WWE Hall of Famer JBL has named Haku & Ken Shamrock as the two names that he didn’t dare mess with during his tenured run in the WWE, calling Shamrock “one of the toughest guys in the world.”
Speaking with Inside The Ropes own Liam Alexander-Stewart, WWE Hall of Famer JBL would discuss the modern wrestling product revealing that he is a huge fan of the athleticism on show from current WWE Superstars adding that he does not want to be “the old guy that goes outside and yells up the clouds and say our generation was better.”
During the interview, the longest-reigning WWE Champion in Smackdown TV history would discuss his favourite WWE locker room ribs, the toughest wrestlers he has ever encountered as well as who in the WWE he would have loved to wrestle during his career.
Whilst discussing The APA’s reputation for being the toughest talent in any locker room, JBL would reveal that there were two names that both he and Ron Simmons feared above all else – Haku and Ken Shamrock.
” Yeah, we had Ken Shamrock in our locker room. He won the UFC. I think you know him or Haku.
I remember we had the invasion and they’d gone over there and invaded WCW, and we didn’t know if they were going to invade us back and so they actually had us standing around the parking lot just to see, you know, we didn’t know what was going to happen, you know, so The Harris boys were there. Shamrock was there. Blackman was there. Me and Ron were there.
All the boys were kind of standing around. Of course, nothing happened and we just always joked about it. They said, Haku over. We’re just going to send Shamrock out and we’re going to watch them fight for the next 10 years because that would be the greatest fight in the history of the world.”
JBL would continue on, revealing that he believes Shamrock to be one of the toughest guys of all time, arguing that a case could be made for ‘The World’s Most Dangerous Man’ to be “number one in any era.”
“Look, I love Ken and we were good friends still are. I trained in the Lion’s Den up in Dallas with Guy Mezger, at one of his satellite training facilities, and just love the training. But Ken was an animal man. I mean, I wish I would have watched him fight. I think Ortiz. And he was, you know, a few years past his prime at the time Ken took every shot Ortiz had.
Ortiz is knocking out people everywhere. Ken wouldn’t go down. I mean, that guy was, he’s one of the toughest guys, certainly in the world at the time. Probably the toughest of all time. I mean, we talk about legendary figures. We talked about Hodge. We talked about Gotch. You talk about Angle and talk about Brock. I mean, Ken Shamrock is you can make a case for him being number one in any era.”
JBL was inducted into the 2020 class of the WWE Hall of Fame in April 2021, whilst Ken Shamrock recently found himself inducted into the IMPACT Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2020 following his induction into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2003 as part of the two inductees alongside UFC icon Royce Gracie.
Haku last competed at SICW taking on Attila Khan whilst last appeared in ring for IMPACT Wrestling in January 2021, teaming with Chris Bey, Sami Callihan and Moose to take on the formidable team of Willie Mack, Tommy Dreamer, Trey Miguel and Rich Swann.
JBL is part of the incredible Stories With Brisco and Bradshaw podcast available via Podcast Heat – their latest episode featuring an interview with WWE legend Al Snow is available to watch on YouTube or to listen to via iTunes, Spotify and all good podcast providers.
Thank you to John for taking the time out to speak with Inside The Ropes and a huge thank you to Podcast Heat for facilitating our conversation.
If you use any quotes from this interview please provide a link back and h/t to Liam Alexander-Stewart of Inside the Ropes.