JBL On Why Vince McMahon Never Elevated Incoming WCW Stars

On the latest episode of Something to Wrestle, JBL explained the mindset he believes drove Vince McMahon’s reluctance to present acquired WCW stars as equals — and why a figure like Sting was so difficult to bring in and rebrand. You can check out his comments below:

On Vince McMahon’s territory mindset:

“This is Sting coming over as the icon, and all of a sudden, if he has a match with Undertaker, obviously he’s not going to go over. There’s zero chance that Vince would allow that to happen. But even having a competitive match, all of a sudden you go, oh man, that guy was an icon — maybe WCW was as good. Whether you agree with it or not, the group’s out of business. It would have done box office to have him. Was it a mistake? Absolutely. I’m just telling you what Vince’s mindset was. He’s not going to put over anybody from a different territory, and that way acknowledge that that territory might in any way be equal to WWE, because Vince had to come through a place of business from the ’80s where he was literally fighting for his life against every territory out there.”

On the challenge of rebranding Sting:

“How are you going to rebrand Sting? What are you going to do? You’re going to take him out of the character completely, then you lose the character. Back in the day, when you’d go to different territories, most of the time, if they had TV, they would change your name, because that way they could own the name. When WWE came in there, they always changed the name. That way they could own the name — and they couldn’t with Sting. How are you going to rebrand him? That’s pretty freaking iconic. I don’t know what you can make him into.”

On why today’s WWE operates differently:

“That’s why today it’s a little bit different, because guys today — talk about Triple H and other guys who are in the heads of creative — they didn’t have that, and now it’s not the same. Would Vince still be the same? I think he probably would, because that’s his mindset. But these guys are different now, and that’s why they’re letting people keep names and doing all kinds of different stuff that Vince certainly wouldn’t have done.”

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.