As previously noted, former WWE Superstar Wade Barrett, also known as Stu Bennett, was a guest on Talk Is Jericho. Among other things, pro wrestling legend Chris Jericho talked about going off on WWE commentator Michael Cole after WWE Chairman instructed Cole to call one of Jericho's segments the worst in RAW history. Also, Barrett talked about botching his first promo as Jericho's NXT protege.

Apparently, Jericho "roughed up" Cole after the so-called 'Voice Of WWE' said the RAW segment was the worst in history.

"I was so freaking hot on this." Jericho recalled, "it was a Highlight Reel that led to a match. And it was, what was that guy's name, Brad Roberts or McGillicutty or whatever his name was? Brad something-or-other was the General Manager of RAW. Brad Maddox! And it was me, and [Barrett], and [The] Miz, and Brad Maddox in some kind of promo. And we had to show a clip of your movie, I believe it was the first one. Was that the one with Colin Farrell? Dead Man Down. And this promo just ran off the rails and I just remember it was really bad." Jericho continued, "well, when I came to the back, I remember Vince was like, 'oh, that promo was terrible.' And I was like, 'it was bad. It was poorly written and it was just s--t.' But I found out afterward that Michael Cole, on instructions from Vince, called it 'the worst segment in RAW history.' I know [that statement was a stretch].

"The next night on SmackDown, I was wrestling a match and it was one of those, I was just, no pun intended, stewing, and I was just looking at Cole and I ran over. And I ripped the top of the [table] off and slammed the desk, 'you f--king asshole!' He was like, 'what are you talking about?' I said, 'you motherf--ker!' I roughed him up a bit. I lost my mind! And I go to the back, and, of course, everyone's mad at me. And then, of course, Vince knows why. I go, 'why would you say it's the worst segment in RAW history?' And he said, 'well, it was pretty bad.' I said, 'Vince, of all the s--t you've had on this show and of all the stuff I've done for this show, you're going to call it the worst segment in RAW history?' And he goes, 'well, maybe I overreacted.' I go, 'you're damn right you overreacted!' I was so mad! I didn't tell anybody. It wasn't one of my proudest moments."

Additionally, during the podcast, Barrett remembered botching his promo during his WWE TV debut. As the story goes, Barrett was completely gobsmacked by making his WWE debut along side Jericho and was put on the spot when Jericho handed him the microphone.

"We walk to the ring, the pyro goes off, and I'm walking down to the ring with Chris Jericho." Barrett recalled, "we've got pyro going off in a packed arena. People are going nuts to see this. And I was just standing next to [Jericho]. And the only thing I was told before walking out was, 'okay, here's the match - it's this guy against this guy, whatever the finish was, and Stu, just stand to the side, and watch the match.' And that's all I had to do. So I was nervous, excited, and thrilled. So we get down to the ring. Suddenly, we stood in the ring. Everyone was booing because [Jericho] was massively heel at that time when [Jericho] was like the most hated guy on the show. It was awesome. It was me standing there experiencing this with [Jericho], like, 'oh this is cool - I've got the best seat in the house for this. It's so cool!'

"Suddenly, I see [Jericho] grab the mic from the announcer and I was like, 'what's he doing? I don't remember them saying there's going to be a promo, but whatever.' But then you started talking and while you were talking, I'm still kind of blown away by this crowd, and looking out there, and all these faces staring back at me. I've never been in that position. I was like, 'wow, I've made it! I've debuted in WWE! No matter what happens now, I've been a WWE Superstar or whatever you wanted to call it.' And then, so [Jericho is] talking and I can barely hear [him] because of the way the sound system is set up in the arena. If you're in the ring, it's actually pretty hard to hear unless you're paying attention. I certainly wasn't paying attention and I suddenly look at [Jericho], [Jericho has] gone quiet, and [Jericho is] holding the mic out at me, and I have no idea what I'm supposed to do at this point, so I just took the mic and I thought, 'we're literally live on air right now.' And I have no idea what I'm doing. I have no promo planned, so I just start talking about how great I am: 'I'm Wade Barrett and I'm the top bareknuckle fighter in all the world and I'm going to conquer this and I'm going to do that. And if anybody blah, blah, blah.' And suddenly, [Jericho] just stop[s] me. [Jericho] looked at me and said, 'I just asked you to introduce me.' The whole crowd starts laughing at that. I was like, 'as you wish' and then I just did the introduction and I remember as soon as I gave the mic back to the announcer and they played Daniel Bryan's music, I slid out and I'm on the arena floor going, 'oh my God, Chris Jericho hates me! I probably just screwed this whole thing up!'"

Armbar! If you use any of the quotations that appear in this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Source: Talk Is Jericho