Jim Ross is one of the greatest commentators in the history of the pro wrestling business and many grew up with him calling WWE action.
However, various fans have criticized his work for AEW as the lead play-by-play announcer because there have been instances of him making mistakes live on television.
This was something that Cody Rhodes talked about while speaking with Kenny McIntosh for issue 11 of the Inside The Ropes magazine.
Rhode started out by noting that Ross is one of the most over people on the show and sees him as part of the most prolific wrestling period of all time.
“He helped build it. He helped construct it. That guy, I’m always surprised to see how much flak he gets online. He’s an older guy who decided to jump ship, join us, take a chance on this. I mean, he’s going to probably retire his jersey here, take this huge chance, this massive gamble when he had a legacy and a job for life elsewhere. Also for all flak he may get, the point of him being seated next to Excalibur is that dichotomy.”
He noted that Excalibur has some knowledge about moves and wrestlers that Ross may not know as Ross is all about history, stories, grit, and violence. At the same time, they’re calling the action with Tony Schiavone, who Rhodes thinks is the glue that puts it all together.
He stated that dichotomy is the point and if they had all modern commentators, he doesn’t know how the show would sound like. He thinks AEW needs the sound of Ross.
Rhodes will be in action next on the August 4th episode of Dynamite against Malakai Black (fka Aleister Black).
