Jim Ross was recently interviewed by Inside The Ropes. During the interview, he spoke about the match between The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin at Wrestlemania X-Seven.
Ross ended up revealing that Austin and The Rock went to Vince McMahon and specifically requested that JR called their match. Here is what he said:
I thought at the time that would probably be my last show. My facial paralysis was not improving and the world of WWE is a very looks type business and the fact that this paralysis made me not smile is disconcerting to some. So I thought ‘This is probably my last hurrah but luckily it wasn’t. That’s because The Rock and [Steve] Austin went to Vince McMahon and said ‘We want JR to call our match, he’s our guy.’
I still get emotional talking about that. They respected my work I guess after all those years, they knew that I respected them. I was a fan and always will be a fan.
Ross also spoke about Wrestlemania 19 not living up to expecations:
“Pay-per-views are generally driven by attractions. For whatever reason, that card didn’t have the magic that it should have had. It was hard to top Rock vs. Hogan the year before. That was a sleeper match and it became historic. It didn’t even close the show, Austin and Rock normally would close the show but Austin spent the night in the hospital and we weren’t really sure until Sunday morning if was going to go. Our thoughts were not to put him on last because if he does not have the gas in the tank, we don’t have a great close. He knew Lesnar was beginning to percolate and become great and of course Kurt Angle is equal in a lot of ways, would do a great job closing the show and they did.”
“It was probably the first time we ever talked to Steve about not closing WrestleMania and he didn’t get pissed off. He likes to close the show, he’s worked his whole life to be a main event guy to close the show but he had no problem acquiescing to the other two guys because of his hospital stay.”
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In other news, check out our Wrestlemania 38 predictions.
On a related note, check out the star ratings for Wrestlemania X-Seven here.