Jim Ross says doctors have set August 12 for a shunt procedure in his brain, and he is now speaking as if his long run behind a microphone may already be finished. The WWE Hall of Famer said the surgery is close and that he is trying to prepare for what comes after it.
Ross said he has never had brain surgery before and was told he would be in the hospital for just one day. He described the procedure as a shunt being put into his brain and said he is trying to push through it, even if he does not exactly welcome it.
That timing matters because Ross has already been away from AEW's announce desk for a long stretch after a nearly 40-day hospitalization. He also said his contract is up this month, which makes the surgery date more than a medical milestone. It lands in the middle of a career he now believes could be ending on its own timetable.
Ross did not sound eager to leave the business without a proper goodbye. He said he hopes his ending is planned and that he would rather know he is leaving than simply show up on Dynamite one night and announce he is done. He said that matters to him personally, and he added that if Tony Khan decided his services were no longer needed, he would accept it.
There is still one date Ross appears to have in mind. He said he is pushing to work AEW's All In event on August 30 at London's Wembley Stadium, even as he acknowledges that his announcing days may already be over. That leaves the next few weeks doing a lot of work: August 12 for the operation, and August 30 as the target he wants to reach if his recovery allows it.
The larger story is not just that Ross is facing another procedure. It is that one of wrestling's best-known voices is confronting the possibility that his career may end in a hospital room rather than at a desk, and he is trying to make sure the exit, if it comes, is one he can see coming.
