Jim Ross offers a “simplistic nutshell” of how his treatment for skin cancer and return to AEW TV will go.
Jim Ross offered a medical update for his ongoing treatment for skin cancer on a new Grilling JR podcast on AdFreeShows and spoke about the plan for his eventual return to All Elite Wrestling. Ross revealed his diagnosis in October and recently confirmed that he would be off of AEW TV in December due to having 22 total radiation treatments for skin cancer, but remained hopeful to return at the end of the month.
Speaking in more detail on the podcast, Ross said his final treatment is scheduled for the same day as the AEW Dynamite taping in Jacksonville on December 29 and talked about how AEW and Tony Khan approached dealing with his absence.
“I’m a little bit nervous, apprehensive I guess, but I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid, Conrad. I’m going to win this fight. It’s just a matter of get it started, throw some punches and see where it takes us. I’ve got it planned out. If all goes on schedule, my last treatment will be on the day of the Dynamite show at Daily’s Place [on December 29]. I’ll have my last treatment that morning and then I’ll hopefully be back on the air that night, that’s the plan.
“You’ve got to have a goal, right? Tony Khan is happy with it. I pitched him the whole concept, I said, ‘Hey, we need to talk about this thing.’ It’s the ‘elephant in the room’ deal where you can’t ignore it anymore. It’s here, it’s time, and I told him what I would like to see him do as a suggestion.”
Ross noted that it’s probably a benefit that he came to Khan with a solution instead of just presenting the problem, and it probably adds value as an employee. Co-host Conrad Thompson agreed, then Ross laid out his idea for how to handle commentary in his absence. Ross said he didn’t know who Khan would use at the time of recording, but there certainly a lot of options to go with until he returns to AEW TV.
“To me, it’s an interesting template that you create there. You could do a lot of things, you could have one guy do it for four weeks. You could — I hope they don’t go to a four-man, but that’s Tony’s call. We’ve done it successfully with a four-man [team], and it’s not the most favorable scenario because it’s hard to find your rhythm with four guys talking and you’re trying to dance to the same song. So I don’t know what he’s going to do, but whoever gets to sit there is sitting in a great spot and they can create awareness for themselves, their TV persona, maybe develop another skill set, whatever.”
Ross said it’s a good opportunity for whoever gets the call, then he detailed his treatment schedule, the first of which started the day after the show was recorded. Thompson noted that JR is not on TV because travel would just be impossible to do with his treatment schedule, then Ross said that he needed to be home to do as many treatments in consecutive days as possible.
“As it was explained to me by both of my doctors that are working on this deal, it’s important to get the number of treamtents in and get them done in as [many] consecutive days as possible. With us leaving on Tuesdays, going to the airport, going to the next city and working Wednesday, working Dynamite, flying back Thursday, there’s three days right there that might not even work. They might not even have the time when I get back on Thursday to get me in on a Thursday afternoon. All my treatments are scheduled for the mornings, so I’m going to be up and at it early and get it out of the way and then move on with my day.”
Jim Ross noted that he’s not getting chemotherapy, so he’s hopeful that the radiation treatments will “nip this thing in the bud” and it will get rid of the cancer and he’ll be given a clean bill of health.
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