Bruce Prichard has revealed that Vince McMahon did not like Jim Ross' body of work before actually hiring him.
McMahon wasn't sold on Ross having what it takes as he was more into reality TV, plus there was history with WCW. It took some serious convincing on Prichard's part.
Vince giving in was certainly one of the best moves he's ever made as a promoter considering Ross turned out to be the best voice wrestling fans have ever heard call fights and he's since made it into the WWE Hall of Fame.
“He was not a fan of Jim," Prichard said on the latest episode of his Something to Wrestle With podcast (h/t 411Mania). "And what he was not a fan of, was the ‘This guy’s a five-time All-American this, and he’s that, and he’s…’.
"He wasn’t a big fan of — we created characters and Jim was into reality, and Jim was into, if they were a football player, or shoot wrestler than that’s what he exploited. But that’s the world he came from. And that was, Cowboy [Bill Watts, WCW head] was into that. So, ‘We’re real, they’re fake.'”
Prichard went on to describe how things went down after Ross called for a job. Having spoken to the Hall of Famer over the phone, he was then faced with the quandary of getting Vince to hand Ross a post. After all, Ross was coming off a WCW stint and Eric Bischoff's rise to power was probably the only reason things had changed.
"And Vince says, ‘Well, do you know him?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I know him real well.’ And I explained how Jim had basically helped me out early on, and put me in the position of doing the interviews, just like you just explained," he continued.
"And I said, ‘What do think of him?’ Vince said, ‘I hate his commentary.’ And I said, ‘Well, he’s the hardest-working son of a b***h you’ll ever meet.’ I said, ‘He works as hard as you do, and loves the business. But god damn, Vince. We can change his commentary if you need to. He can take direction.’
"Pat was like, ‘Oh, my god! Can you imagine him in Madison Square Garden, and he’s calling? The excitement he would bring! Vince, he’s exciting!’ And Vince thinks about it, and goes, ‘Yeah, he is. It’s just, you know, college football s**t and everything, it gets to me a little bit.’ But he’s like, ‘You know, f**k it, man'."
Vince should hardly have any regrets when it comes to his Ross hiring in 1993. The commentator has since moved to All Elite Wrestling and recently revealed that the WWE chairman was very emotional when he told him he was making the switch following the expiration of his contract.