Matt Hardy: Vince McMahon had ‘real weird’ rivalry with Jim Ross
On a new episode of his podcast, Matt Hardy addressed the “real weird” rivalry that once existed between Vince McMahon and Jim Ross in WWE.
Ross recently opened up the dynamic between himself and McMahon, saying he felt like McMahon’s animosity came from a place of jealousy because McMahon was never as good of a play-by-play announcer as he was. Ross felt like McMahon never wanted to give him credit for his part in shaping the Attitude Era despite Ross building WWE’s roster at the time.
The Hardy Boyz were two of the stars that Ross signed during that time period. Reacting to Ross’ comments about McMahon, Matt Hardy said he thinks McMahon got off on putting people in uncomfortable positions. While that might help some people grow, Hardy thinks McMahon’s approach was abusive at times. And McMahon especially seemed to enjoy making Ross uncomfortable.
“I felt like Vince had a thing — Vince had a thing for, like, putting people in positions which made them feel uncomfortable. And he kind of got off on that, in all honesty,” Hardy said on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy. “That was, like, one of his things. I felt like he did that with JR quite a bit. You know, that became a regular, common thing.
“There were certain people. I felt like if you ever showed signs of weakness, or like, ‘No, I don’t want to do that.’ Or like being uncomfortable, like if you were outright uncomfortable with it, then he would push it even harder. Because I know there’s some people that did get that. You know, I felt like anytime he put us in positions where, and I feel like sometimes he said like, ‘If you don’t go into areas or positions where you feel uncomfortable, you will never grow.’ And in some ways that is true, but in some ways too, I think he was abusive with it as well. And JR probably was one of the guys he was more abusive with in many ways. There was, like, this real weird rivalry between them in some ways.”
McMahon’s humiliation of Ross often spilled over to WWE programming, including the infamous “Kiss My Ass Club” segment that took place in 2001.
Along with being an announcer for WWE, Ross was a key behind-the-scenes player as the head of talent relations. Hardy credited Ross for being ahead of the curve on signing athletic talent. Without Ross signing both teams, The Hardyz vs. Edge & Christian rivalry never would have happened.
McMahon resigned from WWE in January 2024 following the lawsuit filed against him by former company employee Janel Grant. The still-ongoing suit accuses McMahon of physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault, and sex trafficking. WWE as a company is also named as a defendant.
The 73-year-old Ross is currently signed to AEW and contributes on commentary for pay-per-view events.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.