Jim Ross

James William Ross (born January 3, 1952) is an American professional wrestling commentator, sports announcer, podcaster, and occasional professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Jim Ross (often shortened to JR).

He is currently signed with All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he serves as the Collision color commentator as well as an analyst and senior advisor.

Ross is best known for a long and distinguished career as a play-by-play commentator for WWE.

Known affectionately by WWE fans as "Good Ol' JR", Ross has been labeled as the greatest wrestling commentator of all time.

James William Ross was born on January 3, 1952, in Fort Bragg, California.

He is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

His family came to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears.

He sold his great-great-grandfather's original land allotment from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

in 2022.

While attending Westville High School, Ross played first base on the Westville baseball team.

Ross was a two-time all-conference football player for the Westville Yellowjackets in 1968–69.

His maternal grandparents owned a general store in Westville, Oklahoma, and his paternal grandfather, Dee Ross, owned an off-sale beer store and was a carpenter.

Ross was also President of the Student Body, a 4-year letterman in basketball, and State Vice President of the Future Farmers of America (FFA).

He was the FFA Oklahoma Speech Champion in 1968 and 1969 and runner up for the FFA National Speech Championship in 1969.

Ross was also named Honorable Mention on the 1969 High School All-State Football team by the Tulsa World as a center.

In high school, Ross did well academically, reaching the National Honor Society his sophomore year.

He received an award for maintaining a 3.6 grade point average his junior year.

In 1969, Ross was nominated by Representative Wiley Sparkman to serve as a page for the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

That year, Ross served as the treasurer for Oklahoma Boys State.

For 18 years, Ross officiated high school and college baseball, football and basketball games in Oklahoma.

During his tenure at Northeastern State University, Ross had spent some time commentating on college radio.

With this experience, Ross was given the opportunity to fill a broadcast position in the local NWA Tri-State territory, after an announcer was unable to appear at one of the territory's events.

He was awarded the FFA State Degree in 1970, the organization's second highest award.

He ran for and was elected vice president of the FFA Northeast District in 1970.

After his arrival in the promotion, Ross first worked as a referee starting in 1974.

Ross remained as a referee until 1977 when he then transitioned to the promotion's broadcast team.

After years of working various jobs in the professional wrestling industry, Ross became the primary play-by-play announcer for Mid-South Wrestling in the early 1980s.

After Bill Watts' purchase of NWA Tri-State in 1982 and the subsequent re-branding to Mid-South Wrestling (MSW), Ross was promoted to the promotion's lead play-by-play position and also became Mid-South Vice President of Marketing.

During this time, Ross was able to call his very first NWA World Heavyweight Championship match which featured Ric Flair and Ted DiBiase.

When Jim Crockett, Jr. bought the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) and merged it with his Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) group, Ross joined JCP and began doing color commentary alongside David Crockett and Tony Schiavone.

With his new position, Ross became the head play-by-play man for the National Wrestling Alliance.

Ross continued to hone his skills as JCP became World Championship Wrestling (WCW), following the purchase of the regional promotion by Ted Turner.

During his tenure with WWF/WWE, Ross was widely regarded as the voice of the company, particularly during the Attitude Era of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

In 1991, WCW left the NWA and Ross was teamed with former NWA broadcaster Bob Caudle.

In 1992, he also spent one season as a commentator on the Atlanta Falcons radio broadcasts.

He went on to do commentary for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)'s World Championship Wrestling territory, before jumping to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), making his first appearance for the promotion at WrestleMania IX in 1993.

He was also the lead English-language announcer for New Japan Pro-Wrestling on AXS TV from 2015 to 2018 and has occasionally done play-by-play for boxing and mixed martial arts fights.

He has been inducted into the WWE, NWA and Wrestling Observer Newsletter halls of fame, and has been honored by the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame twice.

Outside of wrestling, Ross is known for his barbecue sauce and beef jerky brand, J.R.'s Family BBQ.

He also hosts his own weekly podcast, Grilling JR.