# AEW needs to replace Jim Ross



## elidrakefan76 (Jul 23, 2018)

I understand that AEW has Tony Schiavone and Jim Ross as the main announcers in another attempt to get long-time fans to tune in but it was very obvious last night that Jim Ross is way past his prime and needs to go.

Tony Schiavone is past his prime, too, but at least he was ok and did a decent job. AEW really needs a new, younger main announcer, though.


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## rbl85 (Nov 21, 2017)

elidrakefan76 said:


> I understand that AEW has *Tony Schiavone and Jim Ross as the main announcers* in another attempt to get long-time fans to tune in but it was very obvious last night that Jim Ross is way past his prime and needs to go.
> 
> Tony Schiavone is past his prime, too, but at least he was ok and did a decent job. AEW really needs a new, younger main announcer, though.


Schiavone will not be at full gear


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## Cataclysm (Sep 8, 2019)

Jim Ross was not good. He didn't know his own roster for shit. Did not know the name of Pac's moves for instance which ended up making him sound foolish.


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## I AM Glacier (Sep 7, 2014)

HOW DARE YOU EVEN HINT AT REPLACING THE BLUE CHIPPER WHO PLAYED HIS COLLEGE BALL AT OKLAHOMA BY GOD


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## TAC41 (Jun 8, 2016)

For a company that’s trying to portray itself as young and fresh they certainly don’t reflect that in their champion and commentary team. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Alexander_G (Mar 10, 2018)

I thought JR did a good job last night, better than he had done in those ppvs. He just needs a proper guy to play off with, and Tony is that guy.

He doesn't do well next to these younger guys who don't have the particular style and authenticity he brings. And yes, he does tend to stammer and forget some things these days, but I cut him some slack. JR is tailor made for pro wrestling. He needs to be here, imo.


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## Boldgerg (Apr 2, 2017)

Wrong.


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## CM Buck (Sep 2, 2012)

Name one great young announcer in the business today


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## ellthom (May 2, 2011)

I love Jim Ross the man is a legend but yea... he hasn't been that great, Can we just not replace him, rather than just have a two man booth.... Why is 2 man commentary so abandoned these days I don't know.


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## Coyotex (Jun 28, 2011)

too bad nxt kept Mauro Ranallo, he would've been perfect for AEW
still boggles my mind Vince doesn't like his style, dude is easily the best commentator we've had in a LONG time


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## birthday_massacre (Jan 30, 2013)

TommyWCECM said:


> Name one great young announcer in the business today


Tom Phillips and Josh Matthews are two just off the top of my head. Graves is also great at color comentator.


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## The XL 2 (Sep 13, 2016)

Jim did a great job. I don't know what the fuck you people are watching. Let's just hope Tony and Cody don't listen to the morons on here.


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## DOTL (Jan 3, 2012)

I guess I'm so used to WWE's awful commentary I didn't realize JR was doing a bad job.


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## elidrakefan76 (Jul 23, 2018)

TommyWCECM said:


> Name one great young announcer in the business today


Corey Graves.


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## birthday_massacre (Jan 30, 2013)

The XL 2 said:


> Jim did a great job. I don't know what the fuck you people are watching. Let's just hope Tony and Cody don't listen to the morons on here.


He forgot wrestlers names and their move names. That is a terrible job.


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## DOTL (Jan 3, 2012)

elidrakefan76 said:


> Corey Graves.


Hope your assessment is base off of past endeavors, because he's current work stinks of McMahon.


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## Darkest Lariat (Jun 12, 2013)

A guy named elidrake fan has terrible taste.

Imagine that.
:austin3


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## TD Stinger (May 9, 2012)

Look I'm someone who's been very critical of him in recent years, but last night he was fine. And if he can just be fine, be great in certain moments, and do it consistently, he's obviously worth keeping around. And having Tony and Excalibur to carry him does wonders as well.


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## The XL 2 (Sep 13, 2016)

birthday_massacre said:


> He forgot wrestlers names and their move names. That is a terrible job.


Oh no, he doesn't know all the moves! Whatever will we do!? Jim was never a moves guy, not even in his prime. As the weeks go on, he'll get to know all the undercard wrestlers names. It's not that big of a deal.


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## CM Buck (Sep 2, 2012)

birthday_massacre said:


> Tom Phillips and Josh Matthews are two just off the top of my head. Graves is also great at color comentator.


One young announcer that AEW can get. Graves is locked down. Phillips I think is being groomed or something and I think joshy is locked down.

Any free agent young blood?


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## deadcool (May 4, 2006)

I think Cody or one of the EVPs should pull him aside and talk to him about the issues with his performance. Try to resolve the matter internally, and if he still continues to suck like he's been doing for the past few PPVs, then replace/remove/fire him.


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## Magicman38 (Jun 27, 2016)

I mentioned in another thread my thoughts on Tony so I won’t bring it up again. I’m ok with JR but yesterday when they brought up WCW and Nitro, etc I cringed. In my opinion they need to distance themselves away from WCW and present themselves as having nothing to do with it. Otherwise I believe some people will turn it on and see it as WCW 2.0 and that’s not a good thing considering how bad WCW was from 1999-2001. There’s already people saying it’s WCW 2.0. 

I still believe one of the small things that did Impact in was that people tuned in and saw Hogan and Bischoff and Sting and Tenay and Russo and said it’s WCW again.


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## zkorejo (Jul 2, 2010)

I thought he was fine. I liked the commentary.. but then again im used to shit WWE commentary so this seemed like a definite upgrade.


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## DOTL (Jan 3, 2012)

Magicman38 said:


> I mentioned in another thread my thoughts on Tony so I won’t bring it up again. I’m ok with JR but yesterday when they brought up WCW and Nitro, etc I cringed. In my opinion they need to distance themselves away from WCW and present themselves as having nothing to do with it. Otherwise I believe some people will turn it on and see it as WCW 2.0 and that’s not a good thing considering how bad WCW was from 1999-2001. There’s already people saying it’s WCW 2.0.
> 
> I still believe one of the small things that did Impact in was that people tuned in and saw Hogan and Bischoff and Sting and Tenay and Russo and said it’s WCW again.


I said this once, and I'll say it again. The only people who have a stick up their butt about WCW are people who got screwed by the company, WWE, who has a vested interest in making it look as bad as possible, old WWF marks who hated WCW, and new WWE marks who believe everything WWE tells them. 

The fans who actually watched the show, I was one of them, remember the good times, and that's mostly because they saw the good times and left during the sucky time.

WCW doesn't have a bad legacy. If it did, people wouldn't talk about it like it was the Ancient Rome of the wrestling world.


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## LifeInCattleClass (Dec 21, 2010)

JR did a better job than any of his prior AEW PPVs

Tony being out there helped him a ton and Excalibur is good too

Maybe two more years and then GoldenBoy or CVV can take the seat permanent


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## Chan Hung (Dec 28, 2011)

Jim was solid. Tony being there was awesome.


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## Chan Hung (Dec 28, 2011)

DOTL said:


> Magicman38 said:
> 
> 
> > I mentioned in another thread my thoughts on Tony so I won’t bring it up again. I’m ok with JR but yesterday when they brought up WCW and Nitro, etc I cringed. In my opinion they need to distance themselves away from WCW and present themselves as having nothing to do with it. Otherwise I believe some people will turn it on and see it as WCW 2.0 and that’s not a good thing considering how bad WCW was from 1999-2001. There’s already people saying it’s WCW 2.0.
> ...


Exactly it was a huge part of history and bringing it up is fair game.


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## Magicman38 (Jun 27, 2016)

Chan Hung said:


> Exactly it was a huge part of history and bringing it up is fair game.


I dare you to go back and watch a WCW Nitro or Thunder from 2000-2001 and see if you can make it through. WCW was fine until about 1999. After that it was the worst thing in the history of our great sport.


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## DOTL (Jan 3, 2012)

Chan Hung said:


> Exactly it was a huge part of history and bringing it up is fair game.


Right. Ignoring it would be like saying, "We're not going to acknowledge Rome because latter management was incompetent.


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## DOTL (Jan 3, 2012)

Magicman38 said:


> I dare you to go back and watch a WCW Nitro or Thunder from 2000-2001 and see if you can make it through. WCW was fine until about 1999. After that it was the worst thing in the history of our great sport.


Worse than early 90s WWF? Worse than Alexa Bliss's, "Bayley, This is Your Life" promo?

And even if it was, some of the best moments in the decade happened in WCW. 

No one talks about those, however.


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## V-Trigger (Jul 6, 2016)

TAC41 said:


> For a company that’s trying to portray itself as young and fresh they certainly don’t reflect that in their champion and commentary team.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


They never said such thing. Cody wants to do a mix of both things. He's clearly a fan of old school wrestling.


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## Bryan Jericho (Sep 8, 2014)

JR has been awful for years. They need to boot him upstairs into the office and let Tony & Excalibur be the announcers.


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## Magicman38 (Jun 27, 2016)

DOTL said:


> Worse than early 90s WWF? Worse than Alexa Bliss's, "Bayley, This is Your Life" promo?
> 
> And even if it was, some of the best moments in the decade happened in WCW.
> 
> No one talks about those, however.


Yes those were bad. However no wrestling promotion or tv program for that matter has ever been as bad as Russo’s WCW from 2000-2001. It was so bad they had to give it to Vince for basically nothing just to get rid of it. That’s how bad it was and that’s the most recent memory of it that many people have.


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## DOTL (Jan 3, 2012)

Magicman38 said:


> Yes those were bad. However no wrestling promotion or tv program for that matter has ever been as bad as Russo’s WCW from 2000-2001. It was so bad they had to give it to Vince for basically nothing just to get rid of it. That’s how bad it was and that’s the most recent memory of it that many people have.


It was more complicated than that. Your take is, once again, WWE's spin on it. Nitro's last episode performed better than its first and better than what WWE is doing today.


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## RubberbandGoat (Aug 9, 2016)

Omg how disrespectful! He’s a legend! Them together is awesome


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## Reggie Dunlop (Nov 2, 2015)

Nah — JR was better last night than any of the ppv’s, and I didn’t think he was all that bad in the ppv’s. Announcing overall I thought was better last night than previous shows. Not in your face, not over the top, but enough emotion to add to everything that was going on, exactly what announcers should be doing on a wrestling show. Perfect, not quite — but at no point did I have any desire to reach for the remote, which is usually about 30 seconds into any WWE show, including NXT.


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## Swan-San (May 25, 2019)

He was very good, people complaining are probably experiencing him for the first time. no idea what you're talking about. In no way was he anywhere near bad


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## KrysRaw1 (Jun 18, 2019)

Jim Ross is great.


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## Hephaesteus (Aug 20, 2018)

Why would they get rid of one of their biggest stars? From the way people talk they act like he drives people away as opposed to getting eyes on the project.


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## The XL 2 (Sep 13, 2016)

Jim is doing what needs to be done. What AEW doesn't need is some silly goof like Mauro busting a nut after every high spot


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## RKing85 (Mar 22, 2010)

Compared to a lot of his commentary performances over the last 3 years, I thought JR was just fine last night.


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## toontownman (Jan 25, 2009)

Replace Jim Ross, Replace Mauro Ranello... some people just deserve Byron Saxton. 

I do agree that JR is past his best. I didn't find him that bad, certainly not in terms of Mae Young Classic cringe. I agree with the sentiment of making it fresh but JR and Tony are safe hands and recognizable to neutrals and non-die hards that will watch it regardless. They will steady the ship for the changes to come later.


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## Mr.Amazing5441 (Jun 20, 2015)

Coyotex said:


> too bad nxt kept Mauro Ranallo, he would've been perfect for AEW
> still boggles my mind Vince doesn't like his style, dude is easily the best commentator we've had in a LONG time


Cuz he is not as boring, robotic, corny and corporate as Michael Cole.


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## elidrakefan76 (Jul 23, 2018)

I think the question now if Ross ends up staying long term is how many times is he gonna say that Jake Hager was an All-American at the University of Oklahoma?


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## CRCC (Sep 25, 2017)

I don't understand how people pay that much attention to the announcers. They're background noise to me most of the time.


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## Jupiter Jack Daniels (Jul 18, 2011)

While he's clearly been on the decline for some time, JR still has value.


I'd like to think his call of Cody-Dustin is evidence of that, as he added to the match, IMO.


Plus, the familiarity of his voice just might attract fans that previously tuned out. There was a period of about 25 years where, if you were fan of televised wrestling in America, you heard his voice. Hearing that voice now could be welcoming. As long as he isn't the lead announcer (I haven't got the impression he is), he still has some usage.


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## cai1981 (Oct 2, 2016)

elidrakefan76 said:


> I understand that AEW has Tony Schiavone and Jim Ross as the main announcers in another attempt to get long-time fans to tune in but it was very obvious last night that Jim Ross is way past his prime and needs to go.
> 
> Tony Schiavone is past his prime, too, but at least he was ok and did a decent job. AEW really needs a new, younger main announcer, though.


I agree with you about JR, but I understand they want some familiar and beloved faces to draw people in. IMO, JR's play by play days are done as he seems to be a step or 2 behind and may even be outright disinterested. Tony was good, but needs to let the WCW Nostalgia go. Excalibur I can do without!

IMO, the booth should be Tony as the play by play guy as he can keep pace and JR should be the analyst. At the same time, find some young broadcasting talent to groom to step up. There has to be some younger talent out there that McMahon does not have his hands on!


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## GrapplingAddict (Dec 12, 2011)

TommyWCECM said:


> Name one great young announcer in the business today


Corey Graves. I'm an unashamed fanboy of his. Dude is awesome.

Granted, he's the only example of a good young commentator I can suggest.


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## looper007 (Dec 20, 2014)

I thought he put in one of his best performances in years last night on Dynamite. He seems more comfortable with Schiavone there, and Excalibur, JR and Schiavone three man team was perfect. 

Ross is someone to me that AEW should work with up to his contract expires, maybe train someone else in for his position (Goldenboy for example) and then slowly faze himself into a backstage position maybe. His best days are behind hi, but he could do a job for them still until AEW finds it's feet on TV and PPV.


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## Geeee (Aug 9, 2010)

birthday_massacre said:


> He forgot wrestlers names and their move names. That is a terrible job.


Excalibur called a fallaway slam a blockbuster
JR called a fallaway slam a fallaway slam

JR 1 Excalibur 0


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## TheGreatBanana (Jul 7, 2012)

JR and Tony are two major voices of pro wrestling like Gordon Solie, it’s far more easier to watch a match when you have a familiar voice than a fresh one. I’ve watched countless of Indy matches and it’s very hard to get invested into their product because the commentary is so piss poor. Most of the newer generation of announcers just aren’t good. Guys like JR and Tony understand the psychology of wrestling and you need them to mentor the newer announcers.


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## InexorableJourney (Sep 10, 2016)

JR really takes me out of it. He usually blathers on and on about something not at all relevant to the match that's happening.

Shut up JR, just call the match!


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## The Raw Smackdown (Jan 8, 2017)

TommyWCECM said:


> Name one great young announcer in the business today


Vic Joseph and Corey Graves.

Also Nigel Mcguinness and Josh Matthews

Matt Stryker too.


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## Mox Girl (Sep 29, 2014)

All of these people in here naming Corey Graves as a good commentator :tripsscust

I thought JR did fine tbh, I don't really understand the people complaining about him. Yeah, he's not in his prime anymore but people out here acting like he's at Renee Young levels of bad or something lol.


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## CM Buck (Sep 2, 2012)

The Raw Smackdown said:


> Vic Joseph and Corey Graves.
> 
> Also Nigel Mcguinness and Josh Matthews
> 
> Matt Stryker too.


Stryker is the only one they can feasibly chase


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## MarkOfAllMarks (Apr 7, 2018)

It's a new company new talent he is not familiar with yet. The thing is when JR get's excited and passionate he is the greatest commentator of all time. He's just kinda old and doesn't have that fire in him as much as he used to.


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## CenaBoy4Life (Jul 31, 2013)

Tony and JR is like bread and butter . Jr just needed to be around someone he knew and was comfortable with. He was great. Replacing him would be a huge fucking mistake right now. There is no one better or more known to take his spot.


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## the_flock (Nov 23, 2016)

Magicman38 said:


> Chan Hung said:
> 
> 
> > Exactly it was a huge part of history and bringing it up is fair game.
> ...


2001 was very good in WCW, if it was named ECW, people would be praising it now. Sin for example gets rave reviews as a solid PPV. The Cruiserweight division and Cruiserweight tag division were excellent. There was a lot of Younger guys ready to step up. 

The problem was with all the chopping and changing in management/booking over the course of a year, from Russo to Sullivan to Nash and Flair to Bischoff and Russo to John Laurinaitis. With Eric telling everyone for about 6 months that he's buying the company. There wasn't a moment of solidity. Bischoff wanted to close WCW down in February and just tour house shows until he got a TV deal sorted, but wasn't allowed to. He took all the major guys off air as he wanted them to come back fresh a couple of months later, but again wasn't allowed to. 

If they had managed to stay open for another year, I think people would look back at WCW differently.

Even WWE had its bad moments, if they shut down in 2001,people would say it was shite. WWE in 99 was beyond terrible, the first half of 2000 was excellent, the latter half was shite, first quarter of 2001 amazing, the rest of 2001 terrible.


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## The Raw Smackdown (Jan 8, 2017)

TommyWCECM said:


> Stryker is the only one they can feasibly chase


True. I was low-key hoping that AEW would scoop him up but alas it wasn't meant to be.


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## CM Buck (Sep 2, 2012)

The Raw Smackdown said:


> True. I was low-key hoping that AEW would scoop him up but alas it wasn't meant to be.


Hell I'd be down for stu Bennett or Eddie Kingston since both are pretty much retired


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## LethalWeapon (Oct 13, 2018)

What about Joey Styles or Matt Striker? What are they up to these days?


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## The Raw Smackdown (Jan 8, 2017)

TommyWCECM said:


> Hell I'd be down for stu Bennett or Eddie Kingston since both are pretty much retired


Hell yeah @ Bennett. IDK who Eddie Kingston is tho.


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## CM Buck (Sep 2, 2012)

The Raw Smackdown said:


> Hell yeah @ Bennett. IDK who Eddie Kingston is tho.


YouTube Eddie Kingston promos you will not be disappointed


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## michael_3165 (Apr 16, 2016)

Totally agree with the OP. JR is outdated and over the hill. He was a brilliant announcer in the WWE but he either lacks investment in the AEW product or he simply forgets. Either way its not good. I like Tony and don't mind his style. He always sounds interested and enthusiastic and that's cool with me. 

I would stick Ian Riccaboni (sp?) in the broadcast team for sure. Been a huge fan of his work. I would also try to get Gino Gambino in too, he reminds me of a slightly NZ/Aus version of Jesse Ventura verbally.


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## fulcizombie (Jul 17, 2011)

I will take Jim Ross over whatever the hell the wwe is doing with Raw’s commentary team.


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## KennyOmegaa (Sep 25, 2019)

JR hasn't been great but he has gradually improved. He was much better on Dynamite than All Out, where he was actively shitting on the product and burying guys. 


I think Tony is a perfect fit for him to bounce off of. I'm hopeful he'll continue to get better as he gets more acclimated to a product that's new to him. But, really he's only there for the lapsed fan who are used to his voice


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## The Raw Smackdown (Jan 8, 2017)

TommyWCECM said:


> YouTube Eddie Kingston promos you will not be disappointed


I just looked him up and wow..I sure wasn't dissapointed. Him for Commentary please.


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## Lesnar Turtle (Dec 6, 2011)

I LOVED having Tony and JR together. You can guarantee 90% of the people tuning in to Dynamite are not nitpicking JRs commentary, they're thinking "holy shit thats JR from back in the day". It gives the show some legitimacy and nostalgia value.

I actually find Excalibur the weak link of that team tbh. He is amateurish and gets visible stage fright when the camera is on him.


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## Draykorinee (Aug 4, 2015)

I had no problem at all with the commentary, it was about 10x better than WWE. Jr can stay.


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## cease2exist (Apr 16, 2014)

Alexander_G said:


> I thought JR did a good job last night, better than he had done in those ppvs. He just needs a proper guy to play off with, and Tony is that guy.
> 
> He doesn't do well next to these younger guys who don't have the particular style and authenticity he brings. And yes, he does tend to stammer and forget some things these days, but I cut him some slack. JR is tailor made for pro wrestling. He needs to be here, imo.


Agreed, also continuity has to come into play. You're talking about a guy who was with the same company for 20 years and now at 67 years old (which idk about his health but that's really not that old) he joining a brand new promotion, give him some time to get used to the brand and the roster. Yeah, someone my age could probably go in and work harder and learn more about the product, but nobody is going to bring to the table what Jim Ross does and his commentary is fun to listen to. Who cares if he gets a few moves wrong or forgets some things here and there. And plus he helps bring the product legitimacy. Your average viewer which at this stage probably includes me isn't going to notice little things they're just going to think it's freakin awesome that Jim Ross is commentating the show.


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## lesenfanteribles (Nov 23, 2004)

Matt Striker, Joey Styles, Eddie Kingston.
Didn't Vampiro do some announcing too? 

I honestly think that Jim Ross can still do it even at his age. It would take awhile for him to even mention those moves as well and even if he didn't I could give him a pass for it.


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## the44boz (Apr 29, 2014)

TAC41 said:


> For a company that’s trying to portray itself as young and fresh they certainly don’t reflect that in their champion and commentary team.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


You didn't figure it out when 61 year old Arn Anderson and his gut did a special guest spine buster at their last show.


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## NXT Only (Apr 3, 2016)

JR was on his A game during the end of the main event. Give him some time to get back into his groove. Tony, Ex and JR will be great once they figure it all out. Can’t just rush to make a change for no reason.


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## Crazy Jim Films (Dec 22, 2014)

the_flock said:


> 2001 was very good in WCW, if it was named ECW, people would be praising it now.


Very good it was not. The last couple years were awful. ECW was not much better either but they were also dealing with substantially larger financial issues and internal problems. 



the_flock said:


> The Cruiserweight division and Cruiserweight tag division were excellent. There was a lot of Younger guys ready to step up.


Fast-paced light heavyweights who are willing to work is such a small portion of the overall picture of what that company needed to get back on its feet. 



LethalWeapon said:


> What about Joey Styles or Matt Striker? What are they up to these days?


 Styles has often stated he has no interest in broadcasting and ideally would have liked to retire from it after calling the first One Night Stand in 2005.


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## Mox Girl (Sep 29, 2014)

Good lord, I see people mention Matt Striker. I really hope he doesn't get anywhere near AEW (is he even still commentating/wrestling?), he was so bloody annoying during his Smackdown stint, I couldn't stand listening to him lol.

Why are so many damned commentators so awfully bad?


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## RBrooks (Oct 18, 2013)

I thought JR did fine :shrug


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## poldoh (Oct 5, 2019)

I thought this was JR's best show out of all them. Him, Excalibur, and Tony are great together.


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## cai1981 (Oct 2, 2016)

All these Matt Striker requests: KEEP HIM AWAY!!! You thought Renee Young was bad with her ooooh's and ahhhhh's....watch Wrestlemania 26 or anything he did and besides the rambling, all you here is OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH!!!!! after every big move.


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## Dave Santos (Sep 27, 2016)

The most viewed video clip on Youtube of the show of Jake Hager in Aew all had the top comments praising JR. Pretty much people praising him for making that segment seem big and that they would have to check out and watch AEW.


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## The Wood (Nov 7, 2003)

JR is excellent


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## The XL 2 (Sep 13, 2016)

You people just want someone who knows the names of all of these silly moves and jizzes themselves over every high spot. What do you think that will accomplish for AEW? They're not trying to be ROH.


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## Intimidator3 (Sep 28, 2019)

I thought JR did fine. I like him and Tony together. Tony seems to be a lot more refined now or something. And I got a good laugh when Jericho shoved him and grabbed the mic after beating down Cody.

Excalibur is still growing on me. He wasn't bad by any means but you can tell he's still green. Overall I thought he did good.


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## cease2exist (Apr 16, 2014)

Excalibur doesn't bother me as a commentary but I think it takes away some legitimacy bc he has little to no relevance to the casual wrestling fan and I think if you're going to go by your ring name and wear a mask as a commentator figure it would make more sense to me if he was more well known. If it was Rey Mysterio, wearing the mask and going by his ring name would make sense.


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