Jim Ross Explains Why He Joined AEW as a Senior Advisor

AEW announced back on April 3 that WWE Hall of Famer and iconic wrestling commentator Jim Ross would be joining the company to serve as both a play-by-play man for the commentary team as well as a senior advisor backstage.

In a new interview on The Steve Austin Show this week, Ross explained to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin why he took on the extra advisory role.

"My role there, Steve, my official title, is senior advisor. And the reason I wanted to name myself senior advisor and not one of the EVPs is I felt like we had plenty of EVPs — Young Bucks are EVPs, Cody's [Rhodes] an EVP, Kenny Omega's an EVP, sure as hell didn't need my sad fat a— to be one of them. I've already been an EVP, so I'm good."

Ross recalled when Khan, the president of AEW, asked him why he wanted that role specifically.

"Because it's real simple, man. This is the wrestling business. The senior advisor gets to take credit for all the good stuff and disavow any knowledge of things that suck," Ross said, which got a laugh out of Austin.

Ross said one of the ideas that AEW jumped on immediately was applying time limits to each match. That played a role back at Fyter Fest when the bout between Rhodes and Darby Allin ended in a draw after Rhodes was unable to score a pin before the 20-minute mark.

"How do you have a sporting event without some rules and regulations? There's a time limit even in the World Cup,"... These are strategic things that fans can buy into and understand psychologies that affect the game as the time is reflected. So if you're in the fourth quarter and you're down seven, you goddamn better sure try to score. I get it because the quarter is almost over. And there ain't no more quarters. So there's a whole lot of things that go on there.

"... We're trying to get back to some basic things that can utilized by a smart, creative bunch to their benefit — time limits, rules. You've got to have rules so the heels can break them because it's such a fine line these days over who's a goddamn babyface and who's a heel."

Ross also went into detail about joining AEW helped him recover from the loss of his wife, Jan, who passed away back in March 2017. "Good 'Ol JR" will be on the commentary team for Saturday night's Fight for the Fallen show.