Jim Ross called the 1988 match between Ricky Steamboat and Ric Flair in Chicago for the NWA world heavyweight championship. He was there when Sting dethroned the Nature Boy in 1990 at the Great American Bash. He was there at WrestleMania 9 for Yokozuna and Hulk Hogan’s respective first and fifth WWF titles. Ross was on the call the night Steve Austin won his first WWF championship, and from then on was the voice of the Attitude era.
This phrase is overused, but if you’re a wresting fan of a certain age, Jim Ross and his calls were a huge part of our wrestling soundtracks growing up. As important as any theme song, Ross’ calls gave us passion and context for the stories we’ve watched throughout his career across WWF, WCW, NJPW and AEW. His voice and calls are unique, and he is unlike any other.
Those calls up top have something else in common other than simply being matches he called with some legendary wrestlers featured in them. Regardless of what you might think of Dave Meltzer and the Observer awards, in those years and throughout the Attitude era, those were all years Ross won the award for best television announcer. In fact, from 1988-2001 he won the award 10 times, and additionally was named the recipient in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2012. He has won the distinction 14 times. Further cementing his place in wrestling history, he was awarded the Gordon Solie award recognizing his impact on pro wrestling broadcasting by the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2022.
This is all to contextualize the importance of Ross and his impact within the professional wrestling landscape, and why I agree with Dave Meltzer and his decision to rechristen the Observer’s best announcer award as the Jim Ross Award beginning with the 2025 Wrestling Observer awards later this year.
This was Meltzer’s statement a few days ago:
“We are gonna (re)name the Best Announcer Award going forward. Starting in 2025 the award will be named the Jim Ross Award because he won it 13(sic) times and it’s just time. It’s just time to give him that thing. He won it more than anybody else by far in history. We’ve talked about him a lot in the last couple of weeks, but I wanted to mention that too.”
Over the last few years JR has been through a number health scares, specifically three bouts with cancer that have led to standard treatments and two surgeries to remove cancerous tissue from his hip in February and again recently after a colon cancer diagnosis. Despite admitting he likely needs to slow down, he is still passionate about contributing to the wrestling space. Wanting that at his age and with his resume is commendable. That can’t be taught or forced, and those qualities are what made him a legendary commentator and articulate why he won “best television announcer” 14-times over.
This is a small thing, I mean it’s just an award, right? And while that’s true, that small token of appreciation validates a person’s life’s work. All the calls, the effort, research, thought and personal touches someone like JR put into their commentary, are recognized as being valuable and worthwhile with this announcement. The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame has done a great job in branding their annual awards after the grapplers of yesterday, and while the Observer has made some strides in renaming their honours, more can be done to enshrine the people who entertained us week to week
Life is all so fleeting anyway, and before we realize it these people have retired because they are unable to physically continue, or have simply passed away. They give fans everything, and we owe them tangible respect; they are owed recognition in ways we can concretely remember them. For example, when we talk about something like the Wrestling Observer award for best technical wrestler, it being named after Bryan Danielson accomplishes two things: 1) It is an acknowledgment of their work, and 2) In the future a fan can use awards like these and use that as a vehicle to learn about them.
It is important to acknowledge the people who have been such an inherent part of our wrestling education while they are still around to appreciate the fruits of their labour, it is important to give them their flowers when they are due and not after the fact when they are no longer around.
Jim Ross has been so integral to the business through his tireless efforts, dedication, and overarchingly through the sheer volume and breadth of his body of work spanning nearly 50 years. He has been the voice of wrestling from his days with the NWA Tri-State promotion, through NWA, WCW, his prime years with WWF/WWE and into his current role with AEW, Jim Ross has been responsible for helping to breathe extra life into matches with his insights that helps us understand why they do what they do. What their reason for fighting and existing is at their cores. He has given so much of himself to wrestling and to us, and acknowledging him for his career and what qualifies him as arguably being the best wrestling announcer of all time is not just the right to thing to do, it’s one of the more decent things that we can do to acknowledge his life’s work.
Good ol’ JR deserves to know while he’s still with us that his work was greatly valued and that we hold him in the greatest, highest of regards. His work set the tone for fans every week and this award rebranding in his name is completely earned.
