During a recent appearance on the “Something To Wrestle With” podcast, JBL reacted to the latest WWE talent cuts and offered his advice to those released last week.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On recent WWE talent releases: “Looks, it’s sad news anytime somebody gets released. I was on unemployment at one time; that’s the way I survived for about four or five months. So, I’ve been there; I don’t say that to try to say, ‘Hey, look at me.’ I say this to tell you that I’ve been through all this. I’ve been through being fired, being cut, all that stuff. It sucks, but it’s part of life. You’re not adopted by Hunter or Nick [Khan]; you’re not adopted by Vince [McMahon]. This is something that you have, always, a plan for. And I saw Matt Cardona had something on the internet, and he’s right. He said you can do a few things. You can live off your WWE name — which, he didn’t say this part, which by the way, that’s fine. If you want to just do appearances, live off your WWE name. That’s your prerogative. You’re making money that way; no big deal. That’s fine to do things like that. That’s why you built the name.
“Or you can reinvent yourself, have some fun, and make some money. And that’s what I would encourage these guys to do. You have an opportunity now to go out there and — this used to happen all the time. And I’m not making light of what happened at all. It’s terrible when you get fired; it sucks. Your whole world collapses. You have all these plans, you have mortgages, you have payments, you have to worry about all this stuff. It’s very traumatic. But this used to happen all the time. And you knew you had to have some other plan. You go to some other territory to work, you build your name up, you come back, or you go somewhere else. That’s what these guys need to do if they want to stay in the business. And they have several options they can pursue. Fortunately, they’ve been on television when ratings are through the freaking roof, and because of that, they’re going to be able to make money.”
On the narrative that some talent released were lazy: “Yeah, what would you feel about it if an ESPN reporter was talking about a guy that got cut from the Cubs? Would you feel the same? If he said, ‘Hey, he was lazy in spring training?’ I’m just throwing a question out there; I don’t know the answer. And I was just sitting there thinking about what you were saying. And I have a problem because I wouldn’t say it. But Meltzer, I guess he considers himself a reporter. And if he’s a reporter, then you would say the same thing about a guy that was in spring training at the Texas Rangers who got cut because they thought the guy was not giving 100% effort. And nobody would likely have a problem with that if that’s what the reporter heard and that reporter could verify that at least that it came from a source. Would you feel the same if it was an ESPN reporter talking about a baseball player?
“I wasn’t at the training, Performance Center. And look, I think it’s a sh**ty thing to say. I don’t know if he justifies it as being a reporter or not. I’m just trying to look at it from the perspective of, would you compare that to an ESPN reporter talking about a young guy in Major League Baseball who got cut because they said his work ethic wasn’t good. I don’t know if that’s comparable or not. And I think I agree with you. Yeah, it does hurt them. Because the difference is, it would hurt that guy in baseball too. It’s going to hurt these guys if they figure out who he’s talking about, going forward somewhere else. They’re going to have that in the back of their head: ‘That’s why this person got fired.’ So it does hurt their future aspects of getting a job. So I would never say it. Even if I knew it was true, I wouldn’t say it. But I’m not a reporter that is reporting on what’s supposed to be the news. You know, I can’t believe I’m giving Dave Meltzer the benefit of the doubt on anything. God Almighty, the world’s upside down. Next thing, I’ll want to say something nice about Oklahoma.”
