JBL Bio

2007-09-12T03:05:00.000-07:00

Before wrestling JBL was a professional football player. He started wrestling in 1992 in the Global Wrestling Federation. In the late part of 1995 JBL appeared on the WWF as Justin"Hawk" Bradshaw, his character was that of a tough cowboy/mountain man. He teamed up with Barry Windham but when Barry Windham had to leave because of injuries JBL just became a generic wrestler who would show up once in a while and was called just 'Bradshaw'. In 1998 JBL teamed with Faaroog and they were called the APA. They were faces and ended up winning the tag team titles three different times. In 2002 the APA had to split because of the WWE draft and JBL went to Raw. After an injury kept JBL out of action for 6 months he returned to Smackdown and once again teamed up with Faaroog, only this time he had a new look. He shaved his long hair, stopped dying it black and had no facial hair. The two then had a tag team match were the loser would have to retire, APA lost and Faaroog had to retire (in reality he was just retiring from the WWE). The Smackdown GM told JBL that the retirement thing didn't apply to him and despite it looking like JBL turned on Faaroog on screen, in real life these two are two best friends. The next week JBl became a heel with a cowboy hat, a suit and a tie and began using the name JBL or John "Bradshaw" Layfield. Many of his feuds were with Eddie Guerrero and Kurt Angle. JBL became the WWE Heavyweight Champion and labeled himself the 'wrestling god'. He held on to the title for nine months, losing it to John Cena. In May of 2006 JBL participated in a match were the loser would have to retire, JBL lost. In June of 06 he took over as color commentator for Smackdown alongside Michael Cole. He continued as commentator until December of 2007 when he announced that he was going to RAW to start wrestling again due to a challenge by Chris Jericho. He went on to defeat Jericho at the 2008 Royal Rumble. In February JBL announced to everyone that Hornswoggle was not really Mr. McMahan's son and that his real father was Finlay which Finlay later admitted. This caused a big rivalry between JBL and Finlay who would later meet up in a Belfast Brawl at Wrestlemania XXIV to settle their differences. JBL was able to capture the win at Wrestlemania over Finlay. JBL competed for the WWE Title at Backlash in a fatal four way elimination match against John Cena, Randy Orton and Triple H. JBL was not successful though as he was the first one eliminated.

JBL Facts:

Birth Name: John Charles Layfield
Birth Date: November 29, 1966
Height: 6' ft 6' inch
Finishing Move: Clothesline from hell