Jimmy Jacobs recently spoke with Justin Barrasso for Sports Illustrated Extra Mustard’s Week In Wrestling; you can read a few highlights below:
Jimmy Jacobs comments on John Cena’s reaction to the Dolph Ziggler ‘career versus title’ feud with The Miz:
“John Cena was always really great to me. John saw that I had the passion, so he’d always check in on me. He asked me what I was doing that day in Cleveland, so I told him. He gave me a, ‘Well, we’ll see how that goes.’
He was really skeptical, basically saying, ‘I don’t think that’s going to work.’ And I’m not knocking John Cena. John was the man. I f—— love John Cena. But with the way I had it laid out, we weren’t leaving on boos directed at the Miz or Dolph ending by saying, ‘I’m going to kick your ass!’ We were leaving on the gravity of Dolph putting his career on the line.
John said to me, ‘We’re in a yay-boo business. You’ve got to leave them with either cheering Dolph Ziggler or booing The Miz.’ So I said, ‘Well, we’re up in four minutes, so we’ll see.’ John watched from ‘Gorilla’. Afterwards, he said, ‘I was skeptical of that, but that was a homerun. I really felt that.’ I was really proud of that.”
Jacobs comments on his wrestling future:
“I’m in the best place physically and mentally as I’ve ever been. I’m hot right now coming off WWE and I know that’s going to die down. I’m going to have fun and enjoy myself. Being on the other side and working for WWE, there are benefits and negatives. I can now appreciate the freedom of being an independent wrestler again.
“There is a lot I learned working for WWE and working with Vince McMahon. I don’t agree with everything he does or says, but there is definitely great s— to take away. And the truth is, I posted that selfie and nobody gave a f—. It took WWE firing me for people to care about that. If you’re going to get fired, running an angle with the hottest group outside of WWE was a good way to do it.”
Jacobs comments on the recently reported issue with Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens being removed from last week’s WWE European tour:
“Nothing Vince does is surprising. It’s his sandbox. But the truth is, whatever happened was a misunderstanding. I know those guys, and they’re not the guys who are like, ‘F— no, we’re not doing that!’ They wouldn’t go into business for themselves in the middle of the ring. Almost nobody f—— does that. Whatever happened was a miscommunication, that’s all.”
