With the long-running legal matter involving Vince McMahon moving out of the courts, Jim Ross does not believe the former WWE chairman is going to fade into retirement.
Janel Grant’s lawsuit against McMahon and WWE is heading to private arbitration. Attorneys for all parties filed a joint status report in Connecticut this week confirming an agreement to arbitrate, with the suit set to be dismissed with prejudice within five business days. The claims and defenses will still be pursued privately rather than in open court. Grant filed the suit in January 2024.
Asked on Grilling JR what he expects McMahon to do next, Ross said stepping away is not in his nature.
“He ain’t out of the game. Vince isn’t out of the game. That’s just not his makeup,” Ross said. “What he’s going to do? One would assume he’ll have maybe some things to do with wrestling, because that’s where he made his way. So I don’t know, man. The world’s open to him. It seems like a lot of things interest him. He likes wrestling, and I think that’s where I’d see him headed.”
Ross quickly shot down the idea of McMahon turning up in AEW, and said the door would be closed from the other side too.
“Unlikely. Unlikely,” Ross said. “He’s going to steer his own ship, build his own boat, and take it from there. Off top of my head, I’d say probably not, and I don’t see Tony Khan wanting to do business with him either.”
Asked whether that means McMahon might buy a promotion outright, Ross did not rule it out.
“It’s possible. It’s possible. Yeah, of course, it’s possible. Money won’t be an object,” Ross said. “He’s got the cash to do whatever the hell he wants. At least that’s what I think.”
Wherever he lands, Ross expects it to be somewhere close to the business he came up in.
“I can’t see him migrating too far from the barn where all the animals are,” Ross said. “That would be my guess. That’s all it is, is a guess, that he’s going to be doing something that allows him to display his product knowledge, and God Almighty, he’s got plenty of product knowledge. He should be fine.”
McMahon resigned from all positions with WWE and TKO in January 2024, days after the lawsuit was filed. He has not been publicly involved in the wrestling business since.
