Success, Bust or In-Between: John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL)

[El Rev sXe]

I gottta agree that yes I also hated the guy!!!! but Im not sure enough if he was a TOTAL sucess. I mean from a point of view as far JBL is concern then yes he was a success. but as someone who change the wrestling world eeeerrr another guy that won the big one, ya know??

He definetely had great mic skills, but in the ring he was boring to watch. I mean I hate Cena as a wrestler but JBL as wrestler hmmm.... BORING!

And yes I know he is the longest champion in SD! history but cmon we all know why...Plus I am going to remeber him for 4 things: being a member of APA, taking the title from Eddie (yeah there is bad blodd here), the guy that put over Cena in a sort of good feud and the man who was retired not once but TWICE by Rey freakin Mysterio!!

so in-between for JBL oh and yes he was great commentor but nothing to remember

 

[Travaje]

I say in-between. He is NOT a hall of famer, where say, Scott Steiner might be.

The APA were awesome, loved the gimmick, loved watching their matches, but they were not masters of tag-team wrestling. IMO, Ron Simmons and Butch Reed were a better tag team than the APA. They simply just had an over gimmick that worked well in the attitude era. The APA 10 years before their time would have been the 10th best tag team in the NWA and the 8th best in WWE.

Never bought into JBL. A good heel makes you loathe the guy but want to watch the guy. Every time JBL would come on, I'd turn the channel. Resented the stupid gimmick from moment one. He tried his best, I'm sure, in a transitional period for WWE, but I thought most of everything that he did was pure garbage. I for one am very happy he's gone and I truly hope he never comes back.

And people, stop judging success by how many times a guy was booked to hold a championship or how many times. I love the IC championship, for example, but who HASN'T held it? And everyone in WWE that hasn't held it, such as Evan Bourne, I assume will. Who cares. It just doesn't mean nearly as much as it did. Chris Jericho, one of my favorites, has held it 9 times but Mr. Perfect only twice, and Perfect's title runs are far more significant than Jericho's. I have to remember many of you are half my age and probably don't know any better.

 

[steveh0481]

I agree with all people listing JBL as a success. He really was a great character and phenominal on the mic. I wish he was still in the WWE because he would have been a brilliant addition to the commentating team once his wrestling career was over. JBL as a face with the acolytes was fantastic. Additionally, he was an amazing heel. He was able to garner so much hate with his "rich guy" success in real life. I nominate him a success!

 

[The Champ]

Definitely a success if you ask me. When they shoved him into the main event and gave him the title within a couple of months, I was fairly skeptical as I'm sure many others were. But he really proved himself to be a standout heel and had one of the best heel title reigns in recent memory. He got very over and did some big favors for the faces he went up against, especially John Cena, the guy who the fans already loved and now had become the guy to finally free them of JBL's "tyrannical" title reign. And this is all without mentioning his run as a commentator, which was equally as good if not better, and I would love for them to bring him back in that role, getting rid of either Todd or King (preferably and more likely Todd).

 

[Lazerball]

JBL has done enough to contribute to the business of WWE, having held numerous championships, but he never really broke through in a big manner, sure he held the WWE championship for a long period on Smackdown, but it was in a period where there weren't many true talents around on Smackdown because of injuries etc.

JBL has had some pretty decent feuds, some good storylines, a crappy goodbye really but a goodbye at Wrestlemania at least, JBL wasn't a bust, he wasn't a great success neither, so it's obvious, JBL is an in-betweener.

oh, so there wasnt many talent for him to feud with when he was champ, there wasnt Eddie, Taker, Show, Angle as talent, oh theres no talent in those four guys, none at all, ur ignorant, JBL had great feuds with all of them when he was champ, had some real fun matches, and promos, Success all the way, and if u think diff ur an idiot sorry, true.

 

[DL23]

JBL is a success story.
Between 1996-1999 he did very little of note worthy, apart from re-create the new blackjacks that did nothing, and a NWA North American title match against Double J, sure he had some matches Savio but they weren't all that note worthy (considering Savio had just had some pretty brutal matches Stone Cold in early 1996).

JBL and APA/Acolytes is what broke him out of his shell, the APA never had any classics BUT when you look at the era they were apart from of it's pretty hard to be remembered when you had TLC matches, that said they did wrestle for the tag belts at the RR2000, they did wrestle at the big PPV's and WIN, Summerslam 99, Wrestlemania 17, but they were lost in the shuffle, Edge/Christian the Hardys and Dudleys are the teams mostly remembered in late 90s/early 00s.

In the middle of the Invasion angle we had a Bradshaw run with European title, beat Hurricane Helms on RAW dropped it 8 days later to Christian at Smackdown but the matc never aired for whatever reason. At the time the European belt wasn't note worthy, it had been bounced around for about 8 months between tag partners, Bradshaw winning was a surprise but showed he could win a singles title.

APA did nothing note worthy until No way out 2002 winning a tag team termoil (2nd time they'd won such a match) and some how got screwed out of a one on one tag titles match at Mania x8, brand split APA go each way.

Little known info Bradshaw actually BEAT 1-2-3 BROCK LESNAR in his hometown at a house show in mid 2002, before Brock won King of the ring, pretty gnarly win considering how big Brock was pushed.

Then came the Hardcore title, I always thought Bradshaw could/should of had a longer run and more dominant run with the title, he didn't it was past around so much, even channging the title belt to the european title and swapping stickers for who held the belt, not very good.

2002-2004 again APA rejoined and Bradshaw did nothing, Wrestlemania 20, Ron Simmons gets smashed all weekend and gets himself sacked, Lesnar and Goldberg run out on WWE leaving a gap on Smackdown, Undertaker had returned on a part time scale, and JBL was left hanging, he's a self made millionaire, why not have him play himself? come on the fans hated him, probably was his matches weren't exciting and he needed people to help carry him, still his title run was pretty good, he'd beat Eddie, Undetaker, Big Show, Kurt Angle and Booker T, that is a pretty good list of guys he beat then lost to Cena at Mania 21.
I can't recall JBL doing much in 2005-2006 apart from feud with Batista and job, then move on to Benoit in time for Mania 22, won the US title and set himself up for a match with Rey that JBL politiced to win the World title at Judgement day 06, back issues stopped that and pretty much haunted him since.

2007-2009 IMO was JBL's finest work, even with a bad back, he returned a heel but showed his old style aggressiveness against Jericho and had a VERY good belfast brawl with Finley at Mania 24, and then his feud with Cena with JBL ACTUALLY getting a win, he was 0-5 (Possibly 6) at one point, then his HBK feud, he won the IC title and lost to Rey in 25 seconds, which he wanted to do and retire at Wrestlemania 25, he did and he never looked back, he started his own company up which is doing well, I'm a JBL supporter he's a success story, NO ONE expected him to win the WWE title in April 2004 and by June 2004 he had, that is good booking shockers, his run might of sucked but he went over good guys.

JBL is one of WWE's success stories IMO

 

[fenfool]

He can buy and sell me, so I call that a success! He held a bunch of titles, and respectably so...did a good enough job announcing that people are still calling for his return, had a good tag team run, got to scream "I quit" to a WM crowd and mean it...definitely a success. I'm saying this having never really liked him, but he did earn my respect.

 

[mral82]

I went for success as look at what he did for the careers of Orlando Jordan, John "F'n" Cena, Alot of the rookies, The reason there is "THE TRIBUTE TO THE TROOPS" show (he came up with the Idea of the that), The Miz (yes he was a snotty kid stratin on SD! and JBL was always raggin on him made him into a better person), The feud w/ Eddie and Rey was an awesomely tearjerker, He basically made sure he was finically stable b4 he walked away, He is 1 of the Wrestling Gods (truly), and Mamajuana.com say's it all definitly a future WWE HOF 1st ballot.

 

[TokiRKO]

Mutiple titles including over a dozen hardcore title reigns, incredible announce skills, a WrestleMania goodbye, many WrestleMania matches, huge success in the APA and even more success as a singles star. Success all the way, no doubt

 

[Kahuna Cowboy]

Success, his commentating put him way over in-between as did his feuds with Eddie, Rey, and HBK. Plus his time with Ron Simmons in the APA was a hallmark of the attitude era.

 

[Great Tical]

Success!
My friends and I saw JBL at a house show about a year and a half ago. Before his match with Cena, JBL cut a SCATHING in-ring promo on the crowd... I swear the heel heat he got must have violated the fire code! Solid worker, decent big man, but his work on the stick is what put him over for me and had my buddies and I chanting "JBL."

 

[Ferbian]

oh, so there wasnt many talent for him to feud with when he was champ, there wasnt Eddie, Taker, Show, Angle as talent, oh theres no talent in those four guys, none at all, ur ignorant, JBL had great feuds with all of them when he was champ, had some real fun matches, and promos, Success all the way, and if u think diff ur an idiot sorry, true.

I'm not saying the talent weren't there, I'm saying that he had lousy defenses, disqualification and interference was present in every single championship match that he had on pay per view.

The only time I believe he retained cleanly was when Big Show and him faced at No Way Out when JBL won by being knocked through the ring, had that not happened, Big Show would've been the champion.

So I'm not ignorant, I'm acknowledging the fact that JBL hasn't retained that title through a clean victory, hell he had a fatal four way where he was to loose the championship if anybody interfered on his behalf, funny thing, Heidenreich interfered, and I believe Smackdown pay per view prior to that had him retaining through Heidenreich interfering as well (well he retained once by heidenreich interfering).

Sure JBL has done stuff to get a name in the business, but the only memorable thing he has accomplished, is the WWE championship reign, which was filled with interference and disqualification retains.

And don't call me an idiot because I have an opinion, thank you.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

I'm not saying the talent weren't there, I'm saying that he had lousy defenses, disqualification and interference was present in every single championship match that he had on pay per view.

The only time I believe he retained cleanly was when Big Show and him faced at No Way Out when JBL won by being knocked through the ring, had that not happened, Big Show would've been the champion.

So I'm not ignorant, I'm acknowledging the fact that JBL hasn't retained that title through a clean victory, hell he had a fatal four way where he was to loose the championship if anybody interfered on his behalf, funny thing, Heidenreich interfered, and I believe Smackdown pay per view prior to that had him retaining through Heidenreich interfering as well (well he retained once by heidenreich interfering).

Sure JBL has done stuff to get a name in the business, but the only memorable thing he has accomplished, is the WWE championship reign, which was filled with interference and disqualification retains.

And don't call me an idiot because I have an opinion, thank you.

You can't name a lot of heels who retain their title without some sort of interference or disqualification during their title reigns. Orton, HHH, Jericho, Lesnar, Big Show, and Angle did it at one time or another so I'm not holding it against JBL. I don't see everybody complaining about when Evolution was helping HHH keep his title and getting himself disqualified on some occasions. The Cabinet was supposed to keep the title on JBL and that's what they did. Besides, the only time he was DQ'ed during his reign I believe was at Summerslam when Undertaker hit him with the belt.

 

[Ferbian]

You can't name a lot of heels who retain their title without some sort of interference or disqualification during their title reigns. Orton, HHH, Jericho, Lesnar, Big Show, and Angle did it at one time or another so I'm not holding it against JBL. I don't see everybody complaining about when Evolution was helping HHH keep his title and getting himself disqualified on some occasions. The Cabinet was supposed to keep the title on JBL and that's what they did. Besides, the only time he was DQ'ed during his reign I believe was at Summerslam when Undertaker hit him with the belt.

Yes I never said that he won all his matches through DQ, but I acknowledge that he did matter of a fact win one.

And sure he's not the only one going through a title reign where he retains as a heel through "dirty tactics" which in the end, I really do find to be absolutely bullshit, sure it's a part of a heel's "gimmick" to retain dirty, but why can't they at least once in a while let them win cleanly?

Besides, all the names you mention, would be so much higher on the list as a world champion than anything JBL can ever brag about, because they accomplished more through it, JBL became the longest reigning Smackdown champion (at that time) but that's about it, the rest of his career, while being entertaining through APA, and a good guy on the microphone, wrestling and championship material wise, he wasn't the most spectacular guy out there.

 

[Super Geng Boy]

I am struggling to pick one here myself. I am in between success and in between. I am not going to lie, I absolutely love JBL and I thought he was one of the greatest heels of this generation. However after reading Ferbains posts my opinion was slightly swayed. I am going to have to go with gut feeling on this one and say success. Although I do see why many may pick In-Between.

John Bradshaw Layfied was a self centered egotistical fucker. Such a simple formula that is given to many superstars. But he had the "it" factor that it takes to be a heel, you hated him. He was rich, he came to the ring in a limo, he was a champion. He is what you want to be and he rubbed it in your face. He would cheat, lie and steal(no pun) to get what he wants. This was what made him such a classic heel.

And sure he's not the only one going through a title reign where he retains as a heel through "dirty tactics" which in the end, I really do find to be absolutely bullshit, sure it's a part of a heel's "gimmick" to retain dirty, but why can't they at least once in a while let them win cleanly?

I do agree with this actually, but maybe the fact that he very rarely could win cleanly was the reason he was so despised. Becuase they knew that the better man was not the man. It was like Shawn Michaels in the early nineties when he was a heel as the Heartbreak Kid. He would play a coward but walk away the winner. That is what JBL did, but only to a greater extent, and I feel that is one of the main reasons his character received the great success he had during his run with the WWE.

He could wrestle some kick ass brawls too. I mean you could watch Kurt Angle or Shawn Michaels if you wanted a five star classic but if you wanted a fight then JBL was your man. He was never pretty in the ring but he always got the crowd involved. He was naturally charismatic and had some absaloutley out standing mic skills. He was a commentator for some time and could make the dullest of matches watchable. In fact, I would not mind seeing him back in that position in some points near future.

He also played a great role in passing the torch to John Cena. John is today's face of the company and he needed a huge heel with huge to defeat at Mania to gather momentum. He did this and look where he is now. John Cena would still be where he is today if it was not for JBL, but JBL done a great job in making Cenas career get that one quick kick that it needed.

I can see both points of view, but I would have to go with success.