JBL blasts female comedian, claims nobody liked her on WWE trip
John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) was the mastermind behind WWE's annual Tribute to the Troops event. In a recent podcast episode, the former WWE Champion addressed criticism he received from comedian Kathy Griffin after a tour.
In the mid-2000s, Griffin visited the United States Armed Forces in Afghanistan alongside WWE Superstars. She later mocked JBL in a comedy special, referring to him as a "sloppy, fat redneck wrestler who thought he was cool."
Two decades on, the WWE Hall of Famer claimed on Something to Wrestle that nobody on the tour enjoyed Griffin's comedy act:
"Fat? That's mean!" JBL said. "Yes, I was there with Kathy Griffin. She's an absolute douchebag. There's no nice way to say it. In all the tours that I've been on, she's the only one that people didn't like. She was the one that everybody felt she was doing it to just kinda further her career." [1:18:43 – 1:18:59]
Tribute to the Troops aired every year between 2003 and 2023. Layfield pitched the idea to former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon because he wanted to honor military personnel after 9/11.
JBL elaborates on his relationship with Kathy Griffin
After the Afghanistan trip, Kathy Griffin incorporated John Bradshaw Layfield into her comedy skit by repeatedly making fun of a redneck character.
Layfield clarified that he and Griffin barely spoke to each other during the tour, but she seemingly disliked the way he behaved:
"We did not have much interaction, and we didn't have, to my knowledge, any negative interaction. She made characters out of almost everybody that was on the tour. Again, she did that to further her career. She was the only one I was ever over there with that no one cared for." [1:19:12 – 1:19:27]
Layfield went on to call Griffin a "past middle-aged comedian nobody ever heard of." He also dismissed the notion that she received a better reaction from soldiers than him.
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Please credit Something to Wrestle and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.
