There is no end to the bravado of Vincent Kennedy McMahon.
At WrestleMania 25, Chris Jericho fought a gauntlet of legends after weeks of a feud that stemmed from the 2008 film, “The Wrestler” starring Mickey Rourke. This is all building to a point at the end of the match where Chris Jericho would call Mickey Rourke into the ring and promptly received a punch in the face courtesy of the actor.
Speaking with Court Bauer on his most recent Talk is Jericho podcast, Chris revealed that Mickey Rourke had an entourage of UFC fighters with him in case Jericho tried to double-cross him because of comments that Chris Jericho had made on Larry King around the time of the event.
Jericho, bewildered by the fact that a man who was up for an Oscar for a role as a wrestler didn't understand that he was working when he made those comments, had a heart-to-heart with Mickey Rourke prior to the event.
“He had Frank Shamrock in the ring,” Chris started. “He had some Israeli guy who used to be like, not a bounty hunter, but kind of like a mercenary, and he was in there and they're all UFC fighters and he brought all these guys with him. There are three of them total to protect him if there was a double-cross, and all he was doing was getting in at the end of the match and knocking me out.”
He continued, “So I went in the ring and, you know, it's the first time I'd ever met him face to face, kind of a real fake kind of Hollywood hug. It took me a while to kind of explain to him, like what I was saying on Larry King, I was just saying in character, to try and build up the match he's like, 'no, that's not how it works. No. In boxing, you say that to somebody, that's a fight.' I said to him, 'Mickey, you're up for an Oscar for a movie in which you played a wrestler. You know how this is.' Finally, after talking to him for a good five, ten minutes, he finally got it. He actually said, 'I can't believe that, I'm up for an Oscar and you out-acted me. You fooled me.' Then he told me, ‘all these guys were here to attack you. If there was any type of double-cross.’ I said, 'Mickey, I'm not freakin' Goldberg, man. If there's to be a double-cross, you don't need four guys to take me out.’”
After Jericho and Mickey Rourke hash out their differences, Mickey would leave the site of the rehearsal with his entourage and Chris Jericho would explain to his boss at the time, Vince McMahon what the situation was.
Vince, consistent with everything fans have ever heard about who he is as a person, laughed at the idea of Mickey Rourke's entourage having any kind of effect in a fight and believed that he, Jericho, Fit Finlay, and Dean Malenko could have taken all of them in a fight. Specifically, Vince thought he could take Frank Shamrock
“Vince is down there, we're going over the punch at the end. Finally, when Mickey leaves with his entourage, I say to him, 'he brought these guys here to attack me if there was a fight.' [Vince is] like, 'those guys?' He points, he goes, 'that guy? That guy's a midget!' He's pointing at Shamrock. 'What's that midget going to do?! You, me, Finlay, and Malenko will kick their asses!' I said, 'well, let me tell you this, Vince. If something breaks out, I'll take Mickey Rourke and you take the midget.' He goes, 'you're damn right I will.'”
Luckily, there was no need for any kind of legitimate fighting and the segment went off without a hitch. In fact, the match that preceded it went so well that Ricky Steamboat had an additional two matches on television including a singles match with Chris Jericho at the Backlash 2009 pay-per-view.
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