JBL Names Strongest & Stiffest Wrestlers He Worked With, Calls Last Ride the Most Painful Finisher

JBL recently weighed in on the strongest and stiffest wrestlers that he’s ever worked with, while naming Undertaker’s Last Ride as the most painful finisher he took. The WWE Hall of Famer worked with a variety of people across eras during his time in the ring. He came into wrestling in 1992 during the industry’s transition period and worked with several veterans from that time. His career carried him through the Attitude Era to WWE’s Ruthless Aggression period, when he worked with the likes of John Cena and his contemporaries.

JBL spoke with Video Gamer and was about a number of categories for talent that he worked with. He noted when asked about the most painful finisher that it would be Taker’s Last Ride powerbomb. You can see the highlights below:

On the Strongest Wrestler He’s Ever Worked With:

“Mark Henry. I saw Mark Henry rip a locker off its hinges one time. Arn Anderson had locked a bag in the locker with his old padlock and they were trying to crowbar the locker off the hinges. Mark Henry walked in and Ron Simmons said ‘Mark, pull that locker off its hinges’. Mark put a towel over the locker and he pulled that locker off its hinges. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life and I don’t think I ever will. I mean, that literally was something that probably only one person on the planet could have done. And literally when he got done everybody said, ‘Mark, if we’ve ever offended you, we want to apologize right now!'”

“He may be the strongest man ever, according to a lot of people. But even to be in that conversation is remarkable. So obviously you got to put Mark Henry there, but I mean, there’s been a lot of strong people. Ken Patera was a strong guy. Ted Arcidi, the first guy ever to bench press 700 pounds. Brock Lesnar. He grabbed me one time backstage and he was horsing around. I knocked some stuff out of his hand, just playing around and he grabbed me and I said, Brock, you’ve hurt me. I don’t know how bad, but if you’ll let go, I’ll assess the damage. He’s just laughing. He’s got me up in the air and just shaking me around. I’m like, my God, how strong are you? If aliens ever invade this earth we’re sending out Brock, he’ll beat their ass all the way back to Mars or Pluto, wherever they’re from.”

On the Stiffest Wrestler He’s Ever Worked With:

“That’s interesting. I worked with a lot of stiff guys, but they weren’t bad. Killer Tim Brooks would beat you half to death. I mean beat you up on TV. He wouldn’t at house shows, but on TV he would because he knew how important it was. He would tell you a kid, we got to do this on TV so we can work easier on the house shows. Killer was a tough man. Salty too. Tough, tough guy. He was Brody’s tag team partner in the eighties. Vader could knock your head off randomly. I tell you, he hit me one time and I just saw like a white bulb in front of me. He almost knocked me out. He drilled me. Vader just got excited and all of a sudden out of the blue, he’d knock your head off. Vader and I were good friends and he just thought it was funny!”

On the Best Technical Wrestler He’s Ever Worked With:

“I worked with Steven Regal quite a bit and I always enjoyed that. He was a much more proficient wrestler than me. A better technical wrestler certainly than me. Finlay was insane how good he was. I don’t think people understand how good Finlay was. He may have been one of the greatest, if not the greatest heel I’ve ever seen. Kendo Nagasaki was freaking solid. That guy could wrestle all night. There were some really good wrestlers back in the day.”

On the Most Painful Finisher He’s Ever Taken:

“Undertaker’s last ride! I don’t know why, but that thing hurt like hell. I have no idea why I’ve taken worse bumps, and he took clotheslines from me, so I hate to even bring it up because he was very safe with it. He landed you flat, but man, it was so far down. It just killed me like, oh my God. Like how far did I just fall? Because I wasn’t expecting it the first time. I guess just going straight down, I don’t know what happened. He’s one of the safest wrestlers in the history of the business, and he was safe with this too. It just, it was just so far down, I guess. I don’t know what it was. It was something that just knocked the wind out of me!”

The topic of the strongest wrestlers has long been debated among wrestling fans, with Hulk Hogan, Big Show (The Giant in WCW), Andre The Giant, Goldberg, world’s strongest man Mark Henry, Tony Atlas, Scott Steiner, Bruno Sammartino, Bobby Lashley, Yokozuna, Triple H, Kane, and Ultimate Warrior often being discussed as among the ranks of the strongest wrestlers of all time. The list includes many former World Championship holders, college football stars, and more.