Jim Ross Comments on The Revival’s WWE Release, Possible Signing With AEW

With The Revival’s release from WWE on Friday making headlines, the rumor mill immediately picked up steam by talking about the team’s potential arrival in AEW. The Young Bucks have had an ongoing story with the former WWE Tag Team Champions through social media postings for several years, and a match between the two teams would seem to be a massive draw for AEW at some point in the future. Will it happen? One of AEW’s top names has already spoken out about the prospective of The Revival in AEW.

Jim Ross joined me on the Top Rope Nation Wrestling Podcast on Friday morning and we asked him about the potential of the now former WWE team joining AEW. These were Ross’s first public comments on the matter following the news.

“Well, it’s a big if, everything’s a big if, because I don’t know what The Revival’s goals are,” Ross told Top Rope Nation. “I think they would fit into our team very, very well. You know, we’re trying to be a little bit more athletic, athletically oriented, more fundamentally sound in our storytelling. And the Revival team certainly fits that bill. They are one of the best tag teams in the world, period, no matter where it is. So I think they would do great in our company, whether that happens or not remains to be seen.”

He continued, “There’ll be gross speculation that it’s a done deal, all that good stuff. But Tony Khan handles that, and I’m not in that talent relations role any longer. Thank goodness. I’m the Senior Advisor. Let me tell you what that means, the job description is this: I take credit for all the good ideas and I disavow any knowledge of the ones that suck. So that’s a Tony…I can’t imagine, knowing Tony Khan as I do, and the fan that he is and his ability to spot great things.. I can’t imagine that he wouldn’t be interested. Why would anybody not be interested in Revival is my question? So I’m thinking there’s a possibility they come to work for us. I think, you know, I’d love that. I’d love to call their matches. I’ve watched a lot of their work, you know, they’re a throwback team. That doesn’t mean they wear black boots. And, you know, it’s just the old school stuff. They are fundamentally sound, they’re old school oriented in the process of telling a story. And I think that’s really important. They don’t leave things out. They don’t take shortcuts. And they have the ability with their skill set, to work with any team out there and make that team and that match better. And we’ve got some really good teams evolving in AEW of course led by the Young Bucks, who may be the best tag team in the world. If they’re not, they’re certainly in the conversation.

“But one could certainly as a broadcaster, and as a fan, because I don’t have any insider information on this deal, I just read about it a little before we went on, we started recording that, you know, that these guys are released there, they may become available sooner than later. I don’t know about how long their no compete is. That’ll be a big point, everybody will have a theory on that deal, usually they’re 90 days but I don’t…WWE may have, you know, rescinded that on where they stood. They may have made exception. Let them go do their thing. So anyway, I hope that they consider AEW. I’d sure as hell like to call some of their matches. They remind me a lot of the old Midnight Express. They just don’t have a Jim Cornette in their corner right now. So, but boy, these guys are good. They’re really good and they’re young. They’re athletic, they’re durable. They seem to be good locker room guys, they’re wrestling guys. They’re not sports entertainment guys. That was never a great fit. But they’re wrestling guys and they need to be in a wrestling company. For my money, that’s AEW.”

During the interview, Ross also discussed Steve Austin’s heel turn at WrestleMania 17, how AEW and WWE are different to work with, his current relationship with Vince McMahon, the process of writing his new book, and so much more. You can listen to the full interview by streaming from the player above or listen on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, and wherever podcasts are found.