"I was just jealous" – Jim Ross says he apologized to WWE legend
Jim Ross is widely viewed as one of the most popular WWE commentators ever. While the legendary announcer had good relationships with most of his broadcast partners, he did not always get along with Jesse 'The Body' Ventura.
Ventura was WWE's color commentator in the late 1980s before leaving in 1990. Ross crossed paths with the former wrestler in WCW in the early 1990s before joining WWE in 1993. In those days The Body was a big name in the wrestling industry and earned more than some of his fellow commentators.
On his Grilling JR podcast, Ross admitted he was jealous of Ventura and revealed he later apologized to his former commentary partner:
"At the beginning when I worked with Ventura I didn't like Ventura. I was jealous of him making a lot more money than me, maybe double, and working part-time, and so over the years we've settled that. I've apologized to Jesse, he's accepted that apology, and it was my fault. I was just jealous, and I'm embarrassed to say that here on the air. I felt like our pay should be closer together, I guess, but it was just jealousy on my end." [1:38:07 – 1:38:46]
Ventura and Ross were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004 and 2007, respectively.
Jim Ross' former commentary partner recently returned to WWE
Over the years, Jesse Ventura had a strained relationship with Vince McMahon. The friction goes back to 1986 when Ventura unsuccessfully tried to form a wrestlers' union while working for the former WWE Chairman.
Despite their differences, Ventura made sporadic WWE appearances during McMahon's regime after departing in 1990.
On December 14, 2024, the wrestler-turned-politician returned to WWE television at Saturday Night's Main Event. He even commentated on Cody Rhodes' Undisputed WWE Championship win over Kevin Owens in the main event.
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Please credit Grilling JR and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use Jim Ross' quotes from this article.
