JBL is doing the seven summits for charity

Fenian Army

I work with kids considered at risk every day, society has told them they are doomed by statistics to fail-I disagree.

I’ve been scoffed at that a 45 year old man with a broken back, two herniated discs and four knee surgeries has no hope of doing something only 347 people have done (as of December 2011) in the history of the world-climb the Seven Summits.

I also heard folks scoff at the notion that we could make a difference in these kids lives. I plan on the kids and me both making it. Sometimes you have to lead by example.

Is it crazy to do this to raise money? Probably. However, I think you do what you can with what you have and doing something that so few have done and so many have died trying is not only a way to raise money but a way to show these wonderful young folks that you can do anything you want in life if you are willing to work very hard and plan smart.

I’m doing this to raise money for my kids program in Bermuda.

When this idea came up I knew I only wanted one partner-WWE.

Right after 9-11 I called to WWE headquarters and asked them to pull some strings and get me down to Ground Zero (while the buildings were still burning and bodies were still being recovered) because I wanted to help. I so admired the heroes working there that I wanted to go down myself and lend a hand.

I got a message shortly back from WWE that Vince McMahon said he was coming with me, and bringing the whole company- and that’s what happened. WWE helped house, clothe and feed those heroes. We were the first group to go down there, another sports group was supposed to go but because of an anthrax scare decided not to, so we went alone.

WWE had already been the first major event held after 9-11 on 9-13 because we felt it was our duty to show our support and it turned out to be one of greatest and most emotional things I have ever been a part of in Houston, Texas that night when no one knew what would happen. What happened was everyone showed up with an American flag in support, it was awesome.

A year later I was in Iraq and it was 137 degrees and some of the marines still didn’t have air conditioning-and I saw that most celebrities never visited out of the green zone.,these guys have never seen a visitor. So when I returned I told Vince and Kevin Dunn how awesome it would be to take our whole crew like a “Bob Hope USO Tour” and visit all the bases where our soldiers were.

This became the emmy nominated ‘Tribute to the Troops”. WWE has gone every Christmas and taken a plane load full of DVDs and video games and superstars and visited every where there were soldiers.

So, when this came up, the Seven Summits, I decided if I was to do something big-it had to be with WWE. I emailed Vince and Kevin one Friday night and by Saturday I had an email back that just said “Done. No fair using helicopters.”

15-30 people a year die on this first mountain I am leaving for next week in Russia (according to Wikipedia), I’m not doing something easy-but it’s for the right reasons and most importantly I am doing something good with my family that I love, the WWE.

The question has come will I be back on WWE TV-nothing is finalized yet as they are very busy, but I can say that it is a virtual certainty that I will do something. I am off to WWE headquarters on Monday (I leave Tuesday for Russia) to do some TV stuff and also to get tutoring for the technology I will need to give live updates via Twitter (@jclayfield) and Facebook (the public John Layfield page with Brisco Bros t shirt on in profile pic).

Will I make it? I plan on it, but can’t control my body giving out or weather-but failure is not in the plans. I love the kids I work with, and I am hoping for them much more than me that I make it -and my wife is hoping I don’t die☺

Because of WWE and their backing 100% of money will go to the kids, every dime donated will go to help at risk kids succeed.

My plan is to climb the Seven Summits over two years (highest mountain on each continent), the whole schedule is at www.SevenSummitsforKids.co​m .

However, this will be special, after all, Sir Edmund Hillary, Reinhold Messner and George Mallory may have been great climbers but none of them cut a promo on top of the world like JBL is going to do!

Fair play to him, he seems to be a decent guy, what he is trying to do is nothing to be sniffed at

Fenian Army

http://www.beyondrugbybermuda.com/7-summits.html

RobbingBandit

Charlie Hass and Shelton Benjamin are his Sherpas for the first climb.:D

GTR63

Maybe he can bring Cole and leave him up there.

Mr. Guappa

I know the current WWE product stinks and all, but climbing seven mountains to avoid it seems a bit excessive.

Seriously though, fair fucks to JBL for attempting this.