WWE legend JBL had an over-the-top, uber-confident gimmick, but the man behind the character wasn’t so self-assured when he first joined WWE in the ’90s.

After calling time on his fledgling football career, JBL tried his hand at pro wrestling, featuring in Mexico and Japan before eventually signing for WWE in 1995. The former APA star has recalled being apprehensive about becoming a success in WWE in his early days with the promotion and has admitted that he was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the pro wrestling juggernaut, especially after watching an iconic WrestleMania match. 

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“A lot of people get overwhelmed by WWE, especially — I don’t know back then, maybe more so because we had the territories back then,” began JBL. “But once you get to WWE, you had 14, 15 TV trucks, it was just a different level of professional wrestling and a lot of guys got overwhelmed by it. I certainly did. I remember watching Shawn [Michaels] and Bret [Hart] in that incredible Iron Man match at the Pond [Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim], my first WrestleMania. I wasn’t on the show but I was backstage watching, and I remember just watching Shawn rappel from the ceiling and had that incredible match. I remember thinking, ‘I probably should go back to Japan.’ It was really overwhelming.”

The WWE Hall of Famer realized that WWE was on a different level when he first debuted in the promotion, despite having been a “top guy” in every other promotion at that point in his career. But, JBL eventually put his anxieties away as he became a mid-card and tag team star alongside Ron Simmons in APA during the Attitude Era, and later went on to become a world champion and one of the most-despised heels in pro wrestling.

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