AEW Broadcaster Jim Ross Reacts To WWE Moving On From 'Sports Entertainment'

While many fans would say that WWE entered a new era when Paul Levesque took over the company's creative direction in the summer of 2022, it's been fully embraced over the past few weeks. With a new era comes a new direction, and one of the things that WWE is planning is to move more toward pro wrestling and less towards sports entertainment. 

Jim Ross was part of WWE when sports entertainment reigned supreme, and he believes that embracing pro wrestling is an excellent idea. "Logical as hell," Ross said on the "Grilling JR" podcast. "I've never looked at pro wrestling as a negative term. I've been a proponent of pro wrestling. That's what we do; that's what it is, so roll with it. Why not?"

Ross believes WWE is abandoning the sports entertainment label because the company wants to distance itself from Vince McMahon. This comes after the lawsuit filed against McMahon, WWE, and John Laurinaitis by former company employee Janel Grant. "That's another — one of the waves goodbye to Vince. We're not doing this thing anymore; we're going to do pro wrestling, that's what the business was predicated on, and any generation you look at, any territory you want to look at, it was all predicated on the success of the live events in these territories."

Ross admitted that he has always been a big believer that pro wrestling is the way to go, revealing that one of the things that has made AEW so successful since its foundation was the fact that Tony Khan is such a big fan of pro wrestling.

Please credit "Grilling JR" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.