On the latest episode of Something to Wrestle, a listener asked JBL whether Bob Holly was as stiff as his reputation suggests. The answer came with a story about driving back from San Diego. You can check out his comments below:
On the reputation:
“Oh my God, was he? Bob knocked the daylights out of you, and Bob loved you. Bob loved to hit you. I mean, loved to hit you. And Bob didn’t care if you hit him back.”
On the slap fight:
“I remember one time we’re in the ring and Bob slapped me just for the hell of it. We’re slapping and shoving, and I slapped him back on the back or something. And we’re slapping each other so hard, and we’re laughing about it. It’s actually kind of funny. We’re hitting each other all over, not even trying to aim, just hitting and slapping, and the noises are popping. And the referee goes, guys, please stop, you’re scaring me.”
On the chair shot:
“He hit me one time — okay, no, it was a chair shot. We’re in San Diego, and he hit me so hard with the freaking chair that I’m driving to the hotel after the show, and I’d had a beer at the arena, and I thought, man, I’ve had a little too much to drink. And then I thought, wait a minute, I’ve only had one beer. Literally, it was only one beer. And I thought, oh — Bob hit me with a chair. And I went, oh, no big deal. Back then you didn’t worry about concussions. If you’re seeing double and everything’s fuzzy, you go, ah, not a big deal, just got hit with a chair.”
On why he didn’t mind:
“But he played hard the other way as well. He didn’t care how hard you hit him. He cared if you didn’t hit him hard, and if it looked bad — he cared about that.”
On working with him:
“I love Bob. I worked with Bob so many times. I was opening match, and a lot of times it was with Bob. I don’t know how many times we worked. I remember one time we were in Nashville doing a TV match — this is how many times Bob and I worked, how comfortable we were with each other. We’re supposed to be on later in the night. They go, hey John, that’s your music playing. I go, oh no. Thank God my boots were laced and ready to go. I thought I was on an hour or two later. Bob did too. I ran into Gorilla and said, how long are we going? And they told us. And then I said, wait, who’s going over? We didn’t even have a finish, and we went out there and wrestled the match.”
On Holly’s ability:
“Bob threw maybe the best dropkick in the history of the business, and when I think about that, that’s pretty freaking amazing. Bob was a hell of an athlete. We used to come off the ropes and always say, don’t put your hands up, don’t put your hands up — because Bob hits you with both feet right in the face. Bob was a lot of fun to work with.”
