Jim Ross Says He Wasn’t Interviewed For Vince McMahon Docuseries

On a recent episode of his podcast, “Grilling JR,” Jim Ross discussed the upcoming Vince McMahon docuseries that premieres on Netflix later this month. McMahon nor WWE has creative say in the project. Here are the highlights:

On the Vince McMahon docuseries: “Well, it all depends on how much involvement in a production sense that Vince is going to have on the project. As long as he lets it flow and — look, he’s a controversial guy, and this is a hell of a story. I can tell you that Bill Simmons is really talented. His 30 for 30s, and all the things that he’s accomplished are significant… I’m anxious to see how much in-depth on the production side and the storytelling side, the screenwriting side, that Vince is going to have in this thing. He could make it or break it. And there’s always a way at the end to make a guy whole, to some degree. I expect that to happen here, but boy, what a hell of a story.

“I mean, if you’re a storyteller like Simmons and the other cat, you’ve hit the storytelling gold. Because you can’t write this stuff. This doesn’t seem feasible, but it is. It’s real. So how real it stays, and how accurate the storytelling is, is everything about the success of this. You know, our beloved wrestling fans will know this story as well as the storytellers, a lot of them will. So I’m excited to see it. I’ll be sure as hell watching it. I’m intrigued by it. Because I’m like you, Conrad. There was a point in time when I thought it would never occur, right? Never make air. But we were wrong on that one.”

On whether JR was interviewed for it: “No… [Conrad finds that interesting] Yeah, me too. What are you afraid of? What are the powers to be afraid of? Why wouldn’t you interview me?… No one closer to Vince than me at certain times of my tenure. Right-hand man type material. But I never got a call. You know, maybe they didn’t feel like I was viable enough to follow up. I would have been happy to do an interview if I had been approached, but that didn’t occur. And I’m not sure why. Because I know every secret, every corner, and the whole nine yards.

On his feelings about not being interviewed: “My feelings aren’t hurt because I wasn’t involved in it. It might be better that I wasn’t just the sake that it makes it easier to watch. Because a lot of us hate seeing ourselves on television… I don’t know that what Tony Khan would have thought about it, and I certainly would have got his blessing before I proceeded. Because I’m loyal to who I work for, and Tony’s been awfully good to me. This assignment that I have around doing the main events at AEW pay per views is significant, it’s a unique schedule. Nobody in in my line of work has ever had anything like this offered to them. And I’ve taken advantage of it. And I like to thank Conrad, I hope, that my work on TV is holding up well and working out good. So I don’t want to jeopardize that. I wouldn’t shepherd that for anything. Don’t need it. Don’t need the money. I just don’t.

“But I would have done an interview. It had been interesting to see the line of questions that they had. You know, I just did an interview, a long-form interview with the Dark Side of the Ring guys, and a lot of stuff about Mick Foley. And they do a great job of getting to the questions and getting to the — asking their tangible and viable questions. And I really enjoyed that, it’s a two or three-hour ordeal. I say ‘ordeal’, like it’s a punishment. I enjoy working with the guys at Dark Side. They’re good dudes. They’ve gotten great product knowledge over the years, and so, you know. But I’m still on the other side of the fence, and I’m going to be careful of my positioning. But I’m excited about the Netflix thing. I’m not a big net Netflix consumer, but that doesn’t mean I won’t change my the error of my ways, and certainly enjoy watching this show.”

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