WWE Hall of Famer JBL spoke with VideoGamer.com about various topics, including the in-ring retirement of 17-time World Champion John Cena.
JBL said, “Obviously I was there, I was the one that dropped the first title to him and he’d have been 17 time world Champion whether I was there or not, so I don’t want to take any credit for it and I’m not, I think we knew John was the guy, I don’t think we knew he was the guy that was going to be 17 time world champion to do all these movies and become one of the greatest of all time, nobody can see that. I’ve been so proud, he has been one of the greatest representatives of professional wrestling, sports, entertainment, whatever you want to call it, in the history of this business, he has been so good for this business. He is such a respectful guy, he’s such a smart guy, he carries himself so well, everything he does is first class. This business is really lucky to have him and the era he came along in the PG Era following the Attitude Era, there aren’t many people and probably it may be one and it may be him that could have done that. During that era to go from somebody flipping off the boss to all this crazy stuff we were doing in wrestling to a PG era and you can’t curse and still put people in seats and John Cena did it and I don’t know if there’s anybody else in the business history that could have done that like he did it.”
On his favorite match with Cena:
“It was the ‘I Quit’ match after the WrestleMania match, which I knew was done. The WrestleMania match was done just for a reason, to get him the title, get him the title clean and then after that we had the ‘I Quit’ match and I’d wrestled John on all these in house shows, live events they call them now and I knew how good he was, I knew how tough he was and I wanted to show that to the rest of the world, it’s a world of difference between going from an eight minute match to a 30 to 45 minute match that you have to really be able to take people on a rollercoaster, a completely different dynamic. Anybody can do an eight minute match or almost anybody. I knew how good he was and I wanted to show the world how good he was and I thought that ‘I Quit’ match would show that and any champion that comes along that people want to get behind at some point have gotta walk through hell. Steve had to walk through hell with Bret, Triple H and The Rock, he had to do something where you have to believe in him. And I thought, if he can beat me in an ‘I Quit’ match it’ll show how good and tough he is and I thought he did a great job.”
On whether he thinks Cena’s World Title record will be broken any time soon:
“Yes, yeah. I definitely think so, there’s too much talent out there. I think you don’t have any idea who it is, so it’s impossible to predict. When Steve was The Ringmaster, I don’t think anybody would’ve thought, ‘This guy’s the one that’s going to sell out every building you put his name on in the world.’ As good as Steve was, I don’t think anybody would’ve thought that about Steve when he was with The Ringmaster and all of a sudden he becomes this guy, I don’t think you can predict that. I mean, when Kane was a dentist, I don’t think you could predict that guy’s going to be a Hall of Famer and headline a million pay-per-view and 30 years later, he is still going to be a huge star. People just come and emerge and so I think you’re going to see that. I think Randy Orton may break the title. I think Randy’s so different from everybody else, Randy is God’s gift to wrestling, Randy is so good, his dad was just like that, his grandfather was a great heel. Randy is just on a different level and Randy may be the guy.”
On if Orton is underutilized:
“It is hard to say. I would have him on TV more in my personal opinion, yes. But you put him on TV more, maybe that can be a negative thing. You don’t know until you do it and I don’t think you can get too much Randy Orton, I think he’s that good. But I don’t know the answer to that, he is as big a star as there is, when he comes out, everything changes and that’s important. There are very few guys in business that can do that, Randy’s one of those guys. So something is going very right with Randy right now.”
