Jim Ross Opens Up on Struggles with Todd Pettengill and Jesse Ventura

In a recent episode of the podcast Grilling JR, legendary wrestling commentator Jim Ross opened up about his experiences working with Todd Pettengill and Jesse Ventura, providing candid reflections on chemistry and personal challenges during those partnerships.

On Chemistry with Todd Pettengill

Jim Ross shared his perspective on his working relationship with Pettengill, highlighting the lack of chemistry despite their mutual respect:
“The irony of that is that we got along great. He’s a good guy, and he was intelligent and funny. But he didn’t have a lot of product knowledge, and he looked at wrestling like it was some kind of comedy series or something along those lines. We just didn’t have good chemistry, and that’s partly my fault. I should have loosened up, as they say in the wrestling business. But I had my style. I thought it worked for me and it worked for the business, so I steered the course. But during that course, we didn’t have great shows. We didn’t have great shows together, and not because we didn’t like each other.”

On Working with Jesse Ventura

Ross also reflected on his early dynamic with Jesse Ventura, admitting his own shortcomings fueled by jealousy:
“In the beginning when I worked with Ventura, I didn’t like Ventura. I was jealous of him making a lot more money than me, maybe double, and working part-time. So then over the years, we’ve settled that. I’ve apologized to Jesse, he’s accepted that apology. And it was my fault. I was just jealous, and I’m embarrassed to say that here on the air, but I felt like we should — our pace should be closer together, I guess. But it was just jealousy on my end. Jealousy is a bad thing, man.”