JBL Says There’s No Attitude Era Without Scott Hall & Kevin Nash’s WCW Jump

On the latest episode of Something to Wrestle, JBL and Conrad Thompson started a run of wrestling what ifs, and one of them was what the business looks like if Scott Hall and Kevin Nash never leave for WCW in 1996. The two famously left WWE for WCW, kicking off the nWo storyline that helped lead to the Attitude Era.

JBL argued that everything that followed traces back to that jump, including the characters that WWE was running at the time. You can check out his comments below:

On What Wrestling Looks Like Without Hall & Nash Leaving:

“It’d have been terrible. I think terrible, because you would not have had the Attitude Era. I don’t see any way you’d have had it. You’d have had Rocky Maivia come along — he’d have been Rocky Maivia, I don’t know if he’d ever been The Rock. You’d have had Stone Cold come along, but he wouldn’t have been Stone Cold; Steve was already there. He’d have been the Ringmaster. You wouldn’t have had that. There’s no way, that was created. Scott and Kevin created all of this. Now, with kudos to Eric Bischoff for bringing them in and helping with it, but those three created this.”

On the Importance of Hall & Nash:

“If Scott and Kevin don’t jump, Bischoff has nothing to create with. And that’s what changed everything. We had all these guys, Conrad. Hunter was an aristocrat; Steve was a Ringmaster. DX was a Rockabilly and a road agent. Kane was a dentist. We had all these guys, but in horrible characters. You had Scott and Kevin, and they’re a Razor and a Diesel, whatever that is.

“And so I don’t think you’d have had any of this. I don’t think you’d ever have had the meeting where Vince says, ‘I don’t know what to do,’ and Chris Chambers draws on a napkin the scratch logo that they would use and you start seeing the Attitude Era come around. But it all started with Scott and Kevin. Without Scott and Kevin jumping, I don’t know what we’d have had, but we wouldn’t have had the Attitude Era.”

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.