Jim Ross says All In: London is the best show AEW has produced in the company’s history, and he texted Tony Khan to tell him so.
Ross watched from home in Oklahoma after his doctors advised against flying, and gave his verdict on Grilling JR.
“I thought All In was the very best pay-per-view or television broadcast that AEW has presented since they were formed,” he said. “I love that show, and I am an old-school grouchy fart, get off my lawn guy. I want to see a hold every now and then, so I’m not a high-flyer exclusive proponent. However, I never got tired of anything I was seeing, and I thought it was just a phenomenal show.”
He said he sent his reaction to Khan directly. “I congratulated Tony Khan, and he was in London when I texted him. We exchanged text messages after the show, and he appreciated my feedback,” Ross said.
Ross watched it on his phone, with the closed captions on. He said the captioning was useful and that some of the names came out oddly.
What stood out most to him was the presentation around the matches.
“The quality of the vignettes leading into a match, and the entrances, I thought was as good as I’ve seen from anybody anywhere anytime,” Ross said. The only thing he could compare it to was a WWE show in Los Angeles where the vignettes were built on Hollywood movies, and he said the London package was better.
He named two criticisms and framed them as reaches.
“It might have been a little too long. It was over four hours long, as I understand. That’s a long time. Old man’s got to go pee,” Ross said. “And the high-flying stuff never let up, so I never got to catch my breath.”
He addressed the obvious objection to his own review before it was put to him.
“People say, JR works for AEW, what do you think he’s going to say?” Ross said. “You don’t hear me bitching about AEW very often. I try to find positive things to talk about.”
He singled out the announce team, and Excalibur in particular, for holding together a four-hour outdoor broadcast with three or four commentators at the desk for most of it.
“As the play-by-play guy and the lead, you’ve got to keep the rudder in the water. You’ve got to stay in your lane and get these guys to stay in their lane and coordinate it,” Ross said. “I thought all those guys were unselfish. They seemed to be passionate. Excalibur gets from me special recognition, because you didn’t find yourself listening to two guys talk at the same time very often. It just worked.”
On the women’s championship match between Mercedes Mone and Willow Nightingale, Ross said the blood helped the drama but the work stood on its own.
“They were laying their stuff in. They’re serious about their profession and having a great performance, and I’m proud of both those ladies,” he said. “Tony Khan has done a great job of evolving his women’s participation in AEW television shows. He’s done a good job developing that side of the roster.”
Ross said there was no match on the card he would file as merely okay, and drew a wider lesson for talent from it.
“Talents have got to realise, like they obviously did in London, that when you get the opportunity to go on pay-per-view and do things that you don’t normally do, sequencing to the finish, false finishes, that’s the time to try your new stuff,” he said. “Wrestling fans like new, and they like surprises.”
The verdict puts him at odds with two men he has known for decades, both of whom went public in the same week.
Eric Bischoff said on 83 Weeks that the AEW World Championship match between Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega had no structure, that the referee might as well not have been there, and that watching it was like watching a Nasty Boys match. Ross was asked about that and started with the man rather than the argument.
“I like Eric. We didn’t always get along, but we have for the last several years,” Ross said. “And I admire his work ethic, because he’s a hardworking son of a gun.”
Then he took the other side of it.
“I would choose at this point in this conversation to say I think that he’s wrong,” Ross said.
He said the comparison itself is where it falls down.
“If you want to compare it to something else, another match, but not the Nasty Boys. I just don’t feel it,” he said. “But I respect his opinion. Glad he gave one. I’m glad he watched the show.”
Ric Flair posted after the show that comparing Ospreay and Omega to himself and Ricky Steamboat was like comparing the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, and told them to get back to him when they had worked 300 great matches a year and 200 hour-long Broadways. Ross did not think that landed either.
“I didn’t think it was. I thought it was unnecessary,” Ross said. “I respect his opinion. That doesn’t mean I have to agree with it.”
He drew a firm line around Flair and Steamboat themselves.
“No one will ever make me say negative things about him or Ricky Steamboat. They were perfect for each other. Great booking,” Ross said.
But he questioned the number Flair built the post around.
“The fact they went an hour Broadway 200 times is troubling, because you mean you couldn’t figure out a finish?” he said. “I don’t mind a Broadway, but it’s not something I relish.”
Ross came back to the same position at the end of the answer.
“I didn’t agree with Ric’s tweet, but I respect his opinion. I appreciate the fact that he expressed an opinion on Ospreay and Kenny, which leads me to believe, I don’t know about you, Conrad, that maybe Ric watched the show,” he said.
Ospreay beat Omega in 34 minutes at Wembley Stadium on August 30 to win the AEW World Championship. Ross called the two great workers of any generation.
Bischoff worked as an executive in AEW between 2019 and 2020 and hosts 83 Weeks with Conrad Thompson, who also hosts Grilling JR. The 37 years in Flair’s post refers to his 1989 trilogy with Steamboat across Chi-Town Rumble, Clash of the Champions VI and WrestleWar. Ross has commentated for AEW since the company launched in 2019 and missed All In on medical advice following brain surgery on August 12.
