Chris Jericho Comments On Vince McMahon Scandal – On the True Geordie podcast, Chris Jericho was asked to give his thoughts on the Wall Street Journal reporting on Vince McMahon paying out millions to women who worked for him at WWE. (Note: this podcast appears to have been recorded before the latest WSJ story that alleges that McMahon paid out a total of $12 million to multiple women).
Jericho was asked if he’s surprised that Vince McMahon allegedly paid out millions of dollars to women. He said, “Not really. I mean, is it a surprise in any industry when it happens? And really, you know, when you look at it, it’s really not illegal. He had an affair, paid the lady off to not say anything, and moved on. So it’s almost like, okay, and? People want to jump on it. But there’s still always an undertone of ‘its wrestling, it’s just wrestling.’ If you look, that story came out with a bang, and then you really haven’t heard anything about it since. If this was Hollywood with Harvey Weinstein and that sort of thing – But the difference between that was he was holding women back from getting gigs, Harvey Weinstein. [He would say] you either bang me or you don’t get the starring role. In Vince’s thing, there was a mutual acknowledgment of this affair and then he paid the lady to say nothing, and she took the money. So, you know, I really know Vince well, and it sucks that happened. It sucks that he did it. But is anything really gonna happen from it? I really don’t think so.”
Jericho continued, “I think that it’ll come and go. And once again, is it morally right? Absolutely not. Is it illegal? No. Is it something that is going to get him in real trouble? I don’t think so. Because once again, unfortunately, [people will say] ‘oh, it’s just Vince McMahon. Oh, it’s just wrestling. Of course, he’s going to do that.’ So you know, those things come and go and they happen. And it’s too bad. But I really think it doesn’t really matter in the long run. And, you know, six months from now, I’ll either be right or I’ll be wrong.”
Jericho on who Vince McMahon is in real-life: “Vince is just the lad at heart. He’s just a f**king dude. And yes, he is very intimidating. And he’s a billionaire. And he’s, you know, the creator of this massive, iconic company. But deep down, he’s just a dude that likes to hang out, likes to joke, and likes to drink…He’s surrounded by, ‘Yes men’ as most guys in that position are. He doesn’t want ‘Yes men’ and I had a really good relationship with him. I don’t have much of a relationship with him now, because obviously, I don’t work for him. So there’s a little bit of a career issue. But if I text him right now, he texts me back in five minutes. Always. I loved working for Vince McMahon. I loved when Vince would challenge me and push me. And I also laugh when people say, ‘Oh, Vince has lost it’ and ‘oh, look at Vince, he’s a terrible booker’ and all this other stuff. Maybe it’s not great sometimes. But you’re also dealing with a guy who’s been doing this for 40 years. Imagine doing this for 40 years. I remember when I left in 2005, I needed to get away and he said to me, ‘I wish I could get away sometimes, but I can’t’ like kind of wistfully for like three seconds, and he was back to [being] Vince McMahon. Like, of course, it’s hard to do this job.
