WWE Hall of Famer JBL appeared on an episode of Something To Wrestle With, where he discussed various topics, including whether fellow WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels had any backstage heat following the Montreal Screwjob.
JBL said, “Shawn didn’t have that much heat back then. He had heat with Bret, they didn’t like each other. And that was a personal thing. They’re both fighting for the same spot, they both had a personality conflict. There was a style conflict a little bit with their wrestling. You know, they had a lot of conflicts going on right there. They both wanted the same spot was the main issue, I believe. And then there was a little bit of a personality issue that went along with that. It’s understandable. It’s high octane egos. You don’t get to that spot unless you are, unless you have that. And so that was mainly the problem that you had was Shawn and and Bret and some of the other Canadians. You know, Davey Boy, and some others that kind of had a residual effect, because they’re really good friends with Bret. And you may have had the other side as well with the Kliq, I don’t know, I didn’t see how it manifests itself that much.”
On how the locker room saw Michaels:
“There wasn’t heat on Shawn. Shawn was — God Almighty, he was a terrific [performer]. I mean, I say terrific performer. People say he’s the greatest in-ring performer of all time. And I’m not going to argue that at all. He was so freaking good. Were there some issues outside the ring? Yeah. There were issues with all of us. We were all bunch of young guys that were completely untethered to the norm. And we were freaking out of control, and it manifests itself in different ways with everybody. And so there wasn’t heat on Shawn. There wasn’t heat on Shawn for the Screwjob, either.”
On the WWE locker room’s reaction to the Montreal Screwjob:
“Most of us thought that justifiable or not, that was Vince’s title. And we did not want to lose to WCW. And we agreed with the fact that if Bret went down to WWE with the title, it would significantly hurt us. That means it hurts our living, that means it hurts where we live. That means it hurts how we pay our bills. It might drive us out of business completely. We don’t know. Losing Bret was a big deal. Losing Bret with that title was an even bigger deal. So I think a lot of the boys thought, right or wrong, you had to figure out a way for Bret not to leave with that title. Now I will say this, Bret said later that he would not leave with that title. Bret was a man of his word. If Bret said he wouldn’t do it, Bret would not do it. I 100% believe that. Bret is a complete man of integrity, he’s a man of his word. Eric Bischoff on the other hand, would have used it if he could have. Eric didn’t give his word; Eric was in a battle with Vince. And he’s not — what Eric would have done was completely different. I 100% believe that Bret wouldn’t have done it.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
