Jim Ross On Ken Shamrock’s Top Guy Potential, Vince McMahon’s Perception Of Jeff Jarrett

On a recent episode of Grilling JR, Jim Ross discussed the WWF during December 1997 leading into the In Your House: DX pay per view. Some highlights are below.

On Ken Shamrock having the potential to be a top guy: “Oh, I always looked at Kenny as a top guy. He was hard to manage a little bit in the beginning. He wasn’t used to being on the road that many times that much. He was a great character to build around. I have a lot of respect for Kenny and tough guys we know God Almighty he had no problem navigating the locker room because nobody gage him any s***. He’s very underrated in my opinion in the pro wrestling world. I think we may have missed an opportunity with him no doubt. If Ken Shamrock had become the champion let’s say, I had no problem with that. Believable. His promos were believable because he didn’t memorize his lines. I’m a Ken Shamrock fan, was then and still am.”

On Bret Hart’s exit leading to new opportunities: “It created opportunity for a lot of guys. Some deserving, some were ready, some were not but this is the hand and remember who’s dealing the cards here. Mr. McMahon’s dealing the cards and what more can be said about that because that’s really the bottom line.. I’ve always believed in reshuffling the deck. I’ve said this many times. Wrestling fans love new and they love surprises and this is all seriously new.”

On if he was aware Steve Austin was upset with Jeff Jarrett’s promo:“I can tell you that I probably knew Steve better than anybody in the company and I still believe that to be true. I understood Steve’s mindset better than most because he shared his thoughts with me off the record more often than not. I knew that for whatever reason I think it may have just emanated in how Austin was booked in Memphis back in the day, I don’t know. I suspect that had a play in it. I think there’s latent things going on and I think there are things that are still going on in Steve’s mind replaying what happened back in the day when he was relegated to eating potatoes and making you know a couple hundred bucks a week. I think it goes back longer than Montreal and back longer than the promo that was done at least in my opinion. Nonetheless it was uncomfortable and Austin had no problem expressing himself. He had all the power. He’s a top guy. I don’t know if Jeff knew exactly what he was doing. He was taking a chance and that chance did not pay off for Jeff. Jeff didn’t get that big run with Austin if you noticed.”

On if Vince McMahon ever saw Jeff Jarrett as a World Champion: “I don’t think so. I think Jeff was a I use a baseball analogy sometimes. Jeff was, without sounding disrespectful to Jeff, he was a good middle infielder he was a good middle of the order hitter. But he was not in Vince’s eyes, in my opinion that’s all, Vince didn’t tell me this but the way Vince treated him and how Vince reacted to Austin’s discomfort told me that there’s nothing in the world Vince is going to do to upset Austin any more than he already was pissed off. It didn’t take a lot to piss off Austin. He had a way of doing thins and he had something he believed worked and he wasn’t going to let Jeff Jarrett or anybody else for that matter stand between him and his career and his greatness.”

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