The Fight Network interviewed former WWE creative team member Jimmy Jacobs following his firing from the company. You can hear the full interview with Jacobs here, and see submitted highlights below.
Being hired as writer and not as a wrestler to WWE:
“I had a very, what’s the word, spiritual experience. Honestly, probably a couple months before you and I talked back in October 2014. July 2014 I had a bit of a spiritual experience and decided or was called to, however you want to put this, that being creative was where I was meant to end up. So, in that level of things, I mourned my career, my wrestling career and I was completely at terms and ready to go and move on and work behind the scenes. Now, that was all well and good for maybe the first six months I was there and wrestling was completely behind me, the idea of being in front of the camera completely behind me. So, one day I’m producing a backstage with Chris Jericho and Shane McMahon, I believe and we were just getting the cameras ready and as we’re setting up, we’re camera testing the shot and I stood in for Chris Jericho for a like second, just to see how the whole thing would look, I stood in for him and then Shane comes in and we start doing this promo for the first ten seconds of the promo just to see how it’s going to look and then we go and play it on the screen and then I see how I look the monitor and I was like I look good on that monitor, don’t I? That was the first seed of like oh man, you know what would be nice? So, there was moments like that, it certainly wasn’t overwhelming like a driving force throughout my two and a half years there but there were definitely certain moments like that, there were certain moments of frustration where I’m working on promos with guys and I’m like no, just do it like this, here’s how I’d do it, that, do it like that and it’s like there’s one to many people in this process. It’s almost just like, just let me go out there and cut the promo. So, there were moments like that, there were times that were bittersweet but at its best, it was a great time there too but I’m good with it now, I’m good”.
The talent accepting him because of his wrestling background:
“Automatic no. The truth is that when you come to WWE, it kind of doesn’t matter what you did before then, you know? Everybody there is proving themselves all over again. A guy like AJ Styles who had his great debut on Raw has to prove himself all over again, everybody does so I was to prove myself all over again and in a different capacity. Certainly I had a bit more of rapport with the guys that I’ve worked with for years but look at it this way, I go in there and work with, let’s say, Seth Rollins. I mean, how many times has Jimmy Jacobs opened Monday Night Raw with a promo? Zero. Seth Rollins has done it dozens and dozens and dozens of times so it’s hard for me to actually speak with authority. Certainly, it’s not off the bats with hey, maybe this, maybe this, maybe this, that’s something that’s earned still. So while I did have it a bit different, I think there were people that were happy to see somebody with a wrestling background on the writing team, I did have to prove myself and that’s not to say anything. I do want to say this and I don’t want to talk all about WWE stuff, that’s about the truth but I think there’s a certain perception of what the writers are in WWE and who they are and they have no experience in the wrestling business. The fact is they do have a lot of experience in the wrestling business because they’re in the wrestling business and they’re in the TV business and they’re in the entertainment business, they’re in the business we’re in. It took me probably about an hour my first day in the writer’s room and then I realized like oh man all these guys are super smart, all of them are and everybody’s got their different things that their skilled at and proficient at and good at, some guys are better at comedy, some guys are better at straight up hard core meeting promos, some guys will give you nice short stuff. I mean, there’s so much content when we write and these guys all have so many different good ideas. The writers there, look, unless you’ve been in that room and unless you’ve walked a mile in those shoes nobody has any idea what that’s about.”
The firing:
“It’s not something I’m going to get into but I’ll say this, no mistake was made. I am A-OK with the way that everything went down.”
Picture with Bullet Club as reason for firing:
“It was given to me as the reason, I read a couple reports from a couple different places saying that there were things leading up to it, that this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. If it was, I’m not aware of any of that and it’s certainly possible, who knows, but yeah it was because of the picture, for sure.”
If he likes not being attached to WWE schedule anymore:
“I love it. It’s not even just the schedule, I didn’t mind the schedule man, I didn’t mind the work, it wasn’t work, it was life. It was a seven day a week job and it was a life and I didn’t mind it being a life so it’s not the schedule, there’s a certain appreciation of the freedom otherwise. I’ll put it this way, when I started this job, I took my earrings out because you’re supposed to look nice. The morning before I went in to work two weeks ago, I went and I re-got my ears pierced, I got them re-pierced, they’ve been out for two and a half years. Later that day was the day I got fired. My point in saying that is I was ready to be me again.”
If he sensed the firing was coming:
“No. I was ready to be me again no matter what the circumstances, you know what I mean? If they had not fired me, I was going to walk in with my ears pierced and my hair, you know. There’s a certain way things are done there and there’s a nice freedom now, I’ve got my fingernails painted again, I’ve got my earrings back in and like the zombie coming out of the grave, Jimmy Jacobs, the Zombie Princess is back from the dead.”
