The saga of The Daily Show host and pugilist Seth Rollins reached its inevitable conclusion on Monday night, in the ring.
Jon Stewart may be retiring from The Daily Show, but if he plays his cards right, he may have a possible career as a WWE wrestler.
The diminutive 52-year-old political satirist may not be the first man you’d peg for a wrestler (call him “The Newsman?”), but he still managed to throw down on Monday Night Raw, delivering a swift kick in the nuts to the decidedly larger wrestler Seth Rollins.
Chalk this one up under “things you don’t see every day”:
The drama kicked off on February 16, when Rollins addressed a WWE crowd in Orlando with some harsh words for Stewart. “I am the most talented performer in the entire world,” Rollins proclaimed. “I can do whatever I want, whenever I want and there’s nobody or nothing that can stop me. … I could take over as host of The Daily Show for Jon Stewart and make that thing actually watchable.”
Stewart responded in kind, posting a hilarious video response wherein he said: “Seth Rollins, you’ve made a lot of mistakes in your life… but this is the biggest mistake you’ve ever made by coming after The Daily Show. You just stepped in a world of hurt my friend.”
So Rollins fired back the only way he knows how, crashing The Daily Show set last Thursday and putting Stewart in a headlock while the cameras were rolling.
On Monday Night Raw, Stewart came on and engaged in a mock The Daily Show with Seth Rollins segment, grilling Stewart about the headlock and his Oscars hosting chops, saying, “Jon Stewart… he talked a pretty tough game when I was on his turf, but since then, much like the audience when he hosted the Oscars last year, he’s been dead silent. What do you know? A wuss who’s also a phony? But guys, I really shouldn’t be surprised. He’s from New Jersey.” He also took a few jabs at Stewart’s directorial debut, Rosewater, saying “all of America” didn’t see it, and that he’d “force him to retire immediately” if he came onstage, because it’s “hard to host a phony
news show with your jaw wired shut.”
Then Stewart came on, and said to the burly fighter, “I have something you’ll never have: Respect.”
See the whole thing here.