"That was maybe a negative for some people" - Jim Ross details one downside to major AEW event
AEW announcer Jim Ross has given his thoughts on the recent Forbidden Door pay-per-view with New Japan Pro Wrestling. He has pointed out one downside to the event.
JR was on hand to call the second half of the event on June 26th, which included three title matches and the AEW debut of Claudio Castagnoli.
It also marked the first time since 1999 that Ross had called a match with former WWE announcer Kevin Kelly.
Jim Ross came out the heel tunnel, what a startling upset!!! /kidding #ForbiddenDoor #AEWForbDoor https://t.co/HkURZWeOVl
Jim Ross did have one downside to the event. Speaking on the latest episode of Grilling JR, Ross said that the show was simply too long for some people:
“I thought that [Forbidden Door] was exceptional,” Ross said. “It was long, that was maybe a negative for some people, but the talent worked their asses off and that, to me, is where it starts and ends." (H/T Wrestling Inc.).
Despite the length of the event, Ross did enjoy the event, especially the IWGP United States Championship match between Will Ospreay and Orange Cassidy:
"We had a lot of show-stopping matches and a lot of matches where guys put on spots to raise their game. For example, the very unique Orange Cassidy, who is a gimmick guy, had a hell of a match with Will Ospreay, who’s a much better wrestler than is Orange Cassidy, but we saw Orange Cassidy could wrestle. He did the honors, he lost the match, so what? I just enjoyed the hell out of that show.” (H/T Wrestling Inc.).
Jim Ross will be announcing on AEW Rampage going forward
During the special "Blood and Guts" edition of AEW Dynamite, Jim Ross was only in the commentary booth for the main event match. This has caused some discourse online.
To make things even more interesting, both Ross and Tony Schiavone were on commentary with Excalibur for the entire July 1st edition of AEW Rampage.
Dave Meltzer has reported that Jim Ross will be moving to the AEW Rampage commentary team, which is the reason why he was only on commentary for the 2nd hour of Dynamite. This isn't permanent yet, but it could be depending on how the trial run goes. https://t.co/qRpXVIFOJg
This was apparently the beginning of an experiment to shuffle the commentary teams around over the next few weeks. Taz will now join the Dynamite team and Ross will join the Rampage team.
It has not been confirmed what fellow Rampage announcers Chris Jericho and Ricky Starks will do now that Ross is on Friday nights.