Every Version Of Jim Ross, Ranked Worst To Best

One of pro wrestling’s most iconic play-by-play commentators, Jim Ross got his start as a referee in the NWA territories before moving on to commentating for Mid-South Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling in the 1980s. In the 1990s, he moved over to WWE, where he would announce much of the beloved Attitude Era, with some calls legendary enough to become meme-worthy.

But even like most wrestlers, “Good Old JR” has gone through different iterations over the course of his career, including the dreaded commentator heel turn. So let’s take a look at every version of JR, starting with the worst version.

7 New Japan

In 2015, Global Force Wrestling collaborated with New Japan Pro Wrestling to make Wrestle Kingdom 9 the first NJPW show to be broadcast in English on pay-per-view, with Jim Ross and Matt Striker at the commentary table. The show found Ross a bit out of his element, but Striker filled in the gaps fairly well.

Eventually, Ross became a regular commentator for many NJPW shows, paired with Josh Barnett, and their work together was highly criticized as many fans felt that Ross’ play-by-play was often bored and maybe had too many comparisons to guys JR remembered from the Attitude Era. Ultimately, the only notable thing to come out of this run is that time Jay White accidentally jammed a table into JR’s ribs.

6 Heel JR

For some reason, WWE loves to turn their play-by-play commentators heel every now and again, even though they’re meant to be a relatively neutral voice to tell the story of the matches. In 1996, Razor Ramon and Diesel jumped ship to WCW, but the ring names and gimmicks were trademarks of WWE.

They decided to play with this by having Jim Ross not only introduce, but also manage a fake Diesel and Razor Ramon, played by wrestlers who looked enough like Kevin Nash and Scott Hall if you squinted from very far away. This was meant to start a heel run for Ross, but the whole impostor angle was so poorly received that the storyline was dropped and JR returned to his regular role.

5 WWE Part-Timer

By the late 2000s, it was getting obvious that WWE was preparing Jim Ross out to pasture as he was moved off of Raw’s commentary table in favor of Michael Cole. After a run on SmackDown and a very brief run returning to Raw, WWE would bring out Ross periodically to call special matches, and ultimately firing him in 2014.

A few years later, WWE would rehire him as a part-timer, bringing him out to call special matches like the Undertaker/Roman Reigns match at WrestleMania 33 and the first Mae Young Classic tournament. While it was clear that by end of his WWE run JR had lost a step in commentary, overall it was a bummer to see WWE jerk around one of the great onscreen figures that contributed positively to WWE’s own television product.

4 JR IS RAW

Jim Ross’ real-life Bell’s Palsy has forced JR to step away from the commentary table numerous times over the course of his career, including a particularly bad instance in late 1998 that kept him off TV for a few months.

When he finally returned to Raw is War, he became a heel, angry at getting replaced by Michael Cole. As part of this abortive heel run, JR got Dr. Death Steve Williams as his muscle and manned a table in front of the official Raw commentary table that read JR IS RAW. This run largely didn’t work out because fans were more sympathetic JR’s real health issues than WWE anticipated. Ultimately, while kind of funny, these kinds of shenanigans often only serve to distract from the in-ring product.

3 AEW

Taz (a.k.a. Tazz), Jim Ross and Excalbur on AEW

In 2019, Jim Ross found himself working a weekly TV wrestling commentary gig again as the senior commentator for All Elite Wrestling’s AEW Dynamite, as well as its pay-per-views. For many wrestling fans -- especially lapsed and casual viewers -- Ross’ voice was a welcome presence on a show where viewers weren’t intimately familiar with every wrestler.

For other fans, however, Ross’ presence on the show has been a mixed bag, as the aging veteran commits gaffes like forgetting wrestlers' names or saying something retrograde about female talent when he’s not actively working against the show. He still has his moments, however, and the mix of positives and negatives has proven to be a point of controversy between fans who appreciate him for nostalgic reasons and those who want to see him step aside in favor of younger broadcasters.

2 1980s Jim Ross

In 1982, Jim Ross scored the biggest gig of his career (at the time) when he got to call matches alongside Boyd Pierce on the weekly show of the now-defunct Mid-South Wrestling. Mid-South under promoter Bill Watts is the precursor to modern wrestling television, adding an episode-to-episode narrative that, so it’s more than appropriate that Jim Ross was there to shepherd in a new kind of wrestling show.

Mid-South would be folded into Jim Crockett Promotions, which would eventually become World Championship Wrestling. WCW of this era was extremely Southern wrasslin’, with blood-soaked main events and ultraviolent gimmick matches like WarGames. Jim Ross’ run with WCW would last until 1993,

1 The Voice of WWE

As good as Jim Ross has been in other promotions, for most fans “Good Old JR” was at his best during his longest run with WWE, as he called the action from the Attitude Era all the way through Ruthless Aggression and even a couple of years into the PG Era. It was during the Attitude Era that Jim Ross acquired the cowboy hat that would become part of his signature look, and deliver some awesomely spirited commentary alongside Jerry Lawler, including his classic Hell in a Cell reaction to Mankind being thrown off the top of the cage, which has become a meme.

Over this consistently great run, Ross would burn a number of JR-isms into the brains of wrestling fans: “smoke through a keyhole,” “tougher than a two-dollar steak,” and slobberknocker,” among many others. There’s an entire generation of viewers who consider Jim Ross’s work during this era to be the voice of professional wrestling, and to those fans, nothing else has ever quite sounded the same.

NEXT: 5 Wrestlers Who Jim Ross Loves (& 5 That He Doesn't)