Jim Ross is preparing for brain surgery. The WWE Hall of Famer and AEW broadcaster shared the news on Grilling JR, his first episode since returning home from a hospital stay of nearly 40 days.
“I’m just battling, I’m battling. I’m getting ready to have another surgery, brain surgery this time, and that’s going to be an adventure, because I don’t think they’re going to find much, oh God, my brain,” Ross said with his trademark humor.
Ross, 74, went into detail on the procedure and what led to it. “I’ll be in the hospital for two days. Hopefully nothing will go wrong. I got a great surgeon, and I went to a cardiologist today, heart doctor, obviously, and talked to about this upcoming procedure. He had to approve it, or they wouldn’t do it, so he did, and they’re going to do it soon. I just don’t have a confirmed date set, but it’s going to be the next week or so, I’m pushing for it. Hey, look, I gotta get it addressed. I couldn’t live my life the way it was, you know. I forget sh– and just couldn’t remember things. It’s just horrible. I felt horrible, but that all started with me passing out in my house and being discovered there, and we began an almost 40-day hospital stay.”
The procedure is a shunt. “It’ll go from my brain, I don’t know where else it’ll go, but it’s going someplace to get that fluid off my brain that’s making me not remember stuff,” Ross explained.
Ross added, “It’s fairly serious. I always thought that anytime they open your skull up, that is a serious piece of business, and this certainly feels that way. So I’ll get it done, and the short hospital stay, and limp back home, and heal up. So that’s my options. That’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to heal up.”
Ross continued, “I got to do this procedure. It’s not optional if I want to get better, and I want to get better for sure. It’s all new territory for me, you know. I’ve had bad backs and knees and elbows and joints, but man, this is a whole new ball game, and it’s a little scary to be honest with you.”
Ross said he is improving daily but cannot drive yet and has cut back on appearances, with one major appearance planned in Minneapolis in the coming weeks. His daughter is helping oversee his care. Ross was discharged from the hospital in Norman, Oklahoma on June 30 after previously beating colon cancer in 2025.
Everyone at Wrestling News Co. wishes Jim Ross a successful procedure and a full recovery. Click below to listen to the podcast on Spotify.
