JBL on His Career, Doing Commentary, Tribute to the Troops, and More

Former WWE superstar and current ring-side commentator JBL recently sat down to talk about a variety of things with Josh Modaberi of Wrestling 101.com. During the interview, JBL discusses his career, Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter (who was once his manager), the Tribute to the Troops program, and much more. Here are some highlights from the interview:

Who were some of the wrestlers that influenced you to get into the sport? “Bruiser Brody and Fritz Von Erich were two of my favourites when growing up, Dory Funk Sr. They guys from Texas I just absolutely idolised. I got the chance to wrestle a lot of my hero’s, I wrestled a lot of the Von Erich boys, I got the chance to be in the ring with Fritz Von Erich and with Stan Hansen, which happened later in life not when I was young. To me that was a dream come true.”

What was it like when you got your break with the WWE and teaming with Barry Windham? “That to me was what I thought was my big break, and it turned out it wasn’t for a lot of reasons. The head of creative at the time Vince Russo didn’t think much of me or Barry I believe, he’s selling comic books or whatever he’s doing right now so that tells you what you need to know about Vince Russo. I thought that was my big break, I idolised Barry and a still do to this day, he still had a lot of gas left in the tank, and for whatever reason they didn’t want to use him. The tag team never went anywhere but for me it was a big deal.”

You also had a very successful singles career, what were some of your highlights? “Eddie Guerrero, he was the biggest influence on my singles career. I’m not sure the JBL character would be alive if not for Eddie, he really made the career that I had. The Undertaker feud that I had was huge for me, but I got to wrestle every top star during that era, I got to wrestle, Booker T, Dave Batista, John Cena, I really had a fun and incredible run, the run came later in my life so I really had the opportunity to enjoy it. One of the greatest things that I got to do was pass the torch to John Cena, which I absolutely take zero credit for, he would have gone to the top anyway but I was lucky enough to be the guy that passed the torch and I was very honoured to be able to do that.”

What do you make of the similarities between your feud with Eddie and the storyline with Jack Swagger and Alberto Del Rio? “It’s hard to compare because I’m too close to the situation, as far as what Eddie and I did and what Swagger and Del Rio are doing right now, Eddie and I had something that was really magical, we were dear friends and Eddie was the groomsman at my wedding. It’s hard to compare eras, and I don’t know how to compare what Eddie and I did and the situation between Swagger and Del Rio, when I was so close to Eddie. Someone looking from the outside in, they could probably do it pretty easily but me I’m too biased.”

You were a massive factor behind the Tribute To The Troops shows, how did that come about? “I was over there one summer right after the invasion of Iraq. It was a miserably hot summer, as all of them are over there. It was 137 degrees one day! I was sitting there talking to Ron Simmons and I thought, it would be great if we could come over here at Christmas and do something like the Bob Hope-type USO Christmas Special. So when we got back, I approached Mr. McMahon and [WWE executive producer] Kevin Dunn and told them what I thought would be a good idea and what I thought we could do, and they took it from there. Within a few weeks, the thing was done and we’ve been doing the shows ever since.”

You’ve now moved over to the commentary table, what have you made of that transition? “I enjoy doing the commentary very much, I enjoy commentating, I enjoy working with Michael Cole even though I give him hell on air, which I enjoy as much as anything else because Michael likes playing the straight man. I don’t mind playing the straight man as well at times when it’s appropriate and I really enjoy that give and take”

You can read the entire interview here.

 

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