WWE: Jim Ross – The voice of wrestling

Professional wrestling, since being repackaged as “Sports entertainment” has given the fans what they asked for. Whether you call it “entertainment” or “wrestling”, for decades, it has enticed the audience and succeeded in captivating them, showing them something more evolved than any other form of entertainment.

Professional wrestling is the “best of both worlds”, combining Hollywood and contact sports. Unlike other sports, professional wrestling has various ingredients which come together to create a different product, something very unique. When you talk about sports such as basketball or football, it depends on what happens on the pitch, in front of the camera. But professional wrestling needs everything to come together, and once everything is in sync, it becomes something magical, which transcends what you see on TV.

“Unbridled passion, knowledge and a great story teller. He tells it like it is. When you’ve got someone who can verbalize what’s going on in the ring like he can, it makes the match all that much better. When you bring passion, knowledge and the ability to tell stories and make people feel what’s going on in that ring, you’ve got a winner.” – Steve Austin on Jim Ross

When you talk about excitement during a match, it doesn’t only depend on the performers putting on a classic inside the squared circle, but also the person who takes you through it. In professional wrestling, play-by-play commentary has played a very important role, along with colour commentary.

Traditionally, there has always been one play-by-play announcer and one colour commentator. The play-by-play person would take you through the actions going on inside the ring, covering the psychology and the moves, while the colour commentator would take care of the “entertainment” aspect. The passion, sincerity and the timbre of the announcer makes all the difference and can even make a mediocre match sound like an absolute classic.

I used to watch the old tapes, and I fell in love with Bobby Heenan’s commentary. For me, Heenan will always be the number one commentator, with Gorilla Monsoon being an excellent protagonist. But there has been one other person who gives Heenan a close competition. He has been in the business for more than three decades, and has arguably made wrestlers such as Stone Cold Steve Austin.

It isn’t just the performers who can put over their opponents; a great announcer can put over the performer by his verbiage, emotions and make the audience invest in the superstars. How many of us can still remember Good Ol’ JR shouting “Stone Cold! Stone Cold!”? Almost everyone who listened to Jim Ross have lived through his voice, and experienced through his emotions.

“Jim Ross is an American icon and my friend.” – Vince McMahon

There are very less people who can capture the imagination of the fans quite like Jim Ross. JR is universally respected by all the fans and the entire wrestling fraternity, and he has given the fans many memorable moments, and made sure that he put over the importance of the match and the performers.

JR’s excellence came with doing all the little things correctly, taking care of the nuances. An announcer needs to make the fans understand the storylines, grab their attention and interest, and Jim Ross has been successful in doing that for well over two decades.

Jim Ross’ ability to improvise has been one of his biggest strengths. The Owen Hart incident gives us an idea about how well Ross managed the situation, as he not only gave the importance and the gravity of the situation, but he maintained his composure at a time when everyone else would have broken down.

Jim Ross’ sincerity and knowledge is evident during his commentary, and one can argue that the Attitude Era wouldn’t have been as impactful if Jim Ross didn’t call the action every single week. Jim Ross has been the voice of the WWE for nearly a decade and a half, and has been an integral part of creating superstars and giving them the legitimacy they needed.

When you watch the WWE now, you get the feeling of the announcers trying too hard. Except for JBL, no other announcer understands the psychology of the business. This is where we sorely miss the expertise of Jim Ross. Whether it is explaining the angles or putting over the importance of storylines, Jim Ross understood the business.

For nearly two decades, Jim Ross has been the voice of professional wrestling, and sadly, one needs to wait till WrestleMania to hear wrestling’s favourite voice all over again.