JBL Says ECW Would Have Been Hot If Streaming Existed Then

On the latest episode of Something To Wrestle With, JBL reflected on how today’s streaming landscape would have transformed the wrestling business, arguing that ECW was simply born in the wrong era. You can check out some highlights below:

On If the Internet Was Big In the Attitude Era:

“If you’d have had this back in the day — let’s say back in the ’90s, ECW would have made a fortune. The problem was that they couldn’t stay on terrestrial television because their program was too racy. I just saw an interview with Heyman talking about how he used music he didn’t have the rights to. They did so much stuff that was edgy that terrestrial television wouldn’t take. If you’d had the internet back then, ECW would have been freaking on fire. It might still be around.

“Right now, you’re starting to see the progression of what television is becoming, and content is always going to be king. There’s no doubt about that. How you get it is going to change. I was there when we went over the top and man, it was terrible — we were way too early on that. I remember Vince saying he doesn’t want to be that early. He wants to be just behind the curve, not ahead of it, and we were ahead of the curve. People were talking about pulling the plug and going back to the pay-per-view model, but we helped build the model for streaming that a lot of people are using now. The barrier to entry is so much lower now. Can you make money with this? You certainly can, but you’ve got to figure out a way to stick out, otherwise you’re just one more person on a streaming platform.”

On Never Going With WWE to Saudi Arabia:

“I still regret that when they first went to Saudi Arabia, I didn’t go. I don’t like traveling, I don’t like getting on planes and stuff anymore. Vince was like, ‘I’m not going to send you to Saudi, I know you don’t like to get on a plane.’ And I said, ‘Oh, thank you.’

“So I do want to go to Saudi one time. I don’t want to go every single year, I don’t want to go twice, but I do want to go one time and see all the old Biblical sites, and see Saudi and all that stuff. I kind of regret not pushing it, but I thought if I told Vince I wanted to go, I was going to have to go on every trip, and I didn’t want to do that. So I do kind of regret not going. I still want to go once.”

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