JBL Says WWE Not Telling Talent About ECW Invasion of Raw Was a Stupid Decision

On the latest episode of Something To Wrestle With, JBL filled in for Bruce Prichard, where he talked about whether he knew about the ECW invasion of WWE Raw in 1996 and more. You can check out some highlights below:

On whether he knew about the ECW invasion of WWE Raw: “Right before I walked out, I did find out. And Savio, I don’t know to this day knows it. Because I heard him tell a story about — you know, and I didn’t know. Because what happened was, Bruce had smartened up Savio. I believe it was Bruce, because he told Savio, ‘Whatever happens,’ He said, ‘You make sure that John doesn’t go over the rail after those guys.’ He said, ‘Wrap the rope around his neck and take him back in the ring,’ which is exactly what Savio did. But Savio didn’t know I had been smartened up. So Bruce was planning on the fact that this would happen, there’d be be an escalation, and he was telling Savio to control me because they weren’t going to smarten me up.

“Well Jack Lanza, who was a really good friend of mine — right before I walked out, he pulled me aside. He says, ‘Hey, kid, I just want to let you know something. If anything happens in this corner over here, don’t overreact.’ And I said, ‘Jack, you’re not going to tell me if anything happens in a specific corner to not overreact if something’s not going to happen.’ He said, ‘Kid, something’s going to happen What I’m telling you is don’t do anything. Don’t go over a rail. Don’t go after anybody. It’s part of the show.’ I said, ‘Okay, fine.’

On what happened in the match: “So when we got in the match, Savio had gone out, and I heard him kind of mutter under his breath, ‘Wrong post.’ So he literally went over to the other post where the — what was going to happen, where Sandman threw a beer in his chest. And so I realized that’s what was about to happen. So when Sandman threw the beer in his chest or his face, Savio, just like Bruce had told him, wrapped the rope around my neck. He goes, ‘Okay, kid, we’re going back in the ring. Don’t overact. Be calm.’ And so I worked it like I was wanting to go after him, but I’ve been smartend up right before.

“Briscoe has never been smartened up to this day, Briscoe’s still mad about that. He actually wanted to fight Bruce at one point because when Briscoe was coming out, he was going out to fight the ECW guys. There’s no mistake about it, he was going out to fight him. And on the way out was Bruce smartened him up and said, ‘It’s a work, Jerry.’ Briscoe was absolutely furious. By the time I got to the back, all of the boys were in the Gorilla position, wanting to come out and fight those guys. You know, it was a real– it wasn’t necessarily a territorial deal. We didn’t dislike those guys because they were a different company, but they screwed up our show. And these guys thought they had done it just ad-lib, showed up and were a bunch of assholes they didn’t know as a work. Lanza had smartened them up right before I got back, and the guys were really pissed about it. But you know what was — that was a stupid decision. I mean, that was almost a freaking 20-on-five fight. And somebody would have been hurt bad. Those guys were coming out of the dressing room… All these guys were coming out of the dressing room. They were going out to fight those guys. And that’s the kind of risk they took. I thought it was a very stupid decision that WWE did.”

On the ECW One Night Stand special in 2005: “That was so fun when we did the One Night Stand, and I got through the promo. I’d never had a night like that. That was one of the most fun nights of my life, being there. And they told me, ‘Don’t walk through the crowd,’ because they thought somebody might try to take a shot at me or something. I thought, ‘You got to be kidding me. Of course, I’m walking through the crowd.’ Because if somebody takes a shot at me, you got it on tape. And I’m not gonna get killed, you know. It’s gonna be something that people will remember forever. It was so electric. I didn’t understand the ECW fan base, because we worked when their show was on so I never saw it. It wasn’t like I didn’t want to see it. We didn’t have, you know, the internet back then where you could call stuff up on YouTube. I didn’t see it, so I didn’t get it until I showed up in person and saw how passionate those fans were, ‘This is why ECW is so successful. This is awesome.’”

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.