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Jim Ross On Car Stunt In Triple H vs. Steve Austin Match At Survivor Series 2000, Why He’s Not A Fan Of Stunts In Wrestling

November 23, 2020 | Posted by Blake Lovell
Survivor Series 2000

In a recent edition of Grilling JR, Jim Ross discussed the car stunt in the Triple H vs. Steve Austin match at Survivor Series 2000, why he’s not a big fan of stunts in wrestling, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Jim Ross on the Triple H vs. Steve Austin match at Survivor Series 2000: “I thought it had too much non-traditional wrestling content. I realize that both guys were banged up and they were limited in what they could do. It’s a testament to them that they got through – they worked 25 minutes……I just thought it had too much “entertainment” content as far as not in the ring stuff. They were out of the ring a lot. Sometimes you can lose your live audience because it restricts the sightlines when you’re out of the ring. Everybody can’t see it. If you can’t see it, you can’t react to it. As much as I always enjoyed calling Austin’s matches and Triple H’s matches, I just thought it was too much outside content for me on that. And to go 25 minutes in a No DQ Match and have the finish that they had was kind of counterproductive. You don’t want to beat Austin coming back from his injury, so that would not have been in consideration. But there are ways with a great heel – and make no mistake, Triple H was a great heel – that they couldn’t come up with something where Triple H could’ve done the honors in a close one. They could’ve done something else other than the way we did it. The 25 minutes beating the hell out of each other was pretty impressive, I just didn’t like the closing sequence where the finish was what it was. I think the audience was a little disappointed too.”

On why he’s not a big fan of stunts in wrestling: “I think that we started deviating with the wrong matches at the wrong time on the stunts. I’m not against stunts because I’m an old school guy, but they’ve gotta be used judiciously and intelligently and well-placed. There’s no way that you can’t tell me that two great workers like Triple H and Austin could not have come up with suggestions on their own on a finish. But it was a stunt finish, and I’m just not a big fan of stunt finishes quite frankly. I’ve called a lot of them that were entertaining and I get that. But this could’ve been outside and they could’ve done a stunt here in there, but the sensational thing of dropping the car and all that stuff – they’re trying to replicate the beer thing, the Zamboni, or whatever. We kept going back to that well time and time again. I can promise you that knowing Triple H and Steve as I do, they would’ve been happier, I think, having a wrestling match and beating the shit out of each other and then coming up with a quick one as Pat Patterson would say.

“Just too many stunts and that was an era where stunts became a big deal – stunt work, stunt preparation, stunt creative became a bigger part of the presentation, and that bothered me at times and it still does. I still think wrestling fans want to see wrestling……we wrestling fans and we both enjoy seeing wrestling. I don’t think the stunt show is a viable part of wrestling. It has come on the scene, it’s a big deal now, and some guys rely on it. We had the Matt Hardy and Sammy Guevara thing on Full Gear from the Hardy Compound – I didn’t dislike it, I thought it might have been a little long, but it was a stunt show. I’m glad we only had one on the card. That’s good for me. I may be sounding way retro and too old school, but it’s just gotta be the right place at the right time. And when you’ve got two of the greatest workers at that time competing and we go that route instead of going the route where their strengths are, I thought that was a mistake.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Grilling JR with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.