Se7en
06-11-2004, 03:38 AM
The Washington Post's TV columnist Lisa de Moraes covered the John Layfield/CNBC story in today's paper (page C07).
The story covers the situation in Germany and CNBC's statement - all which have been covered several times here on 411mania - but also was able to interview Layfield.
Layfield said he had discussed his character with CNBC before signing the contract, which had language saying CNBC understood the nature of his WWE role.
CNBC said they first heard of the incident via emails.
Parts of the story that refer to Layfields comments include:
"They hung me out to dry."
"I was playing a character. It's the same as Vin Diesel playing a Nazi."
"I'm a bad guy. I'm supposed to incite the crowd. I've done [the Nazi gestures] for decades. I really didn't think anything of it -- I know how bad it is, I've lived [in Germany]. I've been to Dachau, seen those places where they exterminated millions of Jews."
"I draw the line between me and my character. That's like saying Anthony Hopkins really enjoys cannibalism."
"The only thing they asked me not to play was a stock market cheat or fraud. Other than that, they said they totally understood, that it was like Arnold Schwarzenegger playing a cyborg..."
"I thought I had it covered. I thought they understood the character is a bad guy and is going to do bad things... [JBL] has done some reprehensible things recently.
"I'm the worst bad guy they have..."
Layfield also claims to have gotten most of his promos straight from Pat Buchanan's run for election. The story goes on to suggest that "CNBC was okay with the fact that Layfield's character recently was seen on UPN telecasts of 'Smackdown!' as a Hispanic-taunting anti-immigration fanatic..." and "fine with the fact that in a column on the WWE Web site, JBL wrote [negative comments about the possible sexual orientation] of his detractors..."
A WWE spokesperson was quoted in the piece as saying:
"What he did in the ring was not probably the best thing to have done... We all understood why he did it and know that his intentions were good ones in terms of trying to make it the best experience for the fans and his fellow professional Eddie Guerrero -- to get the fans even more with [Guerrero], which is what John was supposed to do as the bad guy."
Eh.. i dunno what to think of that. JBL is trying to make it sound like he was set up. Oh well.. I never liked him anyways
The story covers the situation in Germany and CNBC's statement - all which have been covered several times here on 411mania - but also was able to interview Layfield.
Layfield said he had discussed his character with CNBC before signing the contract, which had language saying CNBC understood the nature of his WWE role.
CNBC said they first heard of the incident via emails.
Parts of the story that refer to Layfields comments include:
"They hung me out to dry."
"I was playing a character. It's the same as Vin Diesel playing a Nazi."
"I'm a bad guy. I'm supposed to incite the crowd. I've done [the Nazi gestures] for decades. I really didn't think anything of it -- I know how bad it is, I've lived [in Germany]. I've been to Dachau, seen those places where they exterminated millions of Jews."
"I draw the line between me and my character. That's like saying Anthony Hopkins really enjoys cannibalism."
"The only thing they asked me not to play was a stock market cheat or fraud. Other than that, they said they totally understood, that it was like Arnold Schwarzenegger playing a cyborg..."
"I thought I had it covered. I thought they understood the character is a bad guy and is going to do bad things... [JBL] has done some reprehensible things recently.
"I'm the worst bad guy they have..."
Layfield also claims to have gotten most of his promos straight from Pat Buchanan's run for election. The story goes on to suggest that "CNBC was okay with the fact that Layfield's character recently was seen on UPN telecasts of 'Smackdown!' as a Hispanic-taunting anti-immigration fanatic..." and "fine with the fact that in a column on the WWE Web site, JBL wrote [negative comments about the possible sexual orientation] of his detractors..."
A WWE spokesperson was quoted in the piece as saying:
"What he did in the ring was not probably the best thing to have done... We all understood why he did it and know that his intentions were good ones in terms of trying to make it the best experience for the fans and his fellow professional Eddie Guerrero -- to get the fans even more with [Guerrero], which is what John was supposed to do as the bad guy."
Eh.. i dunno what to think of that. JBL is trying to make it sound like he was set up. Oh well.. I never liked him anyways