JR’s “Grilling JR” podcast brought up a past conversation surrounding Vince McMahon’s alleged advice to Todd Grisham to temper his excitement about the WWE return of Christian Cage after his stint in TNA.
Here’s a recap of some of the podcast’s key points:
Jim Ross’s thoughts on Vince McMahon cautioning Todd Grisham against expressing excitement: “That doesn’t make much sense. You bring talent on board for one purpose: to elevate them and grow your brand. It’s baffling on how Todd Grisham would be supposed to implement such guidance. It may appear straightforward, but in reality, isn’t. I believe that the whole thing was foolish. Vince seemed to have an inexplicable bias towards Christian. I’m not sure of the reasons behind this. It remains a mystery.”
“Looking back to when I was heading Talent Relations, it didn’t concern us as we kept pushing ahead, continuing to feature him. Viewing the agent reports on the house show, it was clear that he was consistently delivering some of the most compelling matches, irrespective of his opponent. Who could have possibly done a better job at safeguarding John Cena more than Christian? No one. This is a unique skill, not possessed by everyone. But unfortunately, Vince failed to recognize it, and once he labels someone a failure, it’s hard to change his mind. Such instances come across as nonsensical and perplexing. The situation should not have occurred under Laurinaitis’ leadership. It was purely childish, epitomizing one of Vince’s eccentricities.”
Commenting on refraining from underselling a talent’s comeback: “Vince never conveyed this to me. I engaged in match commentary as I saw fit, striving to infuse some authenticity and credibility. I wasn’t going to indulge in such trivial tactics. When you see a talent making so much effort, you cannot overlook it. Christian had a troubled back, but he didn’t let that deter him from giving his best. He made sacrifices, taking hits, leading matches… It is still baffling to me on how Vince perceived Christian. Certainly puzzling.”