Third book by Jim Ross gets to the point

Jim Ross’ business is about to take off!: 50 years of wrestling in 50 unforgettable calls

The third biographical book by the double team Jim Ross and Paul O’Brien is more moving the deeper you read into it. Business is about to pick up!: 50 years of wrestling in 50 unforgettable calls.

It’s a reference that good old JR probably won’t understand, but it fits. In the later years of his time at Hockey night in Canada the late Bob Cole occasionally confused names. Hockey fans could only smile, because he was still Bob damned Cole.

That’s the same feeling I and many others have had with JR’s recent appearances in AEW. He is still a valuable member of the company, but he shouldn’t be the focus.

What he is not, and after reading Business will pick up soon!we learn some of the reasons for this, especially his health problems.

Given the extensive and challenging history of pro wrestling, it’s encouraging to read how JR has changed his mind and is “rethinking my life now that I’m approaching the inevitable.” His daughters and grandchildren are his first priority, and the result is X posts like the one below, in which his family stood by him after another health scare in May 2024 (after the book’s release).

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Dad and his two angels!
They really love their daddy.
💕 pic.twitter.com/I9BrwxbC46

— Jim Ross (@JRsBBQ) May 23, 2024

Like Cole and other radio legends, JR knows this isn’t a permanent job.

“I know wrestling fans will understand as I make the adjustments I need to make in my life and maybe come back and see them less. When I resurface – and I will – I might stumble a time or two like I always have, and I might slip up a time or two like I always have. But those words and phrases that they’re hearing are going to come from a man who always had a passion for his job that drove him through the toughest times and carried him through the biggest.”

Business will pick up soon! and actually to the second part of the title: 50 years of wrestling in 50 unforgettable calls.

JR and O’Brien start in 1974 and select memorable matches. In many cases, they pull up a transcript of the audio and use that as a starting point to talk not just about the match, but the bigger picture. For example, the 1992 commentary when Ron Simmons defeated Big Van Vader for the WCW World Title is an opportunity to talk about racism in the wrestling industry.

The inherent benefit of hindsight gives JR some perspective, though the AEW stuff already feels dated, and one regrets what was once a company with so much potential. “CM Punk was, and is, as I write this, that guy for AEW,” he notes, the book no doubt in print before Punk was fired, and is now a star in WWE again. And the WWE hardcores may complain about how much AEW there is, seven out of 50, but one of them is a boxing story, which hardly reflects the sheer volume of fights Ross put on for WWE.

There isn’t much explanation as to who these people are. It’s largely assumed that wrestling fans reading this book will either know enough about the names mentioned or will seek the information elsewhere.

All in all, it works, although I must admit that I skimmed over some of the reprints of the calls highlighted as quotes in the text.

There is so much knowledge here, so much background, so much experience, that fans would be foolish to overlook it, even though they want copies of JR’s previous two autobiographical books (Slobberknocker: My life in wrestling And Under the Black Hat: My Life in WWE and Beyond) if you would like further details.

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