Steve Austin on the Huge Impact Jim Ross Had on His Wrestling Career

A recent episode of The Steve Austin Show podcast included a fan Q&A session featuring a variety of questions, with a few involving the topic of Jim Ross’ impact on Steve Austin’s career.

On the topic of his career in WCW, Austin said that Jim Ross was very influential on getting him signed to a contract with the company.

“Now, as I am trying to recall the first time I met Jim Ross, I almost can’t remember, but you have to understand I was a huge Bill Watts Mid-South Wrestling fan, so, man, I grew up with JR and he’s not very much older than me, but JR was the man. And then, when he went to NWA, that’s when I was watching Jim Ross. He was the man. And all-of-a-sudden, I get a chance to be called up to WCW. He’s one of the guys that lobbied for me and we hit it off. Jim loves football. He knew that I played college football. I wasn’t at Ron Simmons’ level. I wasn’t major college good. I was just good enough to get a scholarship and be on the team. That’s as good as I was. But Jim being in Oklahoma and that Texas/Oklahoma kind of bond, relationship, rivalry, whatever it is, Jim respected and liked football players. He liked guys that were athletic, salty, easy to work with, not people that are toxic or that are trainwrecks, or divas, or hard to work with. So, man, me and Jim always hit it off and we became the best of friends.”

On the topic of Jim Ross’ commentary career, Austin said that he considers Ross to be the best wrestling commentator of all time.

“Jim Ross, to me, with his range, with his storytelling… he paid his dues. I mean, he learned from the ground up. And his inflection and his ability to watch a match, tell a story, get the talent over with the credibility that he had, he was the shining diamond on top of everyone, so always a good experience with Jim. We continue, to this day, to be the best of friends. We don’t talk as much as we used to because we’re going and blowing in different directions. But he was a key, key part of my entire [pro] wrestling career like so many people were, but as far as the recruitment to WCW, the recruitment to WWF [as WWE was known] at the time, so there’s a lot of history there.”

On the topic of his Stone Cold gimmick, Austin said that he believes the gimmick would still have been successful in the WWF without Ross but it likely would not have reached its iconic status without Ross’ involvement on commentary.

“Again, if ‘Stone Cold’ would’ve took off like it did and Jim Ross had not been on commentary, I do believe I still would have been successful; however, I think I had the success that I did because of the work that we put into it. This is on the [WWE] end, my end, the synergy, the chemistry, the writing, Vince [McMahon] was a huge part of it, especially when we were going up against each other, but without Jim Ross calling that with the emotion and just yelling, that passion driven style that he had, I don’t think it would have been the same. He was the voice of that ‘Attitude Era’. I can’t imagine my career because it is so far removed now, but I cannot imagine my career without the iconic voice of the one and only Jim Ross.”