Steve Austin discussed how important Jim Ross was for his career and his greatness as a commentator on the latest edition of his podcast. Below are the highlights, transcribed courtesy of WrestlingInc.
āNow, as I am trying to recall the first time I met Jim Ross, I almost canāt remember, but you have to understand I was a huge Bill Watts Mid-South Wrestling fan, so, man, I grew up with JR.ā Austin remembered, āand heās not very much older than me, but JR was the man. And then, when he went to NWA, thatās when I was watching Jim Ross. He was the man. And all-of-a-sudden, I get a chance to be called up to WCW. Heās one of the guys that lobbied for me and we hit it off. Jim loves football. He knew that I played college football. I wasnāt at Ron Simmonsā level. I wasnāt major college good. I was just good enough to get a scholarship and be on the team. Thatās as good as I was. But Jim being in Oklahoma and that Texas/Oklahoma kind of bond, relationship, rivalry, whatever it is, Jim respected and liked football players. He liked guys that were athletic, salty, easy to work with, not people that are toxic or that are trainwrecks, or divas, or hard to work with. So, man, me and Jim always hit it off and we became the best of friends.ā
āMe and Jim would ride down the road and weād have a bottle of wine.ā Austin recalled, āI donāt know how we started drinking wine. I used to drink wine like a son of a bāh way back in the day, but weād drink a bottle of red wine between the towns. Itās only about 120 miles. Weād book the territory, tell storiesā¦ If I ever went to a football game I would go stay with him and Jan when she was still with us. And Jimās out doing his own thing now, but, man, nothing but respect for him.ā
āJim Ross, to me, with his range, with his storytellingā¦ he paid his dues. I mean, he learned from the ground up. And his inflection and his ability to watch a match, tell a story, get the talent over with the credibility that he had, he was the shining diamond on top of everyone, so always a good experience with Jim. We continue, to this day, to be the best of friends. We donāt talk as much as we used to because weāre going and blowing in different directions. But he was a key, key part of my entire [pro] wrestling career like so many people were, but as far as the recruitment to WCW, the recruitment to WWF [as WWE was known] at the time, so thereās a lot of history there. Again, if āStone Coldā wouldāve took off like it did and Jim Ross had not been on commentary, I do believe I still would have been successful; however, I think I had the success that I did because of the work that we put into it. This is on the [WWE] end, my end, the synergy, the chemistry, the writing, Vince [McMahon] was a huge part of it, especially when we were going up against each other, but without Jim Ross calling that with the emotion and just yelling, that passion driven style that he had, I donāt think it would have been the same. He was the voice of that āAttitude Eraā.ā Austin added, āI canāt imagine my career because it is so far removed now, but I cannot imagine my career without the iconic voice of the one and only Jim Ross.ā
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