Jimmy Jacobs recently left WWE after a years long stint as a writer on the creative team. That means he has a ton of insight to offer on what goes on there. Thankfully, Chris Jericho grabbed him up for an interview on "Talk is Jericho" and, no shock here, it's a must listen.
For full context, you need to listen for yourself:
Some interesting bits:
- How he knew he wanted to work on the WWE creative team while bestowing Suger Dunkerton with his knowledge on a flight. He was high as hell on ecstasy at the time.
- The writing sample he submitted that helped get him hired was an idea Brock Lesnar to beat down Dean Ambrose en route to the main event of WrestleMania against Roman Romans while Seth Rollins was Money in the Bank contract holder. At WrestleMania, Ambrose would come down to help attack Lesnar as payback for what he had done and then Rollins would cash-in his contract. So The Shield would vanquish Lesnar together
- He didn't understand why he should be afraid of Vince until he was around him enough and then it became very clear when he saw Vince wanted to fire someone for something Jimmy thought was small. From then on, he feared for his job over whatever decision he made and that was troubling because that job was his whole life at that point.
- "Throughout my two-and-a-half years there, I think Vince poked fun at probably everything about me."
- As for the making fun thing, both Jericho and Jacobs say the culture is such that it's like a high school where everyone jumps on to agree with Vince about it and pushing it.
- The peak of his time at WWE was helping write the Jericho-Kevin Owens program, including the Festival of Friendship.
- He always tried to deliver the promos he wrote to Vince, but oftentimes McMahon would just take the paper and read them himself. "Vince had a very critical eye when it came to promos, and Vince was big on the words too." He said fans give them flak for promos, thinking if wrestlers were left to say what they want they would all say "I'm going to kick your ass." In that way, Jacobs understood why Vince was how he was about promos.
- He guesses that there was a part of Vince that thought Jacobs was trying to get himself over, and that could very well be part of the reason he was let go, that he was a character and not a guy in a suit and tie just simply writing.
- "Compliments are scarce there. ... The job of a writer there is you get all of the blame and none of the credit."
- Jacobs puts Kevin Dunn over, saying he gets a lot of criticism but he's got a lot on his plate and he does a good job.
- Vince was really excited about 205 Live when it first started. They have unique challenges, though, not least of which is the fact that, as Jacobs puts it, you need stars to make stars.
- They go over the origins of The List. Steve Corino has his own shit list in real life, so Jacobs took inspiration for that when Jericho was supposed to air his grievances to Mick Foley.
There's a lot more, including a stint in rehab, how it led to him deciding he didn't need WWE anymore, his firing, and even more. Listen!