Jim Ross announced today via Twitter that he has signed with Fox Sports and completed his first work for Fox Sports with a retrospective on his memories of the WWE Royal Rumble.
The 62-year0old, known as the greatest pro wrestling play-by-play man alive today retired from the WWE in September of 2013 after his contract expired. There was talk that it was actually a forced retirement due to JR not being able to “control Ric Flair.” Ross hasn’t bashed the WWE since leaving and has even worked on some small projects, including being interviewed for the upcoming Paul Heyman DVD. He also keeps his WWE Hall of Fame splash image on his Twitter account. That might change with the new gig working at Fox Sports.
In speaking about the Fox News deal before it was completed Ross said, “Fox provides an amazing platform for creative work and for the many projects that I am working on during the most unretired time of my life. Fox has some potentially, amazing creative ideas for me of which I hope that we get to collaborate on sooner than later.”
There’s a few ways this sort of deal could go. This could really just be about Ross writing some articles and maybe showing up on TV. He did however speak about “amazing, creative ideas”, which leads one to wonder if he’ll be hosting some sort of wrestling show. Maybe a panel with wrestling guests (the Legends of Wrestling show on WWE 24/7 was one of the best programs the WWE had going, despite not being watched by many). If I had to brainstorm myself, I’d love to see Jim Ross do a show where he discusses the goings-on of pro wrestling, not just in WWE but around the world. Hearing JR’s thoughts on say New Japan Pro Wrestling would be an exciting opportunity for the wrestling business.
But right now, all we have to go on is a column about the WWE Royal Rumble. While Ross did retire from the WWE rather unceremoniously (probably a good thing seeing how tributes to Ross on television always lead to some way to shame him), he’s still an extremely influential figure to those in the company. While everyone was talking about the WWE Network, everyone forgot about how the WWE is looking to negotiate every one of their shows, from Raw to Smackdown to Main Event, as a take it all package for TV networks. The reason is to increase their TV licensing fees from the current $139.5 million (numbers thanks to Variety) to something closer to the number NASCAR achieved with a 10 year deal ($820 million). Currently, WWE television programming is stretched across several NBC Universal channels (USA Network, Syfy, E!) as well as ION. It goes without saying that NBC Universal would love to keep WWE programming, especially for the USA Network, but that doesn’t mean the WWE isn’t listening to other offers. And they are.
This is where Fox Sports comes in.
The Fox Entertainment Group has been aggressive in looking for ways to expand their sports network. They have recently acquired the US Open and the FIFA World Cup, pushing Fox Sports 1 and 2 to be treated similar to ESPN and ESPN2. To compete with ESPN, they listened to the complaints of many that ESPN isn’t like how it used to be in the 90s. Fox Sports responded by bringing in TSN studio hosts Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole. However, they are not just competing with ESPN. They are also competing with the NBC Sports Network.
Between 1998-2002, TSN in Canada lost the rights to NHL hockey. Their response was to bring in more professional wrestling with WWF Raw is War and WCW Nitro. This also led to pro wrestler guests on Michael Landsberg’s Off the Record interview program and even some WWF coverage during TSN’s news broadcasts (like when Bret Hart defeated the Undertaker for the WWF World Title at SummerSlam 97). Why? Because pro wrestling was instant ratings in the most valuable TV demographic of males 18-35. When TSN lost the NHL recently, their response was that they survived it once and they can survive it again. But they only survived due to the ratings spike that WWF and WCW programming provided. There are no guarantees anymore for them.
Back to Fox. Fox Sports doesn’t have NHL hockey, not that they need it. But my comparison with TSN and Fox Sports 1 is about the value of pro wrestling programming to a sports network. It might not be a legitimate sport, but sports entertainment is a buzzword for pretty much everything you want today on a sports channel. ESPN talks about Tim Tebow if he sneezes because it’ll get ratings. If Fox Sports 1 can grab the WWE rights from NBC Universal, having WWE programming all over Fox Sports 1 and 2 is the kind of demographic gaining heat-seeking missile needed to push themselves above and beyond the NBC Sports Network. It’s the kind of gain along with FIFA and the US Open to make a serious challenge to ESPN.
Jim Ross signed with Fox Sports because it was a good opportunity. He might just write a few articles or host a 30 minute program about wrestling. Something simple. But it could also be something much more. It could be Fox getting serious about wanting the WWE. Ross could be their way to sweeten the pot beyond just paying a lot of money. To show the WWE that they know a great wrestling mind when they see it and have Ross to talk to the WWE about why Fox Sports is the right way to go. I’m not ready to write this off as a simple coincidence. This is good for Good ol’ JR, and could be great for Fox Sports.
