JBL started in the WWE (then F) in 1996 as Bradshaw. This was also during a time when the Monday Night Wars was taking place between the WWE and WCW. On the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast, Bischoff made it clear that it was never his intention to steal anyone from the WWE.
JBL chimed in and said he had to deal with people falsely assuming that he was negotiating with WCW while he was under contract with WWE, although it might have resulted in him getting a better deal in WWE.
"I ran into Eric Bischoff at a bar in an arena airport, which was the first time I met him around the time the Attitude Era first started," JBL said. "I ran into Eric leaving Japan, and it got back to WWE and I was in the middle of a contract negotiation, and Eric never offered me a contract, so it was terrific."
WCW eventually went out of business and Vince McMahon acquired its assets. JBL said there was a friendly rivalry among the wrestlers that would sometimes play out during some of the Invasion angles, including the memorable night that DX invaded Monday Nitro.
"We had a very friendly rivalry. That night when we invaded WCW, we didn't know what was going to happen because we invaded that afternoon and we were live," JBL said. "Gerald Brisco went around and told everybody to wait by the parking lot because we didn't know what was going to happen. We had the Harris Boys out there, we had Ken Shamrock. We were kind of hoping that Ken Shamrock and Haku would get into a fight because it probably would still be going. It was a crazy time, until the show was over and Vince [McMahon] had left the arena."