Former champion on how he came up with the idea of WWE Tribute to the Troops (Exclusive)

JBL is often credited for the concept of WWE Tribute to the Troops. The Hall of Famer has worked on many iterations of the event as well. He even became the "Bad Santa" once and faced off against Mick Foley's "Good Santa" back in 2005.

Speaking during a recent edition of What Were They Thinking? on Backstage Pass, JBL revealed the "Bob Hope USO specials" were a major influence on him that ultimately led to the creation of Tribute to the Troops.

"You know, the Bob Hope USO, those specials that I grew up on those, man, I thought those were just awesome. I used to watch them every Christmas wherever Bob Hope was with all these stars and celebrities. And so that's where I come up with the idea of Tribute to the Troops." [07:31 onwards]

The former WWE Champion also credited Vince McMahon and Kevin Devinn for turning his idea into reality, noting that the whole promotion getting behind is what made Tribute to the Troops successful:

"Vince goes, 'Would you write it up for me? And we'll, we want to do this.' So by the next base, I written it up and sent it to him. And by the time I got back, they had the whole thing planned. You know, Vince has always given me way too much credit for it. It was my idea. But Vince and Kevin Dunn, they're the ones that did everything. By the time I got back, the whole thing was done. The whole company was behind it. It was absolutely incredible." [08:08 onwards]

Dave Meltzer recently reported that WWE won't be taping Tribute to the Troops in order to make room for RAW shows on Netflix. Fans will have to wait to see how the streaming service affects company programming.

Catch the complete What Were They Thinking? podcast only on Backstage Pass.

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