During a recent edition of his “Something To Wrestle” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer JBL discussed the perception of SmackDown, the concept of brand loyalty, and other topics.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On whether there was brand loyalty among wrestlers on Raw and SmackDown: “A little bit of fan stuff, but a little bit of truth behind it. But not brand loyalty like, I didn’t like the other guys. And by the way, the one opportunity I wish I’d had was when Triple H was the big heel on Raw, and I was on SmackDown. I wish we could have faced each other. We did a face-off one time at Mania or something and I thought, ‘My God, man, I wish I could–‘ Because Hunter was such a good worker, man. I worked with him several times, but I wish I could have worked with an ’04 or ’05. I just think so much of his work and of his style.
“But there was a brand loyalty. You know, we would monitor the other guys’ house shows. We both ran Cleveland, we’d see who drew bigger numbers. We’d monitor how our ratings were progressing compared to their ratings. Who was drawing big ratings and segments and stuff. So yeah, there was a lot of brand loyalty between the guys. And it wasn’t like we didn’t like the other guys; it was a competition. We want to prove that we were better. And that was up and down the entire card at the time. I thought it was a very, very healthy environment.”
On SmackDown being looked like the B-show in the 2000s: “100% yes, yes. Look, I hate to say we knew we were the B-show, but I think we knew we were the B-show. We didn’t get the stars. And for good reason, very good reason. Raw was Vince’s baby. It was the longest-running TV show at that time. It was on every single Monday. It was live, we weren’t. So they got the stars… You got all these guys that come in. They go to Raw and they go for very good reason, because it’s live and it’s spontaneous. So there’s a reason that that show was the A-show and we were the B-show.
“I don’t think it diminished anything as far as the emphasis they put on the quality of it. But if you’re going to have a huge surprise. If you’re going to have Larry The Cable Guy come out or something — you know, they’re going to do it at least in that time, they’re going to do it on Raw. They’re going to do these big stars coming out on Raw because it’s live, and it’s their flagship show. So I had no issue with that as far as why it was the A-show, because I don’t think we got any deemphasis as far as creative or the input for the company, as far as equity putting into us. But there was a real chip on our shoulder that we wanted to show that we were better. Whether we were not, we wanted to show that. We want to prove at least, we want to compete with these guys.”
