Jimmy Jacobs Discusses An Important Lesson Vince McMahon Taught Him During His Time With WWE
Current Impact Wrestling producer and performer, Jimmy Jacobs, was a guest on WWE Hall of Famer Booker T's Heated Conversations podcast and during the interview, Jacobs spoke in-depth about his time formerly working as a writer for WWE. Jacobs gave credit to Daniel Bryan and Joey Mercury for introducing him to the higher ups that would ultimately give him the opportunity to write for WWE. He also recalled an important piece of advice that Vince McMahon would share with him.
Jacobs started out performing as a commentator, or sometimes a referee, for matches at the wrestling organization where his brother worked, Pro Wrestling Worldwide. It didn't take long for him to lace up some boots and compete in pro wrestling matches himself. Jacobs has now spent over two decades in professional wrestling and has won championship titles all over the world, including a five-time reign as a Ring of Honor Tag Team Champion.
Jacobs explained to Booker T how being a writer and producer for companies like WWE and Impact Wrestling eventually became his goal, realizing that his greatest contributions to pro wrestling had always been on the creative side of things. Jacobs recounted how Daniel Bryan and Joey Mercury brought him to a WWE show and directly introduced him to a WWE creative writer, Dave Kapoor.
"I was working on the independent level for a long time, ten years for Ring of Honor." Jacobs said. "So I've wrestled all the guys that are there now, your Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins and I were a tag team for years, and Dean Ambrose, and Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, everybody. And my career, it pretty much plateaued. And I'm not the best athlete anyway, my in-ring game was never my strong suit. It was my promos. It was the creativity. So I had started just on the independent level, that's what I did. And it dawned on me one day, like, my time here in this business is not about what happens here in the ring, it's gonna be about the creativity.
"And I called Daniel Bryan and I was like, 'Hey man, I want to go to WWE and I want to be a writer. What can you do? Put me in front of the right people,' Jacobs recalled. "And Daniel Bryan and Joey Mercury, they brought me to a show, they brought me to the manager of the writing team, Dave Kapoor, and they said, 'Hey man, this is Jimmy Jacobs, he's a genius, he belongs on your team.' And that started the process going. I had to go through an interview, and writing sample, and all that stuff and I had a fun couple years there."
Jacobs would go on to mention how, despite not always agreeing with Vince McMahon's ideas, he is grateful for the things that Vince taught him during his stint with WWE. Jacobs remembered a specific instance where Vince's advice stuck with him.
"I didn't always agree with Vince McMahon on things but I learned a lot from him," Jacobs explained. "One of the best pieces of advice that Vince ever gave me, I'd written this promo for Bo Dallas and it was about how he had taken some guys knee out, and the guy could barely walk. Vince read it and he just goes, 'These are just facts. I don't want facts. Tell me a story!' And it's true, man, people identify with a story. I mean, we're all bred to where stories are facts but they're facts that we see how it applies to life, so I came back in to him with a promo about this pet bird that Bo Dallas had as a kid, who's wing was broken and he took this bird in, and finally the wing healed, and the bird flew again. And it was a great piece of advice. I don't want facts, tell me a story. People identify with stories and that's something I really try to tell these newer guys."
You can listen to the full interview above. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Heated Conversations with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.