AEW announcer Jim Ross recently told his loyal fans he would be taking some time away after a nasty fall just prior to the debut edition of Collision.

During his podcast, Jim Ross provided an update on his health:

“I’m feeling pretty good. You know, I think I’m getting better every day. I just had a string of bad luck, health wise, which is very unusual for me because, knock on wood, I’ve been very blessed with good health. But when you get to be 71, and you’re trying to live a young man’s life in a young man’s business and going on the road every week, it can get very challenging. So that’s kind of what I found myself in that situation. But what happened was, you know, it’s a hell of a story, at least it was for me. I got up and not unlike a lot of other people, I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, so I hopped out of bed to go to my bathroom, and apparently I tripped over my CPAP cord. And when I did, I fell face-first into the end table next to my bed and the corner of it hit over here somewhere. So I had a huge knot immediately, eye swelled shut almost immediately. But I was so sleepy and so out of it that I just got back in bed. I think I actually went to the bathroom. Mother Nature won that match, and then I got back in bed.

And then the next morning, when I woke up, that was my flight out to Chicago to do that first show that we’re talking about here, Collision, and that’s all I was thinking about. I woke up and I had a badass headache. But okay, a headache ain’t gonna keep JR out of work. But I had a bad headache, which was a result of the concussion. And my only thought was, ‘I gotta finish packing and get on the road.‘ That’s kind of what I did, but I was very unstable. Everything was very foggy, and I’d have been better off staying at home period, but hard-headedness and being stubborn, and I felt like I had a commitment that I’d made that I wanted to fulfill.

So I got dressed rather slowly. And my driver, I have the same driver that drives me to the airport [and] picks me up, brings me home every week, he knows if I’m not standing there ready to go, to come upstairs where I live. But I was downstairs waiting and on a little unsteady ground, and flew to Chicago. And as the day went on in Chicago, my voice kept going in and out, and I don’t know what the hell that was. I thought, ‘Well, I’ll get over it. I’ll drink a lot of hot tea or hot coffee or whatever , hot something, and make that work for me.’ But it was just too much to overcome. And I apologize for how I sounded. I didn’t intend to sound that way. I didn’t want to sound that way. And I know I disappointed a lot of people. I disappointed me. I don’t think it made anybody in AEW real happy how I sounded, but I was doing the best that I could.

So after that show was over, I went back to the announcers’ locker room, where we all dress, all of us, collectively, a little community place, and I sat there for a little bit and thought, ‘Man, I can’t keep doing this. I don’t feel good. Something’s not right. I got here, I did the best I could. But boy, I need to get home.’ So good old Rafael Morffi, who’s taken care of me so much on the road over the years, helped me get back to the hotel. I tucked myself in, and I didn’t even get undressed that night. I wanted to make sure I could not waste any time making that flight the next morning. So I flew home, headache and all, and I’ve been here ever since. I’ve been out of the house a few times to go to Publix, go to the grocery store, maybe two or three times in the last several weeks. Other than that, I’ve got people that are helping me get groceries or whatever I need, prescriptions, things like that. But I was too unsteady to drive and sure as hell too unsteady to walk around a grocery store. So I had my housekeeper buy me a little cane, which I’m embarrassed to say I’ve used a little bit, not outside, but here in the house to help me get around so I don’t have any more falls.”

He added on returning to the road:

“But as far as going back on the road, I don’t have a return date. Tony Khan’s been very nice as far as, ‘Take all the time you need, and if you want to take several weeks off or the summer off, or whatever you’d like to do, just get healthy.’ So I appreciate the fact that he’s being patient with me and that he is encouraging my good health because that’s really the main thing, and it gives us all an eye-opener. There’s nothing more important than our health. And so many times, we take it for granted. I have for years. So I’m gonna be a little bit more aware of my health, I’m gonna be a little bit more aware of how I take care of myself, but in the meantime, I’ve been here at home.”

“I was always scheduled to come in and do the main event, but by the time I got there, my damn voice was shot to hell, and I don’t understand exactly why. I talked to the doctors, they said it could have just been the stress of your injury, your body reacting to what it was feeling. I shouldn’t have gone out there with a concussion. I should not have gone out there with my head splitting.” 

WNS wishes Jim Ross all the best in his recovery and eventual return to television.