UPDATE x 8: WWE’s Jane Geddes sent out a memo (text message & email) to all WWE talent yesterday. The memo pushed the public story that Ross had retired from the company as opposed to having really been released from his contract.
UPDATE x 7: There were some very unhappy people in WWE after the news on Jim Ross’ “retirement” (aka firing) broke. Some went on record as saying the stuff on TV has turned to reality. The basic gist of things is that if you represent the company in a bad way, you get fired for it because representing WWE negatively is “bad for business.” Many also feel that the blame should be placed solely on Ric Flair and not Jim Ross … but WWE’s mindset is that JR didn’t do enough to switch topics and move on when things started going off script. What was Jim supposed to do when Ric got emotional and was talking about the death of his son Reed – cut him off?! The company also feels Ross “wasn’t his normal self” during the panel and that is certainty debatable although Ross denies the claims that he was drunk.
…….. and for those who have asked or questioned JR’s departure, no, it’s not a “work” by any means. There are no plans to have him return and get involved in the current storyline. Several top WWE officials (Vince, HHH, Steph, etc.) were legitimately pissed off and have been since SummerSlam. It just took until now for them to do something about it. For what it’s worth, Ric Flair has been fired as well but he was never under contract in the first place. A Flair cameo planned for SummerSlam was scrapped and the ambassador role they wanted him to be in is off the radar as of now.
You can expect Jim Ross to remain classy as he always does in tweets, blogs, etc. There are numerous people who are quietly rolling their eyes at the entire situation though.
