WWE Hall of Famer JBL has revealed why he deliberately refused to sell merchandise during his WWE Championship reign, explaining that he believed protecting his reputation as a hated villain was more valuable than the money he could have earned from merchandise sales.
During a recent appearance on the Something to Wrestle With podcast, JBL discussed his approach to portraying a heel during his lengthy championship run in 2004 and 2005. Although other villains were selling merchandise at the time, he felt that allowing fans to wear his shirts would undermine the character he had worked to establish. “Heels sold merch back then, too. I chose not to. I saw the shirt. It was a JBL figure. It had the New York skyline kind of standing over. Real cool shirt,” JBL recalled.
After discovering that WWE had produced a shirt featuring his character, JBL immediately contacted Vince McMahon to express his concerns. According to JBL, McMahon was unaware that the merchandise had been released and agreed that selling the shirts could damage his presentation as one of the company’s top villains. “I called Vince [McMahon] right away, and I said, ‘What are you doing?’ And he goes, ‘What are you talking about?’ And I told him the shirt. He goes, ‘Didn’t even know it was out there.’ And I said, ‘Vince, I can’t have some kid in the front row wearing a JBL shirt and it looks like I have a fan somewhere. That kills me.’ And he said, ‘I agree.’ He didn’t know they had been put out there. Merch had just put it out there and they took it off the shelf.”
Although WWE removed the merchandise from sale, some shirts had already been printed and distributed. JBL revealed that he still occasionally encounters the shirts years later, including one he spotted recently. “I still see some of these shirts because some of them had been printed. Which is kind of cool. I saw one last weekend,” he said.
JBL went on to explain that his decision was motivated by a desire to maintain his character’s credibility rather than maximize short-term merchandise revenue. He believes that protecting the negative reactions he received from audiences helped sustain his position as WWE’s top heel and ultimately proved more financially rewarding. “I don’t know what I would have made by selling merch. I think it would have hurt me. And so I don’t think I would have had the run as long as I had with it. I think it would have hurt my heat. I don’t know about significantly, but it would have hurt it. I try to not do anything that would hurt my heat. I’ve made more money, I believe, because I didn’t sell merch.”
JBL captured the WWE Championship from Eddie Guerrero at The Great American Bash in June 2004, beginning a 280-day reign that established him as one of SmackDown’s leading villains.
His championship run eventually ended at WrestleMania 21 in April 2005, when he lost the title to John Cena in a match that helped launch Cena’s first reign as WWE Champion.
Looking back, JBL believes sacrificing merchandise revenue was an important part of maintaining the audience reactions that made his championship run successful.
