WWE HOFer JBL Praises Vince McMahon As The Best Producer He Ever Worked With

Despite the many controversies surrounding Vince McMahon both inside the ring during storylines and outside of the ring in his personal life. Many have acknowledged that McMahon could be difficult to impress as a booker, his genius at driving WWE is remarked by many, even while they admit he could miss the plot at times.

Others, like John 'Bradshaw' Layfield, have more glowing accounts of working with McMahon, who in an episode of "Something To Wrestle," expressed exactly why he loved working with the former WWE Chairman. 

"Absolutely fantastic. He's the best producer I ever worked with by far and it's not even close," JBL exclaimed.

McMahon often fed the former WWE Champion lines through an earpiece during his tenure as a commentator, which often didn't make sense in the moment. 

"Vince would have an idea of what creative's going to do, say, in a couple of weeks, so Vince would feed me some stuff sometimes that didn't make any sense for the current program/storyline but made sense in hindsight, because Vince knew what we were doing in a couple of weeks," JBL explained. Because of this, he added that this gave him a sense of camaraderie with McMahon, as he was in on the plans that were still going to unfold, while very few others knew about it.

John 'Bradshaw' Layfield further pointed out that other producers often spoke over him while he was talking live on commentary, and it would be difficult to concentrate. While, on the other hand, Vince McMahon was very succinct. 

"I trusted Vince enough; I would be one word behind him. He was that good with his producing," he proclaimed. "Vince never yelled at us not one time; not one time." 

While he claims his relationship with McMahon was good, he did acknowledge that others like Michael Cole and Jim Ross were definitely yelled at by McMahon. 

"He treated us, me, [Booker T], and King [Jerry Lawler] completely different [from other broadcasters]," JBL continued.

When asked why he believes that there was a difference in how McMahon treated certain commentators, JBL concluded that it was likely because he, Booker T, and Jerry Lawler were all wrestlers before stepping behind the commentary desk, making them "one of the boys" and giving them a different understanding of wrestling, compared to Jim Ross and Michael Cole. 

"Vince told me one time not to say something; I said it – it slipped, it just f**king slipped – and I said, 'Vince, I'm sorry,' he told me not to and said, 'Not a big deal.' If that had been Cole? Oh, my God. He'd gone nuts," JBL chuckled, adding that the same thing happened with Booker T on one occasion when he told an offensive joke, and McMahon just quietly asked him to apologize and brushed it off later. "But Vince was fantastic to work with." 

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Something To Wrestle," and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.