During an appearance on the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast, Chris Jericho talked about wrestling promos and brought up MJF:
“People at this point know that this is show business. There’s only so deep you can go. I think that, for example, there was a line a few weeks ago that MJF used about Lex Luger being in a wheelchair to Sting. I don’t think that gets heat, I think it makes people feel uncomfortable. I think it makes people feel bad, and you don’t want that. So there is a fine line between using real life issues, and going to inside baseball, where it’s like, ‘I don’t know what this guy is talking about, but it just doesn’t feel right.’ To me, that is the fine line of a pro wrestling promo. If there’s something in the universe that people know, then you can use it because it’s been on the show or whatever. If it’s something behind the scenes like, ‘well, your dad was a drunk.’ And it’s like, ‘where did that come from? His dad’s a drunk? Well that sucks. My dad was a drunk too. I don’t want to watch this show anymore.’”
“That’s how I feel. I don’t think it gets more heat, I think it actually gets reverse heat, which has people going, ‘ugh. We know it’s a show.’ It’s like watching the new Star Wars movie and someone going, ‘Kylo Ren, your mom in real life had an abortion when she was sixteen.’ What does that have to do with Kylo Ren? It’s two different things. So, I think there’s a fine line to it. You can make things seem real with your intentions and the way you say things and the words you use. That makes it real. You give me a Chinese menu, I can do a promo that will make it feel real. So you’ve got to be careful. And people sometimes go, ‘oh, I’m going to say this and it’s going to get major heat.’ And people just kind of sit there going, ‘I don’t know what he’s talking about.’ So there’s a fine line.”
