Jim Ross has revealed his AEW contract is set to expire in August, telling Grilling JR listeners that he has discussed his status with his agent and is letting the situation play out, while acknowledging he does not know whether Tony Khan wants to keep him.
The topic came up when Ross was asked whether he wished he were more involved in the day-to-day operations of AEW than his current broadcast role allows. Ross has been part of the AEW broadcast team since the company’s 2019 launch.
“I’m pretty content, Conrad. To be honest with you, would I accept more responsibility and do more work? Of course, if asked to perform in that world, I’m happy to do it. You know, Tony Khan’s been really good to me. I see it written about online time to time, you know, Ross must have a hell of a deal, and all that, and I do have a hell of a deal. I’ve got, I’m in a good spot.”
He then talked about the contract timeline directly.
“But I don’t have a lot more time left on my contract. I talked to Barry Bloom, my agent, he was in New York, and we chatted about my status, and I’m just gonna let it play out. I don’t know when Tony Khan wants to keep me, well, if he doesn’t, then he won’t. I sounded off flippant, I guess, but God damn, Conrad, I’ve been doing this 50 years, long time, and I enjoyed virtually every minute of it, so I’ll keep everybody posted whenever my deal is up, I think sometime in August, I believe that’s true, that’s how focused I am on my contract. I just passed the worrying about it stage.”
Ross discussed his broader read on AEW’s current operational state positively.
“I hope I stay with them, and I enjoy the hell out of Tony Khan, and he’s got a good staff. He’s got some good people around him now too. On the wrestling side, I think he’s got his strongest. I believe that presently AEW has their strongest support staff assembled as we’ve ever had, maybe the very beginning when there’s a lot of smart people involved, but I think it’ll be a long time.”
Ross also revealed he is taking a break from writing books, with his focus shifting given his changing schedule.
“I’m gonna take a little break in it. After this summer, I’m not sure what my future holds, you know, with AEW. I think it’ll be a long time for writing another book.”
If you use quotes from this article, please credit Grilling JR and include a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
