• JBL Talks About Being Scared To Death Regarding WWF Going Out Of Business
During a recent episode of Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast, Eric Bischoff, Bruce Prichard and JBL talked about the time when the competition between WWF & WCW was at its peak.
Below are the highlights:
Eric Bischoff on the tactics used by him and Vince McMahon:
“That’s kind of a false narrative (about putting WWF out of business) and a lot of it had to do with Vince McMahon tried to convince everybody that ‘big, bad, billionaire’ Ted (Turner) tried to put everybody out of business. He was trying to make himself the babyface; trying to galvanize the loyalty for his brand. That really wasn’t the case; there really wasn’t an agenda to put anybody out of business, but there was a big agenda to be number one and willing it took to be number one.”
JBL and Bruce Prichard on thinking ‘Is this it for WWF?’:
Bruce: “There were times that we thought, ‘Oh man, could this be it?’ At the same time, being in a similar situation before you always know that there is going to be a light at the end of the tunnel if you keep working and fighting for it. There were times definitely where I thought we were going to shut the doors down.”
JBL: “We were scared to death. The time before that, business was horrible. Business in WCW was as well, until the nWo came in there and sparked a rise. All of a sudden we are getting beat for the first time, which was a scary thought. We knew that Ted Turner had deep pockets; we knew that we were a private company and had to stay between budget. It was a scary fight because it wasn’t an asymmetrical fight.”
• WWE Officials Discussed Saving John Cena vs. The Undertaker For WrestleMania 35 Because Of Two Important Factors
As we noted earlier, The Dirty Sheets reported that John Cena vs. The Undertaker is still the plan for WrestleMania 34 and that Justin Barrasso’s reports of John Cena vs. Rey Mysterio for WrestleMania 34 were false.
With that being said, it should be noted that Dirty Sheets also pointed out how WWE officials were thinking about saving Cena vs. Taker for WrestleMania 35 because of the following two factors:
1. Brock Lesnar might leave WWE soon and might not be there for WrestleMania 35.
2. WWE is taking the gamble to have a women’s match main event WrestleMania 35 with a Raw Women’s Title match between Ronda Rousey & Charlotte Flair (first time a Women’s match will main event WrestleMania 35).
However, the current plan is still for John Cena to face The Undertaker in the co-main event of WrestleMania 34 on April 8th.
