Jim Ross on Vince McMahon purposely making AEW star look bad in WWE
Vince McMahon produced thousands of wrestling shows during his career, including WWE's version of Extreme Championship Wrestling. Legendary announcer Jim Ross recently addressed an instruction McMahon gave Todd Grisham before Christian's first ECW appearance.
On February 10, 2009, Christian returned to WWE after a three-year absence. Grisham, an ECW commentator at the time, received criticism for his underwhelming reaction to the wrestler's return. In October, Grisham clarified on X that McMahon told him not to "get excited" when the veteran's music hit.
Ross discussed Christian on the latest episode of his Grilling JR podcast. Regarding Grisham's revelation, the WWE Hall of Famer criticized McMahon for purposely trying to make the current AEW star look bad:
"How do you figure that out?" Ross said. "How does that make any common sense? It doesn't make any common sense. You don't hire a talent [to make them look bad]. You hire talent for one reason, to get them over so they can contribute to your brand." [58:23 – 58:38]
In the same episode, Ross said McMahon's view of Edge's former tag team partner was "absurd."
Jim Ross on Vince McMahon's "childish" stubbornness
Although Christian won the World Heavyweight Championship twice in WWE, he was often overlooked in main-event storylines.
To this day, Jim Ross is unsure why Vince McMahon had a problem with the Canadian's return. Ross likely would have known had he still been a WWE talent relations executive, but John Laurinaitis worked in that role in 2009.
"Vince just never did see it [Christian's ability] and sometimes when he gets something in his mind about failure, you can go to that example and say, 'Well, that made no sense. Why did that happen?'" Ross continued. "Well, that was during Laurinaitis' run, so I don't know why it happened, but it shouldn't have happened at all. It was just silly. It was childish and Vince could be that way." [59:41 – 1:00:08]
In 2014, Christian was forced to retire due to concussion issues. The 51-year-old returned in the Men's Royal Rumble Match in 2021 before joining AEW.
What are your thoughts on Vince McMahon's treatment of Christian? Hit the discuss button and let us know.
Please credit Grilling JR and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.