Former WWE announcer claims that Vince McMahon “hated Jim Ross for whatever reason”

But the receptions he was getting in all these buildings changed everything. Eventually, they were like, ‘We can’t take him off the air. He’s too big,’ even though Vince McMahon tried to squash it. Vince hated Jim Ross for whatever reason. He fired him 10 times.

There was one show — I don’t remember where it was exactly, but it was in Oklahoma, in front of his home crowd. The show ended, and they were going to have Jim Ross speak to the crowd, thank them, do the usual ‘blah, blah, blah.’

Jim Ross is in the ring, and Vince tells me to grab a mic and go down there. He gives me some questions. I go down and say, ‘Sorry to interrupt you, JR, in front of the crowd, but how does it feel to be getting released by WWE and fired by Vince because he just doesn’t think you’re that good…’ and all these antagonizing things.

The number one rule — and you probably know this as an interviewer — is never give up the mic. In boxing, UFC, once they take the mic, you’re out of control, so you just sit there no matter what.

But at that point, Jim Ross looked at me and said, ‘Could I please have the microphone?’ I’m thinking, Vince is going to kill me if I give him the mic. But I handed it to him anyway. I figured I’d take the abuse.

JR then said, ‘I know those weren’t your questions. Those were his.’ So anyway, long story short, they don’t fire JR. Maybe that’s when they put me on ECW — I don’t remember exactly — but it was basically, ‘We’re going to give you this show. You’re the guy in waiting until Jim Ross is done.'”