I Listen So You Don't Have To: Talk is Jericho, Episode 201

Jericho has the Lass-Kicker on his podcast Photo Credit: WWE.com

If you’re new, here’s the rundown. We listen to a handful of wrestling podcasts each week. Too many, probably, though certainly not all of them. In the interest of saving you time — in case you have the restraint to skip certain episodes — the plan is to give the bare bones of a given show and let you decide if it’s worth investing the time to hear the whole thing. There are many wrestling podcasts out there, of course, but this feature largely hews to the regular rotation we feel best fit the category of hit or miss. If we can save other folks some time, we’re happy to do so.

Show: Talk is Jericho
Episode: 201
Run Time: 1:19:42
Guest: Becky Lynch

Summary: Backstage at a WWE show in Mexico, Chris Jericho and Becky Lynch sit down to discuss life and the wrestling business. Lynch talks about starting at a wrestling school in Ireland at the age of 15, being taught by Finn Balor and spending her summers training in the UK (alongside Zack Sabre, Jr.). She had a promising opening to her career, but at the age of 19 she got a small injury, bowed to pressure from her mother, and quit wrestling altogether. It took her 7 years to return, biding her time working as a personal trainer, flight attendant, and even attending a clown college. Very quickly after she returned to wrestling, she was signed to NXT, and made her debut on RAW exactly two years after.

Quote of the Week: Lynch, on clown college: "There was an exercise where we had to just stand up there, and this was the first exercise we did where we put the nose on, and we weren't allowed to do anything. The teacher said, 'You can't move.' People would bawl, just bawl their eyes out. There's this silence, you're just standing there as yourself, stripped down. You can't do anything, you're just you. And I don't know, there's just such a vulnerability there."

Why you should listen: As one can tell from her Twitter, and as proven in this interview, Becky Lynch is a fun person. She has a naturally gleeful disposition, so even her more depressing stories contain a lilt of hope. Jericho meshes very well with her, and they have a great time with each other by exchanging puns and realizing connections in the wrestling business they didn't even know they shared. Though her mom was a flight attendant for 29 years, Lynch is hilariously dismissive of her two years in the profession, saying it was constantly stressful and almost never enjoyable. We also get a nice glimpse into what was going through her mind when she stood in the ring after her fantastic match with Sasha Banks at Takeover last May.

Why you should skip it: I have a feeling that the success of Talk is Jericho is highly dependent on the quality of the guest. When Lynch isn't on the show, Jericho is left to his own devices to tell an uninteresting story about showering in a hotel room. He also plays a Fozzy song. Does he do that on most episodes? Boy, I hope not. How about this: instead of skipping this episode, skip any opportunity you might have to hear a Fozzy song.

Final Thoughts: If you weren't already rooting for Becky Lynch to find continued success in WWE, you'd be a cold-hearted wretch to not love her after listening to this. She sounds like she's smiling at every moment she speaks, but it's not a put-on, and it's not grating. She loves wrestling and still can't believe such good fortune has come upon her. Jericho smartly gets out of her way most of the time and lets her tell her story, though he probably tries a little too hard to force some puns into the proceedings. When you start trying to do more than one pun a minute, someone will want to "pun"ch you. (I'm so sorry, please forgive me.)