JBL Advises Aleister Black Against Burning Bridges With WWE

On the latest episode of Something to Wrestle, JBL discussed Aleister Black’s recent comments about his WWE release. Black, who returned to WWE in 2025 and was released in April, said on a podcast with Zelina Vega and Dakota Kai that the release hit him harder because of what he had been promised when he came back. JBL said wrestlers are better off shaking hands and walking out than airing their frustrations publicly. You can check out his comments below:

On His Advice for Wrestlers Leaving a Company:

“Kerry Von Erich used to always tell me, he said, ‘I want to come back as a carpenter so I can repair all the bridges that I’ve blown up.’ Because Kerry didn’t burn them; he blew them up. That’s what a lot of these guys are doing. I don’t know if Aleister is burning this bridge or not, but it certainly is not a way to keep an amicable relationship with guys when you’re throwing them under the bus when you’re leaving.

“My father used to always tell me, ‘When it’s time to leave grab your hat, shake their hand, and just walk out.’ That’s all you need to do, and that’s the advice that I would give these guys: shake their hand and walk out. There aren’t that many bridges to cross. You think about what’s out there, there aren’t that many places to make it in sports entertainment. If you’ve alienated Tony Khan — and I don’t know if he has or not — but if you alienate Triple H and Nick Khan, that’s WWE. I don’t know why you would want to do that. Just leave. I get that you’re mad. Don’t do interviews when you’re mad. Nothing good ever comes of it. All it comes across as is that you’re bitter.”

On How Comments Get Clipped Online:

“Let me explain this: you may be bitter for a very good reason. You may be justified in your bitterness, but when you express that out on the internet — and again, I’m an old man saying ‘out on the internet.’ But when you express that on the internet through a podcast or whatever you do, it comes across wrong and it just comes across that you have sour grapes. You’re mad about it and people don’t take that well, because what people will see is what people clip out. And you know as well as I do Conrad, what people clip out is not what you say most of the time. They’ll clip out something that’s kind of close. It’s all clickbait. They’re going to say, ‘Well, here’s Aleister Black and Triple H,’ or whatever they want to say. That’s the headline. And if there are people out there in WWE, they’re going to see that without clicking on it to figure out that maybe he didn’t say what the headline says.”

On Having Fewer Places To Work Than the Territory Days:

“I just don’t think anything good comes of it. I think when you leave like that, just leave. Shake their hand, tell them, ‘I’ll be back,’ and then come back and figure out a way to do what you want to do. Because there aren’t that many bridges out there. There aren’t that many places to work. You’re not going to go and make a ton of money somewhere else. You’re not going to make a ton of money in Mexico; you’re not going to make a ton of money in Europe. You’re not going to make a ton of money in Japan. Back in the ’70s, the late ’80s, and the early ’90s, you could leave a territory and burn a bridge as much as you wanted to and go somewhere else, and they’d bring you back because they had to. They don’t have to now.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Something to Wrestle with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.