Chris Jericho Gets Criticized For Softball Interview With Controversial Wrestling Personality
Chris Jericho has turned into one of the more popular podcasters in the world today after a successful wrestling run that encompassed both WCW and WWE back during the Monday Night Wars.
Fans love the guy and respect him, except for when it comes to his recent interview with embattled WWE trainer Bill DeMott.
DeMott left his position as a head trainer at WWE after stories surfaced that he’d endorsed and even participated in hazing activities.
Whether all the allegations are true or not, it was definitely a serious enough scandal to get him a tougher interview than what fans heard on the latest episode of Talk Is Jericho, which you can listen to below.
If you don’t have that luxury, one particular section that is piquing interest is Bill DeMott’s “Make-A-Deal Fridays,” which were said to be responsible for most of the hazing pranks, like the infamous “jelly doughnut scandal.”
According to Cageside Seats, this incident involved Luke Gallows giving “naked stinkfaces” to Zack Ryder and Melissa Coates “while DeMott held jelly-filled doughnuts over their faces.”
Other allegations included forcing wrestlers to “work injured or hitting them in injured body parts,” the site said, both of which were issues that got a pass from Chris Jericho.
While Y2J never claimed to be an investigative reporter, it’s still interesting that he wouldn’t pursue this line of questioning since almost every fan, who followed the story, wanted an explanation.
The Cageside commenters were particularly critical of Jericho for not pressuring DeMott and felt that he owed it to his audience to ask tough questions if he was going to have a scandalous figure like DeMott on the show.
One posed the question that if a talk show host is going to have on this type of guest and advertise it, yet “doesn’t address the controversy well, then he isn’t doing a very good job, is he?”
The commenter continued.
“Having Bill on given the controversy will draw listeners, which is the whole point of having someone like Bill on especially soon after this stuff all happened. That’s why people will tune in to this podcast in particular. So if you’re not going to really go into this stuff, why have those kinds of guests on?”
If you’re going to have a talk show, do you need to be plugged in to what your audience wants and expects? Does having this type of guest on the show carries with it a natural assumption from audience members that no question will be off limits?
But what do you think, readers? Did Chris Jericho let Bill DeMott off easy? Sound off in the comments section.
[Image via Online World of Wrestling]
