JBL Reveals How a Referee Botch Derailed His Push

JBL shared a story about how his path to a major WWE push was derailed by a botched referee’s call on his Facebook page. JBL was referring to the 1996 Survivor Series when he was wrestling as the long-haired “Bradshaw” character.

 


 

“My first Survivor Series my team was to go over and it was to be my first big push. It was one of first times refs used ear pieces, or at least, different ear pieces. So, I do a ‘false finish’ and Tim White counts me out! I had kicked out on ‘2,’ but Tim was listening to someone in his ear and wasn’t paying attention. He looked up and said, ‘Oh my God, kid, I am so sorry,’ but then had to pantomine he was sending me out of ring.”

“I got to the back and was chewed out, I couldn’t stooge Tim so I just took it-later they realized Tim made a mistake and told me they were sorry. It was my pal Gerald Brisco that had chewed me out as he ran ‘Gorilla’ back then. My push was killed and pretty much so was ‘Justin Hawk Bradshaw,’ but that is a different story-which I’ll tell later. I thought about this today as I was reading some tweets from folks about Survivor Series.”

Looking back at the match, JBL was rolled up from behind during chaos and JBL kicked out in a natural-looking spot, but Tim White kept counting to three, then realized his error.

Vince McMahon and Jim Ross acted befuddled that JBL was counted out, questioning whether the referee made a bad call, in kayfabe terms. A few moments later, WWE replayed the errant three count, with Ross covering for JBL that the ref messed up.

Related Articles

Latest Articles

Videos