Jim Ross On Why He Didn't Want EVP Role In AEW, Suggesting Matches Have Time Limits
AEW has signed a lot of great talent despite only being a company for six months. One of major hires is WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross as senior adviser to the company. J.R. sat down on the The Steve Austin Show and discussed his role with the company.
"My official title is Senior Adviser," Ross stated. "My reason for being a senior adviser and not an EVP is The Young Bucks are EVP's, Cody is an EVP, Kenny Omega is an EVP, [they] sure as hell don't need my sad fat ass being one of them. I have already been an EVP, I'm good. I told Tony Khan just make me the senior adviser, and he liked that title. Later, he asked me why I wanted that title and I said, 'It's really simple, this is the wrestling business, the senior adviser gets to take credit for all the good stuff and disavow the stuff that sucks."
Ross has already used his legendary expertise to help AEW have a more sporty feel to its matches and events. J.R. revealed that one of the ideas he suggested was for the company to enforce time limits. That rule was used at last month's Fyter Fest event, when Cody Rhodes and Darby Allin battled to a time limit draw.
"One of my ideas was time limits," Ross said. "How do you have a sporting event, without some rules or regulations? There is a time limit even in the World Cup. These are strategic things the fans can buy into, if you are in the fourth quarter and down seven, you better try and score, because there aren't any more quarters. We saw Cody have a 20-minute time limit draw. I don't remember the last time I called a time limit draw."
AEW has promised to be an alternative to WWE. Ross noted one booking move that WWE employs often that he hopes AEW stays clear of.
"I hope we never get in a pattern of this," Ross mused. "Where Stone Cold gets the win, the heel assaults him and we say 'We gotta get his heat back.' Well, what did you do for Austin? 'he got the win.' Somewhere along the way, the logic has gotten completely muddled. We are not even talking logic here, that's absolutely ignorant to think to the crowd is processing the information the same as you are. Let the face get the win and get him the hell out of there. Let the heel cut a promo, throw a b—h fit, whatever. WWE does that a lot and I hope we don't."
In their first two events, AEW has shown the unique ability to feature a variety of different matches in one event. Ross feels that it is a big positive and credits the talent for it.
"You can't have blood in every match, every match has to have its identity," Ross admitted. "We are going to have some very versatile and different cats wrestling for us. They all have something that has brought them to the dance. If we are smart enough and they are smart enough and we all have this joint effort, we can raise everyone's game, we are going to be in great shape. The journey is what is fun for me. I'm jacked for this whole scenario"
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Steve Austin Show with an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.