I was recently thinking about how, out of all the celebrities to host Monday Night Raw, Conan O'Brien never had the opportunity. However, while he's interviewed several notable WWE superstars over the years, he also had another significant contribution to the Attitude Era, having been responsible for one of The Rock's insults.
The talk show host recalled the story during an episode of Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend, where he and guest Zach Galifianakis discussed one of his former writers, Tommy Blacha. This led to O'Brien mentioning this bit he used to do back when he was hearing pitches, and how Blacha worked it into one of The Rock's promos:
I remember this time I was on this jag of saying, 'Why don't you have a big tall glass of shut up juice?' It was just a really childish, stupid put-down that I was doing...Tommy [Blacha] left because he was going to go write for professional wrestling. He told me, 'Hey, you gotta tune in. I wrote this for The Rock...I watched it, and sure enough, The Rock was like, 'Hey, I'll tell you something, maybe you should just go have a long glass, tall glass shut up juice.' And then they cut to people in the arena, and they're like holding their heads like, 'The Rock got him!'
Well, that's pretty cool, and the fun didn't stop there either, as Conan recalled:
And then I think the following week someone had a sign that said 'shut up juice' and I was in heaven.
What's funny is that Blacha admitted in an interview with Tales From The Attitude Era that he contacted Conan O'Brien because he felt like he stole the bit, and wanted to give him a heads-up before it aired. Fortunately, he confirmed that Conan was flattered, and now it's a story he's told a couple of times over the years whenever Tommy Blacha or wrestling gets brought up. Now all we need is a clip of Conan saying it like The Rock did in his promo, and my day would be made.
The whole thing has me wondering if the WWE needs to work with Conan O'Brien and have him freshen up some of its storytelling. Granted, I'm not sure either party is interested in that, but it would be great to see a character like Danhausen flourish even further, having a funny man like that back in the writers' room guiding his promos. Hell, with someone like O'Brien writing for him, it wouldn't be wild to believe he'd one day hold the Universal title.
Conan O'Brien has long been credited for his work on other shows, and while his work on The Simpsons may not be as big as what others hype it up to be, those three episodes he wrote were dynamite. Still, his years in television and ability to make the world laugh prove that WWE would be grateful to have his creative input, if they were willing to pay the money for him.
It's probably not something we'll see happen on the 2026 TV schedule, considering the number of cuts the WWE has made as of late. It seems TKO is trying to make various cuts for one reason or another.
Plus, Conan O'Brien is plenty busy with his podcast and other projects. However, based on his enthusiasm about his joke being used by The Rock, I'd assume he'd at least entertain the idea of working with the WWE.
Catch WWE Backlash with an ESPN Unlimited subscription on Saturday, May 9th. I'm excited to see what comes of this big PLE, as we look for some positivity out of the past couple of weeks of bad news when it comes to everything happening with the company.
