was a steel chair shot or if there was blood, JR would immediately go on to invoke god as he described the horror in the ring by using the above expression. From the Undertaker tossing Mankind thorugh the cage to the Rikishi being choke slammed off the top of the steel structure, Jim Ross certainly left no stone unturned in expressing the horrific occurrences in the WWE.

He would look awestruck at what happened and then look at the king and say ’by gaawd King, good god almighty’ and then proceed to describe the event. Trust me, with the Attitude era back in the day, every show had quite some’ by gaawd’ references.

Business is about to pick up

Business certainly picked up after Cena returned

This was JR’s way of saying that things are about to get interesting. He would reserve this comment generally for the Royal Rumble match PPV. When there are a handful of midcarders in the ring and then a top dog is about to enter the rumble, JR would express saying that things are about to get un-boring again.

He also used this when a face character was getting beaten down by a heel group and another face superstar came down to the rescue. Austin, being the perennial face back then was always treated with this expression when he used to come down and manhandle the authority.

Stone Cold! Stone Cold!

Just another day in the office for Austin

When the entire attitude era centred around one man and his fight against the authority, you sure as hell know that JR would always have his back. Being the ‘face’ commentator in the duo, Jim Ross always had a special liking for Austin. He would put more than a 100 percent into every expression when he described the rattlesnake and calling out his name in an expression that sounded like a thousand exclamations was just one of them.

Every interference, every stunner and every Austin trick ( from beer trucks to monster trucks) was greeted with a ‘Stone Cold!! Stone Cold!! expression in a rather bloodshot voice. The most notable among them being when Austin returned to save the WWE from a ECW- WCW invasion. The moment was so electric that a conventional wrestling fan would get goosebumps merely hearing how JR described the proceedings.

We certainly miss him now without a doubt, for he was WWE’s most iconic commentator ever.