By Pat McNeill, Torch columnist

"McNeill Factor"
Newsletter Headline: The Man In Black, Respect, and Wellness '85
Originally published: September 8, 2007
From Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter #988

The Man In Black: We've seen speculation as to whether Jim Ross will keep his job as WWE's main play-by-play announcer. Ross's contract is up soon, and there's been no word on whether WWE has renewed his deal. Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn are turning the heat up on their Hall of Fame broadcaster. First, they brought out WWE Heat play-by-play guy Todd Grisham for a quick round of on-the-job training on Raw a couple of weeks ago. This was a smart move on a couple of levels, not the least of which was that Ross remained on commentary, ready to grab hold of the yoke if Grisham should falter. For the record, the Grisham-Ross duo worked out fairly well.

The next dig at Ross came the following week, when Jerry "The King" Lawler was written off the show and Tazz sat in as guest commentator. Over the past decade, J.R. has spent most of his television time working with Lawler, and the two have forged a deep friendship and built a certain comfort level with each other. You'd think this would be a positive development, but Vince McMahon doesn't agree. In his experience of putting on wrestling television, McMahon prefers to have conflict between his announcers. That's why McMahon always argued with Jesse Ventura in the late 1980s. Heck, Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan practically turned their bickering on "WWF Wrestling Challenge" into a vaudeville routine.

Jerry Lawler isn't aging well. There are people in WWE who don't believe that Jim Ross is young and handsome enough to be a wrestling announcer. Combine that with the fact his Hall of Fame broadcast partner is older than Ross, and there's a definite movement within WWE to split up the longtime duo.

The thing is, Jim Ross doesn't care. In the past, Ross fought very hard to hang onto his position hosting WWE's flagship broadcast. But his perspective has changed in the past couple of years. You'll recall that the Oklahoma barbecuer hit a rough patch in 2005, with WWE replacing him just as he was scheduled to go in for colon surgery. Then, after UFC announcer Mike Goldberg turned down the Raw play-by-play gig, Vince McMahon took his out frustrations with Ross during a memorable episode of Raw. This included a skit with Mr. McMahon making fun of J.R.'s surgery, which went over about as well as you'd expect.

One of Ross's numerous duties involves hosting the "Legends Roundtable" show on WWE 24/7. This month's episode featured Ross, along with Lawler, Michael Hayes, and guest panelists Mick Foley and Eric Bischoff, discussing the Monday Night War feud between the WWF and WCW. During the discussion, the topic turned to how Bischoff's use of the cruiserweights boosted the interest in WCW's first hour of Nitro and caused the overall workrate in North America to rise. Ross responded by saying that a minimum size requirement for a WWE wrestler was a "jackass idea" or something along those lines. This was an awkward moment. At one point over the past few years, Vince McMahon had reportedly ordered talent relations director John Laurinaitis not to hire any prospects below six-foot-two. That instruction has since been rescinded. Jim Ross had a pretty darn good idea who he was criticizing. This is also not an isolated incident. Ross has his own blog on his restaurant's website and frequently expresses his opinions in that blog

At one point during his hiatus, Jim Ross, while convalescing at home with his wife, apparently came to the realization that there was more to life than be a professional wrestling announcer. Ross reportedly has a substantial nest egg from his years in the WWE front office and his accumulated stock options. He went out and bought his own restaurant in Norman, Oklahoma, which is a full-time job in and of itself. He had free time to follow his beloved Oklahoma Sooners football team on the road and was obviously having a great time. Jim Ross still loves professional wrestling and loves doing play-by-play on Raw every week. But Ross no longer needs WWE. Strangely, that makes World Wrestling Entertainment and Vince McMahon appreciate him more.

Ross was also valuable this week in defending WWE's wrestler suspensions on his blog. He wisely focused on the positive move in weeding out the violators of the embattled WWE Wellness Policy and was critical enough of everyone involved that he provided some needed credibility on this issue. Good Ol' J.R. also stressed the silver lining that came out of the situation, which is the prospect of

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