Jim Ross is, for most people’s money, the greatest announcer in the history of professional wrestling.

His was the voice of the Attitude Era, the most popular era the wrestling business has ever seen.

However, his career was very nearly cut short.

These days, Good Ol’ JR is a commentator for All Elite Wrestling and he also serves as a consultant backstage, but back at the turn of the millennium, he was working in a high-stress role of play-by-play commentator and head of talent relations in WWE.

Ross would suffer a few bouts of Bell’s Palsy that would partially paralyse his face.

It made his southern twang even more pronounced and, in JR’s own words, in a ‘looks type business’ he was fighting a losing battle.

However, as revealed during a recent Q&A with Inside the Ropes, JR had two of the biggest stars in the history of the business in his corner and they kept his career alive.

“I thought at the time that would probably be my last show,” Ross said.

“My facial paralysis was not improving and the world of WWE is a very looks type business and the fact that this paralysis made me not smile is disconcerting to some. So I thought, ‘this is probably my last Raw’, but luckily it wasn’t.

“That’s because The Rock and [Steve] Austin went to Vince McMahon and said: ‘we want JR to call our match, he’s our guy.’ I still get emotional talking about that.

“They respected my work I guess after all those years, they knew that I respected them. I was a fan and always will be a fan.”

Ross is talking about WrestleMania 15 in 1999 and the same was true for WrestleMania 17 in 2001. The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin headlined both WrestleManias with Ross in the booth.

Austin’s final match ever completed a trilogy with The Rock at WrestleMania 19 in 2003 and Ross called that match as well.