WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross remains a beloved icon but, for some reason, many AEW fans tend to vent their frustrations on the legendary broadcaster. Whether it's due to a slip of the tongue or the fact he openly criticises some of the company's obvious failings, he far too often comes under fire.
Recently, it was claimed he'd walked out of AEW All In, the historic Wembley Stadium show (which we've since learned may not have broken attendance records).
On his podcast, Grilling JR, the commentator shared what actually happened.
"I left when my matches were over, but they didn't say that. The headline says, 'JR leaves Wembley early.' Well, I was done," Ross explains. "My matches that I was assigned to call were completed and instead of watching it on the monitor in our locker room, I wanted to see the show and we were staying across the street."
"So what the hell? It's just an example of how people seemingly look for sh*t and try to make up things and it's embarrassing because I'm still a wrestling fan and I get embarrassed for these guys sometimes if they are that naive or just that much of a sh*t disturber."
Some fans wondered if CM Punk being told to leave had anything to do with it, but that's clearly not the case. Even so, Ross would go on to share his take on the Best in the World being fired and seemed confident we'll see Punk back in the ring wrestling for another company.
"I think it'll probably happen. I just don't have any leads or any dirt on that. He's still young enough and hungry enough, I think, to go out and grab those big paydays. I just don't know where or when. So, you know, I mean, obviously, one would assume, and that's all I'm doing, you would assume that CM Punk's next destination could be WWE but there's no guarantee of that either."
"I'm gonna miss him because I enjoyed being around him and we have such a small crew that comes on Saturday night," he continued. "It's a pretty neat environment to be honest with you on Collision nights. A whole lot less people are there. He's too good not to use his skills, but I don't know. He's a different cat as everybody knows. That's not a revelation either."
Ross was once WWE's head of talent relations, and it's a shame Tony Khan didn't have the good sense to turn to him for advice. Then again, those days are long behind him and were stressful enough back then so we'd bet on the Hall of Famer not wanting to get involved.
As for Punk, all signs point to him making the leap to WWE but we'll have to wait and see.