Jim Ross: ‘Vince McMahon Didn’t Like Chris Jericho’s Height’

Jim Ross knows better than anyone what Vince McMahon likes and doesn’t like. Having worked with WWE for over 20 years in various roles, Ross was around for the majority of Chris Jericho’s tenure with the company.

Ross recently revealed on Grilling JR what McMahon thought of Jericho during the early days of his run in WWE. In short, McMahon didn’t like Jericho’s height.

Here is the full quote, courtesy of Fightful:

“I had to negotiate with Vince basically to get Chris on the radar because of his f***ing height. That was it. But what would you dislike, what would be your bad box checkmarks with Chris Jericho? He can’t work? No, he’s a real good worker. Oh, he can’t talk, can he? Oh, he’s a real good talker. Is he injury [prone]? No, he hasn’t been injured, he’s as durable as anybody we’ve ever hired. So what is it? His blue eyes? Fact that he’s from Winnipeg? The fact he survived that Tony Cardello death tour one time? No, he’s short, in Vince’s eyes, short.”

“That’s why Jericho wore lifts in his shoes in those early days in WWE. But nonetheless, that’s it. What else could there be? I mean, he wasn’t hard to get along with. He worked his ass off. He was talented, was highly skilled, great skill set. He was not the ideal height to be in a main event at WrestleMania, in Vince’s view.

And the way it works there… The world revolves around Vince. It’s not about anybody else. He didn’t like Chris’s height and therefore, he was able to make a major change, and it was not a good change. I love Mick Foley, I hired Mick Foley, I went to the wall from Mick Foley more than one time. I don’t have any regrets, but Mick Foley retiring for 60 days or whatever it was, was not good business for anybody.”

Jericho obviously went on to have great success in WWE but it was not until much later that he was able to have sustained main event success.

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• jim ross
• chris jericho
• Vince McMahon
• wwe

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