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What's the story?
Current AEW announcer and former WWE legend, Jim Ross, is often recognised as the voice of the Attitude Era. He was interviewed on Busted Open Radio recently, where he was promoting the AEW: Fight for the Fallen event, which is set to take place this Saturday.
During the interview, he talked about the unprotected chair shot that Cody Rhodes took at AEW Fyter Fest that busted him open and why he feels that the chair is no longer a viable weapon when it came to wrestling shows anymore.
In case you didn't know...
Jim Ross is currently a senior advisor in AEW. Their AEW: Fyter Fest show saw a shocking ending to Cody's match against Darby Allin. After Cody got a draw against Darby Allin, he was unable to take time to catch his breath as Shawn Spears came out and hit him across the head with a chair.
The back of the chair caught the back of Cody's head and cut him open, leaving him bleeding badly. He needed 12 staples to the back of his head and thankfully a scan revealed that there were no concussion issues from the shot.
The heart of the matter
Jim Ross said that chair shots no longer made sense. Back in the day, everyone was sitting on those plastic chairs and they were cheap and easy staging. Now, no one sits on those chairs. He also said that now, chair shots were not able to end a match because headshots were no longer acceptable. It had to be a back shot.
"The chair shot back in the day, the chairs were there as usable objects because we are sitting on them. The ringside fans and the studio audience were sitting on them. Those steel chairs and folding chairs were everywhere because they were handy, easy to stack, cheap, easy & inexpensive staging. Now, then nobody sits on a steel metal folding chair. They're all locked up on ringside. Usually nicer chairs. And the announcers don't sit on folding chairs. Maybe the timekeeper does, I don't know. It's a work that it's such an expose." - h/t Wrestling Inc
He then went on to explain that CTE was a serious issue and was irreversible. He said there was no point asking for trouble.
"Guys get their brains rattled so many times over and over again - you're asking for trouble. If you dodge the bullet then God bless you. I just think that we gotta protect the CTE, protect the talents. I'm big on that. But again, it's kinda run its course." - h/t Wrestling Inc
What's next?
Jim Ross will be at AEW: Fight for the Fallen as an announcer on the show on the 13th of July this Saturday.
