Jericho welcomes former WWE writer, Jimmy Jacobs to the show.

Jacobs informs that he started writing for WWE in April of 2015. Jericho returned to WWE in 2016 and the two men met for the first time, even though Jericho had heard a lot about Jacobs from his time working on the indie scene. Jericho asks him how he started working for WWE.

Jacobs says he was knocking on WWE’s door for a long time, and he actually worked as an enhancement talent in WWE when he was 21, wrestling a match with Eddie Guerrero. He says that Guerrero was so nice to him that day, thanking him in advance for what he was doing to help get Guerrero over that night. Jacobs says that Guerrero was a main event talent at that time who treated him, a 21 year old enhancement guy, as an equal and he’ll never forget that.

A few years later he was brought into WWE to tryout as a Manager, as Vince McMahon was apparently focused on finding some new Managers for certain talents on the roster at that time. He cut a great promo in his tryout and several backstage officials told him he did a great job and there was a good chance he’d be hired.

He showed up at the Smackdown taping the next day and it was as if the prior day didn’t exist, and he didn’t exist either. He assumes that Vince McMahon changed his mind regarding hiring talent as Managers and just as quickly as those positions became available, they were taken away.

In late 2014 he was brought into WWE as an enhancement talent again, but he called Daniel Bryan and Joey Mercury prior to that date and said that he wanted to become a writer in WWE, not a wrestler. When he showed up to the building that day Bryan and Mercury brought him to the head of the writing team and put in a great word for him, and he began the process of applying to become a writer.

As part of his application, he had to fantasy book an entire buildup to WrestleMania’s main event in 2015, which was Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns. His booking included Lesnar attacking Dean Ambrose prior to WrestleMania, infuriating Reigns who’s good friends with Ambrose.

At WrestleMania, Ambrose would limp to the ring to get his revenge on Lesnar and then Seth Rollins would also rush the ring, cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Lesnar and becoming WWE Champion. WrestleMania would go off air with all three members of The Shield in the ring and fans wondering if they’re back together or not. Apparently WWE officials liked his application as he was hired shortly thereafter.

Jericho asks Jacobs if he felt like he may have overstepped his boundaries in WWE early on. Jacobs says that he was very carefree when he started there first, before he knew that he was supposed to be scared of and intimidated by Vince McMahon. Soon enough he came to understand that McMahon’s presence is something that all the writers are accustomed to being intimidated by.

Jacobs fashion choices also seemed to garner him some heat with McMahon, who seemed to pick on him for basically everything including the way he dressed, walked and even the way he stood still. Jericho informs that McMahon’s jokes often incite a gang mentality backstage as everyone loves to laugh at the bosses jokes and suddenly you’re outnumbered.

Jericho also agrees that certain fashion styles are not always approved of by McMahon, and McMahon was particularly turned off by Jericho’s decision to start wearing a scarf during his most recent WWE run.

Jacobs began working exclusively with Jericho during his most recent run. Jericho demanded that he wanted to work solely with Jacobs after discovering that Jacobs was a very good writer and the two men went on to develop the Kevin Owens/Chris Jericho storyline, which they’re both very proud of.

Jacobs says that writing for WWE is a thankless job because if things are good the credit goes to the performers, but if things go bad it’s the writers’ fault. He only recalls receiving one compliment from Vince McMahon and that came when he was writing the ‘Rose Bush’ TMZ-like news segments for Adam Rose.

Jacobs informs that McMahon was very excited about 205 Live initially but the show has never really picked up steam. He thinks that show is in a tough position, going on late after 2 hours of Smackdown without the presence of any major stars on the roster. He also points out that guys like Seth Rollins are working that in-ring style at the main event level better than the 205 Live guys are, so it’s a tough sell for fans.

Jacobs discusses the development of Jericho’s ‘List of Jericho’. He based it off of Steve Corino’s real life ‘Shit List’ and he initially pictured it being a crumpled up piece of paper. He thought there was a lot of interesting creative things that they could do with it and while some of the other writers weren’t sold on it, Jericho understood the concept immediately and couldn’t wait to start. Jericho eventually adapted the list into a fancy clipboard which he could use as a weapon if need be.

Jericho says that his character was so hot for a period of time last year and they were clicking on all cylinders as a creative unit. Jericho felt so confident at that time that he could get over anything that WWE threw at him. They thought their story culminated wonderfully with the Festival of Friendship, which Jericho calls one of the greatest segments on RAW last year.

Speaking about his release from WWE, Jacobs says he wasn’t trying to get fired by WWE when he was taking that now infamous selfie with the Bullet Club, but he wasn’t trying to not get fired either. After attending rehab for substacne abuse issues he started to realize that maybe it was time for a change and he believes that McMahon was convinced of the same.

After being released he was worried about money initially, but once the news broke that he was released by WWE he received plenty of booking inquiries and those concerns quickly vanished. He admits that taking a selfie with the hottest act in indie wrestling probably helped his brand outside of WWE.

That sums up another episode of Talk is Jericho. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!