11 Times WWE Made An Ass Clown Out Of Chris Jericho
2. Replacing The Stone Cold Podcast On The WWE Network
WWE made an error in the way the handled the initial transition from Stone Cold Steve Austin's podcast to Chris Jericho's show on the WWE Network. Stone Cold, who has hosted his own show on Podcast One for over two years now, was given the opportunity to film his spoken word show for the WWE Network. His podcast is up there with the most popular in the world so it was a natural transition for WWE to capitalise on that. What the powers that be at WWE didn't bank on was the line of questioning their former champion would be using. Stone Cold, while proclaiming he merely 'shoots the breeze' with his guests, gets into some pretty deep issues at times. It's what the fans want to hear, which is why his show is so popular. Austin had Vince McMahon and Triple H on his first two Network shows and left the pair reeling afterwards. Vince and Hunter were both reportedly unhappy at how Stone Cold backed them into a corner regarding touchy issues like 'Macho Man' Randy Savage's potential induction into the WWE Hall of Fame and Chyna. The Texas Rattlesnake's show was then canned for a month or so while Jericho was handed the reigns to host shows with John Cena and Stephanie McMahon. Now Jericho's style is the polar opposite to Austin's. While Austin's conversations are pretty intense at times, anyone who listens to Talk is Jericho will know how Jericho takes a much more laid back approach, only diving into the real nitty gritty issues when he absolutely needs to. This contrast in styles saw Y2J labelled a company shrill and accused of asking questions that his guests would be happy answer. This simply isn't the case. Thankfully, Austin's podcast has been reinstated to The Network while Jericho has gone on to host Tough Enough. There's room for both shows on the Network. You could have Jericho's lighter style aired before the watershed while letting Austin do his unleashed show for more mature audiences... Nevertheless, the fact Jericho was drafted in as a replacement and is now seemingly surplus to requirements on the Network is pretty poor form on WWE's part. They could have handed the situation a lot better.
