During a recent episode of Grilling JR, Jim Ross spoke on the first time he did commentary with Paul Heyman in 1990. Here’s what he had to say:
He was nervous as a whore in church. He knew that all eyes were on him – he was my choice. There was so much fragmentation of communication in WCW – you couldn’t get answers, you couldn’t get timely answers. So, Mr. Herd said who do you wanna work with, and I said let’s try Heyman. He and I sounded different – he was coarse and at times controversial – all those things. That was his natural personality….a little of that New York swag and his upbringing gave him an attitude. He understood that he had that attitude naturally, so he just embellished on it. He was nervous – he knew how I sounded, but he didn’t know how I prepared and he didn’t know how I worked. I don’t work where you say ‘I’ve got a great line’ and you say this – I don’t do that shit. He’s so smart and he’s so good, I said ‘You’ll figure it out.’ He looked at me thinking ‘I’ve gotta have all these answers.’ If you want to get that line in and you believe in it, then you’ll figure out a way at some point in the show to make it work, and I’ll go right along with you…..so I thought he would do great and he subsequently has done great.
You can listen HERE.
Credit: Grilling JR. H/T 411Mania.