By James Caldwell, PWTorch.com assistant editor

In the current U.S. economic situation, diversifying where the money is coming from and where investment money is going is very important to maintain a healthy financial position.

Eventually we'll see how WWE's incoming revenue and outgoing investments fared in the fourth quarter 2008 and overall year, as the company is delayed in announcing revenue results for last quarter, but WWE Raw star JBL is taking the "diversification" route very seriously.

He reveals in his latest WWE Universe blog that it's partly out of fear for ending up broke, with real-life imitating art through the Shawn Michaels employment storyline.

JBL has diversified his income sources through the creation of Layfield Energy to distribute energy-related products in case the WWE career and financial analyst positions fall through. Yet, he remains haunted by a fear in the wrestling aspect of his job aspirations.

"My biggest fear is to end up broke," JBL said on WWE Universe. "I once saw an old wrestler who had made a lot of money working as the ground keeper at a Red Roof in Charlotte - that has haunted me to this day."

JBL points to his age as one reason why recently watching "The Wrestler" movie "scares me." Motivated partially by fear, JBL doesn't want end up like some of his peers.

"It's one reason I work so hard to not be him," JBL said. "Because there are a lot of guys who have made a lot of money who have ended up broke, and that is very sad."

Link: JBL blog on WWE Universe.

Caldwell's Analysis: It's tough to thrive in the current economic environment because it's easy to live in a state of fear about job security, not only in WWE, but in real-world jobs where valued workers are actually called employees, not bogus independent contractors. Every day, I hear about a friend who's living in fear of losing his or her job, or recently was laid off. I'm sure many of you Torch readers have experienced someone close being in that situation.

It's certainly not a WWE-only thing, but many wrestlers are considered to be paranoid by nature because they're competing for TV spots and PPV headlining-matches in a very subjective environment of deciding who gets those spots. So, when you see a wrestler protect his body in the ring or wrestle a soft match, don't think it's because the wrestler is trying to cheat the fans, but because he has to protect his investment on a constant basis, especially with WWE releasing talent left and right.

Which brings me to another point on the ultimate oxymoron in the world of an "independent contractor being released." How does someone who's considered "independent" of a company become released? WWE doesn't have any right to "release" someone, when the contractor - in the spirit of the law - should control the work he or she is to perform. It's completely ludicrous. End Rant.

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