WWE Hall of Famer JBL was the most recent guest on After the Bell with host Corey Graves to talk all things pro-wrestling. Highlights can be found below.
Shares story about building an angle with Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero:
After we did the heart attack angle with Eddie’s mom in El Paso when Chavo and Eddie came up with — we’re in the back of the dressing room and the JBL character wasn’t working at all. People still saw me as Bradshaw. ‘Oh this mid-card wrestler,’ whatever they saw me as. They didn’t see me as this main-event guy and Chavo and Eddie come up with this heart attack angle in El Paso on Mother’s Day weekend with this 74-year old mother, and the best part about it was, I’m listening to Chavo and Eddie talk and they almost get into a fist fight in the back as Guerreros tend to do, as they’re pitching this angle. So Chavo realizes he’s got the hook in Eddie and he goes, ‘And then, we’ll have JBL clothesline mom’ and Eddie gets up to fight Chavo, and Chavo’s just needling him, Chavo Sr., not Chavo the nephew, then they get up to fight. I’m in the back. I’m thinking, ‘Do I break them up or [is] this idea really good?’ Oh it was great.
On the creation of the APA:
Godfather was riding with me, Teddy Long, Ron Simmons. It’s my birthday so they’re feeding me everything that I can ingest and so, by the time I get to Baltimore, Ron says, ‘I’m going to bed.’ Well I said, ‘Well I’m going to the bar, it’s my birthday.’ So I went down to the TV hotel which we never did but I knew there was gonna be people down there to talk to and have a few more drinks before I went to bed and I ran into Vince and [unable to make out name] and they bought me some drinks, they put me in their car and sent me back to the Red Roof. So, I get to the Red Roof, I open up the door, I’m stumbling in, Ron goes, ‘How’d you get back?’ I said, ‘Vince’s limo.’ He goes, ‘We’re f*cked. We’re f*cked.’ He goes, ‘You went to [the] TV hotel?’ I said yeah. He goes, ‘You still got connections in Japan?’ So the next day, Vince calls me and he says — let me correct a part of the story. He [saw me] earlier in the day with Ron, out having some drinks then I went to the TV hotel by myself so, I gotta correct part of that because Vince told me, he goes, ‘Vince wants to see you, next day at TV,’ and I said, ‘Okay’ so I went in there and I thought, ‘Okay, he’s gonna ring me out for being drunk at the TV hotel.’ He goes, ‘I wanna put that on television.’ I said, ‘Put what on television?’ And I’m still so hungover, I’m seeing triple and he goes, ‘You and Ron, sitting around bs’ing having beers.’ He goes, ‘That’s good stuff.’ He goes, ‘I like that.’ He goes, ‘That’s just guys’ and I said, ‘You want me and Ron to sit around and drink on television?’ He goes, ‘Yes!’ He goes, ‘I got it all figured out. The Acolytes Protection Agency, The APA, you’re gonna beat people up for money.’ Really? So I go back and tell Ron, Ron goes, ‘Yeah, when are we going to Japan?’ I said, ‘Ron, Vince wants us to drink beer on television.’ Ron goes, ‘That’s the best idea I’ve ever heard’ and that was it. That’s how The A.P.A. started was Vince seeing me and Ron just sitting around bs’ing and goes, ‘I just wanna put that on television. You guys be you guys,’ he thought that was entertaining and that’s how The A.P.A. as far as the backstage [stuff] started.
(Thanks to Post Wrestling for the transcription)