Jimmy Jacobs is known for his time as in in-ring performer for Ring Of Honor. He would later work backstage at WWE as a writer. Currently, he is a producer and performer for Impact Wrestling.
Speaking with Booker T on the Heated Conversations podcast, Jacobs reminisced on his time with WWE. He named both Daniel Bryan and Joey Mercury as instrumental in getting him hired as a writer. He states he learned a lot in that role, recalling once lesson Vince McMahon imparted as being particularly memorable.
Jimmy Jacobs candidly admitted that he realized that his talents were best suited for a creative role rather than in-ring. “[…] I’m not the best athlete anyway; my in-ring game was never my strong suit,” he confessed. “It was my promos. It was the creativity. So I had started just on the independent level, that’s what I did. And it dawned on me one day, like, my time here in this business is not about what happens here in the ring, it’s gonna be about the creativity.
He would then all Daniel Bryan, saying that he wanted to be a writer for WWE. Thankfully for Jacobs, Bryan was more than happy to help.
“Daniel Bryan and Joey Mercury, they brought me to a show, they brought me to the manager of the writing team, Dave Kapoor, and they said, ‘Hey man, this is Jimmy Jacobs, he’s a genius, he belongs on your team.’ And that started the process going. I had to go through an interview, and writing sample, and all that stuff and I had a fun couple [of] years there.”
“Tell Me A Story”
When he was working as a writer for the company, Jacobs would find the role as enjoyable as it was demanding. Despite his somewhat unceremonious departure, Jacobs can still remember the lessons he learned during his time there. One piece, in particular, imparted from Vince McMahon, sticks with him:
“I didn’t always agree with Vince McMahon on things but I learned a lot from him,” he admitted. “One of the best pieces of advice that Vince ever gave me…I’d written this promo for Bo Dallas, and it was about how he had taken some guys knee out, and the guy could barely walk. Vince read it and he just goes, ‘These are just facts. I don’t want facts. Tell me a story!’ And it’s true, man, people identify with a story. I mean, we’re all bred to where stories are facts but they’re facts that we see how it applies to life. So I came back to him with a promo about this pet bird that Bo Dallas had as a kid, who’s wing was broken and he took this bird in and, finally, the wing healed, and the bird flew again. And it was a great piece of advice. I don’t want facts, tell me a story. People identify with stories and that’s something I really try to tell these newer guys.”
