Former WWE performer JBL appeared on Fight Network Radio this past Friday to
promote the Vyper Fight League event last Friday in Louisville, Kentucky.
JBL says he has always been a fan of MMA stating it shoot fighting was very
limited when he grew with the exception of the one big fight between Muhammad
Ali and Antonio Inoki in 1976. He said he became a big fan by training with Brad
Rheingans and follows MMA very closely.
JBL says the VFL is hoping to build a regional network, he says Dana White does
a tremendous job and doesn’t think Dana White even knows who they are. He said
there are some great fight clubs in Kentucky and Tennessee with some strong
talent on the local market. He wants to give a market for these guys to get
experience and eventually go out and make money.
Mauro Ranallo discusses fans that don’t care for the synergy between pro
wrestling and MMA. JBL says that the die hard MMA fan wants to disassociate with
anything to do with pro wrestling, which would mean no ramp, spotlights, music,
the interviews and everything that makes it entertainment. He says that Michael
Jordan was the greatest basketball player of all time with the greatest team and
still a Bulls game had tons of entertainment aspects to their presentation at a
live event.
On his WWE departure he said he had wanted to leave after ‘WrestleMania 25’
because of the anniversary in Texas and had thought about it for quite some
time. He said he wanted to be able to walk away from the sport and didn’t want
to embarrass himself stating that he used every ‘smoke and mirror’ tactic to
hide his inadequacies. He discusses his mic work and was able to channel it
better later in his career but always had the gift of gab.
On becoming a color commentator he stated it occurred because of his back injury
and there was an opening with Tazz moving to ECW in 2006 on commentary. He
stated Vince McMahon never screamed at him and JBL said Vince was very helpful
to him on commentary and when he got chewed out he deserved it.
JBL states that Jack Swagger and Shelton Benjamin could transition over to MMA.
He said back a few years guys like Steve Blackman, Bart Gunn and Charlie Haas
could have but Haas has some neck injuries now and had probably missed the
window to enter MMA competitively. JBL said he would have loved to do MMA and
trained with Ken Shamrock and Guy Mezger prior to the 1998 ‘Brawl for All’ and
loved it but said he wasn’t young enough and tough enough to do it and wouldn’t
have been very good at MMA.
JBL states that companies such as Elite XC didn’t last because a lot of these
companies didn’t know what they were doing and came in expecting to compete with
the UFC right out of the gate and throw out so much cash without a clue
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!