WWE News: Jim Ross To Return To WWE? Michael Cole’s Cervical Spine Injury Could Clear The Way For JR To Return

During last night’s RAW, the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar took out the entire WWE commentary team and delivered an F-5 to WWE’s current play-by-play announcer Michael Cole. Later in the night, Byron Saxton — who replaced Cole on commentary — announced that Cole had suffered a “cervical spine injury” due to Lesnar’s attack. Saxton — who is the lead announcer on SmackDown— struggled through the rest of the show, showing that he’s clearly not ready to be the voice of WWE.

Former WWE play-by-play announcer and WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross attended this past weekend’s NXT show, and received a shout-out from Triple H. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that WWE is trying to do everything they can to get Jim Ross back.

Ross was fired by WWE in the summer of 2013, following a legends panel at WWE’s SummerSlam Fan Axxess, after Ross seemingly lost control of the show. There were also reports that Ross was drunk onstage, but he has since denied these allegations. Instead of coming out and saying he was fired, Ross said that he was retiring from WWE, but he later retracted that and said that he was fired.

Back in December, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin asked WWE Chariman Vince McMahon if there was any heat between himself and Jim Ross. McMahon denied that there was and cited the SummerSlam Fan Axxess event as the reason why he’s not with the company. McMahon also didn’t rule out the possibility of rehiring Ross, as he’s fired him and rehired him several times in the past.

Ross has said several times on his podcast that he doesn’t plan to announce wrestling shows on a weekly basis anymore, but that could change if WWE makes him the right offer. During his time away from WWE, Ross has done some MMA and boxing commentary and has been touring around the country doing his one man shows where he does fan Q&A’s and talks about his career in wrestling.

Nobody is expecting that Michael Cole will be back doing play-by-play next week, but JBL and Booker T are expected to return. Cole could be left off the show several weeks, which would leave the play-by-play spot open. It’s possible that WWE could try Byron Saxton again next week, but it’s also possible that next week’s show could see the return of the greatest announcer in wrestling history, Jim Ross.

[Image via WWE]