JBL Opens Up About His Infamous Airport Fight with Steve Blackman

On the latest episode of Something to Wrestle With, JBL shared the story of his infamous airport altercation with Steve Blackman, along with other incidents from his wrestling career. Below are some highlights from the episode:

“We got into a fight about nine o’clock in the morning at Kansas City airport baggage claim. Yeah, we sure did, yeah,” JBL began.

He explained that the incident was triggered by Blackman's bad mood, caused by a rough flight. “Steve had migraine headaches. And I think this is what led up to it because there were a couple of guys that you would know very well, that were huge Hall of Famers, that had messed with Steve on the flight, and Steve was trying to sleep. They didn’t tell me Steve was in a horrible mood. They said, ‘Hey, go mess with Steve.’ And so I just thought he was having a bad day or something. I didn’t realize how bad it was.”

Unaware of the situation, JBL approached Blackman in the baggage claim area. “So Steve was sitting there in like shorts or something. I walked up and I pitched him on the butt, and I said, ‘You look nice in them shorts there, boy,’ you know, doing the old Deliverance thing… Steve backhands me and hits me about six or seven times before I can freaking move. I’m like a freaking punching dummy. He’s like, ‘Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.’”

The scuffle escalated until it was broken up by Ken Shamrock. “We end up on top of the moving carousel, on top of this 60 or 70-year-old guy. Shamrock was on the phone; he’s the one that came over and broke it up. Thank God he stepped in that bag. I don’t know what he’d have done, but it wouldn’t have ended up well for me. And you know, I felt bad about it. Because it was my fault. I deserved every bit of it.”

Despite the fight, JBL noted that they remained friends. “Steve and I are friends. I’d done stuff like that 100 times. Whatever it was, it was wrong that day. And, you know, s**t happens.”