Vince McMahon's thoughts on Nathan Jones; why Jones had heat in WWE

Jim Ross discussed former WWE Superstar Nathan Jones on the latest episode of his Grilling JR podcast. The Australian, who spent time in prison before joining WWE, worked for Vince McMahon’s company in 2002 and 2003.

Ross admitted to podcast host Conrad Thompson that signing Nathan Jones was a gamble. However, in Vince McMahon’s eyes, it was worth the risk to see how well the former strongman fared in WWE.

“It was a risk, Conrad, it was iffy. Vince likes the calculated risk. That’s what he looked at it [as], that’s what he called it. ‘Signing Nathan Jones, JR, is a calculated risk.’ So we didn’t go into it blindly or naively, being overly naive. We knew it was a risk. It was chancey. But if, if, by some chance we got lucky and clicked, look what we would have had. It just didn’t work out that way.”

To this day, there is still a lot of mystery surrounding Nathan Jones and what the man behind the character is like in real life. Although Ross felt that Jones was “charming” and “likeable”, some Superstars disliked him because he always traveled in first class.

“I’ve never been 6’10”, so I don’t know how uncomfortable it is to be flying on an airplane in a seat that’s too small. You gotta fly in first class because you can’t sit in a coach seat. And then that p****d off a lot of the guys who had tenure who were smaller in size and they were sitting in coach and he was sitting in first class.”

Please credit Grilling JR and give a H/T to SK Wrestling for the transcription if you use these quotes.

Nathan Jones in WWE

Nathan Jones was sentenced to 16 years in prison after he committed eight armed robberies between 1985 and 1987. He spent seven of those years in a maximum security prison, during which time he started powerlifting.

After winning strongman competitions in the 1990s, Nathan Jones began working for Australian wrestling promotion WWA in 2001. He debuted on WWE television in 2003 but only competed in eight televised matches before leaving the company in December of that year.

Nathan Jones is best remembered for his work alongside high-profile names including Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker.

Nathan Jones' final televised match ended in a victory over Shannon Moore on the November 25, 2003 taping of SmackDown.