Wrestling fans will know Jim Ross as one of the greatest announcers of all-time.
However, the legendary voice of wrestling has worn many different hats during his career and, in WWE, was instrumental in signing some of the biggest stars they have ever acquired.
These days, good ol’ JR works in AEW where he still calls the action, but in the late 1990s ad early 2000s, he was head of talent relations in WWE and recruited many of their now Hall of Fame stars.
When talkSPORT had the chance to talk to him, the first question was: How did you pull it off?
“I’ve been very lucky,” he explained. “I relate to the talent because they want to be related to as athletes, not entertainers. That’s my take. It’s not the gospel, it’s my opinion. I’ve always treated them like athletes and teammates.
“We were very fortunate with some of the guys that we signed that have gone on to be Hall of Famers, rich, secure and I feel great about being able to facilitate that.”
The Rock
“I knew that The Rock was Rocky Johnson’s son and he and Pat Patterson were friends from the San Francisco territory days. Pat was obsessed talking about Dwayne. So of course, I went down and met with Dwayne and talked contract, recruiting and things of that nature.
“So he was an easy sign; he’s a guy who wanted to be there, he wanted to be a star. He’s done alright [laughs]. I think he made $82 million last year.
“He hasn’t changed. He’ll still take a call or return a text message. He was somewhere in Europe filming a movie the day my wife got killed.
“I was at the hospital sitting with her while she was on life support and her family had not had time to fly in from California yet. So my phone rings and it’s Dwayne.
“It’s like, I don’t know what time it was where he was, but it was middle of the night where I was. So it just shows you, he’s not too big to reach out to an old friend and offer his condolences.
“He knew my wife. She was a big part of the administration here quite frankly.”
Steve Austin
“I convinced [Vince] McMahon that Steve Austin was a player.
“Paul Heyman had opened our eyes to Steve’s talking [in ECW] but I knew Steve from when he was in Dallas and I got him to come to WCW.”
The Undertaker
“Same thing with The Undertaker. He was The Punisher or something like that. I got to liking him, we brought him to Atlanta and then when it came time for his contract to be renewed, Ole Anderson was the booker and Ole wasn’t real high on Mark – which I could never understand – it might be the old wrestling thing where if it’s not their idea…
“So I’m the one that encouraged Mark to take McMahon’s offer and leave WCW. It worked out pretty well for him.”
Brock Lesnar
“I saw Brock Lesnar wrestle on television as an amateur. Gerald Brisco, my good friend from Oklahoma, had all the amateur connections and ironically, Lesnar’s college coach was a teammate of Gerald Brisco at Oklahoma State University. So that was fate.
“We could have signed Brock a year ahead of time, but we made a deal with his coach that we would leave him alone. He wrestled his final year of college, his senior year, and he won the national championship. He was an All-American, he was the number one amateur wrestler in America.
“You don’t get guys that are six-foot-four, 270lbs with that kind of athletic background. He’d already proven in the amateur world that he was the best there was at heavyweight. I’d met his mother and his father, we try to recruit the right way.
“We want to know everybody. For you to know our family, I got to know your family a little bit. His dad was just as big as Brock. He was a farmer in South Dakota. A real good man. A hard-working, salt of the earth human being.
“Gerry Brisco and I brought Brock Lesnar to a TV taping in Minneapolis because he went to college there. I said to McMahon ‘that new kid I’m recruiting is here tonight. If you get a chance I’d like you to say hello him.’
“So McMahon is walking about with his Mr. McMahon walk and he happens to glance over and Gerry Brisco is standing by this monster. Vince made a U-turn and beelined right to Brock – he had never seen him. Never watched him wrestle.
“He knew Gerry and I was high on him, but Gerry didn’t meet with Vince on a regular basis, I met with Vince every day. I said ‘we got this kid we’re going to sign and he’s going to be extraordinary. You’re going to love him.’
“So when Vince laid eyes on him he knew that we had the guy. If he had any aptitude whatsoever – we knew athletically he was going to be great, he’d already proven himself as an athlete – but if he could get the showbiz side of it and have the aptitude to be a pro wrestler, he was going to be our guy for a while. And that worked out.”
John Cena
“John Cena was another guy. When I interviewed John, he was very muscular. He called himself The Prototype at that time and he looked like a young Sting. He was jacked.
“And he was driving limos and moving furniture in L.A. trying to get discovered by somebody. He was going to into wrestling and I was going out there to do some more recruiting at a guy named Rick Bassman’s school, I think it was called UPW. A lot of initials in wrestling [laughs].
“The look was there, but I had no idea that Cena was so deep-rooted in wrestling history and nostalgia. You could put him on a TV show like Jeopardy and he’d clear the board on the wrestling questions.
“He had such respect and reverence for what we did for a living. I said this kid is going to be wonderful.
“I remember taking a red eye home from L.A. to Connecticut across the country and going straight to our offices right off the flight and I caught up with Vince.
“I said ‘you know, I just got back from L.A. this morning, and I think I signed our main event for in five years at WrestleMania’. He looked at me incredulously like I was insane and said ‘you need to go home and take a shower. You’re delirious from your flight or whatever’.
“But, that worked out. John’s work ethic and love of the business shined through every day.”
Kurt Angle
“Kurt Angle, how could he miss! He won a gold medal in the heavyweight division, or 220lb division, at the 1996 Olympics. So he was another guy I thought he just can’t miss if we keep him sane, get him good coaching and good teaching.
“That’s the good thing about real athletes. Cena was an American Football player. Lesnar was an amatuer wrestler; they come from team environments.
“Kurt Angle of course came from a wrestling team at the highest level. You know that they can respond to coaching well. They respond to teaching and positive motivation. And that’s what I tried to build my roster around – positive motivation. Honesty and positivity.”
Jeff and Matt Hardy
“I didn’t know the Hardy Boyz were going to become as good as they did.
“I signed them – I think they lied to me about their age – at 17 or 18, but I had no idea they were going to be that good.
“I had no idea Jeff was going to spin out and become something very, very special. Even though Matt was the rudder in the water and kept everything flowing in the right direction, Jeff was just ‘it’. You have those guys.”
Edge and Christian
“When I signed Edge and Christian they were skinny and lean. Two independent wrestlers that had never made any money. They’d just bounced around looking for work.
“So when they came aboard, they were two more students of the game. They invested back into the product and they wanted to learn more. And so, they became great stars.
“So sometimes, you can’t be sure where the superstars are going to come from, but the eyeball test with Lesnar, Angle and Cena – no brainers looking at the 8×10. But there’s more to it than that.”
