Now in the midst of his ninth World Championship reign as Ring of Honor World Champion, it’s safe to assume that Chris Jericho’s wrestling career has gone pretty well. And yet, many still love to revisit the aspects of Jericho’s career where he was perceived to be held down, including his three year tenure in WCW, and his the follow up to his WWE debut in 1999. While Jericho’s actual debut, where he confronted The Rock, continues to be lauded, the follow-up was not, and Jericho quickly found himself in WWE’s midcard.
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Speaking about Jericho’s initial few months in WWE on “Grilling JR,” Jim Ross, who brought Jericho into WWE as their head of talent relations, gave his assessment on why it took WWE longer than expected to warm up to Jericho. Ross believes it was because WWE higher ups, particular Vince McMahon, believed Jericho’s appearance didn’t fit the WWE superstar mold.
“He was too short,” Ross said. “That’s what you get [from people]. ‘He’s awfully small. He’s got a…’ Vince told me one time Jericho had a feminine walk to the ring. I never envisioned that assessment. I didn’t feel it, I didn’t see it.”Â
Because of this, Ross believes WWE neglected to properly go with a Jericho vs. Rock program out of the gate, despite Ross believing that was the ideal rivalry to start Jericho off hot.
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“We should’ve followed up with Jericho and The Rock with a nice several week program,” Ross said. “But we did not do that. I can’t tell you why. It’s Vince’s decision, and it may have been something The Rock said. The Rock [may have] said ‘I don’t want to work with him. He’s too small.’ I don’t know that to be true, but we didn’t follow up on it, and that was a missed opportunity.”
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Grilling JR” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
