Business Is About to Pick Up!: 50 Years of Wrestling in 50 Unforgettable Calls

by Jim Ross, Paul O'Brien (Primary Contributor)

Experience 50 years of wrestling history through the iconic voice of Jim Ross.

For wrestling fans, Jim Ross’ voice is the soundtrack of an era. This book is your ringside ticket to wrestling’s most unforgettable moments—from the announcer who made them iconic.

In the last 50 years, professional wrestling has risen up from a collection of regional territories to become a global phenomenon—and Jim Ross has been there for it all. From the grit and glory days of the 1970s with NWA, to the rise of WCW and the heyday of WWF and WWE, to signing on as on-air talent and senior advisor for wrestling’s newest chapter at AEW, Jim Ross has long had the best seat in the house.

Now, in 50 definitive chapters, chronicling 50 iconic calls across 50 unforgettable years, Business Is About to Pick Up! takes you into the ring, and behind the scenes, as only Jim Ross can.

Immerse yourself in sports entertainment’s most dramatic moments, biggest shocks, and history-making firsts—from watershed collisions like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin versus Bret “Hitman” Hart to industry-shaping milestones like the debut of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, the rise of John Cena and Dave Bautista as Hollywood A-list stars, and the birth of All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Then debate which moments Jim Ross just had to include . . . and what else should’ve made his list.

This book is a celebration of pro wrestling’s past, present, and future—narrated by the Voice of Wrestling himself, who was ringside to call it all.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sports, Audiobook, Biography, Memoir, Autobiography

304 pages, Hardcover

Published May 7, 2024

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a Netgalley score. Netgalley still thinks I'm cool.

Anyway, I didn't know what to expect from this since Good Old JR already has two wrestling books out that cover 99% of his career but it wound up being my favorite of the three.

This book celebrates Jim Ross's 50 years of wrestling by revisiting 50 points during his life, from working for Bill Watts and Leroy McGuirk in NWA Tri-State to Mid-South to the Flair vs. Steamboat trilogy to the WWF/WWE and beyond. The deeper focus on those various points make this a worthwhile read for anyone who enjoyed JR's previous books. It doesn't feel like he's treading the same ground, even though it easy could.

My one minor quibble is that by the time it comes out, the AEW chapters will already be a year out of date since the Brawl-Out just happened and CM Punk is still with the company but with the enormous lead time in publishing, that's actually pretty current.

4 out of 5 stars. JR probably has another book in him yet with all the juicy road stories he hasn't shared yet.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fine book, however, it was an easy to digest nostalgia read. Following the formula of listing moments, Good Old JR gives us the low down on the business of professional wrestling. In chronological order Jim Ross gives us the calls that have defined him and he uses each one as a prompt to provide commentary on the business or insight into life. Was a quick listen. Fun to revisit all the wrestling I've heard called from my favorite announcer. By Gawd!

[Jesse Bouchard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love and respect Jim Ross , and all that he has done for the pro wrestling business. I thought this would be a sequel to his previous biographies and really do a deep dive on his post WWE career. The book had a little bit of that, but it was more of a reflection of some of his top matches and calls over his career ranging from his earlier years through his current AEW years as of 2023.

[Samuel Steffen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Ross provides a nostalgic read for all fans. Any admirer of Jim and professional wrestling will this book by one of the greatest commentators all time be perfect.

[Dakshesh Thacker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I relapsed into watching 'rasslin content earlier this year as I started binge watching YouTube videos of the fitness regimes and workouts of Goldberg, The Rock and Triple H. As expected, the YouTube algorithm flooded me with a rabbit hole of podcasts of retired professional wrestlers who were once well-known names on TV back in the 90s and late 2000s. One such podcast was by Good 'Ol JR, the soundtrack of wrestling from that era, which bought back a burst of memories.

Unexpectedly, though, this translated to a bunch of books on wrestling on my Kindle recommendations. For long I've been looking to debut my reading on the Kindle and JR's latest book was the ideal breezy read to give me confidence that I can actually read without paper in hand. And BAH GAWD what a debut it was and what a throwback it was in patches and revelatory in others.

While the book is supposed to be styled as JR's 50 most unforgettable calls, it is essentially a history of professional wrestling through the eyes and words of JR, whose served the business and built a unique name in the game. His passion, monumental knowledge, his studious observation and hunger to contribute to the business shine through chapter after chapter. I found myself learning so much about how the sport evolved from serving an adult male working-class audience to different segments of society based on how the marketing money and creative juices flow. More than the matches themselves, it is these macro insights, including those about the psychology of the art and audience engagement, which make the book interesting.
JR's writing is lucid and breezy, perhaps catering to the average wrestling fan who won't be the most literary snob or academic in nature. The chapters are page turners, and I knocked off the book in 3 days, while other non-fiction books these days take me much longer. His writing is filled with personal anecdotes, historical references, peppered with his best commentary lines and offers commentary on the evolution of the business, deeply highlighting perhaps who Jim Ross is as a person more than just playing Good Ol' JR. It was great to see how JR supports the progressive trend in the business, distancing itself from its roots in the mid-20th century.
Particularly noteworthy are some of the later chapters, especially the one on his Hall of Fame induction, where JR reminisces about his wife. These are heart warming references and bring a depth of humanity in a book which is otherwise mostly about adult men beating the shit outta each other.
I don't expect this book to appeal to everyone. This is targeted to a wrestling fan who perhaps invested time in watching some of the content. I found myself at sea with a lot of the 50 matches in the early parts, and definitely those from the last 10-15 years, when I have not been watching. However, if you are a fan, then I would highly recommend this book. It's a wealth of wisdom and anecdotes depending on how much you know about the business, but BAH GAWD is surely a walk down memory lane.
I might not watch professional wrestling much these days or in the future, but I will cherish the memories JR has constructed for the millions.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher BenBella Books for an advance copy by the commentator who made the matches seem bigger, better, broader and with stakes far above what they seemed with just his voice and his passion for the sport.

I started watching wrestling as a child probably about the time of the first Wrestlemania, when a lot of other kids did. I had watched some before but, like most sports it had never really caught me. I liked the promos the wrestlers did they way they put them selves over to the crowd. It was riveting television. I don't really remember who was commenting on the matches, I am sure it was Vince McMahon owner of the WWF at the time. But the commentary did nothing for me. Somehow my illegal cable box received wrestling from other towns and territories, and it was the opposite. And that is where I began to hear Jim Ross, or later when he came north, "Good Ol JR". Ross had an ability to take what seemed like two angry drunks in a bar, and make it not only the sport of kings, but a battle unmatched since the days of myth. There was a passion, an intensity, a need to make one understand yes this might be a wrestling match, but by good this meant more than that. This was Good VS. Evil, right vs. the unjust. Open your eyes and ears and let me tell you their battle song. Jim Ross was, and still is that good. Business Is About to Pick Up!: 50 Years of Wrestling in 50 Unforgettable Calls, written with Paul O'Brien, is a memoir, and a timeline history of Ross, the industry he loved, told in matches called, with background information and the reflection that comes from growing older and seeing things with new eyes.

The book begins with a little bit about Ross, and moves on to how he moved into wrestling, a job that promised him more money than he was making, but a job that had it's own history, and its own idiosyncrasies. Jim began as a driver for a blind promoter, slowly working his way up doing whatever he could. A radio background made him the perfect fill in for a commentator on vacation, and a career, with a few starts, stops, firings, and more began. The book covers 50 matches spread over 50 years, from famous, infamous, not well known, or important for personal reasons. Some of the matches, Mankind's Hell in A Cell, which broke a man in half. Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat three matches that still stun today. Halloween Havoc a mistake that still stuns today, but not for the same reasons. Stone Cold Steve Austin's "last" match. Embarrassing attitude era matches that explain a lot about current Vince McMahon and a few from Ross' current home in AEW. There are background notes, behind the scenes stories, a telling of what it was like to see controlled chaos, and sometimes complete chaos, and reflections about 50 years in the industry, that Ross still loves.

A very good companion piece to Ross' previous books about wrestling, but giving a better feeling to why Ross loves wrestling, and some nice stories about the people he has met along the way. There is no settling of grudges which many wrestling books are full of, though there are mentions about the slings and arrows that WWE put Ross through. I like the inclusions of the match calls themselves, these really show capture these moments in time and put the person back on the sofa and watching these live again if lucky. Ross explains his health issues, which might explain the heaviness of the co-writer writing, there are quite a few sections that don't seem like Ross, but then suddenly when the wrestling starts being discussed, Ross is there. This is my only quibble, as I really enjoyed this book.

Wrestling fans will enjoy this book a lot, the classic matches, behind the scenes stuff, and Jim Ross being Jim Ross. Wrestling historians will learn much, as will those who still dream about getting into the industry. Ross is pretty honest about a lot of things, from enhancement talent, to time away from families, and the health issues. I can't wait to hear more from JR, and look forward to whatever projects he is working on, though I do hope his biggest project is working on taking care of himself. There are not many good people in wrestling, and Jim Ross seems like one of the best.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was initially going to give this a 3, but I bumped it to a 3.5 just because of my soft spot for Good Ol’ JR, his clear love of what he does/the wrestling business and how sad it made me that he’s had such a rough couple of years personally with the death of his dear wife, Jan, his cancer diagnosis and the fall that left him with a concussion in his seventies.

Overall, it was a neat way to look at his 50(+) year career by choosing various of his calls, but at times I wondered if there weren’t probably more significant ones he could’ve picked. Actually, when I told my sister about the book she mentioned a couple that didn’t make the cut - but once I started reading I realized the choices were less about how memorable the calls were to audiences, versus what they meant to Jim Ross or that point in his life.

Sometimes this could be murky though, because it didn’t always seem to be “this was important to Jim Ross” as “this was important to the wrestling industry” and I wished it was a clear mandate of one or the other.

Sometimes the “stories” devolved into him just re-telling the matches which, to me, as someone who only just started regularly watching (WWE) wrestling again in the last year or so after 20 years, I didn’t mind as much because he was retelling matches I had missed, but for people who knew them, it didn’t seem to be adding any further depth. (And on this note, I wish I could’ve heard this as an audiobook because JR is all about his voice! It would’ve been way better to hear it read by him with the actual clips of the calls mixed in, versus just reading it but I couldn’t find an audiobook reading available. I did, sometimes, look up the clips on YouTube, but for the early stuff not all of his exact lines or things he mentioned were available).

On the other hand, he had some fantastic insights into the inner workings of the industry - like explaining how the shift from a focus on pure wrestling to soap opera storytelling came about in part due to needing to keep a sidelined-with-a-neck-injury Stone Cold active and relevant in stories when he couldn’t wrestle. That, I appreciated, and truly wanted more of in the book.

Also, some of his thoughts on the progression of his new place of business, AEW, haven’t aged well in last 18 months or so. Where he was ending the book with them having a massive 81,000+ attendee show in August 2023, his focus on numbers as a metric for how well they’re doing kind of backfires. I just read some articles saying AEW has been struggling and is having a hard time hitting high numbers for ticket sales in 2024 into 2025. (Add to that the fact that the book ends a month before CM Punk was released with a hopeful note that he’s back and doing well, and he has since returned to WWE to huge fanfare)

Obviously JR will speak well of the company and man he now works for but it almost came across as someone who’s in a kind of honeymoon period haze. It’s only been 5 (going on 6 years) of his 50 year career but I do hope they continue to treat him as nicely as they have been so that he gets to ride out the remainder of his career in relative comfort (especially after years of being jerked around by Vince - but that brings up another note. He speak on being brought back to have Michael Cole ridicule him as being old and stodgy, but doesn’t say anything about his 2 year contract that helped him through the death of his wife. He does say it helped him, and he appreciates they were there for him, but there are no calls from that time. I can respect him not wanting to write about a time he was dealing with fresh grief, though).

All in all, I am glad I read it but do wish I’d heard an audiobook and am glad JR seems to doing better now than he has been the last couple years.

3.5/5

[Danny · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I reviewed “Under the Black Hat”, Jim Ross’s second book, I said the following, “ I would love for his next book to be “My Favorite Matches that I Have Called” or something to that effect where he would give his opinion on the matches and provide extra insight on backstage reception of the match.”

Well Jim Ross did exactly that and I was very excited to read it. The first two books seemed aimed at the more casual reader and went in detail about the business but not necessarily the matches. I was very excited to read this book, assuming it would go more into the storylines and matches while including behind the scenes information that did not fit into the first two books.

I do not feel we got that here. He picks 50 iconic calls but these calls and matches often receive little time in the book. Instead Jim uses the subject of the match to explain where he was at in his career at the time and discussing how far wrestling has come since the match/time being discussed. This is not always a fun read if you have read his other two books as a lot of the information is rehashed though it is in much more detail in the other two books. He often takes the opportunity to promote AEW, discussing how much talent they have or how progressive they are. This does not seem needed and dates the book quite a bit. There are several things that feel dated, he discusses ALL IN 2021 and brags on CM Punk and talks like he is still on the AEW roster for example.

There are a couple of mistakes in the advanced copy I read. The one that really hurt me was saying that the January 18, 1998 Steve Austin/Mike Tyson confrontation from Monday Night Raw was in Pyramid Arena in Memphis , Tennessee as it was in my hometown of Fresno, California at the Selland Arena and I was in the crowd.

There are a few chapters where he really details the matches well; the chapter on the July 11, 1994 match between Brett Hart and the 1-2-3- Kid, the June 28, 1998 Hell in a Cell at King of the Ring between Mankind and Undertaker, the August 27, 200 TLC match between the hardy Boys, Dudley Boys and Edge and Christian, the July 1, 2002 Monday Night Raw Ladder Match between The Undertaker and Jeff Hardy are highlights.

I did learn a few things in the book, (what the Rock said to Steve Austin after their match at Wrestlemania 19, celebrities that are wrestling fans, that Goldberg attempted to sign with WWF prior to WCW), but upon google search, I saw this information is on the internet. I was really hoping Jim Ross would reveal some new stories and information about these matches/moments and the stories behind the calls.

Jim Ross does put each year of the match he discusses in pop culture context which is fun, and I enjoyed reading the calls he made during the matches and moments.

This book did not meet my expectations. I do not think it is necessary if you have read the other two books unless you read every wrestling book or want to read about how great AEW is. I think I would have preferred if he would have just released a book of transcripts from his favorite episodes of his podcast with some updated context at the end of each transcript. He reveals more about matches and the behind the scenes information on the podcast.

Thank you to NetGalley and BenBella books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

[Luke Koran · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose this life. And it chose me.

Some people come to that realization in regard to paths they take in life - their choice of career, where they live, their faith, who they settle down with, the family they raise. Professional wrestlers LIVE for this feeling - their entire purpose in life is geared towards this ever-driving core belief that they were born to be a wrestler, one who lives for the thrill of performing. But the wrestlers themselves are only one half of the equation that is the machine of pro wrestling. Sure, they are the ones who take the audience on the ride in telling a captivating story through their promos and their athletic performance in the ring and on our screens. However, arguably the most crucial element of the entire wrestling presentation are the voices describing and interpreting the action, that being the announce team. I can think of no person better suited to explain how professional wrestling works and its dependence on talented broadcasters than Jim Ross.

After 50 years in the wrestling industry - many of them on the national stage as a play by-play commentator, Jim Ross has more than a few legendary calls and moments under his black hat (pun intended). A few memorable ones are recounted here in his third autobiography, along with commentary on how each year in the business has progressed as he saw it. Whether we knew it or not, JR made our wrestling experience special. His voice is THE enduring memory that we recall when reliving moments during the Attitude and Ruthless Aggression Eras. Without him, the story is only half-told, and not nearly as fondly remembered.

As you can imagine, Jim Ross lives and breathes wrestling. More specifically, he lives and breathes being a wrestling announcer. He could not imagine a life without it. JR felt and chased that thrill of performing and taking the audience for a ride just as much as the wrestlers who were performing in the ring felt and chased that feeling. He needed all of us, and we needed him. The world is better having had JR be the voice of wrestling for as long as he has. A hearty "thank you" for your many contributions to the world of pro wrestling, JR.

[Tanner Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a wrestling fan and growing up listening to Jim Ross call all of my favorite memorable wrestling matches, this book was a home run!

The book goes back through the entirety of Jim’s career from his early matches in the territory wrestling, into his vast career the WWF/WWE, all the way into his most recent AEW calls. I really enjoyed how he went into details on why he considered the matches described as calls that will always stick with him. Waves of nostalgia hit me as he talked about his huge calls during the 90’s and 2000’s with the WWE. Jim does an awesome job touching on each of the matches and small details he remembered, but not going into too much detail either. This has even inspired me to go back and watch about couple of them again, this time listening closer to his broadcasting, picking up the small details he described in the book.

Special thanks to NetGalley and BenBella books for the this advanced copy in exchange for my honest and fair opinion. This is a must read for current wrestling fans as well as fans in the past that want just a few refreshing hits of nostalgia to remember what it was like when he was at the announcers table. I loved this book and think Jim Ross did an awesome job, which has inspired to go back through some of his other books as well

[A Broken Zebra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NETGALLEY and BenBella Books for eARC


Seriously, JR is such a charming, comfy writer. He was my main voice in wrestling and just as delightful there as he is here. If you are or were a wrestling fan (WCW, WWE-/-F, AEW, etc), or definitely if you're a JR fan, then of course you should read this. There aren't chapter numbers, but instead they're marked by a quote, date, and location. The story starts at 1974, ends at 2023, and concludes with index. I liked how he set the timeline, using pop culture and history to mark what's going on, while coinciding with wrestling highlights (ex: “In 1987, The Simpsons first appeared on our screens, Guns N’ Roses released Appetite for Destruction, and Three Men and a Baby owned the box office . In wrestling, Owen Hart won Pro Wrestling Illustrated Rookie of the Year, and WrestleMania 3 cemented wrestling as a pay-per-view behemoth with the historic Hulk Hogan versus Andre The Giant main event.”). However, I have to say for me, the quotes peppered within the chapters fell untethered and random. They disrupted the flow. Overall, I'm glad I requested this and was approved!

[ReadinRasslin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a big fan of Good Ol' JR's first two books, impressed and charmed by the personable, witty demeanor that JR seamlessly transferred from his iconic commentary to books with ease. While this third book has hints of the style of the first two, Business is About to Pick Up is a collection of Ross's favorite matches he's called in his long career and is stylistically much different than the standard autobiography format he did previously. If I praised JR for sounding real and personable before, it seems he lost that along the way here. Depending on the chapter, some parts felt incredibly artificial and blatantly fed in by the ghostwriter. For a book subtitled "50 calls", some chapters didn't even have a call of JR's in it and was included for the significance it had towards the business rather than Ross's pivotal part in it or how it affected him. I particularly enjoyed the AEW chapters towards the end because it's the one part of his career he didn't touch upon in the other two books - most of it felt like deeper dives into what I had already heard in Slobberknocker. I'm not gonna shit all over this, it's still a JR book - he still can pour his heart out onto a page and treat every book as a passion project, but this fell flat for me in comparison to the previous two books.

[Dave McKee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the idea of this, reliving some of the most landmark events in wrestling retold by the voice of wrestling himself, Good Ol JR.

What this is in reality is another overview of his life with matches, for the most part, used as touch points only.

The structure is inconsistent, sometimes, when the book is at its best, he recalls in great detail those matches (Taker v HBK at Wrestlemania 25 or Bret Hart v Stone Cold at Wrestlemania 13) but some times he mearly mentions the match to talk about what they meant more generally.

There is too much autobiographical stuff in there, stuff he has covered in his other books, which wasn't what I was looking for.

There are a lot worse ways to spend your time than listening to JR talk about wrestling. It's just a shame he didn't focus more on the actual matches.

It is a good, if not the complete, nostalgia trip that I was looking for.

Book 10/25

[Wendi Manning · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can still remember Mankind’s Hell In A Cell match like was yesterday. Jim Ross’s commentating stuck with me for years. The man can talk. That’s why this book is so good.

I liked the first few chapters where he talked about all the territories and how he got into the business. Then came the matches, and I fell in love with the book.

I read a lot of wrestling books, and this is one of the best by far. A blend of memoir, matches, and backstage stories, that mixes together way better than it should. I got chills reading the Hell In A Cell match.

I will read anything,and that means I need to go back and read Ross’s other books, that Jim Ross writes.

My only problem with this book is that occasionally you can tell when the co author is writing. It throws the tempo off a bit.

I couldn’t recommend this more!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

[Chris Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good luck reading this book in any voice other than JR himself, especially when the format of the book is built around his calls. The format worked well for me, and made for easy jumping off from the book. Read a chapter, watch the match. Repeat fifty times.

The book moves quick. Each chapter starts with JRs call of an important match from his career. He uses that call to describe the match itself, the wrestlers involved, his own biography or just the nature of the business at that time. It kept the reading fresh. I don't think I would have been as interested in 50 straight retellings of old matches. This book is ghostwritten, but the tone sounds like JR to me. His humour and voice are there. My main gripe with the book is a small one, it's when he crams in a couple examples of what was going on in the year he's talking about. It felt lazy and boring. Otherwise, I enjoyed it all.

[Tommy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't bad. Ross is like Vin Scully....I could listen to him just reading results and appreciate it.... the possible is, that's what a lot of this book feels like.

There are good, even great, sections. I enjoyed hearing him talk about Flair/Steamboat, Hart/Austin and Undertaker/HBK.... and the Undertaker/ Triple H segment was particularly good. But for every good segment that was mined for good material, there were two that felt like filler.

Part of it was that I feel like I've heard 3/4 of the book already on his Grilling JR podcast with Conrad Thompson. But another part of it was that they probably could have pared it down to 10 or 12 calls and had the same effect .

I enjoyed it, but thought it could have been better.....

[Nat Medlen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would really give it 3.25 stars, it is a little better than 3. This is the 3rd book by JR that I have read, and it is the saddest of the three. Age and introspection is catching up with him and in some places it shows out in how hard this has been for him. It is especially sad when he discusses the period around his wife's death and his cancer struggles. He is definitely a man aware that his best years are behind him and is now seeking to just cement the legacy he already has. I liked it for the most part, but my one complaint is that he comes across as a little too much of an AEW apologist. He has the experience and seasoning to allow him to be critical of the product AEW is creating and chooses not to do so.

[John Schorg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Along with Gordon Solie, Jim Ross is the voice of professional wrestling for several generations. It makes sense that he would have enough stories to fill three books. The concept of this is a good idea...tying 50 different calls to 50 moments of wrestling history that Jim Ross witnessed. The author is the proverbial good soldier, and even some of the dicier moments he describes are presented in a fairly positive light. For those of us who feel wrestling has gone downhill the past 20 years or so, the author's point of view toward that history seems to be a tad too rose-colored. As always, the world awaits the book on this subject from Jim Cornette.

[Tony Farinella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Out of his three wrestling books, this one was my least favorite. It’s still a good book with some good stories, but there isn’t a whole lot of new ground for him to cover with this book. There are a lot of historical and grammatical errors, which were very glaring. What works best in this best is what a likable, honest, and vulnerable person Jim Ross is. You can tell how much he loves the business and what it means to him. He also shares his own personal stories about his life as well, which were both moving and heartbreaking. Overall, I recommend the book but it is flawed. There is also a little too much AEW ass kissing as well.

[Matthew Wilkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was fortunate enough to get an advanced press copy for work, and once again JR puts together an engaging and informative read.

Just as he does on commentary, he knows how to tell a story and reliving some of his greatest calls was an enjoyable experience as he gave little tidbits about each match.

It was a journey through wrestling history, and his decision to give some pop culture references as timeframes was clever. It’s detailed and covers different aspects of his entire career, being something any wrestling fan will enjoy.

[Zoe Thacker]

If anyone knows how to write a book about wrestling it is JR.

The format was the first thing that drew me in, how the chapters were titled by his tag lines on commentary.. By making the chapters shorter it made it much easier to read than some of the wrestling memoirs that I have read and it kept you engaged.

Another thing that kept me engaged was that he was very broad with his choices of matches. they weren't all from just one era in his career which was great for a long time fan like myself that wants to read about more than current day wrestling.

[Jayden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve always been a huge fan of Jim Ross, and this book reminded me exactly why. Business Is About to Pick Up reads in the same engaging style as The Baseball 100, The Football 100, or Why We Love Baseball but with a sharp focus on professional wrestling and the legendary voice behind it.

It’s a must-read for any young broadcaster or fan looking to break into the sports industry. Ross offers honest insight into the challenges of life on the road and what it really means to live beyond the television screen.

[Erica Callahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

*Received from NetGalley*

An emotional ride!

Jim Ross has become known as The Voice of Wrestling. Along with Jerry "The King" Lawler, Good 'Ol JR has filled my youth with many great memories. It was a pleasure to not only relive those iconic moments but to appreciate them even more. There were moments while reading that were very emotional. From a long time fan, thank you very much for being one of the best memories of my childhood.

[Tim Hoar · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s sad but JR’s voice does struggle here with the narration. By no means essential. But interesting perspective from a central figure of so much of mainstream US wrestling over the past 40 years.

Grapples with the prejudices of the industry over the years. And his professional aging. Doesn’t get into the legal stuff around mcmahon. But pretty honest about his creative failings and being in the wrong ont eh screwjob.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the format on this was very cool, using important matches to highlight different elements of the industry. Ross is (rightfully so) pretty critical of Vince McMahon and I'd be interested in seeing either another book or what this book would have looked like written even a year later with everything that's come out.

[Dan Vinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was in college during the "Attitude Era" of WWE, and I really haven't watched wrestling since. This book brought back a lot of fun memories from that time, and I learned a few things about the times before and after. It's an easy, quick read that puts a smile on your face if you've ever loved wrestling.

[Fletch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read, interspersing excerpts of good old JR's commentary with his recollection of 50 wrestling events over his (as of 2023) 50 year career as the voice of pro wrestling. Occasionally it gets a little choppy when they get too over eager with the quotations, but by gawd, the man's a enjoyable storyteller.

[Leon Atterberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another EXCELLENT book by Jim Ross. The book was great, not just because of the pro-wrestling behind-the-scenes information he provided but all the details information on what it takes to be a valuable employee/employer. He gives a lot of practical information that one would not expect from such a ‘rasslin book.

I’ve been a big fan for many decades.

Great read!!!!

[chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

another amazing book

I loved this. I would highly recommend this to anyone who was or is a wrestling fan. I’ve been a gigantic fan of J.R’s for ages and it’s great to see him put out another book. Good luck J.R. Keep doing your thing and stay strong.

[Chris Cummings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another very enjoyable read from JR. The chapters, covering various calls of Jim's career, are easy-reading and insightful. While this isn't on par with his previous two memoirs, this is still a cool book that highlights a bunch of Jim's broadcasting career in wrestling.