In 2005 at ECW’s first reunion show One Night Stand Pay-Per-View, fans were treated
to a great night of nostalgic action.
But there was a moment towards the end that has perhaps overshadowed the show itself.
A shoot fight between one of the ECW wrestlers, and a former WWE Champion.
Mi nombre es El Fakidor, this is [TITLE CARD START the true story behind JBL and Blue Meanie’s
Shoot Fight [TITLE CARD END].
When WWE released ECW One Night Stand 2005 on DVD, there was an option to hear JBL’s
thoughts on the show as he watched it live from the balcony.
Along with calling Lance Storm “the most boring man in the history of boring” and
making fun of Balls Mahoney and Axl Rotten’s weight, he also had some choice comments about
Blue Meanie.
When Da Blue Guy made his entrance along with the rest of the Blue World Order prior to
the main event starting, JBL called him a “fat f***” and that he, “looks like
a donkey screwing a basketball…
Go donate your body to science fiction, you fat lowly lowly pig.
He looks like a blue haired 800 pound Abe Lincoln.”
The final moments of show saw the ECW wrestlers get into a giant brawl with some of the heels
from Raw and Smackdown - which of course included JBL.
But as the brawl came to its scheduled end, the cameras tried not to show that Meanie’s
face had been bloodied and bruised from the scuffle.
On an episode of Talk is Jericho in February 2016, Meanie recalled, “I feel this punch
right on my scar [from a recent injury suffered at Hardcore Homecoming] and I go, 'what the
hell?'
I turned around and there's JBL.
He starts throwing shots.
He does the hockey thing, he pulls my shirt over my face [and] starts throwing live rounds.
He [has] got a fistful of rings, so I was like, 'I ain't going to take this!', so I
snatched a headlock as much as I could on a 6'6" man and I start throwing punches back.
We kind of get pulled apart.”
In an interview with WWE.com a few weeks after the PPV, JBL gave his version of events saying,
“Here we are trying to give the fans a great finish [to the pay-per-view] when we begin
to lock horns in the melee.
But he’s basically not even acknowledging my presence.
Now I might have caught him snug with a shot, but then he started throwing back heavy punches,
including a body shot.
So make no mistake, I club him back to make sure he knows I’m not playing, and I think
I got him with a shot over the eye and one near the forehead and apparently opened him
up a little.”
When Meanie got backstage, head of talent relations John Laurinaitis was very upset
at him bleeding on camera and accused him of cutting himself on purpose.
According to Meanie, he explained that JBL punched him for real saying, “I gave [Laurinaitis]
the elevator pitch of the heat that we had.
I was like, 'hey, this, this, this' and he was like, 'that's unacceptable.
We don't do that here.
Blah, blah, blah.'
And I walked further into the Gorilla position, and there's JBL.
And [he said] 'you were talking about me on the internet.'
I was like, 'crap, dude, was I wrong?
You're having a hard time proving me wrong!'”
According to JBL, he asked if Meanie wanted to continue the fight, but was turned down.
Instead, Meanie revealed, WWE stitched him up and doubled his pay for the night.
During his Talk is Jericho interview, Meanie explained why he thought JBL went after him
during the brawl and why they had heat.
“I did a [shoot] interview when I left WWE.
I said, ‘I had a great time in WWE.
I saw the world.
I got paid to see the world on Vince McMahon’s dime.’
I thanked WWE.
I was like, ‘The only thing is, JBL was kind of an a******.’”
And he didn’t stop there, going onto describe JBL as a bully.
“During my whole tenure there [in WWE] from ’98 to 2000, it was like, I don’t want
to say, like, hazing, but bullying.
Whether it would be shots in a match or we’d be on a plane and he’s telling a story about
some fat f***, you know he’s referencing you.”
These comments made their way back to WWE and JBL, who didn’t like being labeled as
a bully.
In his 2005 interview with WWE.com in reference to the fight between the two at One Night
Stand, JBL said, “Before the brawl at the end of the pay-per-view, [Blue Meanie] started
cutting a shoot promo on me, saying I’m the reason he got fired and the only reason
I got to where I am was because I suck Vince McMahon’s d***.
I was incredulous.
I thought there’s no way he could really mean this.”
In fact, JBL says in the interview that he doesn’t even remember that Blue Meanie worked
for the WWF in the late 90s.
“I understand he worked here, but I don't even remember working with him.
I couldn't care less about the fat little kid.”
Meanie wrote on his website after the PPV that he was considering legal action against
JBL and WWE, but was instead offered a short term contract with the company.
The Blue World Order reformed on an episode of Smackdown on July 7th 2005 - less than
a month after ECW One Night Stand - with Meanie challenging JBL to a match.
Although Meanie won - via some interference from Batista - it was bWo member Stevie Richards
who made the headlines after delivering a very stiff chairshot to JBL that opened him
up hardway.
In an interview with RF Video, Richards called the chair shot “a surreal moment” saying
that he looked into Meanie’s eyes and he knew exactly what to do.
Although the Blue World Order only had one other PPV match - a losing effort to The Mexicools
- the heat between JBL and Meanie has since subsided - with both men now friendly with
one another on social media.
In fact their friendship runs so deep, that JBL was lobbying for Blue Meanie to be a surprise
entrant in the 2015 Royal Rumble from Philadelphia.
“I had just done ECW Unreleased Volume 3 for WWE [and] what better way to announce
the DVD than an ECW Original in Philadelphia coming to the ring?
It came down to that Friday before and they picked Bubba [Dudley].
I love Bubba and I marked out seeing Bubba come out too!”
Luke and Oli review ECW One Night Stand in full including their thoughts on the JBL/Meanie
incident, which you can listen to by pledging $5 on Patreon.
I’ve been El Fakidor and that was Lucha.