WWE Hall of Famer JBL has opened up about his unexpectedly brief run in TNA Wrestling, revealing that his storyline was meant to span the rest of the year but was ultimately scrapped without explanation. According to JBL, the angle was shut down by a now-former executive just weeks before TNA's record-setting Slammiversary event, an event he was originally scheduled to play a major role in.

Speaking on the Something to Wrestle podcast, JBL responded to a fan's observation that his recent TNA involvement had ended without payoff. He confirmed there were extensive creative plans in place and that everything changed abruptly.

“I was supposed to be there and have a really big part that people would not believe. That did not work out,” JBL said. “There’s a reason it ended, and it was not because of me. It was a decision made by somebody who is no longer there.”

JBL made it clear that current TNA officials Tommy Dreamer and Carlos Silva were not involved in the cancellation and had supported the direction originally mapped out. He had trained hard and gotten in shape for the angle, and was enthusiastic about the long-term arc that had been agreed upon.

“I had agreed to what I was going to do and there was a huge escalation that was happening. All that stuff was going somewhere… and then one day they called and said, ‘We are changing our mind.’ That is their prerogative, but I thought it made absolutely no sense. The person that made that call is no longer with the company, and what they changed it to never happened. So in hindsight, I was 100 percent correct.”

JBL also shared that the storyline would have eventually seen him help elevate Mike Santana, who recently challenged Trick Williams for the TNA World Championship in the Slammiversary main event.