JBL says Vince McMahon saved the WWE when the pandemic threatened the company’s future.
In March 2020, the whole world shut down due to COVID-19. This virus forced all live sports to stop and threatened the future of wrestling promotions like AEW and WWE.
JBL spoke on the Something To Wrestle podcast about how Vince McMahon saved the WWE during this trying time (H/T to WrestlingNewsCo for the transcription). He explained how McMahon running empty arenas helped save his TV contracts and save the entire company from going under.
“During COVID, Vince called me and he said, ‘I need an old voice on television. Are you coming?’ ‘You know I am.’ I said, ‘Where are you?’ He goes, ‘We’re in Orlando. We got no audience. I need an old voice, the old commentary, somebody that people recognize,'” said JBL.
“There was nobody in the airport… Everybody was sitting up front, first class. I said, ‘I think I’m gonna sit in the back’, like 15 seats on both sides of you because you didn’t know what was going to happen back then. You didn’t know if the whole world is going to die or you’re going to get it and die.”
JBL: Everyone In WWE Was Against Running Shows
“I can tell you, almost everybody in the company was against Vince running. Everybody was against it. All the press was against it. Everything, it was, ‘This is horrible. How dare he do this?’ [McMahon] said,’ If I don’t, I will lose all my TV contracts.’ Those TV contracts of live events became worth exponentially more.” Added JBL.
“You thought they’re gonna be worth exponentially less, is what you thought during COVID, because we didn’t know if the world was ending or not. Everybody wanted out of those TV contracts. But because he did that, he got these billion-dollar TV contracts out of it. He saved the freaking company with that.” JBL said.
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