On a recent edition of his “Grilling JR” podcast, Jim Ross discussed Joe Tessitore taking over as the new WWE RAW lead announcer and SmackDown’s transition to the USA Network.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Joe Tessitore joining WWE as an announcer: “Tessitore is a solid hand. He’s a good announcer. My only question will be, how much product knowledge can he acquire in a short length of time? Wrestling fans are picky with their announcing. They know what they like and what they don’t like. When you mispronounce somebody’s name, or you say the wrong name, whatever, we act like it’s a federal crime. It isn’t. It’s human error, and this game is done by humans. Tessitore has got great experience. He’ll do a good job. Again, the one thing that I’m waiting on is to see how much product knowledge he has acquired since he made his deal with WWE, but he is a good addition. No doubt he’s a good addition to their team… I think it’s going to take him a year to get his feet on the ground, and to get comfortable in his setting. That’s what I think. And I might be overstating it; he may be a quick study, and it’s six months or three months. But it’s going to take some time to get in a groove and find your timing. And announcing is all about timing, in my opinion. I have said this to my partners over the years, and it sounds egocentric: just listen to me, and I’ll bring you to your point. I’ll get you to where we want to go, and then you take over from there with your part of the — your part of the broadcast.
On whether SmackDown going from FOX to USA Network is a downgrade: “It’s fragmented so much that it doesn’t carry the cache that it used to. Not that it’s a bad thing, and I’m not downgrading their status. But the issue is USA, since the days, the first days of the one hour, Monday Night Raw, etc. have changed. And so I think USA has as much right to say that they’re the wrestling station as anybody else that WWE deals with. So it’ll be fun to see how that evolves. And of course, we got the ever-popular minute-by-minute ratings that tell you pretty much everything you need to know. Sometimes they’re fair, sometimes they’re not, but a little bit of a challenge I think, to get that audience to find you on the same night, same time, but on a different network, and going to the USA, to me, is not a downgrade at all.”
