On a special episode of the Grilling JR Podcast, Jim Ross provided another update on his skin cancer condition that will leave him off the AEW commentary booth for the foreseeable future. Ross mentioned how he’s already had some of the treatment done on his back and revealed an update on what’s happened so far.
“They got all the cancer out of my back,” Ross said. “I don’t have any more cancer in my back. Just two places: my shoulder and down lower.”
As far as when we’ll see Jim Ross back on AEW television, the legendary commentator said his goal is to call the New Year’s Eve episode of AEW. Ross also revealed discussions he’s had with Tony Khan about what the plan would be to replace JR on the commentary booth. Khan later revealed that he’s going to have other wrestlers fill Ross’ role on commentary for the next several weeks.
“If all goes on schedule, my last treatment will be on the day of the Dynamite show at Daley’s Place,” Ross said. “I’ll have my last treatment that morning and hopefully be back on the air that night. That’s the plan, you’ve got to have a goal right? Tony Khan is happy with that; I pitched him the whole concept. It’s like an elephant in the room deal, can’t ignore it anymore, it’s here, it’s time. I told him what I’d like to see him do as a suggestion.
“Don’t you appreciate the people that work with you that come to you with solutions instead of just problem identifying? I thought, hell, I’d give him an idea. I had no idea who he was going to use, as we were recording this, I have no clue. To me, it’s an interesting template because you can do a lot of things. You can have one guy do it for four weeks. I hope they don’t go to a four-man booth but that’s Tony’s call. We’ve done it successfully with four men but it’s not the most favorable scenario. It’s just hard to find your rhythm, but I don’t know what he’s going to do.”
At the end of his last appearance on Dynamite, Ross sent out a heartfelt goodbye for the time being as he continues to overcome his skin cancer. JR said he just ad-libbed that moment and wasn’t told to say anything, speaking directly from his heart.
“That was all me, I didn’t have to ask Tony Khan for permission,” Jim Ross said. “He’s supporting everything I do and that’s just how I rolled it out because we hadn’t said anything about it the entire show. I knew that I wasn’t going to come back until we had the exact plan in place, and I was pretty sure this would be it for a while and it was. That’s how I closed and it got a lot of interest, and we’re going to work our way through it.
“I’m going to be fine. Everybody just has to understand I’m going to be fine because I like to battle and I like to be competitive, I’m a little hard-headed. Consequently, whatever it takes to get past this and solve this cancer issue is what we’re going to do.”
