In the latest episode of Something To Wrestle With, JBL opened up about his infamous airport altercation with Steve Blackman, sharing more details about the incident and reflecting on the events surrounding it. During the conversation, JBL also discussed a variety of other memorable moments from his career. Below, we’ve compiled some of the key highlights from the episode for fans to enjoy (thanks to 411mania.com):
JBL on his altercation with Steve Blackman:
“We got into a fight about nine o’clock in the morning at Kansas City airport baggage claim. Yeah, we sure did, yeah. And what happened was, Steve had migraine headaches. And I think this is what led up to it because there were a couple of guys that you would know very well, that were huge Hall of Famers, that had messed with Steve on the flight, and Steve was trying to sleep. They didn’t tell me Steve was in a horrible mood. They said, ‘Hey, go mess with Steve.’ And so I just thought he was having a bad day or something. I didn’t realize how bad it was. So they had kept him awake or something like that and kept him up on the flight. He had these migraine headaches, and he was in a terrible mood. And I didn’t know that, they were setting me up. Which, I would have done to somebody else, but it happened to be me.”
“So Steve was sitting there in like shorts or something. I walked up and I pitched him on the butt, and I said, ‘You look nice in them shorts there, boy.’ You know, doing the old Deliverance thing, you know. And again, guys will take that out of context and you know, make all kinds of things of it. Guys did stupid stuff like that back then. We didn’t have the internet, we were bored. Steve backhands me and hits me about six or seven times before I can freaking move. I’m like a freaking punching dummy. He’s like, ‘Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.’ I’m like, ‘Oh my god.’ It’s like, nine o’clock in the morning and all of sudden, I realize I’m in a freaking fight. And thank God, in the middle of it he steps back to kick me. He stuck his foot into a bag in baggage claim. Thank God, he’d have broke whatever he kicked. And so then we get into a pretty good scuffle. We end up on top of the moving carousel, on top of this 60 or 70-year-old guy. And Shamrock was on the phone, he’s the one that came over and broke it up. So yeah, we had a pretty good kerfuffle. Thank God he stepped in that bag. I don’t know what he’d have done, but it wouldn’t have ended up well for me. And you know, I felt bad about it. Because it was my fault. I deserved every bit of it. I shouldn’t have been messing with him, I didn’t realize he’s having such a bad day. Steve and I are friends. I’d done stuff like that 100 times. Whatever it was, it was wrong that day. And, you know, s**t happens.”
JBL on the punishment:
“Bruce didn’t fine me that day. JR fined me that day. So you know, JR pulled us aside. He’s like, you know, ‘Hey, I’d rather somebody fire me than fine me.’ And I said, ‘I wouldn’t. If you fire me, I can’t pay the f**king fine. That’s the dumbest comment I heard. Don’t fire me, fine me. I can pay that if I’ve got a job.’”
JBL on other incidents:
“I had messed with Steve a bunch of times. Because we — you know, that’s what we did. That’s what I did too. And so it wasn’t just, you know — but yes, 100% You’re right. Steve was in a bad mood because some guys have been messing with on the plane, I went up at the wrong time and I ended up paying the price. And I told him afterward, I said, ‘Steve, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to set you over the edge.’ Which, I didn’t, you know. I’m just having some fun.”
