Vince McMahon disliked AEW star's "feminine walk," Jim Ross says
Vince McMahon oversaw WWE's creative direction for four decades before being replaced by his son-in-law Triple H in 2022. In a recent podcast episode, Jim Ross gave an insight into McMahon's view of World Wrestling Entertainment legend Chris Jericho in the late 1990s.
Jericho joined the Stamford-based promotion in 1999 after leaving World Championship Wrestling. The current AEW star went on to become a six-time WWE world champion and WrestleMania main-eventer. However, Vince McMahon initially had reservations about the former WCW talent.
On his Grilling JR podcast, Ross recalled a famous story about McMahon believing Jericho was too small. He added that the former WWE Chairman also raised concerns about the wrestler's supposed feminine walking style:
"Vince told me one time Jericho had a feminine walk to the ring," Ross said. "I had never envisioned that assessment. I didn't feel it. I didn't see it. However, you just have to ride with those talents." [44:16 – 44:34]
Jericho has not wrestled for WWE since 2018. He debuted in AEW in 2019 and immediately became one of the promotion's top stars.
Why Chris Jericho struggled at first working for Vince McMahon
On the August 9, 1999, episode of RAW, Chris Jericho confronted The Rock in his first WWE appearance after weeks of buzz surrounding his debut. He was supposed to record a statement-making win over The Great One two months later on RAW. However, Vince Russo's exit from the writing team led Vince McMahon to make a creative change.
According to Jim Ross, Jericho was always likely to experience a difficult start to life in WWE after appearing in a big debut segment:
"One of the reasons that Jericho wasn't as successful as we wanted in the beginning, it's hard to come down from being introduced and interrupting The Rock, so there's where your angle was and it didn't play out, and that's not good." [44:35 – 44:53]
Ross also addressed speculation that he and WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H "hate" each other.
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