Some might say it’s crazy that such a legendary announcer isn’t calling the WWE’s flagship show today. Why do you think you’re not still doing it?
When we were doing
Man on the Moon, Jim Carrey told me that Hollywood and entertainment in general puts a bigger emphasis on youth and look than they do experience and talent. So I think the key thing is that I’m 62 years old, I’ve had facial paralysis from three bouts of Bell’s palsy, and it was time, in their view, to make a change. The neurologists will tell you that Bell’s palsy doesn’t have a definitive cause, and it doesn’t have a cure, but most of them think the reason for getting it has to do with stress. I think all the years with all the responsibilities, all the other things that I was doing in addition to being on air, that could’ve had a contributing factor to my illness. I do think partly that WWE just didn’t want to put me back into a situation where that could happen again.
Of course, when Lawler had his heart attack, I filled in for him while he was gone, and I made a few cameos here and there, but I don’t know that it was ever a political thing. At some point, you gotta change. Networks do it all the time. I think they wanted to change the philosophy of how the matches were called a little bit. My skill set fit the old version.
There’s a perception that you’ve been jerked around by WWE over the years. You were fired and rehired several times.
The first time that I got future endeavored, as we say, was a few weeks after my first Bell’s palsy attack. I think I still had a few months left on my contract, which they honored. Then I think it was ’94 when Vince got indicted and had all the federal government issues, and they brought me back on a short-term contract to fill in for him on
Raw, but when Vince got exonerated, I didn’t have a role, because I was there to fill in for him. I think people misunderstand that second one as “Oh, he got nailed again.” Everything in that contract was honored. The third time, Vince wanted me to come back as a producer and to work with J.J. Dillon in talent relations. But sure enough somebody asked, “You think you could help us do some voice-overs for international syndicated shows?” I told them to go to Vince, because I wasn’t brought back to announce, but Vince agreed and then I started getting more assignments. I got on
Raw and there were a lot of incarnations of that team, but they finally settled in with Jerry and me. We just clicked. It was kind of Madden-Summerall-ish. I give Jerry the credit for that, because he was a great antagonist and I was the straight man. I was George Burns and he was Gracie Allen.
During those days you had a few famous turns as part of the story lines — turning heel and bringing in fake Diesel and fake Razor Ramon, joining Vince’s Kiss My Ass Club, feuding with Michael Cole … the list goes on. How did you feel about being “onscreen”?
Me in a wrestling ring is like a cow on ice. It’s not a pretty sight. I always felt I didn’t belong in the ring for the simple reason that I wasn’t very good at it. I thought that others would be better served to get that TV time. None of those moments ever resulted in me going on the road to sell a ticket. They were just done for television ratings.
The Cole angle was funny. WWE thought I could probably tell the story from either a protagonist or an antagonist point of view, so I played heel. But for whatever reason, the fans just didn’t want to accept me as a villain. And no matter how hard I tried, it didn’t work. Poor Michael Cole, I kick him in the balls on TV and it’s supposed to be me being a bully, and people cheered. He’ll tell you, he didn’t live that down for 10 years. That one moment defined him to the fans. And it was unfair, but that was how it was. The creative in that deal backfired. Then the WWE said, they love J.R. for whatever reason — we don’t get it — but they embraced it and decided to use me to get heels over.
I saw a clip the other day of the Kiss My Ass Club, which was done — of course — in Oklahoma City, in front of my family. Which is great booking, because you get the greatest reaction in your home area where one of their own is getting humiliated. But on that day, there was Mr. McMahon in the ring, heel Undertaker, and heel Kurt Angle. They used the J.R. character to help get heat on those three men by humiliating me, burying my face in McMahon’s buttocks.
And then the most infamous one was after
WrestleMania 17 when Austin joined McMahon. On Tuesday,
Smackdown was taped in Oklahoma City, so of course J.R. is going to interview his old friend Stone Cold to find out what the hell is going on. So in Oklahoma City, Austin beats the shyt out of me and I get bloody. It was a traumatic experience. Steve’s hands were like getting hit by anvils. I thought he must have been pissed off about a payoff we gave him somewhere along the way because he was really laying them in. I had knuckle knots all over my head. Then he did the surgery on that blood, and the people were just aghast.
So, I’ve done all those in-ring things. I think sometimes the writers know that Vince enjoys silliness or sophomoric humor. And I just didn’t ever turn anything down. I’ve been a team guy since high school. I played three or four positions in football and never said, “I don’t want to play defensive end, I don’t want to be a guard,” or whatever. My old man used to say, “If you take the guy’s money and you cash the check, then you do what he needs you to do.” I always had that philosophy. So beat me up, bloody me up, beat the shyt out of me, let’s get it over with.
What’s your current status with WWE? Do you have a Legends contract or are you totally done with them?
I have a Legends agreement. If you put a gun to my head, I honestly couldn’t tell you how much longer it’s in effect. If they need somebody to go in for a DVD or video-game work, things like that, I can help out as a freelancer.
You were last seen as a WWE employee at SummerSlam, hosting a rather controversial panel discussion for WWE 2K14, where Ric Flair seemed to be, shall we say, overly animated. The rumors are that gig got you fired.
I don’t think you have to be a Mensa member to figure out that it had an influence on decisions that were made. I was working with the developmental kids [in
NXT] and enjoying that, and got called in for that job.
It was a very unique night, to say the least. Ric was coming off maybe the
most traumatic time of his life. [
Flair's son had recently died of a drug overdose.] In hindsight, it might not have been the most timely booking, to get him in that environment. And then you can look at the other side and say maybe it’s a good thing to get him out around friends. As it worked out, you’d probably lean more to the former than the latter. But here’s the deal: I was conductor of a runaway train. I was supposed to keep it on the tracks and that didn’t happen. So I don’t have any issues taking responsibility. Did I envision that it would help facilitate my exit? No. But I could see the thinking behind it.
But honestly, people might not believe this, and I don’t want to give one of those eye-rollers, but it really came at a good time. My health is good, I just celebrated my 62nd birthday, I got a lot of projects going. I’m going to start a podcast soon with the same company that does Austin and Jericho. I’m excited about that. I got Live Nation working with me on one-man shows and, of course, we start out the way we want to start out, in New York City, Saturday, March 1, at the Gramercy Theater.
Three man booth.
