Jim Ross on Being Let Go From WWE in 1994 For Doing Interview With Wrestling Journalist

– On the latest Grilling JR, Jim Ross recalled being let go from WWE twice in 1994, the second time after doing an interview with Wade Keller. Ross was fired in February of ’94 two weeks after suffering his first Bell’s Palsy attack, and did an interview with Wade Keller shortly after. He was brought back into the company later that year to fill in for McMahon, who was under indictment from the federal government in the infamous WWE steroid trial, but was let go shortly after Vince was acquitted for allegedly leaking inside information to journalists.

A few months after he returned to the company in 1996 he turned heel and began railing against McMahon. McMahon appeared on an episode of WWF Livewire and said that Ross was fired for ‘talking to the wrong people,’ with Michael Hayes saying it was ‘stupid sheet writers.’ Highlights from the discussion, and the full podcast, are below:

On being let go from WWE at the time: “Ah, let’s see. The first time I got fired in February on ’94. I’d been there a year, and I got let go. And he said to me, the entirety of our conversation was, ‘Jim, I’m changing my plans, I’m changing directions, and you’re not in them.’ And so that was it. So you know, that was something we’d had a little debate about. Lisa Wolf was in that meeting too, by the way, the wildebeest. And I said, ‘So what does that mean?’ And he said, ‘Well, you’ll get paid this week and you’re done.’ I said, ‘So that f**king contract I signed don’t mean nothin’ then, does it? I always heard, Vince, you’re a man of your word. I guess that’s another one of wrestling’s big f**king lies, huh?’ ‘Cause I thought I’d, for whatever reason I’d burnt my bridge with him. I’m done, I’m never coming back. So what do I got to lose? What’s he gonna do, beat me up in front of Lisa Wolf?

On talking with Wade Keller and being released the second time: “The second time when I was off. I was out of work, I was doing some work at WGST radio in Atlanta, doing some Falcon football, some things like that. And Wade Keller called me to see if I would do an interview for the Torch. And I’m home, I’ve got no work right now, so I thought I’d give it a shot. And there weren’t as many opportunities then as there are now for guys that aren’t on a regular roster or working for a regular company. So I said, ‘Sure.’ So I did that, and I did a few things. I’d do something where you’d ask me questions and I’d send you a little cassette tape back, crap like that. Just nickel and diming it. So I did an interview with him, I didn’t think it was that inflammatory, quite frankly. It was the obligatory questions that a newsletter writer would ask. It was pretty much the run of the mill, normal stuff. Fine, no issues. But that was used in the storyline, I guess. But I was sure, in my case a lot of those things were what they call a ribbon on a square. He was actually shooting with me, but it’s done in the context of being in show biz. So ostensibly, I could be bullshitting you or ribbing on the square. So that was the Wade Keller thing. It was mundane. I don’t know if anyone can even find it anymore. I’m sure it’s in Wade’s archives somewhere if you want to check it out, but I don’t think it was overwhelmingly firey or anything like that. I talked about normal stuff. In today’s world it would be a piece of cake, Conrad. Piece of cake, really would.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Grilling JR with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.