Thanks to the Top Rope Nation Wrestling Podcast for passing along the following:

On this week’s edition of the Top Rope Nation Wrestling Podcast, hosts Ryan Droste and Kyle Ross interviewed legendary wrestling announcer Jim Ross about his new book Under The Black Hat, as well as took his first comments about the recently released former WWE Tag Team Champions The Revival.

On The Revival’s Release From WWE and a Future with AEW:

“Well, it’s a big if, everything’s a big if, because I don’t know what The Revival’s goals are. I think they would fit into our team very, very well. You know, we’re trying to be a little bit more athletic, athletically oriented, more fundamentally sound in our storytelling. And the Revival team certainly fits that bill. They are one of the best tag teams in the world, period, no matter where it is. So I think they would do great in our company, whether that happens or not remains to be seen.
There’ll be gross speculation that it’s a done deal, all that good stuff. But Tony Khan handles that, and I’m not in that talent relations role any longer. Thank goodness. I’m the Senior Advisor. Let me tell you what that means, the job description is this: I take credit for all the good ideas and I disavow any knowledge of the ones that suck. So that’s a Tony…I can’t imagine, knowing Tony Khan as I do, and the fan that he is and his ability to spot great things.. I can’t imagine that he wouldn’t be interested. Why would anybody not be interested in Revival is my question? So I’m thinking there’s a possibility they come to work for us. I think, you know, I’d love that. I’d love to call their matches. I’ve watched a lot of their work, you know, they’re a throwback team. That doesn’t mean they wear black boots. And, you know, it’s just the old school stuff. They are fundamentally sound, they’re old school oriented in the process of telling a story. And I think that’s really important. They don’t leave things out. They don’t take shortcuts. And they have the ability with their skill set, to work with any team out there and make that team and that match better. And we’ve got some really good teams evolving in AEW of course led by the Young Bucks, who may be the best tag team in the world. If they’re not, they’re certainly in the conversation.

“But one could certainly as a broadcaster, and as a fan, because I don’t have any insider information on this deal, I just read about it a little before we went on, we started recording that, you know, that these guys are released there, they may become available sooner than later. I don’t know about how long their no compete is. That’ll be a big point, everybody will have a theory on that deal, usually they’re 90 days but I don’t…WWE may have, you know, rescinded that on where they stood. They may have made exception. Let them go do their thing. So anyway, I hope that they consider AEW. I’d sure as hell like to call some of their matches. They remind me a lot of the old Midnight Express. They just don’t have a Jim Cornette in their corner right now. So, but boy, these guys are good. They’re really good and they’re young. They’re athletic, they’re durable. They seem to be good locker room guys, they’re wrestling guys. They’re not sports entertainment guys. That was never a great fit. But they’re wrestling guys and they need to be in a wrestling company. For my money, that’s AEW.

On His Own Personal Mt. Rushmore of Wrestling Announcers:

“Gordon Solie, Bob Caudill, Lance Russell, Gorilla Monsoon would be four off the top of my head that I would put on there. If you included color guys, color commentators, that would certainly include Bobby Heenan, who may be the best all around performer I’ve ever worked with, as far as being an outstanding wrestler, a great heel, a manager, a host, a color guy. He excelled in everything he did. And nobody in that era was better or that area was better than Bobby, in my view. So Bobby Heenan would be on that list, Paul Heyman would be one, Jerry Lawler would be one. Lawler, Heyman, Cornette (was a) great color guy….When you ask the announcers, I just assumed it was like my role as a play by play guy. So those four I mentioned I think would be there quite easily. There’s a very subjective list like everything else, but there’s my favorites.”

Hear the entirety of Jim Ross’ interview with Top Rope Nation, including thoughts on Austin’s heel turn at WrestleMania 17, how AEW and WWE are different to work with, his current relationship with Vince McMahon, the process of writing his new book, and so much more below.