Jimmy Jacobs On If He Wanted An On-Air Role With WWE, If He Had To Prove Himself With WWE Talent
Former WWE writer Jimmy Jacobs wrote a lot of popular storylines during his two-and-a-half year tenure with the company, but the former Ring Of Honor wrestler believes he could've succeeded as an on-air performer as well. On the latest episode of Live Audio Wrestling, Jacobs said he enjoyed his time behind the scenes but every now and then he'd wonder if he should step in front of the camera.
Jacobs said that he was at a place in his life where he wanted to step back from in-ring performing and work behind the scenes. But once in a while he would get the itch to go out there and cut one of the promos he wrote for other superstars.
"I had a very spiritual experience," Jacobs explained. "I had a spiritual experience and decided that being creative was where I was meant to end up, so in that level in my career, I was ready to go and work behind the scenes. That was all well and good for the first six months that I was there, but then one day I am producing a backstage Chris Jericho / Shane McMahon I believe, and we were just getting the cameras ready, and camera testing the shots; I stood in for Chris Jericho for like a second, just to see how everything would look, I stood in for him, and then Shane came in and we started doing this promo to see how it was going to look, and then we replay it on the screen; I then see how I looked on the monitor, and then I was like, oh wow, I look good on that monitor don't I? That was like the first seed where I thought, oh man, wouldn't it be nice?
"There was moments like that," he continued. "It wasn't like an overwhelming, driving force of my 2 ½ years there, but there was certain moments where I was working on promos with guys where I would tell them to do a promo a certain way, and I would show them; I would get to the point where I would say, just let me go out there and cut a promo. There was moments like that; there were times where it was bitter sweet. There were great times there too, but I'm good now, I had my fill."
Jacobs was responsible for multiple fan-favorite ideas, and most notably came up with "The List" for Chris Jericho. His experience as a wrestler did make it easier for him to do his job and connect with WWE superstars, but he said he had to earn their respect as a writer.
"The truth is that when you come to WWE it kind of doesn't matter what you did before," Jacobs said. "Everybody did it where they had to prove themselves all over again; a guy like AJ Styles who had a great debut on the roster had to prove himself all over again. Everybody does, so I had to start all over again, in a different capacity. Sure, I had a different rapport with guys that I worked with for years... I do believe I had it a bit different, I think there were people that were happy to see someone like me with a professional wrestling background on the writing team, but I did have to prove myself."
When asked if he had any future commitments to ROH, Jacobs said, "Everything in my life is up in the air right now." He said he's currently enjoying his time away from the WWE because it's allowing him to loosen up and become himself again.
"I love it. I didn't mind the schedule, or the work. It was a seven day a week job, and it was a life and I didn't mind it being a life. It wasn't the schedule, but there's a certain appreciation of having freedom," Jacobs said. "When I started my WWE job at 31, I took my earrings out because you are supposed to look nice. Before I went into work two weeks ago, I went and got my ears pierced again. Later that day I got fired. My point in saying that is I was ready to be me again."
Source: Live Audio Wrestling
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.