Jim Ross open to WWE cameos, but relishing Battlegrounds MMA debut

Back when the only thing you needed to watch TV was actually owning a television, a young Jim Ross looked forward to "Friday Night Fights" on NBC and later ABC, sponsored by Gillette Super Blue Blades and featuring the commentary of Don Dunphy.

“I love combat sports,” Ross says with a passion that may help explain why he stopped going to production meetings during his WWE Hall of Fame announcing career. The idea was to know less and react more.

But the more casual fan may not know that those moments behind the mic were as much therapy as strategy, a respite from his dual role as WWE’s vice president of talent relations during the famed “Monday Night War” against now-defunct rival WCW.

Now Ross, 62, is off the “treadmill,” a nondisparaging but honest description of calling wrestling 51 weeks a year. It’s time to have some fun and cross some items off the bucket list, and Ross admits a big one is getting axed out Friday night when he makes his mixed martial arts announcing debut at the Battlegrounds MMA PPV, a one-night, eight-man welterweight tournament that will pay $50,000 to the winner.

It’s high on my list,” Ross said of calling MMA. “Something I wanted to do while I was still motivated to do it.”

Everything aligned to make this a special night for Ross. While the cowboy hat-wearing Ross is often remembered for donning a toga to make his WWE on-air debut at WrestleMania IX in 1993, he is quick to add that his second WWE PPV came at King of the Ring, featuring a similar tournament structure as Battlegrounds. The card is talking place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where his wrestling career started under grappler/promoter and fellow hall-of-famer “Cowboy” Bill Watts.

Most importantly, as Ross puts it, he gets to play “point guard” for his broadcast colleague, veteran MMA competitor and commentator Chael Sonnen.   

SEE PHOTOSHistory of WWE

Ross had sent Sonnen the occasional text during his fighting career after getting his contact information from longtime WWE employee and former wrestler Jerry Brisco. That was the extent of Ross’ and Sonnen’s relationship, but nonetheless Sonnen’s commentary kept Ross curious.

“I felt like watching him work on Fox, and Chael’s work on UFC, that I could work with him,” Ross said. “He was always entertaining, always informative, I felt he had excellent timing, so I felt I could have a blast working with this guy.”

So when the Battlegrounds contingent got in touch with Ross to work out a deal, he offered up Sonnen as a possible color commentator option.

“I kind of stuck my foot out in the water,” Ross explains of trying something new. “Let’s make sure before we do this we have a life preserver.”

Ross understands the importance of a strong partnership, adding that during WWE’s Monday night battles and the “Attitude Era” he was lucky to to have “two partners that were better than I was in Jerry Lawler and Paul Heyman.” He’s looking forward to creating his own chemistry with Sonnen, similar to the time Vince McMahon became “Mr. McMahon” and spent a lot of time on-air instead of producing segments over a headset in the back.

“He was so busy being an omnipresent role in that soap opera, we weren’t produced as heavily as subsequently, when he was back to being the full-time chairman,” Ross said. “All those things really gave us the freedom to express ourselves.”

Ross is enjoying the freedom these days of being “an independent businessman” and experiencing new things after a 20-year run with WWE. He's written for FoxSports.com, hosts a weekly podcast, “The Ross Report” and called a boxing card earlier this year for Fox Sports 1. He found the Sweet Science to be easier to call than wrestling, in part because “everybody’s going to be vertical until they get knocked down.”  

But his final stanza may not have been written with WWE. He said he’d love to participate if any new “Legends of Wrestling” roundtable discussions are produced. Those programs were a staple of the old WWE On Demand service and are now available on WWE Network.

Ross said he has no idea if more will be produced, but he always appreciated the “coarseness in a good way” of getting grappling’s best in a room to debate everything from worst characters to most important moments.    

“I would have no issue if WWE wanted to use me on a freelance basis to appear on a roundtable,” Ross said. "That ball's certainly in their court.”

While roundtables are a good place for Ross to get his two cents in, when events like Friday night's come around, the last thing he wants to be is the focus.

“The fighters are going to make their own music,” Ross said. “The fight is going to be good, or not going to be good ... Our job is to provide the proper lyric to that music, and that’s a challenge. So I think the tournament kind of fits my background.”