JBL Praises Current Generation's Athleticism, But Criticizes Their Lack Of Emotion

During an appearance on Inside The Ropes, JBL spoke about the current crop of talents in WWE.

“Yeah, I love the athleticism.” “I love how talented these guys are. I mean, they’re doing stuff that I certainly couldn’t do and a lot of our guys couldn’t do. These guys are incredible athletes. I remember when Too Cold Scorpio and I think it was Chris Benoit first got together at WCW, and I can’t remember the year, it was around ’93, ’94, and they had this match and they were doing stuff that I remember. The whole wrestling industry was abuzz about the crazy things they were doing. It all made sense in the match. Not to say it didn’t, but it was just amazing.”

“And now these guys are doing this stuff all the time. I think it can be a little too much, but I’m not going to be the old guy that goes outside and yells up at the clouds and say our generation was better. Every generation thinks they are better than the next generation. I think it’s just something that happens every generation in life. But these guys are fantastic athletes. I wish they had a little more emotion than they had movement, and I think that’s the one thing that can be missing. When you want to get pops, when you want to get ‘this is awesome’ chants, I think that’s the one thing that can be missing. But their athleticism is unparalleled.”

JBL also spoke highly of Roman Reigns.

“I had a brief interaction with Roman in one Royal Rumble, not much more of a comedy spot than anything else.” “I worked as an agent for just a few months and realized that was not for me, but Roman was one of the smartest guys I dealt with. He just has a knack for the business. I think when you’re people that come in with their families in the business, they just have a head start on everybody else and Roman’s a very smart guy. But he also had that head start and I would love to work with a guy like Roman.”