JBL has confirmed that one of the most memorable lines from his WWE commentary career did not originate from him, but instead came from Vince McMahon through his headset during a live broadcast.

Speaking on Something to Wrestle, JBL looked back on calling matches involving Sting during his WWE run and shared the story behind the now-famous quote.

“I never got to work with Sting much. Certainly, I never got to work with him in the ring, but I got to do commentary for him when he made his debut. When Vince fed me the line that people love to bring up, when he fed it to me, I thought that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever said, and I realized now how good it was. You know, it sometimes he feeds you stuff, and you don’t realize at the time it’s pretty good when he’s had a picture of head Sting back there, his thing wasn’t moving, and they said, that’s Sting, that’s a picture of Sting. I never said it. Vince fed me that line verbatim. And I said it, and I thought, Man, I don’t think I like that line at all. Sounds dumb. People have brought that up over the years.”

JBL admitted that his opinion on the line has changed over time, and he now sees why it connected with fans.

“100% kudos to the chairman out there, because at the time, I didn’t think it was that great, and I realized now it’s a pretty freaking good line, but I got to call a lot of his matches, but never got to be in the ring with him.”

He went on to explain how working with McMahon during live commentary required quick adjustments, especially when being fed lines mid-broadcast.

“Oh, when he told it to me, Conrad, it was kind of like, ah, geez, God. You know when somebody says something to you, even if it makes sense, if you’re going down a different line of thought, you think it doesn’t make sense at all because you’re going down this line here and it doesn’t fit your line of thought that you’re going on. It’s such a non sequitur. And so Vince fed me that line verbatim. ‘That’s not Sting. That’s a picture of Sting.’”

JBL also addressed long-standing stories about McMahon’s behavior toward commentators, pushing back on claims that he would yell instructions aggressively through the headset.

“Vince was so good that I would be one or two words right behind him, you know, I had a different relationship. You know, all these guys talk about Vince yelling at [them] and all that stuff we’ve talked about. That never happened to me. He was always great to work with. But I was one word behind him, and that was 100% Vince’s line that he said, ‘That’s not Sting. That’s a picture of Sting.’”

The moment dates back to Sting’s WWE debut period, which began at Survivor Series 2014. At the time, JBL was part of the main announce team alongside Michael Cole, with Jerry Lawler also rotating into the booth.

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