Jim Ross Praises Recent AEW “Brilliant Booking”

In the past, wrestling companies would rely on their top stars to carry the load and headline show after show from Bruno Sammartino to Ric Flair to Hulk Hogan to Stone Cold Steve Austin. Nowadays, rather than one star holding the championship belt for years and years, it's a team effort across all companies.

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During the latest episode of the Grilling JR Podcast, AEW commentator Jim Ross spoke about the depth both WWE and AEW have on their roster. Having worked in the wrestling business for decades, Ross highlighted the key differences between the wrestling rosters of today compared to the past.

"There's so much depth in AEW today and so much depth in WWE today that it's hard to blame negatives on one person," Ross said, when comparing today's wrestling landscape to that of the 1990s. "This is truly more of an ensemble cast era than it is the one shining star. There's no [Hulk] Hogan's, no Stone Cold's. There's no major stud pulling the wagon, to a degree I should say. It's a different world, people want volume.

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"You always have to have some depth. That's the one beautiful thing I'll say about the two big companies today, AEW and WWE, they've got depth, they've got bodies, they've got a huge cast they can draw from."

Last week, AEW Dynamite was headlined by MJF defeating CM Punk in Chicago. On this week's show, CM Punk solidified a rematch with MJF by defeating FTR alongside his partner Jon Moxley. Jim Ross spoke about the match between MJF and Punk and why he thought it was brilliant booking by Tony Khan and the finish of the match gave us something different that he isn't used to.

"We had a match the other day with Punk and MJF, they had a hell of a good match in Chicago, brilliant booking," Ross said. "I thought for two days what's going to happen in that match because I don't know and it was just amazing.

"We tested the waters on a 40 plus minute TV match, including commercials and we had a finish where the villain goes over to close the show. Two things that aren't done a lot anymore. It keeps changing, we haven't seen the last of all these changes that are ongoing in our business."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Grilling JR with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

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