{"id":49805,"date":"2019-07-03T17:06:49","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T21:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=49805"},"modified":"2019-07-05T11:55:05","modified_gmt":"2019-07-05T15:55:05","slug":"jbl-wwe-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2019\/07\/03\/jbl-wwe-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Years Later: JBL\u2019s Rise to the WWE Main Event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For a very long time, John Layfield was known in wrestling as simply, <strong>Bradshaw<\/strong>. Then in 2004 when the <strong>APA<\/strong> finally ended as <strong>Ron Simmons<\/strong> disappeared from WWE TV, Bradshaw got his chance. He would be rebranded as <strong>John \u201cBradshaw\u201d Layfield<\/strong>, the character that would lead him to main event glory as a part of SmackDown. On June 27, 2004, JBL did the unexpected and won the WWE Championship from <strong>Eddie Guerrero<\/strong>. The rise of JBL was not expected, but it was a rise he earned through plenty of hard work and just a little bit of luck.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_49809\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49809\" style=\"width: 318px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-49809\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/07\/49fe465e77619f56972c7874d8513238.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"318\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/07\/49fe465e77619f56972c7874d8513238.jpg 318w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/07\/49fe465e77619f56972c7874d8513238-248x300.jpg 248w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 318px) 100vw, 318px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-49809\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>JBL began his career in the <strong>Global Wrestling Federation<\/strong> (GWF) in 1993. He spent his years on the independents tag teaming and performing as a singles competitor. In 1994 and 1995, Layfield joined the <strong>Catch Wrestling Association<\/strong>, wrestling in Germany and Austria. He also competed in the <strong>NWA<\/strong> prior to signing with the WWE, winning the NWA North American Heavyweight Championship. The big Texan caught the eye of the WWE soon enough after earning it on the independent scenes.<\/p>\n<h2>JBL Starts in WWE<\/h2>\n<p>JBL signed with the <a href=\"http:\/\/WWE.com\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WWE<\/a> at the end of 1995 after his time on the independent circuit finding himself. He would debut on the January 23<sup>rd<\/sup> edition of 1996 on an episode of WWE Superstars. In the match, he debuted as Justin \u201cHawk\u201d Bradshaw, defeating Tim Patterson. He would have<strong> Dutch Mantell<\/strong> by his side, under the persona of Uncle Zebakiah. It would be almost a month later where he would make his Monday Night Raw debut, defeating Hakushi. He would enter a rivalry with<strong> Savio Vega<\/strong>, a rivalry that would compete at<em> In Your House: International Incident<\/em> and <em>In Your House: Mind Games<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"JBL&#039;s WWE Debut\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LX-5Qyhah3Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Following his rivalry, he would enter one with The Stalker that would include a 20 minutes battle at In Your House: Buried Alive where The Stalker would win. For those who do not know, The Stalker is more so known as <strong>Barry Windham<\/strong> or Blackjack Mulligan. The following year in 1997, they would team up to form The New Blackjacks. The team lasted into the beginning of 1998 before disbanding.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_49811\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49811\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-49811\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/07\/d7da5a67adf3fe519089ec830e0edc82-e1562187772995.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-49811\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Re-branded as Bradshaw, he would wrestle as a singles performer until the 1998 <em>Survivor Series<\/em> where <strong>The Acolytes<\/strong> would finally form as a team, as he was paired up with\u00a0<strong>Faarooq\u00a0<\/strong>(back to his original name\u00a0<strong>Ron Simmons<\/strong>). Whether it was being apart of the <strong>Corporate Ministry<\/strong> and their darker vibe or going off on their own to be the hard-hitting team that would play poker in the back and beat the hell out of their opponents, JBL had found his true spot in the WWE. The team won their first pair of tag team titles in May 1999, defeating <strong>Kane<\/strong> and <strong>X-Pac<\/strong> to win the WWF World Tag Team Championships on an episode of Raw.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The APA vs. X-Pac &amp; Albert: SmackDown, September 13, 2001\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UC3f-nZ7Kes?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The APA (Acolytes Protection Agency) became one of the most popular acts in all of wrestling as the bar brawling, cigar-smoking, poker playing tough guys continuously beat the snot out of anyone in their way. The setups in the back of their poker games in the middle of nowhere was another key part of the act getting over so much. Bradshaw and Faarooq quickly became fan favorites and two of the baddest dudes around in the WWE. They went on to win two more pairs of tag team championships together before being split up in 2002 because of the brand extension draft.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"FULL-LENGTH MATCH - Raw - APA vs. The Hardy Boyz - World Tag Team Title Match\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yr70X4BuXnk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He clearly proved he could be a singles star when he won the WWE European Championship at the end of 2001. While it was just a 9-day reign, they were soon broken which may prove this idea. As a singles competitor, in 2002, he briefly helped out<strong>\u00a0&#8220;Stone Cold&#8221; Steve Austin<\/strong> in his fight against the <strong>nWo<\/strong> before joining the Hardcore division. As a member of the Hardcore division, he became the WWE Hardcore Champion a total of an absurd 18 times. At the end of the year in September, he would get injured, missing six months.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jeff Hardy vs. Bradshaw: Hardcore Championship Match - Raw, July 29, 2002\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QZ6DH-l7qbo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>When Bradshaw returned, it was in 2003 when he would team with Faarooq once again to make the save, helping the<strong> Undertaker<\/strong>. The APA reunion would last through the rest of 2003 into 2004 before Faarooq would be taken off TV in a firing angle where Bradshaw would hesitate. With Faarooq gone, it would be known that the SmackDown brand saw a lot of potential in Bradshaw. This would mark the time of the \u201cWrestling God\u201d being born.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"WWE Smackdown! 2004 - Bradshaw becomes JBL Promo\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n6XI63A35gA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>John \u201cBradshaw\u201d Layfield was here to stay. The new heel persona was developed as the top heels on the blue brand were injured and <strong>Brock Lesnar<\/strong> left following<em> WrestleMania 20<\/em>. He would quickly go into his memorable rivalry with the WWE Champion, Eddie Guerrero. Their blood bath at Judgement Day helped make it possible to believe in JBL. At the <em>Great American Bash<\/em> on June 27<sup>th<\/sup>, 2004, JBL would defeat Eddie in a Texas Bull Rope match to win the WWE Undisputed Championship for the one and only time in his career. So much of his championship run would be JBL doing all he could to avoid losing that championship with the help of <strong>The Cabinet<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"John Cena &amp; Big Show vs. JBL &amp; Orlando Jordan: SmackDown, February 25, 2005\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/g-tS83_BERk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Cabinet was the stable created by JBL to help him keep his WWE Championship. <strong>Orlando Jordan<\/strong>, <strong>The Basham Brothers<\/strong>,<strong> Jillian Hall<\/strong>, and Amy Weber made up The Cabinet that helped run the reign of JBL. Until <strong>AJ Styles<\/strong>\u2019 WWE Championship reign that ended last year, JBL was the longest reigning WWE Champion in the history of SmackDown. JBL survived the likes of The Undertaker, <strong>Booker T<\/strong>,<strong> Big Show<\/strong>, and <strong>Kurt Angle<\/strong> in any way possible to remain the champion.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"John Cena vs. JBL: Royal Rumble 2009 - World Heavyweight Championship Match\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ksHme3etpMI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>His rivalry with <strong>John Cena<\/strong> is the one that got Cena over as the main event star and the face of the franchise when he had his crowning moment at WrestleMania 21. From JBL helping screw Cena out of his United State Championship in March of 2003. He even tossed the custom United States Championship created by Cena in the trash and destroyed it. Ultimately, Cena would get his revenge at WrestleMania 21, but this was a special rivalry and much of Cena\u2019s beginnings of a main event star can be credited to JBL. The \u201cI Quit\u201d match between Cena and JBL was a brutal war that mirrored a match between he and Eddie the year prior at Judgement day was well put a rest to JBL\u2019s main event run, but it was an incredible run, nonetheless.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"WWE Network: John Cena and JBL\u2019s New York City Parking Lot Brawl \u2013 The Great American Bash 2008\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RhpLt49-XLw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>JBL\u2019s final years of an active competitor ranged from him retiring twice, winning the Intercontinental and United States Championship to become a Grand Slam Champion, and commentating all the way in 2006 and continuing to come back for special appearances in the booth. JBL\u2019s reign to the main event scene and ultimately the WWE Championship was an unexpected one but a hard-deserved run. Many compared <strong>Jinder Mahal<\/strong>\u2019s instant main event run to JBL\u2019s, but it is nowhere near the same. \u201cThe Wrestling God\u201d did all he could to help get over a star like John Cena and has said his run in the main event may have included some luck. 15 years later, it leaves plenty of good memories as JBL was a perfect prototype to the scared heel who would do anything to retain his championship.<\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned to the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a>\u00a0for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For a very long time, John Layfield was known in wrestling as simply, Bradshaw. Then in 2004 when the APA finally ended as Ron Simmons disappeared from WWE TV, Bradshaw got his chance. He would be rebranded as John \u201cBradshaw\u201d Layfield, the character that would lead him to main event glory as a part of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2921,"featured_media":49808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[629,5435,5278,605,1613,5327,57,5432,5433,1783,774,5431,1608,5325,329,800,3668,730,165,298,245,771,795,5436,5430,1096,325,5326,5084,5434,297,439,4960,430,3799,794],"class_list":["post-49805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-wwe-universe","tag-stone-cold-steve-austin","tag-apa","tag-barry-windham","tag-big-show","tag-booker-t","tag-bradshaw","tag-brock-lesnar","tag-catch-wrestling-association","tag-corporate-ministry","tag-dutch-mantell","tag-eddie-guerrero","tag-faarooq","tag-global-wrestling-federation","tag-in-your-house","tag-intercontinental-championship","tag-jbl","tag-jillian-hall","tag-jinder-mahal","tag-john-cena","tag-kane","tag-kurt-angle","tag-nwa","tag-nwo","tag-orlando-jordan","tag-ron-simmons","tag-savio-vega","tag-survivor-series","tag-the-acolytes","tag-the-basham-brothers","tag-the-cabinet","tag-the-undertaker","tag-united-states-championship","tag-wrestlemania-21","tag-wwe-championship","tag-wwe-hardcore-championship","tag-x-pac"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2921"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}