Jerry Springer Talks ‘WWE Too Hot For TV’

The Sultan of Salaciousness has partnered up with WWE to tackle the company’s most outrageous moments in their history. It will pull no punches but would you expect anything less from Jerry Springer and WWE?

Fortunately for us at CraveOnline, Springer took a moment to discuss Jerry Springer Presents WWE Too Hot for TV, working with Nikki and Brie Bella, the most outrageous thing he’s ever seen, meeting Vince McMahon, and more. 

WWE Too Hot For TV

CraveOnline: What can we expect from WWE Too Hot For TV? What’s the format like?

Jerry Springer: Well, the best example I can give is, you know that show Talk Soup that has been on for years? Where they show clips of various talk shows and make jokes? Translate that or shift it over to the WWE.

There is a vault of literally over 20-30 years of great fights and episodes filled with drama and backstories. It’s outrageous, its athletic, and its funny, and we find the best moments in the vaults of all these fights and we show the clips and I get to joke about it. It’s just a wealth of material.

The only question is, is why did it take so long to even think about this? This is a great idea. They were kind enough to ask me to host it and it took me about one and a half seconds to say “of course, why not?”

CraveOnline: Since you have reviewed a ton of footage, have you seen anything on WWE that was worthy of The Jerry Springer Show?

Jerry Springer: There’s never been anything in the WWE that could not be on my show. The only difference with the WWE is they are bigger, stronger, and better looking. Other than that it’s the same show. 

CraveOnline: Are you a WWE fan?

Jerry Springer: To be honest, I’m not the audience. I’m 71 years old so I’m not going to come in and say “Boy, I never miss a Monday Night Raw” or something like that. When I was a kid, when I was younger, yeah. When I was a kid in the 1950s, the stars were Richie Star, Haystacks Calhoun, The Great Bolo, Gorgeous George, I mean these are historic names in terms of old time wrestling. I was of that age group that watched it, was a big fan of it, we’d watch together, and then all the kids who were watching we’d all then have a wrestling match so we did that and yes, I was a fan then.

Working With The Bellas

CraveOnline: I was watching your segment with The Bella Twins last fall when you got carried out on a stretcher. How did you keep a straight face throughout that segment?

Jerry Springer: [Laughs] Well, I’ll tell you what. This is true. When I was down on the ground and they were on top of me, I said to one of them, I don’t remember which, they look alike, how could I tell who was who? But anyways, I said to one of them “You got 25 minutes to get off me” and she started laughing so that’s my one memory of it. It was great.

That’s what is so much fun about it. On the serious side, this ought to be said and it isn’t said enough — these are world-class athletes. They are unbelievable athletes. You can’t take anyone out of the audience and put them in the ring and they’re able to do that. They are so above what regular people can do. That is entertainment in itself even if you didn’t have the drama, the backstories, and the theater, watching their physicality and their coordination and their strength, it really is amazing.

So keeping a straight face, it was great. I remember putting my thumb up cause you always see football games with guys badly being carried off and they put up their thumb and the audience cheers [laughs] so that was just something that came to my mind at the last second. It was fun.

The Most Outrageous Moment

CraveOnline: You have had a wild career and have seen so many ridiculous things. What stands out the most to you? What is the most outrageous thing you have encountered?

Jerry Springer: Well, obviously, my show is the most outrageous thing I’ve ever seen. The most outrageous show we ever had? It’s hard. We’ve done 4,600 shows but one among many that sticks out, I remember the guy who married his horse. You’ll be happy to know I came out against that. We did a follow-up show cause several months later the horse left him. We always try to run that show around the Kentucky Derby.

My show is about outrageous behavior because that’s what the show is so every day they’re going to hand me something that’s outrageous. If it’s warm, uplifting, and normal we’re not allowed to run it. I mean, we’re not allowed to run it period. We have to send it to another show.

If you did a show on crime, you’d always have criminals on it. If you do a story about basketball, you’d always have basketball players on it. Well, if you do a show about outrageous behavior you’re always going to have people on the show who do outrageous things. But the guy that married his horse, that’s about as outrageous as you can get.

“We’re all alike”

CraveOnline: How do you still like people after encountering all of those things?

Jerry Springer: The truth is and this is dead serious, no more joking around. Most of the people on the show; not all, but most…I like.

What I’ve learned over 25-years of doing it is we’re all alike. Some of us just dress better. Some of us just have better luck in the gene pool of parents or we had a better education but the things that people do, do not believe for a second that rich good-looking people don’t do dysfunctional things as well. All I have to do is open up any newspaper in America on any given day and by the time I get to page 3; I‘ve got twenty shows.

From presidents, kings on down, people are doing all sorts of things. The reason there are sometimes criticism of people on my show is cause they’re not rich, they’re not good-looking, they’re not powerful, they’re not highly educated but they’re doing the same things wealthy people are doing. We are all alike. Most of us are good most of our lives.

Every once in awhile there are probably things we’re doing that if the rest of the world knew about it, they’d say “Oh boy, that’s weird.” So I don’t look down on the people of my show because I realize we’re all the same.

CraveOnline: Do you still talk to Steve Wilkos?

Jerry Springer: Oh yeah. Actually his wife is my executive producer. We produce his show. I’m one of the producers of it so yeah, I see him all the time. We do it in the same studio. We just do it on different days.

Meeting The Boss

CraveOnline: Do you have a favorite story or person you’ve met while working with WWE?

Jerry Springer: I got to tell you a big thrill for me was meeting Vince McMahon. He’s iconic in the entertainment industry and I realize how difficult it is to do what he’s done.

In the whole field of show business, everyone wants to be successful and everyone has a little bit of showbiz in them but to be able to be so focused and take that drive and find something that you can do and find the audience for it and keep focused on it so it can go on year after year after year and keep bringing in a new audience…that’s magic. There are just a handful of people in the whole industry that do that. There are a lot of one-hit wonders.

The most popular shows are gone after five or seven years. He keeps going. You can’t look down your nose at someone who has that kind of skill and ability and has his finger on the pulse of society. He’s excellent and I enjoyed meeting him.  

Photos courtesy of WWE