News

JBL Credits Hall Of Famer For Building WWE Champion Character

By John Canton • Published 6th May 2024
JBL WWE Champion

JBL has revealed how a fellow WWE Hall of Famer helped him out on his way to becoming the WWE Champion.

It was 20 years ago at the 2004 Great American Bash when John “Bradshaw” Layfield aka JBL defeated Eddie Guerrero to become the WWE Champion for the first time.

For Layfield, it was a time when he ditched the Bradshaw persona he had used for about six years and completely changed to portray this John “Bradshaw” Layfield character as a rich man who had no problem saying or doing anything to get heat.

While reminiscing about the storyline with Eddie Guerrero on the Smackdown brand recently, Layfield commented on a promo he did after doing an angle in the ring with Eddie Guerrero and Eddie’s mother, who faked a heart attack. However, it was later revealed that she did have a heart attack while participating in the angle.

On social media, Bradshaw revealed one of the key lines in a follow-up promo came from Eddie himself.

“The line at the end came from Eddie. ‘My family came here in a boat, not an inner tube’. Eddie called me one night so happy-he had heard that somewhere and gave it to me. I told him “you are gonna get me killed Eddie”, he would just laugh and say “no, it’s good heat Ese!”

The former WWE Champion Layfield also remarked that he wanted to be the kind of heel who didn’t have any fans, which is why there was no merchandise made for his character at the time.

“Killer Tim Brooks always taught me, being a true heel is making people believe it isn’t a character. When fans feel like they hate you (and not a character you play) that’s real money drawing heat. This is why (right or wrong) I never was out of character, and would not let WWE sell merchandise of JBL-I didn’t want anyone to think I had any fans.”

What Did Eddie Guerrero Really Think About The JBL Character?

In another post on Twitter/X, Layfield noted that his fellow WWE Hall of Famer Eddie Guerrero loved the JBL character.

“Exactly! Eddie loved the JBL character. Eddie loved being a heel. He would call me all times of day and night with ideas. In Japan one time he called me at 2am and we talked for an hour about different things JBL could do the next night at Budokan. Without Eddie, JBL would be a footnote in history.”

Eddie Guerrero’s lone WWE Title reign lasted 132 days while JBL’s WWE Championship reign lasted 279 days.