Step Three

I was watching Mickey Rourke being interviewed on CNN's Larry King Live (well, it was at 10am in the UK so hardly live for me) on Tuesday morning and was slightly surprised to see Chris Jericho brought on for a segment.

Jericho has been on a number of Larry King wrestling-themed shows so it wasn't totally surprising to see him brought in during the Rourke interview.

Rourke had called him out during a red carpet interview on Sunday night so the people at CNN must have thought it would be a draw to see how they interacted with each other.

It was the next chapter in the story which will end with Rourke walking away from a match at WrestleMania against the Canadian.

The segment has been criticised by those in the wrestling media because it came across as tacky especially with Rourke being lackadaisical in his manner.

All the critics need to step back and look at the bigger picture.

Rourke has been nominated for an Oscar at this February's Academy Awards. He has a lot to lose by associating himself with a genre of entertainment that the Academy frowns upon.

How do I know the Academy dismisses pro wrestling?

Where is The Rock these days and why hasn't he been involved for a while? It's because his advisers have told him to stay as far away from the circus because the association with the sport could harm him in the long-run.

Rourke knows that, too.

I'm not sure if he knew it before Sunday night, though.

And what about turning a serious interview into a worked shoot? Do you think Larry King or any other mainstream interviewer would want to bring Rourke in knowing that the appearance could turn into a Vince McMahon pay-per-view advertising vehicle.

The odds on winning an Oscar for his performance in The Wrestler were looking good for Mr. Rourke before he made the announcement that he would be involved at WrestleMania XXV.

His publicist has now gone on record to claim that he will not be going to Houston in April, obviously realising the mistake they had made by announcing it before the awards.

It may be too late to cover up the angle now that it has made it to step three.

All I know is, he will be there at Mania regardless of the subterfuge being put in place to secure that Oscar win in a few weeks.

I've uploaded the Rourke/Jericho segment to Youtube - Click Here