WWE Tribute to the Troops is one of the longest running shows of WWE which is in existence for more than two decades. WWE shows their gratitude towards the American military every year in December by hosting this show. The show started back in 2003 and seems when every year WWE is organising this show. Big stars like The Undertaker and JBL has performed in this show.
But for some reason, WWE could not organise the show this year after 22 long years. A lot of WWE legends talked about the importance of this show and explained why WWE should not stop it. WWE Hall of Famer JBL recently revealed the origin story of this show and also discussed its importance. Speaking on the “Something To Wrestle With” podcast, he said;
JBL Reveals The Origin Story of Tribute to The Troops and Also Explains Why it is Important
“The origin was 9/11, obviously. It started all of the mechanisms that caused the domino cascade to happen with the wars, and the invasions and things like that. But we were in Houston when 9/11 happened. It’s one of those events — you talk to older people, you know, about where they were for Pearl Harbor or for the assassination of JFK, they can take exactly where they were.
JBL continued, "Most people can do the same thing with 9/11. They can tell you exactly where they were, how it unfolded, and how they realized it was a terror event. How you realized America was under attack, and it was the same obviously for us. We were in Houston, and we see that morning that the buildings were being attacked, America is being attacked on 9/11. And of course, the show got canceled.
"You know, the world got canceled at that point. The world changed that day. And being in Houston, most of the guys couldn’t go home. I could because I was living in Athens, Texas about three or four hours north. So I drove home that, Later that day, we found out the show was canceled. We had nothing to do but be around the hotel, and I kind wonted to be home, many more things available to you. ’cause we didn’t know when the world would open back up." said JBL
JBL Has Performed Tribute to The Troops in the past
JBL also said, “9/13, I believe it was Thursday. I believe it was, we had the first mass gathering in the United States. And so I got word from it when I was at home. So I drove back down to Houston. Vince had a meeting with us and told us that no one had to appear at the show. It was your own free will if you wanted to. But we were going to send a message that they weren’t going to stop us.
"And talking about “they,” talking about the terrorists. We couldn’t do anything else. This is kind of what Vince had in the message, you know. We can’t go fight him with a gun, we can’t go defend what happened because it’s already happened. We have a chance to put on a show and get people’s thoughts off of what happened and show that America is going to continue.
"And that literally was the thought behind that show. And we didn’t know if anybody would show up, Conrad. We had no idea what was going to happen. Security was not been seamless like it is now. And so when you had people being searched for bombs and you didn’t know, you didn’t know if there were more terror attacks coming. Remember 9/11, we didn’t know what was going to happen next. We didn’t know if it was the first wave of several waves.
JBL is a former WWE World Champion
"You know, we had never had this happen in our life, where we were actually under attack, our country. And not just under attack, they attacked two buildings. You know, there are kids in daycare in the building. I mean, there were no rules anymore, and we didn’t know what would happen. So when we had this show come together, we’re sitting there and we don’t know if anybody’s going to show up or not.
"You know, people had tickets but we didn’t know if anybody would come. And that day when we walked out there — man, it was just one of the most emotional moments of my life to see 20,000 people, or whatever that building held, all holding American flags. It was just remarkable.” concluded JBL.
Check out why JBL believed this show should not retire here.
For the first time in 22 years WWE did not organize the show this year. There are also reports that the promotion is planning to retire this show. Despite never being a mainline show, it holds great importance and a lot of WWE legends still believe that they should not stop this show. Only time will tell the future of Tribute to the Troops.
H/T - eWrestlingNews
