Jericho on Larry King
Observer has a poll up right now on who has came across the best in media coverage of the Benoit situation. Chris Jericho is running away with it, although I vehemently disagree with that one after his performance on Larry King tonight. Jericho has thus far come across as articulate and level headed, and he shot down some of the theories that deserved to be shot down. But tonight he just came across as a shameless shill, plain and simple. He defended WWE on absolutely every point, even the notion that WWE doesn't encourage people to have abnormal physiques. He clearly knows better, as he himself would have ended up a much bigger star in the business were it not for the physique obsession. I'd expect that sort of thing from the WWE employees, and guys that retired a number of years ago aren't necessarily aware of what's going on in 2007. But Jericho follows the business, and for him to pretend as if the business doesn't have any problems (almost certainly because he wants to stay on good terms for his return) is counterproductive and ridiculous. As far as the best, Konnan hands down. The guy's one of the brightest minds in all of professional wrestling - sharp, no bullshit, articulate and insightful. Give me him over Jericho any day of the week.
posted by Todd Martin at 9:52 PM
12 Comments:
Well, just to be clear, this wasn't the first time for Jericho, and it has very little to do with Chris Benoit or trying to stand up for the WWE. I've heard several interviews (after he left the company and before Benoit's death) where he defended the WWE and the industry, suggesting guys are not pushed just based on their size. He thinks its BS, which I can't really understand. Normally Jericho is very rational about the business, but he's wrong about this.
I think Jericho has taken that stance because he always knew he might return to wrestling and he didn't want to burn any bridges. That's smart as a general proposition. But it's a totally different story to me when your good friend just died, you're now speaking to the public about what can be done to prevent future deaths, and you feed them obvious BS to help your future employment opportunities.
man, todd. if its not too much trouble i was wondering if you could post a link or two, maybe from youtube or whatever, of konnan laying it down in an interview. aside from TNA ive never really seen konnan do his thing, because during the monday night wars i was a WWF fanboy and boycott'd WCW. if you know any links of konnan showing his brains and 0 bullshit, i'd love to see it. thanks, regardless of the outcome >_>
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Man, Cena was trying to out Hogan, Hogan.
The best was Cena's response to the question about a union. Saying wrestlers choose to do this and basically implying that allows promoters to take advantage of them anyway they want. So I guess a pimp can do anything to a prostitute that they want, since it was the prostitute's choice to that profession (there's probably better analogies, but that's the best I got right now).
At least bret came back after the break and set Cena straight on that.
Konnan on Nancy Grace 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNQWq8xuG84
Konnan on Nancy Grace 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wIpW1H7grw&mode=related&search=
Konnan is always great on Wrestling Observer Live. You can listen to the most recent one here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/atcjbh
And I thought Konnan's shoot interview with RF Video was off the charts good.
I can't agree with you on Konnan, Todd, after his appearance on Nancy Grace tonight. One of the seemingly hundreds of panelists, an attorney, mentioned that the wrestlers have to take responsibility for their actions. I'm not even sure he meant it a way to absolve WWE or the industry only to point out that no one forces these guys to do anything. Konnan later, without being directly asked about it, called the guy an "idiot" thus making him comes across as uncouth and thuggish. That's no way to behave or to argue regardless of whether you have a valid point or not. It also invalidated whatever he said on the broadcast.
And by the way, the attorney was absolutely right: there's no disputing that the individuals bear most of the responsibility. I'm not denying that there's pressure/incentives to use steroids. But when a wrestler chooses to put his career goals ahead of his well-being, that's his fault first and foremost.
By the way, Todd links to a broadcast of Nancy Grace w/ Konnan last week, I was referring to this evening's broadcast.
While I do agree with Todd in regards to Konnan's intelligence, there is no doubt that he does have his own agenda, against TNA. He's basically had a free forum on all these news shows as well as the Wrestling Observer Live to spew his venom against Jeff Jarrett and company. Not exactly an unbiased account of wrestling.
I say that Dibiase has come off looking like a million bucks...;D
McMahon has always wanted the mainstream media coverage but I am sure this is not what he envisioned. This spotlight will eventually go away and we'll just have to see what changes will be made to wrestling due to this crazed act.
Vince has been the strong leader for a long time but at some point, he has got to wonder if this is the right time to hand off the company to the kids.
I'm not sure if Larry was afraid of catching the five-knuckle shuffle or what, but I was surprised to hear the softball-quality of the questions for most of the hour.
Anchorage, Hello...
"Yes, are you wrestlers, er, entertainers fearful no one will watch you if you're not 'roid-ripped to the gills?"
"If so, why?"
Just prospective questions from a viewer who watches for the fun - not the physiques.
- Matt in Anchorage
I'm not sure if Larry was afraid of catching the five-knuckle shuffle or what, but I was surprised to hear the softball-quality of the questions for most of the hour.
I'm not. Like Meltzer mentioned today, King is the show you go on to avoid being confronted.
Thinkin' more clearly now - I wasn't surprised, I was disappointed with the questions and the conversation.
- Matt in Anchorage
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