WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross may have taken a backseat in AEW in recent years but remains a huge part of why so many pro wrestling fans gravitated towards the company shortly after it launched.
The voice of many a childhood, the man is a legend, and eyebrows were raised when it looked like he'd been relegated to AEW Collision. However, based on comments he made in the latest edition of his Grilling JR podcast, it sounds like Ross is happy being part of the Saturday night show.
Now, though, he's once again going to be taking some time off. Despite thankfully being cancer-free, Ross is still dealing with the fallout from his treatments and needs time to deal with that.
"I'm gonna take some time off starting this week. I’m not going to be at Collision this week. My doctor believes that if I take a couple or a few weeks off, I'm not sure how many, we'll see, it's got to heal, that being off the airplane for a few weeks would be good for my leg to heal.
“Every Tuesday I go to the doctor, wound doctor, and he scrapes my wound. He gets rid of all the dead tissue, which is not a fun thing. They do it with a scalpel and they just slice it off, slice off all the bad stuff. So that's what I do on Tuesdays. If we get down to where we're slicing off less than we're leaving, we win. So it's really that simple. So I'm not going to be on TV for a while until I can navigate the waters a little bit."
As for how he currently feels, "Good 'ol JR" shared an update on that front too.
"I'm feeling good. You know, I feel strong. I feel motivated. I feel like I'm lucky that I'm working for [Tony Khan], because he's the one that brought up the fact that we want you healthy for the long run and so he's been taking very good care of me. For a young guy like that to have that concern, and maybe it's because he has parents that are the same basic age as me, I don't know. You understand it better when you're in it, when you're dealing with it, so he's been dealing with it very well. I really do appreciate what he's doing for me and that he's paying attention."
The iconic commentator would go on to say that he intends on sticking with AEW for the long haul and, at this stage in his life and career, he has no intentions of jumping ship (thereby taking a possible WWE return now Triple H is calling the shots completely off the table).
"I have a contract that's in place. I intend to honor it. It still has a few months left. Tony Khan has indicated to me as early as this week, at least to my representative, Barry Bloom, that he'd like for me to stay. I'm not looking to go anywhere, it's just I need to heal. That's all. Simplistically as that."
"I have no plans on leaving AEW. I like working for Tony. Tony has been good to me, he's taken great care of me, and you know, we just have a very unique relationship. I'm not high maintenance. Even with a bad leg and stuff, I don't want to be high maintenance. I managed high maintenance when I was in charge of talent for WWE. I understand the mindset of what you gotta deal with when you're dealing with a talent that can't or isn't 100%, and I'm not 100% right now, but I will be enough to go do my job and with my ego as it is, people are gonna say, 'Well, here it comes.' I'm not gonna let somebody be better than me, at least in my view. I worked too many years to build a work relationship with our audience, an audience that I love and that love me, and it's very emotional for me to talk about that, but I'm a big believer that things are gonna get better."
"I'm 71 years old. I'm not ready to be turned out to pasture. Now for a young guy listening to this, they're gonna say, 'Jesus Christ. That's old.' Well, hopefully, you're gonna find out someday how old that is. So that's how I look at that deal, man. I'm blessed to be alive. We all are. Count your blessings. Tomorrow is not guaranteed, you know?"
Get well soon, Jim!