Grantland.com published a lengthy article Tuesday on the life and controversial wrestling career of Kevin Nash with the six-time world champion notably reiterating his stance on “Vanilla Midgets,” a dismissive term he used behind-the-scenes in the late ’90s in World Championship Wrestling to describe small-statured, gifted technical wrestlers such as Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero.
Nash said the professional wrestling industry died at WrestleMania XX when the pay-per-view event concluded with Benoit and Guerrero—both of whom were under six-feet-tall—reigning atop as world champions and emotionally celebrating. Chris Jericho, who worked his way up the wrestling ranks alongside Benoit and Guerrero, publicly took offense to Nash’s remarks and responded with another commonly used stance.
Jericho tweeted late Tuesday evening:
Funny how @realkevinnash says wrestling “died” when Benoit and Guerrero were champs-Yet the worst year for WWE biz was 95 when he was on top
— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) August 8, 2012
The oft-used point originated from Wrestling Observer editor Dave Meltzer, who has repeated stated over the years that WWE had its worst financial period in company history in 1995 when Nash held the WWF Championship as Diesel.
Nash responded to Jericho’s tweet minutes later, writing:
https://twitter.com/realkevinnash/status/233066381141213184
Nash’s last insult is in reference to Jericho being the first contestant to be eliminated in the 2006 Fox Television singing reality show Celebrity Duets.
Jericho quickly shot back:
Hope @realkevinnash doesn’t tear his quad tweeting! #typicalbigman#nwothirdwheel
— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) August 8, 2012
To recap, Nash’s interview comments triggering Jericho’s rebuttal were:
“When Benoit and Guerrero hugged [at the end of WrestleMania XX], that was the end of the business. Has business been the same since that WrestleMania? Has it come close to the Austin era? Has it come close to the nWo or the Hogan era? You put two fucking guys that were great workers that were the same height as the fucking referees, and I’m sorry, man. Are you going to watch a porno movie with a guy with a three-inch dick? Even if you’re not gay, you will not watch a porno movie with a guy with a three-inch dick. That’s not the standard in porno films. So you put a 5-foot-7 guy as your world champion.”
