4 WWE Superstars Vince McMahon personally fired and 4 he hired

#7 Vince McMahon hired JBL

It should come as no surprise that Vince McMahon had a role in WWE hiring JBL. After all, it has long been rumored that the two men have a good relationship behind the scenes, and the WWE Chairman is unlikely to book a Superstar as one of his longest-reigning WWE Champions of the modern era (280 days) if he does not like him.

Speaking to WWE’s official website in 2014, JBL recalled that he had to go to the company’s headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut to meet with Vince McMahon for the first time in 1995.

Vince McMahon decided to tease JBL by suggesting that he could portray a “bad guy ballerina” character in WWE. Of course, it turned out that he was only joking around, but JBL did not know that at the time.

Once Vince McMahon reassured his future WWE Champion that he could keep his cowboy gimmick, the two men agreed on a deal that saw JBL – then known as Justin “Hawk” Bradshaw – sign for WWE “for virtually no guaranteed money”.

“He [Vince McMahon] threw this contract out there for virtually no guaranteed money and said to me, ‘That contract’s not worth the paper it’s written on. All I can guarantee you is the handshake behind it.’ And that’s all I needed. I could live with that.”

JBL was set to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2020 but the ceremony was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.