WWE News: Jim Ross Responds To Leaked Announcer Notes
Earlier this week, a photo of WWE’s notes for their announcers was leaked, and it caused quite a stir online. It’s been well-known for some time now that WWE’s announcers are produced, and at times, overproduced, but some of the directive notes to the announcers baffled a lot of WWE fans, especially because there was so much for the WWE announcers to remember before going on-the-air.
When the notes were leaked, plenty of people wondered what WWE Hall of Fame play-by-play announcer Jim Ross’s thoughts were on them. Unfortunately, Ross didn’t really have much to offer, saying that he doesn’t understand what everyone’s fascination with the notes are.
“Man, I’m getting some really asinine questions about the WWE announcer’s memo that has been going around the internet. I’m having a hard time understanding the fascination with this document.”
Of course, Ross didn’t say whether or not he was handed a similar document during his time in WWE, but it’s very unlikely that he was. However, Ross has said in the past that it can be challenging to do play-by-play when you’re working for WWE because Vince McMahon is constantly in your ear trying to give you direction, and sometimes the direction McMahon tells his announcers to go doesn’t make any sense, which can, and often does, hurt the product.
“It’s hard to get along with [Vince McMahon] when you work with him every day. He was my producer, and he was brutal. It’s challenging, because you’re hearing your partner, you’re hearing yourself in your cans, the ambient noise of the audience, you’re trying to pay attention to your monitor, and you’ve got the most powerful man in the world, who signs your checks and can control your career at the snap of a finger, and it sounds like he just gargled Drano, in your ear.”
There have been announcers in the past that have complained and ultimately left the company because of McMahon’s producing. One of them was Mick Foley, who didn’t enjoy being yelled at over the headset while he was trying to do his job, which led to Foley joining TNA Wrestling.
Some do feel that McMahon shouldn’t be in the announcer’s headsets and that he should just let them be themselves. As a matter of fact, Michael Cole, who is almost universally hated by WWE fans, received a good deal of praise after this past weekend’s Beast in the East show from Japan, and after it was known that Vince McMahon wasn’t producing Cole at that event, many people pointed to that as the reason why Cole was better than usual.
[Image via WWE]
