Jim Ross Criticizes ‘Stale’ WWE Product

Published: Oct 25, 2021 by Connel Rumsey | Last Updated: Oct 25, 2021 by Connel Rumsey

Connel has over five years of wrestling journalism experience writing about some of the biggest stories from across the wrestling world. Being a fan for 20 years, Connel has an expansive knowledge from a wide range of various wrestling promotions, including WWE, AEW, NJPW, TNA and Joshi.

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WWE Hall of Famer and current AEW announcer Jim Ross was at ringside calling the action for WWE for over two decades before making the jump to All Elite Wrestling at its inception in January 2019.

While JR has been calling the action for AEW, he has still kept his eyes on the WWE product. He recently spoke on his Grilling JR podcast about his thoughts on the current WWE product, claiming that it had become ‘stale’, but gave credit to them for putting new faces in the main event scene.

JR said:

“I think the WWE’s booking has just gotten a little stale. They’re trying desperately, as you see on NXT and so forth, to get younger. I think Big E, he’s not a young pup but he’s a new face in that role, and I think that’s what they’re trying to do. It’s like starting the race a little late in the game, it’s going to take a little while to catch up and develop young stars. I said this a million times on the show at nauseam, wrestling fans love new. They love surprises, they love things that they can’t call, and I believe that to this very day. No matter what their age is, they love surprises.”

JR continued on, comparimg the current WWE and AEW products, and explaining how it will take a while for WWE to realise if a young talent can become a main eventer. He said:

“(AEW) is fresher. Even though they see Adam Cole, they haven’t seen him in this environment. They haven’t seen Adam Cole against CM Punk yet or Bryan Danielson yet. All these matches are there at Tony Khan’s disposal whenever he wants to use them. Tony Khan has done a great job of getting these talents who aren’t necessarily young, but new and fresh, and therefore, their marriages/matches with other guys is going to be fresh. I think that’s where we are right now, and Tony did a good job of signing all these dudes that can work. They can work with each other, work as a team, they can do anything because they’re skilled. WWE has got a lot of really good, young talents but it’s going to take a while for those talents to realize you’ve got to be a main eventer and raise your level of performance in every aspect of what you do. From your ring entrance, to your ring attire, to your music, finish hold, how you sell, everything. Everything changes and everything has to be elevated, and I think it’s going to take a while.”

Jim Ross himself recently announced that he had been diagnosed with skin cancer, and we here at WrestleTalk wish him a full and complete recovery.

transcription via WrestlingInc

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