Jim Johnston first interview after WWE release

[dbp]

• He asks to give specific shout outs to Stone Cold, Chris Jericho and Taker as three talents who were always “incredibly gracious, kind and polite” to him. He calls Taker “an incredibly sweet man who’s always been incredibly kind and gracious.”
• He has a website coming soon at www.JimJohnston.com and can be reached at jim@jimjohnston.com

Jim also plays several pieces on piano and guitar during the interview itself, which was a nice surprise.




While I wouldn’t say Jim comes across as bitter or negative in this interview, you can tell there is definitely pain there over his release from WWE: “A complaint I have about where the business has gone is that the music has simply become a commodity. It has less to do with the character and selling the character, it’s now something that coincidentally plays while somebody comes out.”

How it all ended between WWE and Jim:

“Towards the last years I was there, communication really fell apart and I think that’s what really got us on a bad road.”

“I’m very pollyannish, and I tend to trust people until, unfortunately, I’ve been shown that I shouldn’t be trusting. There were people that I really thought were friends who turned out not to be friends.”

“I had a brief conversation with Vince and it was over. All I’ll say is that I think there were a lot of ways to end it, and the way that it ended was, I think, there were better ways to end it to where everyone could’ve walked away with a much better feeling. After thirty two years, it feels like a lost opportunity to me and I don’t really understand it.”

Man, WWE has done some shady shyt as we all know, but the way they treat some long time, valuable tenured employees blows my mind. I can't imagine any other industry dumping someone like that so unceremoniously.

 

[Mike the Executioner]

From what I see, he comes off as one of the few people in the wrestling industry that isn't a scumbag.

He's right about the music though, one hundred percent. It's not about giving the wrestler something that fits with their character and something that people will remember years from now. Most of it these days is generic and blends together. It also affects the theme songs for RAW, SmackDown, and pay per views too.

 

[Alexander The Great]

should be in their raggedy ass Hall of fame

 

[Beautiful Bobby Eatin]

Man fukk this company. Treating a GOAT like that

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

Man, WWE has done some shady shyt as we all know, but the way they treat some long time, valuable tenured employees blows my mind. I can't imagine any other industry dumping someone like that so unceremoniously.

Unless your name is Linda, Steph or your father saved some videos for Vince's father, Vince gives zero fukks about your career with the WWF/E.

Spoiler

I left Patterson off for a reason

 

[Breh Obama]

Themes have gotten progressively worse. Some of these guys themes now are just random mixed up guitar riffs

 

[The Rainmaker]

This man defined the music of wrestling for several generations, and this is what he gets?

I hope someone punches Kevin Dunn in those bucky beaver teeth he has soon.

 

[R=G]

Disgusting. Loyalty in a Republican company.

 

[jadillac]

If it ended that way, then wwe probably doesnt have the rights to his music long-term

 

[Yayo Toure]

If a legitimate competitor was around they'd never let him go. 9/10 his themes are on point and a theme can make or break a character.

 

[jadillac]

By the way Sean Mooneys podcast is consistently good

 

[Vinny Lupton]

Man fukk this company. Treating a GOAT like that

see you in the Rumble thread though

 

[Love Sosa]

Mark my words nobody will be over at a rock/Austin level ever again because of this. How many of our favorite wrestlers had songs by him

 

[reigun]

I think some of the current themes are good, but I agree alot of them are aso really generic. Take Seth Rollins. Dude is a main event level cat, but you could give his theme to anyone on the roster. There's nothing about it that you could specifically associate with Seth. Which, if you look at past main eventers and their themes, should be criminal. Rock, Austin, Taker, Jericho, Angle. All have themes that speak to exactly who their characters are as people.

 

[Tommy Fits]

Vince makes it really hard to want to keep the network. It's funny, a lot of the guys that were instrumental in the Monday night wars he over time brushes aside, almost like he is ashamed of that time of his life.