Awesome / Jim Ross

Awesome Calls

Having sat behind the announcer's table for well over two decades, Jim Ross has had the honor of calling some of the most memorable and famous matches in wrestling history; many of his calls have gone down in as legendary. Such calls include:

• "OH GOD, RIGHT ON THE CONCRETE! RIGHT ON THE BACK OF HIS HEAD ON THE CONCRETE!" - from Cactus Jack's match against Mil Mascaras on February 6th, 1990, when Mascaras dropkicked Cactus off the apron and Cactus smashed the back of his head on solid concrete. Also counts as a CMOA for Jim Cornette, selling it like Cactus had been killed.
• "HE GOT HIM IN A POWERSLAM! HE GOT HIM IN A POWERSLAM! HE GOT IT! SIMMONS GOT IT! SIMMONS HAS WON THE BELT! SIMMONS IS A CHAMPION! SIMMONS HAS WON THE WORLD TITLE!" - calling Ron Simmons' historic WCW world heavyweight championship win on August 2nd, 1992.
• "He beat him! Horowitz beat him! Can you believe it?!" - calling Barry Horowitz's surprise victory over Skip on WWF Wrestling Challenge, July 9th, 1995.
• "GOOD LORD! 300 pounds, off the top!" - from SummerSlam 1997, when Mankind elbow-dropped Hunter Hearst-Helmsley off the top of the steel cage.
• "Drastic times call for drastic measures! And for a man that has wrestled on nails and barbed wire, and set himself on fire, THIS'LL BE A DAY AT CENTRAL PARK!!! BANG, BANG! HE'S BACK!" - JR calling the WWF "debut" of Cactus Jack on the September 22, 1997 episode of WWE RAW.
• "TYSON AND AUSTIN!!! TYSON AND AUSTIN!!! ALL HELL HAS BROKEN LOOSE!!!" - from the January 19, 1998 episode of Raw, when things between "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Mike Tyson (who had just been appointed by Vince McMahon as the guest enforcer for Austin's WWF Championship match with Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XIV) get a little rowdy.
• "Wait a minute, WAIT A MINUTE! OH MY GOD! DON'T YOU DARE DO THAT!! GOOD GOD, THERE'S PEOPLE IN THERE!! THERE'S PEOPLE IN THERE!!! WHAT THE HELL IS SO GREAT ABOUT THAT?!!" - on the February 2nd, 1998 episode of Raw, after the New Age Outlaws push a dumpster containing Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie off the side of the stage.
• " STONE COLD!! STONE COLD! STONE COLD! THE AUSTIN ERA HAS BEGUN!!" - in response to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin beating Shawn Michaels for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XIV.
• "GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY! GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY THAT KILLED HIM! AS GOD AS MY WITNESS, HE IS BROKEN IN HALF!" - after Mick Foley was tossed off the top of the cell in his infamous Hell in a Cell match with The Undertaker in 1998. This one in particular is quite probably THE most famous call in the history of professional wrestling, bar none.
  • An underrated one from the same match: "How in the hell is he standing? And look at this, he's got a SMILE on his face, for God's sake! Are you kidding me!? He wants to go back up!" When Mick Foley gets up and climbs back up the cell.
  • In his first book, Foley mentioned another of JR's comments during the match, "WILL SOMEBODY STOP THE DAMN MATCH?!?! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!" as his favorite of the match, mostly because he felt that the emotion of the match had gotten so high that JR's comment wasn't as a wrestling commentator but as someone who was genuinely concerned for Mick's well-being.
• "STONE COLD!!! STONE COLD IS HERE!!! HE'S GONNA CRASH McMAHON'S PARTY!!! AW YEAH!!! AUSTIN'S GOT MCMAHON!!! AUSTIN'S GOT McMAHON!!!" - after "Stone Cold" Steve Austin crashes Vince's event of handing over the WWF Championship to either Kane or The Undertaker on September 28, 1998...by driving a zamboni to the ring.
• "WHAT THE HELL!?!? THEY WERE IN IT ALL ALONG...ALL THREE OF THEM!! THEY SCREWED US ALL!!!!" - following The Reveal that The Rock at Survivor Series 1998 had aligned himself with Shane McMahon and Vince McMahon to become WWE Champion (his first title reign)
• "Aw, son of a bitch!" - at the revelation of Vince as the "Higher Power" partially because it can be interpreted as Ross being really angered at the deception and partially because it can be interpreted as Ross reacting to how stupid it is that the Higher Power is Vince.
• "IT'S GONNA BE THE ROCK! IT'S GONNA BE AUSTIN! ONE ON ONE! AT WRESTLEMANIA! MAH GAAAAAAWD!!!!"
• "STONE COLD IS SHAKING HANDS WITH SATAN HIMSELF! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SOMEONE TELL ME THIS IS NOT HAPPENING!!!" - JR's reaction to Steve Austin shaking hands with Vince McMahon after winning the WWF title from The Rock at WrestleMania X-Seven. JR's call of the match in general is often held up as one of the finest performances of his announcing career.
• "WHY, TRIPLE H??!!! YOU SON OF A BITCH!!! WHY??!! TELL ME WHY!!!" - at Triple H attacking Stone Cold Steve Austin and revealing that he was the one who got Rikishi to run over Stone Cold.
• "THE ANKLE LOCK! BOOKER T, CAN HE REACH THE ROPES?! IT'S OVER!! IT'S OVER!! IT'S OVER!!! ANGLE'S DONE IT!! KURT ANGLE! KURT ANGLE! KURT ANGLE!!" - when Kurt Angle manages to win the WCW Championship off of Booker T on WWE SmackDown, July 26th, 2001.
• "The billion dollar princess has become a dairy queen!!" - when Kurt Angle crashes "Stone Cold Steve Austin Appreciation Night" with a milk wagon during the InVasion storyline, after Kurt was screwed out of the championship at SummerSlam 2001
• "LUCIFER'S LIPS ON THE BIGGEST ASS IN THE WWF!!! AW HELL YEAH!!! BAH GAWD!!! BAH GAWD!!! THERE IS A...THERE IS A GOD IN THIS WORLD!!! - reaction to Vince receiving his comeuppance from The Rock after he was forced to literally kiss Rikishi's ass
• "HE BEAT ANDRÉ THE GIANT WITH THAT MOVE!" - JR's exclamation of Hulk Hogan performing his Signature Move on The Rock in their "Icon vs. Icon" match at WrestleMania X-8.
• "CLIMB THE LADDER, KID! MAKE YOURSELF FAMOUS!" - when Jeff Hardy was a heartbeat away from beating The Undertaker in a Ladder Match for the WWE Undisputed Championship on RAW in 2002.
• "KANE IS BACK! KANE IS STRONG! KANE AND TRIPLE H! IT'S WINNER TAKE ALL! TRIPLE H, THERE'S HELL TO PAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! ON PAY PER VIEW! YOU'LL BURN IN HELL, TRIPLE H!" - after Kane destroys everyone and clears the ring on RAW in 2002 before his PPV match with Triple H at No Mercy 2002.
• "I refuse to believe, that after one of the most courageous victories that maybe any of us have ever seen, that SON OF A BITCH USED THAT HAMMER!" - Reaction to Triple H attacking Shawn Michaels with a sledgehammer at SummerSlam 2002, after Michaels had defeated him in a vicious Unsanctioned Street Fight, Shawn's first match in four years after suffering a back injury.
• "IT'S OVER! FLAIR'S DONE IT! FLAIR'S DONE IT! THE NATURE BOY IS THE INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPION!" - Ross calling Ric Flair's victory over Carlito at Unforgiven 2005 to claim the Intercontinental Championship.
  • "I asked the question: "Does Ric Flair still have it?" The answer: you damn right, he still has it!" - said immediately afterward, as Flair begins celebrating.
  • "Quit making excuses! Carlito tapped out like a drunk man! The Figure Four will do that to you!" - JR defending Flair's actions from Jerry Lawler and Jonathan Coachman's criticisms (Flair caused Carlito to choke on the apple he was chewing on, which gave Flair enough leverage to slap the Figure Four leg lock on him).
• "YEAH, HIT HIM IN THE HEAD WITH IT! AND THEN SHOVE IT UP HIS ASS!" - As Shawn is about to smash the Muscle and Fitness cover over Mr McMahon's head at Wrestlemania 22.
  • "OH, I'M NOT GONNA BE OBJECTIVE! THIS MAY BE MY LAST BROADCAST, BUT AT LEAST I'LL GO OUT IN A BLAZE OF GLORY!" - As he made it clear that he has no intention of calling the match down the middle.
  • "Shawn, Shawn, you gotta live with yourself here. Shawn, don't become what McMahon wants you to become. Shawn, you gotta live with yourself. If you survive this or not, you gotta live with yourself! MY GOD! THAT MUST BE A TWENTY FOOT LADDER!" - As Shawn is climbing a ladder to elbow drop Vince McMahon through a table.
  • "FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING THAT IS DONE, STOP THE MATCH! SHAWN, BEAT THE SON OF A BITCH! GET IT OVER WITH!" - After the giant elbow drop.
• "MOXLEY AND OMEGA! MOXLEY AND OMEGA! On the outside, beating the hell out of each other! And here they come, right into the front row!" - JR's call when Kenny Omega brawls with Jon Moxley following Moxley's shocking debut at the end of AEW's first PPV, Double or Nothing in 2019.
  • "HOW DO YOU LIKE AEW NOW?" - JR's triumphant boast after Moxley and Omega have brawled onto the stage and Moxley has put Omega out with a DDT on top of a giant stack of poker chips.
• "SAMMY! SAMMY! SAMMY!" - JR's patented call whenever Sammy Guevara popped a big move or win, but the biggest was when Sammy won the TNT title in 2021 from Miro.
• "THEY STAND, THEY FIGHT, THEY STRIKE! MOXLEY! PAGE!" JR calling the action as a returning Adam Page slugs it out with Jon Moxley in the Casino Ladder Match on the 6th October 2021 episode of Dynamite.

Other Awesome Moments

• The time where he was in a match with Johnathan Coachman for his job, and ended up giving Coach a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, which included whipping him with a belt. Beware the Nice Ones, indeed.
• Up until recently, the bumper at the start of all WWE programming ended with Jim Ross yelling, "The entire world is watching!" It's such an appropriate start to the action, it's not even funny.
• His aforementioned return to commentary during "Retro Raw", which ended with him using his trademark cowboy hat to smack Michael Cole upside the head.
• During a match with Michael Cole, who's hamming it up as much as he dares and acting like it were a more "traditional" wrestling match (complete with Jack Swagger pulling out a little stool for him to sit on when he wants a break), Jim Ross decides he isn't having any of this nonsense, knocks Cole down, and busts his lip open.
• Putting Jack Swagger and Michael Cole in the ankle lock.
• During Jerry Lawler's match with Michael Cole, he comes out and dumps a bottle of barbecue sauce all over Cole as part of Cole's well deserved Humiliation Conga.
• He forces Michael Cole to submit in their match on Raw.
• JR suffered his second bout of Bell's Palsy in late 1998 and was taken off the air to have time to recover. For WrestleMania XV the following year, both "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and The Rock insisted and practically demanded that JR come back to provide the commentary for what was, at the time, the biggest match in their careers. Can't get much of a better endorsement than that.