Jim Ross discussed during a recent edition of Grilling JR how Vince McMahon would produce him on commentary in WWE.
Here is what he had to say:
Vince would tell you what to say, and sometimes it would be ill-timed. Sometimes it would be right on the money. Normally, it was critiquing on the air live. ‘You can’t say that, JR. Goddamnit.’ So, it was very disconcerting. Producing announce talent is an artform, unless you’re the owner of the company. Then you can do what you want, say what you want, and don’t worry about the morale of the talent. It was rough. It was very challenging and very daunting. Sometimes, Vince would say, ‘Hey, Lawler is having a bad night, JR. Goddamnit, you’ve gotta get him out of it.’ It came to be my fault that Lawler was having a bad night from Vince’s perspective. To be honest with you, I don’t remember Lawler having too many bad nights.
“I was the guy he vented to. A lot of my peers – Mick Foley, Taz, Todd Grisham – it didn’t work for them, and I could understand why. It shouldn’t work for them. Be produced during the commercial breaks. Don’t be produced live on the air. The best producers are the guys that come in with a soundbite and give you that one idea – put this over or build him up. That’s good. I can do that. But it was just hard to have somebody in your ear when you’re on the air live and you’re talking. Now you hear the ambient noise of the crowd, you hear yourself, you hear Lawler, and you hear Vince. It was very hard. But again, at the end of the day, it may have made be a lot better broadcaster. I’m not sure.”
H/T to 411 Mania
