[1999-03-08-WWF-Raw] Jim Ross and Michael Cole

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

The ill-fated Jim Ross heel turn, the brainchild of Vince Russo. The famous JR LOST HIS SMILE sign in the crowd. Jim Ross gives Dr. Death a pep talk in the back, then wants Michael Cole to join him in the ring. He complains about the switch from wrestling to sports entertainment and reveals the would-be gimmick for Steve Williams, calling it a pile of horse crap. Ross yells at Cole for not thanking him enough for providing him help early on and for burying him with the office. He ends up kicking Cole in the nads and says to drag his yankee ass to the back, because he's going back to the booth. Big pop for that and a JR chant! Well, that backfired. Ross is with Lawler and Vince and the Stooges look on in disbelief in the back. Vince asks Terry Taylor to go run Ross off and take his place for the rest of the evening. Taylor comes out to a chorus of boos and Ross gets in his face. "What are you gonna do, get a little cocky? Cluck me to death?" Steve Williams comes out to talk some sense into Ross and take him away. One of many attempts to get rid of Ross that just didn't work.

[tim]

Ha, JR was great here. This is supposed to be him turning heel? The crowd loved it. Imagine the pop if he did the same thing to Michael Cole today!

 

I don't get it at all, the whole Vince/JR relationship. If Vince doesn't like JR so much why was JR the voice of the product during its biggest years, why didn't he fire him well before he did last year for any reason he wanted?

[Loss]

I think it's a very complicated love-hate relationship.

[Tim Evans]

This just seems cruel but JR is a good heel. Got a laugh out of him making fun of Terry Taylor. Did Dr. Death only wrestle with that mask on in Memphis?

[soup23]

The Vince/JR relationship is one of the weirder ones in WWF/E history. JR was good here being the disgruntled prick and he seems so genuine here compared to everything else that the crowd sides with him.

[Zenjo]

This was supposed to turn JR heel? Seriously? He's acting like the announcer version of Stone Cold. He sends Michael Cole packing, who was even more annoying in his early years believe it or not. I remember when Austin stomped a mudhole in him during his 2001 heel turn. That was one of my personal highlights of the year. JR gets off a couple of great in-jokes at the Roosters expense. No matter his gimmick, Terry Taylor was always the Red Rooster to me.

[PeteF3]

This is even eerier to watch for me--my first real exposure to JR since his wife's passing. So that just exacerbates the attempts here to somehow equate the death of his mother with the knocking out of Steve Williams in the BFA as even more crass. Ross unveils the planned Kabuki-type gimmick for Dr. Death and draws applause for calling it the biggest pile of horsecrap he's ever seen--yep, hard to argue with that statement or the fans. JR boots Cole in the groin, making this the greatest WWE segment of the year and drawing an even bigger ovation. It's inconceivable how this was supposed to turn Ross heel, as everyone's said already. Having Mr. McMahon be the one to send Terry Taylor out to boot JR from the desk is another ass-backwards addition to this storyline and even greater incentive for the fans to take Ross' side. Oh, and what I wouldn't give for Doc to spike Terry Taylor's head into the floor.