Jim Ross was not aware his name was going to be brought up during the recently completed round of Impact Wrestling tapings, but he did not have an issue with it, either.
During his exclusive interview with Fightful.com managing editor Sean Ross Sapp, JR was asked about being mentioned during a segment between Impact announcers Jeremy Borash and Josh Matthews, who started a new on-screen rivalry during last weekend's set of tapings -- the first since the regime change that saw Jeff Jarrett, Dutch Mantell, and others reclaim creative control of the promotion.
Ross said he had no problem with them bringing up his name during the segment:
"No, it didn't need to be cleared with me because I'm not doing anything. I'm just a character in their dialogue, their conversation. They would clear it with me if I was going to come in there and do an angle or I was going to come do some work there, but neither of those are the case. So if it helps Jeff Jarrett and his team to better establish another storyline in using me as a conduit to some degree, then I don't have any problem with it."
JR went on to publicly state his support for the new team in charge at Impact Wrestling, which includes Jarrett, Dutch Mantell, Bruce Prichard, Scott D'Amore, and others.
"I'm very much supportive of Impact Wrestling's new management team and, like every other organization, I'm a fan. I have friends that work in all these organizations, after 40 plus years in the business. So I don't have any desire to see any wrestling organization flounder [and] struggle. So I'm all for … Impact winning, and getting some relevance. ... If I can help those guys create a buzz just by being part of a sentence, or a topic, then I'm cool with that. No worries there."
Ross, who can be heard every week commentating the New Japan Pro Wrestling show on AXS, also clarified his future plans with regard to working for Impact.
"I'm not going to be joining their announce team. I'm not going to be doing an angle," he said. "I don't have any desire to replace Jeremy Borash or Josh Matthews or anybody else."
The first episode from that set of tapings aired last Thursday on Pop TV at 9 p.m. Eastern. Fightful.com has live coverage of Impact Wrestling every week.
Click here to check out spoilers from the episode.
