wrestling / TV Reports

Jericho Podcast Recap: Stephanie McMahon Talks Ronda Rousey, Give Divas a Chance, More

April 30, 2015 | Posted by Robert Leighty Jr.

-Welcome to 411mania live coverage of the Chris Jericho Podcast with guest Stephanie McMahon. Join me at the top of the hour to see what Jericho has in store for the most powerful woman in pro-wrestling today.

-Got to love the timing of things as this podcast is moments away from starting while my 49ers are on the clock in the NFL Draft! Hopefully I can see this pick before having to get to Jericho/Steph coverage. My Niners did get their pick in before I had to turn my attention away from the Draft, so all good on that end.

-We are Live! With Chris Jericho and he and Steph immediately play up there on screen animosity before breaking into laughter. Jericho brings up how there was a WWE Staff party today and Jericho is upset he wasn’t invited and that he never knew there was such a thing in the 15 years he has been part of the company. They talk about various staff members and Jericho brings up how they were promised Christmas bonuses one year and got a Santa figurine.

-Jericho asks Steph how many different people work for the WWE and she says about 800 total. They segue to Steph’s role and how she just came back from a 2 week trip in Chin and Singapore. She brings up being awarded the Eisenhower Fellowship. She discusses what all that entails and that is part of the reason she was over in China and Singapore. She talks about the history of the award and how she had to defend the WWE while overseas.

-Jericho talks about how even in this day and age the WWE still needs to be defended as if it was for Neanderthals. Steph talks about the high points of the WWE and how they are a pioneer in the industry. She puts over the WWE Network (award winning) and how he father helped the PPV industry with WrestleMania.

-Jericho has hear elaborate on working for her father and she says there is pressure because he wants his kids to do better than he did. Jericho laughs as he notes Vince is standing off camera and Steph laughs as well. She mentions Vince wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth and while she has been given advantages from him, he still makes her earn everything.

-She talks about when she did the ECW Invasion deal and how Vince made her and Shane go back out and reshoot an angle in front of a crowd in Boston who knew things were screwed up. They talk about how when it is edited nobody knows there were mistakes, but live you feel like a loser.

-Jericho says Steph is very much like Vince on screen and Steph says Shane has called her The Vincess. Nice! She says she has studied Vince because he is her dad and there is nobody better to learn from than him. Jericho mentions how when she first started she was just thrown on TV and had to learn on the fly. He mentions the same thing happened with Vicki Guerrero and both learned to grow into their character. Steph talks about how she has grown thanks to being a mother of 3 children and has given her more experiences to use.

-Jericho asks if people sometimes get her TV character mixed up with her corporate character when she goes to meetings and business appearances. Steph brings up the Be A Star Campaign and how she has made kids realize that they aren’t alone in being bullied. She talks about how she is a bully on character and not that way in real life. Jericho jumps on how that can send mixed messages and Steph says that she is just a character. Jericho mentions that he was bullied as a kid and Steph says she learned that while out with Hogan she found out he was also bullied.

-Talk moves to Steph growing up in the business and she says she didn’t know any different. She remembers Hogan and Mr. T coming over for dinner before Mania I and how Linda had to make liver for Mr. T. She was sick from making it and Steph says she remembers Mr. T signing everything for her and then at the Hall of Fame her kids came back with all kinds of stuff signed by T as well.

-She tells a story of being a kid at the Spectrum in Philly and being scared to death of George Steele. She tried to hide behind her dad and he just laughed because George felt so bad and was trying all he could to make Steph feel better. She mentions her favorites as a kid were The Killer Bees, and Tito Santana. She mentions she did gravitate more to the heels and that she did not cheer for Hulk Hogan. Jericho talks about how he loved Jesse Ventura in the AWA and Steph says as a kid she hated him because of how much he picked om Vince while on commentary.

-Next talk shifts to the friendship Steph had with Andre the Giant. She was always told this story by her mom as her nanny was afraid of Andre and tried to hide, but Steph walked up to him and Andre picked her up with one hand and let her give him a kiss on the cheek. She talks about how people would treat her differently because she was Vince’s daughter and people would often treat Andre different. They show a pic of Steph on Andre’s lap after Mania I and she remembers falling asleep on him. They just had a special bond together.

-They talk about Shane and Steph playing wrestling while they were younger. She talks about Shane being 7 years older and putting her in nearly every hold. She tells a story of Shane throwing her and missing a table and crashing into a wall. She didn’t throw Shane under the bus when Vince ran to see what happened.

-Steph says that she was in love as a kid with Bo Duke from Dukes of Hazard and then we move on from there.

-Jericho asks her about her start in the business and she says she started at 14 years old by answering phones in Titan Towers. She tells a story about a mom calling in because Bobby Heenan had said there was no such thing as Santa Clause. She had to talk the lady down and get her to understand Bobby was a bad guy and would lie on TV. They talk about Foley believing in Santa Clause.

-Back to Steph getting into the business and she started in the media division and would sneak on the AOL chats to talk with fans. She then became a PA and got to put together clip reels and was proud of doing one for SummerSlam. When she graduated college she spent three months in her mother’s office and learned from her. Then she spent six months with her dad in his office for the other part of her internship. She got to go on the road with him and that is when she realized how awesome the job was. She then segued into the sales office and soon started on TV.

-Jericho asks if there was a rule that she couldn’t date wrestlers. She says it was strictly forbidden which is why it was shocking she ended up with HHH. She says that Vince would often say she needed to date someone like HHH and Shane would always tell them no. Vince then said not HHH, but someone like him. They did get together and Vince decided it was bad for business and put a stop to it.

-Jericho asks how HHH reacted and she says that he was questioning things as he had to figure out if dating the boss’ daughter was going to be worth it. They had their time apart and then it was Steph’s decision to start things again with HHH. She felt the time apart was good for them and they were more mature when they got back together. She says all the backlash from others in the company was on him. Now my screen freezes for unknown reasons, so kind of bear with me for a minute.

-We are back with them discussing their on screen rivalry. She says it was fun and challenging as she had to be quick on her feet to hang with Jericho. They talk about how she showed up with a giant zit and she was perfectly ok with Jericho busting on her about it. Jericho tells a story about Vince loving Apes and how he told Steph and Jericho to reference apes since Planet of the Apes was coming out. That leads to Jericho bringing out a guy in an ape suit bringing a cake and it ends up being smashed in Steph’s face. Steph remembers the creative behind it and they knew they had to get to the cake in the face and just shoehorned the ape in there.

-They talk about Steph getting a boob job and how she told Jericho to make fun of that because of how obvious it was. Jericho burns through all the jokes he told that night and talks about the entire segment that also featured Booker T, Rhino, and the Rock. Steph was supposed to cut off Rock before he could say Mother Fucker, and it didn’t happen. Vince was rather pissed back stage and Rock says he wasn’t cut off and Jericho says that he never really gave anyone a chance to do so.

-Steph says she lost a lot of weight and wasn’t happy with how she looked so she made the personal decision to get the boob job. Jericho talks about how he would go over his burns on Steph with Vince first and he always told Jericho to make sure he can get the maximum pop from whatever insult he says.

-Jericho says that he heard back in 96 before he even worked with the WWE that a lot of people told him Steph was the future of the company and not Shane. He asks Steph if she is sad Shane isn’t around in the company and she says of course. She says Shane made a decision to do other things, but she does miss him. They gush over Shane about how great of a guy he is. She says she still has a great relationship with Shane and they get together as much as they can. She says maybe one day he will be back at some point, and then mentions that her mom has retired from the company as well.

-She says the two hardest things she has ever had to do was slap her mom and kiss Eric Bischoff. She pulled back on the slap because she was so sick about doing it. Her mom was proud of her and says that Linda got her back. Jericho says that Steph’s slaps were hard as hell and that is what they wanted from her. She says the hardest slap she ever gave was this past Mania to The Rock. She felt horrible after the slap because of how hard it was.

-That segues into the Mania moment from this year and Ronda Rousey. Steph says she doesn’t know where it is leading or if it is even leading to anything. She points out the fans were chanting for Ronda from the start and she knew it was going to be a great moment. Steph is a massive Ronda fan and puts her over from Main Eventing UFC PPVs and being a huge draw. She calls Ronda a role model and a legit bad ass. Jericho says she could have broken both his arm and HHH’s arm.

-Jericho asks about the idea of a match between the two and how Dana White said it is never going to happen. Steph says she doesn’t know and that this past year was her WrestleMania moment. Jericho asks her how they build the Diva Division. Steph says they do need to give the Divas a chance and she is pushing for it every day. She talks about the Give Divas a Chance movement and where it came from. She says it was organic from the fans and trended on Twitter for 3 Days and it got Vince to even respond.

-Jericho asks about how AJ took a shot at Steph from her Oscar tweet and asking for a chance. Steph says it didn’t piss her off and AJ’s response was more to her directly. She was proud of AJ speaking her mind and she is fully behind the movement. Jericho talks about the women in NXT and how they are given more of a chance. Steph says she hopes they can get to the point where the Main Roster Divas can get time the girls in NXT get. They discuss Steph and Lita having the first Female Main Event on RAW and how it featured Rock and Kurt Angle.

-Steph she does feed off the crowd and she does enjoy being a bitch on screen. She says people want her to be that character and that they love booing her. She says there is truth to some of what she says as that it what makes a great heel. Getting booed is the best part of her job and she says it is the greatest feeling in the world.

-They talk about Vicki Guerrero’s final angle and how she got to get the last laugh on Steph. She says it was pudding (banana and chocolate mixed with Hershey’s Syrup). Steph says she got an infection in her eye because people were mixing it with their bare feet. They talk about Vicki and Steph says she was sad to see her go. She says it was an honor to take the dive into the pool for Vicki.

-Jericho asks if it is hard being around her significant other all the time. She says they don’t see each other all that much besides at RAW. She usually goes home and he stays on the road. They are working on spending more time together with no phones being used and that kills HHH. She says that while she was in Asia, HHH had to hold things down at the house. Steph says the 4 year old in the house wears the pants and that her 8 year old has already show interest in being a Diva. She says Nattie has trained her a little and said she is a natural and already has heel tendencies.

-Her favorite match and moment was this past SummerSlam because it was her first match in 11 years. She loves the in ring part of the business, and is her favorite part. She still gets goosebumps because her 3 daughters were in the crowd to see her wrestle for the first time and having HHH part of it as well. It was the coolest moment for her because she is 4th generation and if her daughters ever do get into the business they would be 5th generation.

-Jericho wraps things up and says it was fun to work with her again. They talk about having great chemistry together and that ends things. Thanks for following along!