Jim Ross Says Vince McMahon Got ‘Deluge’ of Calls From Veterans After Curtain Call, But Some Talent Backstage Didn’t Care

– In his latest Grilling JR, Jim Ross discussed the reaction of veterans angry about the Curtain Call. Ross said that while Vince McMahon wasn’t too upset, he got slammed with calls from veterans not happy about the infamous kayfabe-breaking moment, though he also noted that a lot of the talent backstage didn’t care about it. Highlights are below:

On it not being that big a deal to Vince: “Yeah, I think [that’s a fair statement]. Vince got a deluge of calls from people. Older guys and established guys in the business. Some of them weren’t even there, I don’t think. But a lot of it was, were they really outraged, those guys calling, or were they trying to ingratiate themselves to the Chairman? I always looked at it as, that’s sad, you know … I think a lot of those guys were just trying to kiss a** and ingratiate themselves. ‘Oh, I’d never do that to you, Vince.’ I can hear that conversation. ‘You’d never have to worry about me and that deal. We all of us know what the Garden means.'”

On if Jim Cornette was pushing for Triple H to be punished: “Probably, I would think. Corny was — you talk about making an emotional investment in an issue, he made a huge emotional investment in the issue. That’s kind of his style. He can be abrasive and coarse, but he’s extremely intelligent. But he’s very passionate, and sometimes that passion can be hard to control. I would think that he would probably be one of them.”

On who else was likely pushing for punishment: “Patterson might have been one. If Bruce didn’t like something, and he didn’t by his own quotes in that regard, I’m sure Pat felt similar. But there are others. We had a lot of older agents. George “The Animal” Steele, and Jack Lanza. All those old-school guys. Tony Garea and others, who I’m sure felt the same way. Conversations I had with them were like, they’d whisper to you. ‘What’s the old man gonna do about this deal?’ I said, ‘I think he’s got it under control. He’s good, Jack. We’re alright. Move on.'”

On Vince Russo’s thoughts that Triple H’s punishment being BS coming from having an outsider perspective: “Absolutely fair to say. And it doesn’t make anybody necessarily right or wrong. I could understand guys like Bruce or Corny who were lifers, and they had a certain philosophy in that regard. I share many of those philosophies at the same time. But I always looked at the big picture, tried to look at the bigger picture.”

On his reaction to the whole thing: “So let’s say that Triple H made an error in judgment by going out there with his buddies. Let’s say that happened. How long do you pay that price? How long is that penalty? And I felt like he got ostracized in the locker room, he had to retrace his steps and repatch some relationships to some guys. But how many guys you really think, in the locker room, gave two s**ts about the time-honored traditions or customs or whatever? They cared about their paycheck. So I don’t know.”

On the overall reaction to the incident: “I just think sometimes there’s a small pocket of people who made a big deal of the Curtain Call when a lot of people in the same company, some in the same locker room, didn’t give a s**t. It didn’t matter because it didn’t affect them and their view. And there’s certainly an argument that could be made, I admit. Like Davey [Boy Smith]’s comment, ‘They’re killing the Garden.’ They’re not killing the Garden. Are you kidding me? And things like that were brought to Vince’s attention. Vince would have kind of looked at that and said, ‘Okay, I appreciate your passion, so to speak. But it ain’t gonna kill the Garden.’ And it didn’t kill the Garden. But I thought that, to me, the fate of this thing and how this thing played out was almost like a novel. Almost like a screenplay.”

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