Jerry Springer has literally covered every conceivable — and inconceivable — saga on The Jerry Springer Show through the years. Meanwhile, the WWE Universe of hardcore wrestling fans have literally seen every imaginable storyline being played out in front of them as part of the longest-running soap opera going.
That's precisely why getting Springer to host WWE Too Hot For TV makes so much sense. WWE Too Hot For TV will have Springer poking fun at video clips from wrestling matches and skits from the WWE's massive vault of library footage. Think Talk Soup but suplexed WWE style. The show will be made available on the WWE Network's video-on-demand library immediately following Monday Night Raw around 11 p.m. EST each week. Here, Springer, 71, talks to Tech Times about hosting the show, his unforgettable moment with the Bella Twins, going from working Robert F. Kennedy's campaign to working for Vincent Kennedy McMahon and going on 25 years of The Jerry Springer Show. Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!
Tech Times: When we first heard about Jerry Springer hosting a show on the WWE Network, we thought, what a match made in heaven! With all the topics that you've covered on The Jerry Springer Show and all the storylines that the WWE addresses in their storylines, could you think of a better collaboration?
Jerry Springer: No. This is my show except on the WWE, they're better looking and stronger [laughs]. Otherwise, it's the same show.
How did this Jerry Springer Presents WWE Too Hot For TV show on the WWE Network come about?
Well, a couple of times I was on RAW. The last time was when I was trying to bring the Bella Twins together. That turned out to be a pretty outrageous moment and it didn't work too well. They still were fighting, they threw me to the ground, chaos erupted and they took me out on a stretcher. I remember when one of the Bella Twins was on top of me, I looked up and said, "You've got 25 minutes to get off me" [laughs]. That turned out to be pretty good.
So, I got a call because they're based where we do our show (The Jerry Springer Show) in Stamford, Connecticut. And so we met and they had an idea for a clip show. The closest parallel, I would say, is the show Talk Soup, which takes clips of shows and they show the outrageous moments and you tell jokes, make fun of it. That's basically what this is, except it's clips of some of the great matches and drama over the years. My job is to kid around about it. It's natural because it's literally a vault of thousands of opportunities of clips. The show is right there. You just got to figure out which ones to use and then I joke about it. That's what this show is. We come out with a different episode after each RAW.
Are you looking forward to possibly interacting with more WWE Superstars for the show?
Sure, they're such incredible personalities and what is easy to forget is these are great athletes. It's an entertainment package, but we shouldn't overlook that these are world-class athletes doing what they're doing. There's no way regular people could do this and most couldn't learn it. So, on the one hand you admire their skills and the other hand, you have a lot of fun with the personalities, all the drama and the soap opera.
You went from working Robert F. Kennedy's campaign to working for Vincent Kennedy McMahon. Where does he rank amongst the brilliant minds you have encountered?
Well, obviously different expertise, but with Vincent ... he is this generation's Barnum & Bailey Circus. He created this incredible platform of entertainment and he keeps it going year after year after year. To be able to do that ... most people in show business, they get their hit, they're on for a few years and that's it. But he just keep re-creating, making it bigger and expanding his audience. He has his finger on the pulse of a certain element of pop culture. You can't duplicate it. No one has.
The WWE is really being run by the fans via the Internet and all of social media. How does it feel to be part of that overall movement and having the show on the still new and growing WWE Network?
They're on the front lines of how we will be getting our entertainment in the future. It isn't like [McMahon] created a show and then sits back and sees what happened to it. He's constantly thinking ahead of the curve where this industry is going and then he's figuring out how to be a step ahead, and it's working. He keeps getting a young audience that's into the new technology, gets their entertainment from things other than a new television set and it works.
What would you like to do with the show in the coming weeks to consistently make it better?
The show is not about me. I have to be very careful. I want the drama, comedy and the outrageousness of the wrestlers to be in the front of the show. The greatest thing is if you could see the show and not even notice that I was the host. Otherwise, I'm just interfering in it. Just let it breathe. What we can do is bring in the best moments and let people see them again. Then I could throw in some quips and stuff like that, but I'm not doing this show to showcase me. It's not about me. It's about the WWE. I've got my own show with my name on it. I'm not looking for a show that has my name. I just think it's a great idea and I'd like to be part of it.
Did you grow up a big wrestling fan?
As a child, I grew up a big fan of wrestling. In the 40s and 50s, the wrestling stars back then were Antonino Rocca, Haystacks Calhoun, Gorgeous George, The Great Bolo, Ricki Starr ... names like that. My friends and I would gather around the little black-and-white television sets and we'd watch the matches and we'd play wrestling.
Away from WWE Too Hot For TV, can you believe The Jerry Springer Show is headed toward its 25th year anniversary?
I can't explain it. I'm obviously very happy. I was anchoring the news at the time for the NBC affiliate in Cincinnati and I had been doing it for 10 years and they then assigned me to do this show. This was a side job. I didn't give it any thought, to be honest. I don't even remember being excited when I got the job. It was just, 'Well, this is another assignment. I'll do it,' but it wasn't on my career plan. Then, all of a sudden, the show took off. I had no idea that it would become popular and certainly couldn't have dreamt that it'd be 25 years in and I'd still be doing this.
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