A comment by Jesse Ventura about Jim Ross’ arrival in WWE infuriated the Oklahoma native, AEW’s Tony Schiavone revealed this week.
On a recent edition of his “What Happened When” podcast, Schiavone recalled Ventura taking aim at Ross’ WWE debut in 1993. He said,
“I remember when JR showed up at his first WWF show, WrestleMania wearing a toga. Jesse (Ventura) said on TV, on WCW Saturday Night ‘there’s nothing worse on television than seeing a fat man in a toga’. And he was talking about JR.
“JR came back to the office, I guess to clear his desk. And he heard about the comment and he jumped on me about it. He said ‘You think that was funny, did you?’ He was really upset. I said ‘Jim, I didn’t think it was funny but listen, that’s him saying it, not me, so don’t jump on me.’”
Schiavone added that the issues between Ross and Ventura stemmed back to when both men were part of the broadcast team for WCW. He said,
“He and Jesse just did not get along because when Jesse came to work for WCW and was working with JR on WCW Saturday Night, Jesse was making more money than JR and that pissed JR off.”
Schiavone recently missed an episode of AEW Dynamite as he was dealing with a family situation. He was not suspended as some fans had claimed.