The acquisition of WCW by WWE was a landmark event, but it wasn’t too big of a cause for concern among the roster, according to John Layfield.
JBL was competing as Bradshaw at the time WCW was purchased by WWE in March 2001, a move that saw several WCW talents signed to contracts.
On a recent edition of the “Something to Wrestle” podcast, JBL recalled the reaction of the roster at the time. He said,
“The boys loved it. You know, the competition between WWE and WCW was more between the higher-ups, because that was a zero-sum game for those guys. So when we saw those guys coming over, we thought, man this is fantastic.
“We’ve got some incredible talent coming. Those four guys were incredible talents, you know? Two of the guys went on to become [world] champions and headline WrestleMania.”
While JBL may not have had an issue with talent coming in, several WWE-produced docs have claimed talent was afraid of losing spots to WCW names.
Ironically, Bradshaw led a crusade of WWE talent against WCW and ECW invaders over the summer, with the angle ending at that year’s Survivor Series pay-per-view event.
