Jim Ross And Steve Austin Discuss Chair Shots In Modern Pro Wrestling

After Cody took an unprotected chair shot to head at All Elite Wrestling’s recent Fyter Fest show, discussion has once again resurfaced over the dangers such impact can induce.

Jim Ross recently joined “Stone Cold” Steve Austin on his podcast. The two eventually addressed Shawn Spears attacking Cody with a weapon.

“It’s like a lot of things in wrestling,” Ross said. “It’s overdone: A little goes a long way, and some of that stuff that we see and the chair is a perfect example, it’s a shortcut that people use as a crutch, and it’s overused.”

Ross admits he is not an advocate for people getting hit in the head, saying he’s “[…] not a big fan of it.”

“I’ll just come out and say what I would do: I wouldn’t do any more chair shots to the head. We’re done with that business. If I can’t have a team around me that are creative enough to get me the results of what I want in this angle or this storyline without having to scramble somebody’s brains for real, then I need to find some more hands cause we got the wrong staff here. Your last original idea died of loneliness, c’ mon.”

Austin agreed with Ross’ sentiment that chair shots are overdone. He added that “In this day and age—a one-off here or there, because if you don’t make it so frequent…and it is unimaginative at this point in time.”

He continued, saying “[…] I’m not gonna say ‘in defense of it’ I’m just saying when you’re on the receiving end, it is a calculated risk. If a guy is willing to take that risk, I say more power to him, but then there comes that trust factor as well.”

Jim would give his rebuttal, arguing that the problem lies with everyone wanting to have the chair shot in their back pocket for a “special occasion.”

The problem being that “a special occasion may be different definitively than their special occasion. So as long as they have that option, they’re going to go to it as often as they because ‘this is my special occasion.'”