YMMV / John "Bradshaw" Layfield

• Base-Breaking Character: Exactly how good a commentator is JBL? Some people (mostly those who think Michael Cole is the worst) think he's the best on Raw, as he tends to drown Cole out and make him look like a fool. Others, however, think JBL's obnoxious commentary is just as bad, if not worse, than Cole. Others simply hate the entire dynamic between the two of them and don't really consider either one of them too much better than the other. However, almost everyone agrees that JBL, and the entire commentary table at that, are much better off when allowed to speak for themselves without Vince McMahon screaming lines and catchphrases into their ears, which is unfortunately very rare in the mid-2010's.
• Broken Base: As stated down in X-Pac Heat, some fans felt that JBL's reign as WWE Champion went longer then it should have while others felt like he shouldn't have won the title at all.
• Creator's Pet: Vince McMahon is said to be huge fans of JBL due to large part that JBL tends to give McMahon stock market advice. However in light of the recent bullying accusations against JBL, many fans have called for JBL to be fired after what he did to Mauro Ranallo. Even with JBL now technically semi-retired, don't expect McMahon to fire JBL due to their close relationship as well as McMahon's apparent distain for Ranallo.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Both as an Acolyte and as a color commentator, especially his current run using his old-school knowledge and having him take the heel-sympathizing role that has long been missed since Jerry Lawler abandoned it in favor of being neutral in the 2005 ^* as a foil to then-heel Jonathan Coachman and face-leaning later on. ^note Color analysts regardless of their own alignments, often sympathize with heels to provide a foil to the neutral or babyface-leaning lead commentator. While Michael Cole (a commentator) was heel from 2010-2012, he was babyface-leaning as well except to the enemies of his favorites (ie. Daniel Bryan)
• Fridge Horror: You know how JBL used to hate Tully Blanchard for bullying him in the earlier years of his career, yet he would justify the hazing he visited upon young wrestlers and non-wrestling veteran newcomers to WWE? Now look up studies correlating abuse suffered in one's formative years with likelihood of becoming an abuser later on in life.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: On the May 26, 2005 episode of Smackdown, after being defeated by John Cena at Judgment Day in a bloody "I Quit" match for the WWE Championship:
  • JBL claimed that Cena would self-destruct and "burn out" like many famous celebrities^note using Kurt Cobain and Mike Tyson as examples, and that when he does, JBL would become WWE Champion again for as long as he wants, claiming it will be his legacy. Fast-forward to today, John Cena would be one of the most influential WWE Superstars, a multi-time world champion, and a media icon for over two decades, while JBL's run lasted for only 3 years before retiring in 2009 (and briefly serving as a color commentator in 2006). Even his last title match against Cena at the Royal Rumble in that very year ended in defeat.
  • Cena would also prank JBL with a mock tribute video^note which is actually just a looped clip of JBL shouting "I QUIT!" at the end of their Judgment Day title match over a rap beat, replaying it like a DJ scratching a record "celebrating" his legacy as "the most celebrated quitter in WWE history!" Around four years later at WrestleMania 25, after losing the Intercontinental Title to his Arch-Enemy Rey Mysterio in just 21 seconds, JBL would indeed leave his legacy on the Grandest Stage of Them All by publicly quitting on live PPV.
• Memetic Molester: Edge mentioned in his autobiography, Adam Copeland on Edge, that Bradshaw soaped his ass in a shower. The fandom picked up on this and took this out of context, implicating that Bradshaw might have raped some wrestlers.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • SHUT UP!
  • Do you remember <event>? JBL was there.
  • "Maggle": Popular online spelling of JBL's pronunciation of Michael Cole's name. Has turned into an Ascended Meme as JBL will sometimes spell it that way on Twitter.
    • "Marro": All of the above, applied to Mauro Ranallo.
  • John O' Clock, a phrase used by What Culture Wrestling whenever he messes up on commentary. Bradshaw is not too fond of the inventor of the phrase, King Ross.
    • IT'S JOHN O' CLOCK, MOTHERFUCKERS! GET IN THERE!
    • There's also jokes about his flubbed commentary being owed to residual brain damage due to the brutal chairshot he got from Stevie Richards, or praising him over selling the damage even now.
  • "JBL likes naked muscular girls" after JBL rather carelessly tweeted a screenshot of his browser with a Google search for "Katka Kyptova nude" visible in the corner^note Katka Kyptova is a female Czech bodybuilder who's so absurdly over-muscled that her body is indistinguishable from a massively-musclar man's. King Ross leaped at the opportunity.
• Take That, Scrappy!:
  • Following JBL’s savage beatdown of The Blue Meanie at One Night Stand 2005, WWE in their infinite wisdom booked the two in a match and had Meanie’s friend Stevie Richards do a run-in. Richards stiffed JBL with a chairshot and gave him a legit concussion.
  • The Brawl For All was explicitly designed by Vince Russo, who'd been bored of him bragging about his supposed legit toughness, in the hope that someone else would knock him on his ass. Which Bart Gunn ended up doing.
• Values Dissonance: During his initial days as a Smackdown commentator, he would laugh at Michael Cole's attempts to seriously call the Diva matches, saying things like "who cares about athleticism? They're hot" - which was a heel move at the time but would certainly not fly today. Indeed, he'd stopped that when he returned in 2012.
• X-Pac Heat:
  • A lot of fans felt his title reign went on for too long. Hell before that a lot of fans thought his title reign should not have happened and before that called the breakup of the APA premature. Thankfully, Vince later bumped him to the commentary desk and allowed him to hone his rapport with Michael Cole — until he wore out his welcome there, too. It doesn't help his case that the JBL character wasn't given anywhere near enough time to get over enough with the fans to remotely justify his main event push. Layfield's final pay per view match as Bradshaw saw him and Faarooq challenge for the WWE Tag Team Championship in a throw away Fatal 4-Way Match (which they barely even participated in) and two months later, he was main eventing Judgment Day challenging Eddie Guerrero for the WWE Championship. And after becoming champion, nearly every single one of JBL's title defenses would feature heavy interference from his stable The Cabinet, which would (depending on the stipulation) either get him disqualified or allow him to win. If JBL didn't win by cheating, he won by dumb luck (which is basically how he won the WWE Championship in the first place). The only time a JBL title defense had absolutely no shenanigans go down, was when he lost the WWE Championship to John Cena at Wrestlemania 21.
  • Beating the shit out of The Blue Meanie did not help his popularity either (at least with the Mutants).
  • The most recent controversy involving him bullying his most recent broadcast partner Mauro Ranallo has become a major tipping point in several fans wanting him to be removed completely after several former WWE employees have came forward about some of his antics. Some have even called for the WWE to fire him. Ranallo and JBL have even been in a major real-life Twitter war (shown that it's not part of a WWE story line by JBL blocking Twitter accounts that either criticize him about the current ordeal or even support Ranallo in any way). The issue stems from him allegedly bullying Ranallo, who's been diagnosed with bipolar anxiety and depression disorder. With even Sports Illustrated picking up on the story, it might become a turning point in how the WWE handles the retired wrestler.