John “Bradshaw” Layfield believes Road Dogg has what it takes to lead TNA Wrestling creatively if recent rumors prove to be true.
Speaking on the latest edition of Something To Wrestle, JBL discussed reports linking Road Dogg to a creative role in TNA following recent backstage changes within the promotion. Layfield said he would like to see his longtime friend receive full creative control.
“You know, I’d like to see him have creative control and I’d like to see what he can do. I think he’s a guy who could handle that. A lot of guys cannot handle the creative control. They need something to temper them. They need something to filter them. They need something to take away some of their craziness or some of their ideas that are bad. You need a Vince McMahon to be able to be the guy who has the final decision. I think Road Dogg could handle this, and I’d love to see it happen because I think he’s smart enough to make it work.”
Layfield went on to explain why he has confidence in Road Dogg’s creative abilities, pointing to the experience he gained learning from some of wrestling’s most respected creative minds.
“As I said last week, there’s a few guys that have been trained by legendary creative people—trained by Kevin Sullivan, trained by Dusty Rhodes, trained by Eddie Graham, trained by Vince McMahon. Road Dogg’s one of those. He was trained personally by Vince.”
JBL also recalled that McMahon had long viewed Road Dogg as someone with significant upside behind the scenes.
“I remember Vince saying, ‘I’ve got really big plans for him.’ He thought the world of Road Dogg and what Road Dogg could do. Vince had massive plans for him. I think Road Dogg got burned out. Vince would go through guys one after another. Vince used to always say, ‘I just use them until they get burned out, then go to somebody else, and they’ll come back later and they’ll get burned out again.’ People could not hardly handle the schedule. Booking wrestling 52 weeks a year is one of the toughest jobs in the world. It takes a very special person, and I think Road Dogg’s one of those guys.”
While acknowledging that leading a creative team is a significant step up from serving underneath a head booker, Layfield said he believes Road Dogg is prepared for the challenge.
“You don’t know how people are going to be until they get in that role. I think Road Dogg is going to be fantastic. He’s a smart guy. He was trained certainly the right way about how to handle this. It’s kind of like being a football coach. Until you’ve been around a lot of great head coaches, it’s hard to have practice structure together. There’s a lot more that goes into this than just planning creative. Once you become the head of creative, that’s when you find out if guys are going to sink or swim. I think Road Dogg’s going to do great. That’s a massive step from being the number one guy underneath the creative head and being the creative head yourself, but I look forward to it. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Something To Wrestle with a h/t to WrestlingHeadlines.com for the transcription.
