Ken Shamrock Talks About Beating Up JBL And Big Show

WWE's supposed tough guys didn't quite match up to the UFC legend.

By Grahame Herbert /

Ken Shamrock has revealed how he beat up JBL and Big Show. Speaking to ESPN recently, he commented that he had a few playful backstage fights when working with WWE in the late nineties. Apparently, (and no surprises here) Bradshaw was extremely cocky and thought that he could take Shamrock. The UFC veteran recounts the story as-
"'Oh I could take you!' He was joking around, right? So, they all said 'Okay,' and I said, 'Listen, I'll tell you what Bradshaw: I'll lay on my back I'll let you grab your best hold and I bet you in 30 seconds I'll have you tapping.'" "Bradshaw jumped up, 'Oh, I'll do that!' So, he went in grabbed his hold. He had me in some headlock or something I rolled him up and in about 15 seconds he was tapping.""
Even more impressive was the time Shamrock grappled with The Big Show for real. Given Show's height and weight advantage, you may have thought that it would pose a problem even to a technically astute MMA fighter. However, as UFC fighters proved in those early days of the promotion, size counts for nothing against skill. Shamrock tells the story-
"And then with Big Show -- Paul Wight -- we were in a conference room and there was a bunch of people in there. Like a green room. And he came up behind me and he grabbed me in this bear hug -- and he's a big dude. He goes, 'What are you gonna do from here?'" "And I just went limp and as I went limp I fell through his arms and I kind of tucked and rolled and got him into a leg lock and heel-hooked him. And he was standing up and he was screaming, 'Okay! Okay! Okay ...you got it!'"
These are of course just playful stories and Shamrock had a mostly positive relationship with all the WWE guys. Although a real fight never broke out, the truth is that even the worst UFC fighter would be able to win a fight with the toughest WWE guy. That's just the way it, there's such a world of difference between a real fight and choreographed fight. On another occasion, JBL wasn't so lucky with his arrogance. He reportedly took a roundhouse kick from Steve Blackman during the MMA based wrestler's brief run with WWE.