Jim Ross Recounts Vince McMahon Putting Him In Charge Of Acquiring Tape Libraries For WWE

J.R. speaks about his experiences acquiring the libraries.

On an episode of Grilling JR with Jim Ross, a conversation was struck up about now-former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon putting Jim Ross in charge of acquiring tape libraries for WWE.

Ross shared his experiences speaking with those who owned those libraries and expressed his opinion that AEW President Tony Khan would probably like to monetize AEW in that manner without giving up the rights to it.

“Bigger plans were a library that we could build around. All that stuff was produced episodically. It’s perfect for television. If you watch the first episode, then you’ll wanna watch the second episode and so forth. I met with Doris (Adkisson)… So, we met with Doris and she was an aggressive seller, and then I met with Larry Matysik in St. Louis… Larry’s (a) smart guy. He knew what we were trying to do. It’s not like it’s a crime. We wanted to be able to program a network of some description and we needed content. Content is king, and it’s ended up making WWE millions of dollars with their own network, their own brand, and they’ve done an amazing job at building that brand, and I’m sure that somewhere down the road, Tony Khan is taking notes to be able to fully monetize his brand at some point in the future, and you can do it without giving up the rights to it. You just let the trademark be used in a different location, and in a different way. So, I’m thinking that was probably one of our best strategic moves is buying all these libraries, and I was in charge of acquiring them, shall we say.”

Jim Ross was back on commentary at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door in London. On a previous episode of Grilling J.R., Ross shared that his contract with All Elite Wrestling is up at the end of August.

If the quote in this article is used, please credit Grilling JR with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.