During a recent episode of his Grilling JR podcast with Conrad Thompson, AEW commentator Jim Ross responded to the heavy criticism against All Elite Wrestling from his longtime friend and pro wrestling peer Jim Cornette on “The Jim Cornette Experience” podcast.
“Good Ole’ JR” spoke about being wrong about some talents he didn’t initially see potential in when they first arrived in AEW, how Tony Khan is the best boss he has ever had and why he loves his job in AEW.
Featured below are some of the highlights from episode 72 of the Grilling JR podcast with Jim Ross.
On Jim Cornette being critical of AEW on his podcast, The Jim Cornette Experience: “If he’s going to lambaste somebody, I wish he would lambaste another company other than AEW as much as he does. I take some of that personally. Like, wait a minute, I know as much about wrestling as you do, I’ve been on a lot of the same journeys here, so don’t bull–it me about ‘this’ should change. It’s a different world. I’m not telling you I like it, I’m telling you that’s what it is. The world is changing, and a lot of us just have to change with it or get out. You get along or you move along in today’s world, where you’re talking to young talents that have been raised in different homes, with different philosophies, and a different era than we were. You can’t manage them exactly the same.”
On not liking everything he calls these days himself but needing to be open to the modern style of the business: “Sometimes that means that the senior members, like me, have got to compromise. You have to change and be willing to listen to another alternative. There’s things I call in wrestling, and it’s been this way for years, that I don’t like. But that’s not my call. My call is to show up, and do my job, and do the best I can to get talent over. It’s simple as that. Whether I believe or not that they deserve it or will ever get over, that’s irrelevant. I’ve been able to try to move on in that regard.”
On Tony Khan being the best boss he has ever had and loving his job in AEW: “I’m enjoying the hell out of my job right now. It’s the best job I’ve had. Best boss I’ve ever had in Tony Khan. The bottom line is, I don’t think Cornette would ever be able to bend his principles and philosophies to make that work.”
On MJF being like a young Cornette on the microphone: “It reminds me where we are right now with MJF. He’s 23 years old, and his skillset is well beyond his years. That’s why this kid MJF is going to be such a star, and a bigger star as the days go on. He may be the future of AEW. When I see MJF create his own promos, create his own content, it reminds me of Jim Cornette. It reminds me of a young Paul Heyman.”
On being wrong about certain AEW talents he didn’t initially see potential in that Khan did: “There’s talents in AEW that I didn’t have the utmost confidence in that Tony Khan did. Old JR was wrong, and I don’t mind saying it. At the end of the day, how well do you perform bell to bell and can you put sentences together to encourage me to stay tuned or to come back. We got a lot of smaller guys in AEW that can do that.”
Check out the complete episode of the Grilling JR podcast at WestwoodOnePodcasts.com. H/T to WrestlingInc.com for transcribing the above JR interview quotes.
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