Before The Bell
UNDER THE BLACK HAT
For a guy who has spent tens of thousands of hours talking into microphones, Jim Ross still has a lot to say. That’s good news for wrestling fans because when it comes to spinning yarns and shooting straight, Good Ol’ J.R. is in a class all by himself. In 2017, the storied announcer published Slobberknocker: My Life In Wrestling, which covered his humblest of beginnings and early exploits in the wrestling business. His new book, Under The Black Hat: My Life In The WWE And Beyond, shares the subsequent steps of J.R.’s journey, from the Monday Night War to his present work in AEW.
Especially heartfelt and poignant are J.R.’s accounts of his longtime friendship with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, a relationship that endured the rigors of a cutthroat business and culminated with Austin inducting Ross into the WWE Hall of Fame. Also addressed by Ross is the lingering question of how he felt being publicly humiliated by Vince McMahon again and again through the course of his time in WWE. The short answer is that he understandably didn’t care for it at all, but J.R. adds depth to
