Jim Ross On How Vince McMahon Would Produce Him On Commentary In WWE, Scott Hall Never Becoming World Champion

In a recent edition of Grilling JR, Jim Ross discussed how Vince McMahon would produce him on commentary in WWE, Scott Hall never becoming world champion, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Jim Ross on how Vince McMahon produced him on commentary in WWE: “Vince would tell you what to say, and sometimes it would be ill-timed. Sometimes it would be right on the money. Normally, it was critiquing on the air live. ‘You can’t say that, JR. Goddamnit.’ So, it was very disconcerting. Producing announce talent is an artform, unless you’re the owner of the company. Then you can do what you want, say what you want, and don’t worry about the morale of the talent. It was rough. It was very challenging and very daunting. Sometimes, Vince would say, ‘Hey, Lawler is having a bad night, JR. Goddamnit, you’ve gotta get him out of it.’ It came to be my fault that Lawler was having a bad night from Vince’s perspective. To be honest with you, I don’t remember Lawler having too many bad nights.

“I was the guy he vented to. A lot of my peers – Mick Foley, Taz, Todd Grisham – it didn’t work for them, and I could understand why. It shouldn’t work for them. Be produced during the commercial breaks. Don’t be produced live on the air. The best producers are the guys that come in with a soundbite and give you that one idea – put this over or build him up. That’s good. I can do that. But it was just hard to have somebody in your ear when you’re on the air live and you’re talking. Now you hear the ambient noise of the crowd, you hear yourself, you hear Lawler, and you hear Vince. It was very hard. But again, at the end of the day, it may have made be a lot better broadcaster. I’m not sure.”

On Scott Hall never becoming world champion: “Scott’s personal demons are the only negative on his checklist. He had a great mind and still does. Very astute in the machinations of producing and joining a wrestling character, angle, or storyline, and he could work very well. He big and could work with any talents. He could be a big heel or a big babyface. The only thing that held Scott back was reliability. He was such a prisoner to the drugs and the booze that he had a hard time getting past that element. That became his identity at certain points of his career, which was totally unfortunate. He was a hell of a hand in the ring – really good and he had a great mind. I’m surprised somebody hasn’t nabbed him up in a creative capacity because I think he’s that good. It wouldn’t have surprised me under better circumstances that Scott was a world champion. He had the skills, he had the look, and he had the aptitude. He just had those demons nipping at his heels that seemingly never did go away.”

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