JBL has admitted he is not a fan of WWE’s Unreal series, despite acknowledging the show has been a success for the company.
Speaking on Something to Wrestle, the WWE Hall of Famer said he has not watched the latest season and believes the series reveals too much about the wrestling business, although he accepts WWE’s current approach is clearly working.
“I’m basically against Unreal. I’m an old school guy, but I’m not so set against it that I think they shouldn’t do it. They’re doing something right, and so I’m not going to be the old guy who shakes his fist at the clouds and yells, get off my lawn, kids. They’re selling out football stadiums back-to-back nights. I think it’s too inside, but they’re doing something right.”
JBL explained that he prefers to remain immersed in the product rather than learn how it is put together, comparing wrestling to television dramas and films.
“I don’t want to see the insides to Game of Thrones or anything else. How do the dragons work? How do they show the guy getting his head cut off? I don’t care. I just want to be entertained. I don’t care who Jon Snow really is. I couldn’t care less about his background or where he came from. I just want to watch him on the north wall defending stuff. I want to get lost in that.”
The former WWE Champion believes wrestling loses something when performers become too relatable, arguing fans pay to see larger-than-life personalities rather than people they feel they already know.
“If you just make it, ‘Oh, he’s just one of us,’ I think that’s death. Do I want a character that I know through and through? No, because I’m not going to watch it. I don’t pay money to see somebody like me. I pay money to see somebody hit a 450-foot home run because I can’t do that.”
JBL pointed to Brock Lesnar as an example of the type of star he believes wrestling should create, recalling the aura the former WWE Champion carried whenever he entered an arena.
“When I used to watch Brock Lesnar, he is a freak, and there’s nobody like Brock. I would watch Brock walking into an arena when I was doing commentary, and everything would change because he’s so different and so imposing as a human being.”
JBL Thinks Modern WWE Fans Put Too Much Of Themselves On Social Media
He also suggested modern wrestlers can sometimes reveal too much of themselves through social media and other platforms in an effort to build their personal brands.
“Guys today want to build a platform so badly that I think sometimes they give too much, and when they give too much, I think fans feel like they know you. When fans feel like they know you, they’re not going to pay to see somebody they know. I’m not going to pay to see my neighbor.”
Despite his reservations, JBL acknowledged there could be benefits to the concept if it helps WWE create bigger stars.
“Now, can you create bigger stars out of this? Yeah, possibly. That could be the upside. I think a lot of this can still be worked, and it probably is.”
