Jim Ross Responds To Bret Hart’s Saying Bookers Need To Have An In-Ring Background

On the latest episode of Grilling JR, Jim Ross was asked about recent comments from Bret Hart toward Bruce Prichard. Hart told Inside The Ropes that WWE’s problems stem from people telling wrestlers how to work when they don’t know how to wrestle themselves, naming Bruce Prichard specifically. Ross weighed in on Prichard taking the criticism and on the broader idea that a booker needs an in-ring background. You can check out his comments below:

On Bruce Prichard Taking Criticism:

“Good for him. First time Bruce has been criticized, Conrad? He’s in a role where he will always be subjective and potentially nailed to the cross because of who he reports to and what he’s doing. So nothing new; it ain’t gonna end. I didn’t read the quote that Bret did, but that’s Bret.

“I guarantee one thing, Conrad, Bret believes what he said. He believes the issue that he identified and his description of it, he believes it in his heart. Now whether he’s right or wrong is up to somebody else hearing the message and agreeing or not. But he believes it.”

On Whether You Gave to Have Been a Wrestler To Book:

“No, absolutely not. Not even close. That’s not even a close assumption. Sam Muchnick did pretty good in St. Louis, and I don’t remember Sammy ever putting on the tights. If you understand the genre, and one has product knowledge, you can damn sure be a booker. I’ve booked some pretty successful cards and made some fellows a lot of money, helped facilitate them making the money, and I never wrestled. And in some of those skits that we did, I don’t call it wrestling. I was embarrassed to do them. I still am embarrassed to think back on some of the days where I got booked into an angle, not being in shape, not being trained. The JR announcer character’s popularity was the only thing that made it work.

“I’m honest, it wasn’t my skills, for God’s sake. So no. Once the booker — who may not be a wrestler like Tony Khan, just using him as an example — then the torch needs to go to the wrestling people to lay out the match that you envision in your mind when you created the storyline. I think that’s where having been a former wrestler really is all the money. It’s not creating the idea originally; it’s refining the idea that you’ve been charged to do. So no, that’s bulls**t. But I understand what Bret is saying. This is my opinion, what you and I are talking about, Connie. I don’t think you have to be a wrestler to book whatsoever.”

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