Jim Ross On If AEW Talent Will Listen To Him, If People In AEW Are Nervous After The Folding Of AAF

When Jim Ross signed with AEW, his exact role with the company wasn't really specified. It was announced that he would be part of the commentary team, but his official role was only titled as a "senior advisor" to the company.

Well, Ross has revealed exactly what he'll be doing with the fledgling promotion as he joined Busted Open Radio to talk about AEW's expectations for him and vice versa.

"They're going to squeeze all the juice out of the fruit that they can. They are going to use me in every way possible as far as doing things to organize and getting their infrastructure together with all the VPs that they have," stated Ross. "I wast joking with Cody Rhodes about how many Vice Presidents they have, like four, five, eight? I could have been a Vice President; I didn't want to be a Vice President. I don't care about that. So, I said I would be Senior Advisor and help as many people as I can. I think that Tony Khan is depending on me to help him in a lot of things that are new to him. He is a bright son of a gun. The kid is pretty smart, but new experiences you need a GPS or else they are going to BS you."

Jim Ross is now 67 years old and more than twice as old as many of the people he'll be working with. Some think that Ross might be out of touch with today's generation and he responded to the notion that AEW talent might not be willing to listen to him.

"They might not. I'm not saying if they are. I can prove my point to be right. I can help them improve their matches psychologically, if they want to incorporate selling at some point in their life, and staying from the eye rolling bull s**t. I know that there is a lot of charismatic guys who have their comedy bits, but don't have comedy from bell to bell," said Ross.

Many have said that AEW will be run more like a sports franchise than sports entertainment due to the Khans also owning a couple of pro teams. Ross said that he would like to incorporate the legitimacy of sporting events into the structure of AEW matches and programming.

"I don't even want them to interrupt the matches to go to commercial break," revealed Ross. "If it was a legitimate sporting event, and it's the bottom of the 2nd and the Yankees are batting it's like, oh, we'll be right back with a commercial break. What? Here comes Mickey Mantle but we'll be right back. Nobody would do that. Same with not having time limits. How can you have a sporting event without time limits? Are you kidding?"

Some have made the comparison of AEW to the AAF in that both are upstart companies trying to enter a market with a clear top dog. Thus, the AAF folding recently can't be a good sign for AEW and Ross weighed in on if people within AEW are nervous about the AAF's demise.

"Maintaining is not a surprise. With every promotion, after having a big run or whatever, maintaining is key. That was always one of the big points of discussion in my WWE days which is how can we come out of WrestleMania with momentum and where is that momentum coming from? What ideas do we have here with momentum that is tangible for people to want to come out and see? You have to maintain momentum, and the only way to do that is to have a good product," said Ross.

"I didn't watch any of the AAF football games and I love football. It just didn't pop up on my screen, but no, I am not worried about anything. The Khan family is not undercapitalized. I think Mr. Khan is worth around $8.4 billion. As long as they keep making car bumpers and own the Jaguars and own the soccer team in the UK, I'm not worried about it.

"The thing is you have to worry to some degree; you have to be curious, which is the better word to use. If they don't have great success in an "X" amount of months it's a failed experience, we are going to cash in, cut our losses and get out? I don't know that. I don't think it is going to happen. As we discussed with Tony Khan already it is not an overnight thing. You are looking at a couple of years to get your bearings, to go through some talents, take care of your roster. Who are you going to get to coach? I would rather not have any producers and writers, but instead just have coaches. I need mentors to coach these guys up and help them have better matches in a safe, logical environment."

You can watch the full interview in the video above. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Busted Open Radio with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Peter Bahi contributed to this article.