JBL has said it is now possible WWE could see a union conversation surface in a way it didn’t during his run on the roster, telling Something to Wrestle listeners that the more corporate TKO environment is a different operating context than the Vince McMahon-era one he came up in, where he was actively against unionization.
The conversation arrived through Thompson’s recap of Kevin Nash’s recent comments on his Click This podcast, where Nash argued that WWE talent should be subject to collective bargaining and that the SAG model would change the math for everyone in the locker room. JBL backed Nash’s right to that position.
“I think there’s a possibility. And to defend Kevin, he played within the rules of the system. The nation clause was in the rules of the system. What Kevin is arguing is change the rules, you know, and you know, he’s a smart guy. He’s gonna play within the rules of the system. If you change the rules, he played within the rules of that system. So I don’t think that contradicts what Kevin believes. What it tells you is that he’s a very smart guy. Got a nation clause.”
JBL then walked Thompson through the era when WWE talent did try to organize, which he placed at the time of the 1997 Montreal Screwjob.
“We had that. They tried to organize unionized several times. I was there back, you know, right at the Montreal Screwjob, when several people were talking about it, and I was dead set against it. And the reason was, I’m making more money than I’ve ever made in my life, and at the time, I’m sitting there, and I’m thinking, I know that the higher-ups don’t want this. I’m not going to cross them, because I’m making so much freaking money compared to what I had made elsewhere. And Vince was always a great payoff guy, a terrific payoff guy, so I never had a desire to say I was mistreated because I wasn’t mistreated. I was treated wonderful. I was treated wonderfully.”
JBL backed the McMahon-era pay framing with a personal anecdote about WWE paying him through a bicep injury when they were not contractually required to.
“By the way, I mean, I tore my bicep one time, and I already made my downside guarantee. And I think it was JR I was talking to, and he goes, look, we’ve already paid you your downside, which means they didn’t have to pay me a dime the rest of the year because I’d already made my downside. And he goes, we’re going to forget we paid your downside already. And they sent me a check every single week for six months when I was not wrestling and they didn’t have to do that. They paid for all my surgeries. I mean, you know, maybe people could say I was an exception. I don’t think I was. I got treated incredibly well.”
He drew the line forward to the present.
“That was under a different regime, and now your question is about TKO, I think there’s a chance it could be, or everything’s becoming so corporate. You know, unions are ideological. You know, I’m more of a free market type person that’s not in favor of unions. I think there are times that unions are very beneficial to people when people have been mistreated. I don’t think we have as much in society now, but a person that wants a unions would argue against me on that point, because ideologically we disagree about free markets and how things should be. I have no problem with unions.”
JBL was also honest about his own pull-back from union-adjacent organizations on a personal level.
“I was part of the SAG union until they tried to take some of my video game money. Told them where they could go and dropped out the SAG union, because they certainly had no right to that. And I dropped out. But I kind of wish now I was because, yes, they have access to different stuff, so it’s very self-serving.”
He came back to the central point.
“I had no problem with unions. Basically, I kind of lean against it when, and back in the day, it was a different regime, and we were paid so well that I was against it, because a union is, we’re not gonna get any better from a union. Right now, the way we’re treated is treated way above and beyond what our contract calls for, and different regime now, I think there’s possibility that it could happen, because everything’s getting more and more corporate.”
JBL is currently doing commentary for AAA, which is owned by TKO, putting him inside the larger TKO ecosystem even though his WWE in-ring run wrapped years ago.
If you use quotes from this article, please credit Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard and include a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
