Good ol JR
 

Is Jim Ross loosing it? I don't watch AEW often but tuned in yesterday. Ross messed up on multiple occasions and it was just lazy. Calling it AWE and saying no clear cut winner when they went to a break. Does he make constant errors now?

Good ol Jr same ol problems

JR has been shit for years, his New Japan run was shockingly bad.

Excalibur is getting really good at covering him but you can only do so much. I just get annoyed at the shoot podcast style comments.

Ross is great. I dont think him mispeaking is make it or break it

Who cares?

Hopefully he's taking the nerds newest circlejerk company for as much as he can

Listening to his podcast, you definitely get the feeling he’s just showing up for the pay check. Good for him. He’s earned the right to stop forcing himself to give a fuck.

This, but he's certainly been getting worse since AEW started. At least I feel like he is, but I'm also seeing him more now, so who knows. Either way he's been pretty rough.

Imagine what JR and Lawler would sound like as a team now. Oooooooof.

Judging his constant and tiresome tirades on his podcast he definitely gives a fuck.

If hes not up to the mark AEW would be wise to ride his name value for a bit and phase him out if the other commentators are any good.

He gives a fuck about people saying he’s doing a shitty job.

I don’t think he gives a fuck about what he’s calling. He even flat out said early on that he works for AEW because they pay him a lot of money. He didn’t even try to bullshit. Lol

Ross' biggest problem is he pretty much has struggled adjusting to calling modern or fast paced style wrestling. Also his pre-show notes or cheat sheet system is probably just as bad as it was during his time calling live events for NJPW.

JR was the best part of AEW this week. "Tony has his hands in his pockets, but he cut out the bottoms long ago." Excalibur is fucking excruciating. The typical indy guy trying to mimic a Vince McMahon-style announcer. Tony Shiavone is a cut above Excalibur too without even trying.

I still can't get over how they made Excalibur know the names of the Blade, Butcher and the Bunny as soon as they were out there. No in-ring promo for them to say who they are. Boom. The announcer knows everything.

Those are awful names. I don't think anything beats "Mel" though. They have a wrestler named Mel.

I can understand mis pronouncing foreign names and moves but the company is 3 letters and he couldn't even get that right (AWE)

Names are on 2 of their asses and the 3rd has giant S&M leather bunny ears

I thought AEW's three-man booth was fantastic for the first five to six episodes. The chemistry between the three, and the roles they chose to play were very well executed ideas. It let JR be the older voice who's seen it and done it all, Excalibur be the current generation fan who reads the dirtsheets and knows all the names and the moves, and Tony, who's the lapsed fan slowly rediscovering his love for WCW-esque wrestling.

But now that the honeymoon period of sorts is over, let's face it. JR's just not as good as he was in his heyday. Excalibur definitely needs someone to play off.

Tony's been the highlight of the three.

I would much rather my announcers fuck up now and then than the over produced and passionless alternative.

I don't see what's different between JR screaming Stone Cold Stone Cold and Cole screaming Boss Time Everytime Sasha comes out

JR did it because he was actually enthusiastic and believed in Stone Cold. Michael Cole does it because it's how he's produced.

JR is was way better than Cole ever was, that's why he got away with it, but I get your point. It's a bit of the old rose colored glasses. And a lot of what made JR great was the dynamic he had with Lawler; Cole has never had a broadcast partner that he has anything near that kind of connection with.

There’s nothing authentic about what Michael Cole does now. JR was at that energy all the time. And he sounded like he was really into it. It’s clearly put on now when Cole does it.

And Cole wasn’t always this bad. When he called Mick Foley winning his first world title, you could feel the excitement in his voice. When he was with Tazz on Smackdown I felt the same way. Now, everything is all about sound bites and it has robbed the show of all its energy.

Everything has to be a "moment".

I miss heel Cole. He was incredible during the original seasons of NXT.

The Cole Mine!

I think that's a lot to do with Vince and co. hamfistedly trying to capitalize on social media and the phenomenon of viral moments. And he fails to understand that most of this stuff goes viral when you least expect.

Makes me think of when King did that super awkward in-ring interview with Fandango after fans were singing his theme at Mania.

The only thing Jim Ross ever lost was the ability to move one side of his face.

He's still good eggs.

Holy fuck, I was just about to post this as a response. Glad I’m not the only one whose mind went to that.

“So, you youngsters like the ‘Fandangoing’, I see!”

And Fandango is charismatic as shit. I’ve made a gimmick out of singing that man’s praises. If they wanted a true megastar 10 years ago, he was the man to hitch their wagon to. But what was he supposed to do with that segment to make it less awkward? The entire idea was just so insanely out of touch.

They made him lead a Fandango chant and thought he would get over from it.

We talk about WWE dropping the ball often. That's a big example for me.

Should have never done the segment and just let it grow organically like the YES chants did.

Only reason the YES chants didn't suffer a similar fate was due to WWE being hands off with it just long enough for the chant to establish genuine mainstream popularity. Once WWE did get involved with the chant, it was established enough to not lose its luster nor suddenly feel uncool because of WWE desperately trying to latch on to its mainstream popularity.

He's getting worse.

He legit called Jake Hager JACK SWAGGER and he knew it but still could not come up with the right name until Excalibur helped him out.

He's done this with a number of former WWE'ers.

And the female Japanese wrestlers he is probably the worst at. Just terrible.

But as much as he is getting worse ... I still prefer it over Michael Cole any day of the week. He can miscall Dustin Rhodes by his WCW Seven name/gimmick for all I care but he still nails the emotion of a match or moment better than anyone.

Jim Ross could put the headset on his ass and let out loud farts for an entire show and I'll lose no respect for him. Might slip up here and there but still to me, the voice of pro wrestling...

Good for him if he doesn't jerk off audibly if the wrestler doesn't deserve it. Nobody gets over if the announcers have no credibility.

Which may explain why nobody on WWE’s main roster has gotten over since the Shield.

I guess that's true if you have your head up your ass.