Jim Ross says doctors are testing a spot found on his kidney, and that the shunt placed in his brain earlier this year is causing headaches bad enough to wake him up at night.
Ross gave the update at the top of the latest episode of Grilling JR, which he and Conrad Thompson recorded live on YouTube right after Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite tribute to PAC.
“I’ve been up to my a** in doctor’s appointments this week. Saw a little spot of something on my kidney, and so we’re running a lot of tests,” Ross said. “My shunt’s bothering me in my brain, so I’m going to get a scan tomorrow, and get that back to my neurosurgeon, so he can tell me what the hell’s wrong. It may just need to be adjusted. That’s my take on it.”
Ross, 74, said the CT scan is scheduled for Thursday, with a follow-up visit to his neurosurgeon later in the week. He said the shunt, which drains excess fluid from his brain, has been adjusted three times before.
“I’ve had mine adjusted three times, so it’s not a recent situation. But you know, at some point, I’ve got to be able to sleep, and I feel fatigued a lot,” Ross said. “My oncologist is going to send me to a specialist in Oklahoma City for a little place on my kidney, but they’re not sure if it’s cancerous or not. So it’s been a stressful week.”
Asked by Thompson what the shunt is doing to him, Ross said he is having “blistering headaches.”
“They hurt so bad that I wake up in the middle of the night more often than not. You know, two or three, four o’clock in the morning because I got a headache,” Ross said. He added that the surgical wound on his skull is healing well.
Ross said the excess fluid on his brain affected his balance before the surgery, and he believes it is the reason he kept falling.
“I think that’s why I was falling so damn much. I didn’t have my equilibrium,” he said. “Broke my wrist this last year. I messed up my groin. I messed up my knees. I broke two toes the morning of my surgery. I’m breaking sh*t right and left, man.”
Ross said his time in waiting rooms has kept things in perspective.
“I’ve been to so many doctor’s appointments, and what you realize there is that you see people that are worse off than you are. And so then it’s a matter of being grateful,” he said.
Ross also said Tony Khan has been good to him since he got sick, and that he still considers himself part of AEW. “I still got my playbook. I still got my jersey. I just got to get healthy, and we’re working on that right now,” he said.
Ross was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2024 and later said he was cancer-free after surgery.
Most of the episode was devoted to PAC, who died on Sunday at 40. Ross said he learned of the death from a text message from Thompson.
“I had to sit down. This can’t be accurate, because he hadn’t had any health issues that I was aware of,” Ross said. “He just was a superb guy.”
Ross called PAC “one of my favorites of all time,” and said he greeted him as “Lad” whenever he saw him at AEW television.
“What I got in return was a hearty handshake and a big old smile,” Ross said. “He sets a great example for how pro wrestlers should conduct themselves. He just was an amazing locker room guy, teammate, and that’s why we saw that emotion a few minutes ago here tonight.”
Asked who the most underrated star of the last 10 years is, Ross said PAC belongs in that conversation because he had to overcome being under six feet tall.
“He didn’t get the flowers that he deserved at a variety of times in the profession. PAC was great in every territory. He was great with every company,” Ross said. “Everybody wanted to work with him, because he wasn’t going to hurt you. He was smart, he was careful, he was a pro, and I just loved the guy.”
Ross said PAC will be missed most by smaller wrestlers coming up behind him.
“He’s going to be missed by the generations of guys that are under six feet tall who want to become a pro wrestler, because he is your role model,” Ross said. “If you’re under six feet tall, by God, if you want it badly enough, you can make it, and that was his whole philosophy.”
Ross said if he ran a territory, he would do everything he could to hire PAC because of what he meant in the locker room. He also called PAC’s final match, against Andrade El Idolo at All Out, “excellent,” and said it was exactly what he expected from both men.
On Wednesday’s tribute show from Pittsburgh, Ross said AEW “did a phenomenal job,” and praised the Pittsburgh crowd, the video team and the commentary of Tony Schiavone and Excalibur. He said Ricochet’s tribute was “really good,” and pointed to Britt Baker tapping out in her hometown as the right way to do business.
Ross compared the night to the times he had to address the deaths of Owen Hart and Eddie Guerrero on the air, and said it never gets easier.
Ross and Thompson also watched PAC’s 30-minute Iron Man match with Kenny Omega from the February 2020 Dynamite in Kansas City during the episode. Ross called PAC “one of the best workers I’d ever seen.”
We wish Jim Ross a full recovery.
