History Wrestling / JohnBradshawLayfield

--->'''Wrestling/{{Batista}}:''' ''[just before Wrestling/TheGreatAmericanBash 2005]'' You're a LIAR, you're a LOUDMOUTH, you're a BULLY, and you are nothing but a PHONY!"

John Charles Layfield (born November 29, 1966), better known by the ring name John "Bradshaw" Layfield (abbreviated JBL), is an American color commentator and retired {{professional wrestl|ing}}er, who wrestled in Wrestling/{{WWE}} from the mid-90s, up until 2009, when he announced his retirement after ''Wrestling/{{WrestleMania}} XXV''. He made various one off appearances, one of them being on the [[MilestoneCelebration 1000th episode of]] ''Wrestling/WWERaw'', and would take Wrestling/JerryLawler's place at commentary when the former recuperated from a heart attack, and then moved to be a permanent commentator on both ''Raw'' and ''[=SmackDown=]''.

* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism: When he lost the WWE Championship, JBL hired MNM's image consultant, Wrestling/JillianHall, to turn his fortunes around. She boosted his confidence by changing his entrance to include what she thought would get the biggest [[CheapHeat Cheap Pop]] in the whatever arena Smackdown was in. This was taken to its extreme when JBL beat Chris Benoit for the United States Championship. Jillian brought in what was supposedly the Charlene High School marching band, upgraded JBL's limo to a ''hummer limo'', showered him with a ludicrous amount of balloons and played pomp em circumstance instead of his usual theme! But ''champion'' JBL was harder to please. He demanded horns, strings, tenors, champagne and the New York Philharmonic, deriding the band she got as inner city refugees from a Big Brother program. Then berated her for accidentally hitting him with a cage door when she helped him win that championship, fired her, scolded himself for trusting a woman to think and told the audience they were whipped but he could handle his property.

* TheArtifact: The "Bradshaw" in John Bradshaw Layfield comes from his early days in the WWF as Justin Hawk Bradshaw and later when he was just Bradshaw in the Acolytes. Likewise his finishing move the Clothesline From Hell, comes from his day in the satanic themed Wrestling/MinistryOfDarkness. The move has been renamed to "...from Texas" or "...from Wall Street" occasionally but reverts back to the original name shortly thereafter, probably because neither "...from Texas" nor "...from Wall Street" seem particularly intimidating.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: JBL said he hoped to make history at Wrestling/WrestleMania 25 against Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr. Cue JBL losing the Intercontinental Title in record time and quitting in anger, being the first man in WWE history to quit at [=WrestleMania=].
* BerserkButton: Don't ''ever'' tip or spill the APA's beer.

** In his later days as a commentator, he despises the wrestlers' tendency to knock over his cowboy hat when they brawl near the broadcast table. Played for laughs at Night of Champions 2014: when Randy Orton makes a point of moving his hat out the way before back-suplexing Chris Jericho on the table, he visibly has no idea how to take it.

* BestBeerEver: During his APA days.
* BetrayalByInaction: The [[FaceHeelTurn heel turn]] that led to the JBL persona began when Ron Simmons was fired and Bradshaw [[DirtyCoward chickened out]] of quitting in solidarity with him.
* BigDamnHeroes[=/=]TheCavalry: Frequently as a member of the APA.

--->'''Batista:''' ''[just before the 2005 Great American Bash]'' You're a LIAR, you're a LOUDMOUTH, you're a BULLY, and you are nothing but a PHONY!"

** Hell, Edge mentioned JBL soaping his ass before. He said that JBL did stuff like this to weed out any drama queens in the locker room; Edge said he was fine with it, because at least "no knuckles disappeared".

** "MAGGLE!" (Michael) - When he is referring to Michael Cole. It generally sounds more so like, "Maggle" than "Michael"

* CoolCar: As John "Bradshaw" Layfield.

* EraSpecificPersonality: During his first years in the WWF and in Japan, Bradshaw was known as Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw. During the Wrestling/AttitudeEra, he was part of the [[BashBrothers Acolytes]] with Faarooq and managed to be upper midcard {{Ensemble Darkhorse}}s and tag team favorites. During the Brand Extension Era, he shifted into JBL and was a ''massively'' hated heel.

** He was dead against Kane and MVP's Inferno match at ''Armageddon'' 2006, stating while he was all for competition, actually setting another human being on fire was going too far.
** While he felt Randy Orton should've been given the night off following the TLC Title Unification match instead of being put in the main event with [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]], Bradshaw couldn't disagree that low-blowing Bryan to take the DQ loss, in what was another compelling match between the two men, was a cheap shot by Orton.

** During Wrestling/BrockLesnar's NoHoldsBarredBeatdown of Wrestling/JohnCena at ''[=SummerSlam=]'', JBL was practically begging for Lesnar to stop.
** At the same event he actually put over the athleticism of Rusev's victory over Jack Swagger, despite Rusev being an anti-American heel - but when Rusev kicked Zeb Colter in the head after, JBL was audibly furious, angrily saying that Colter was a grandfather.
** After John Cena defeated [[Wrestling/KevinSteen Kevin Owens]] and showed him respect after a great match, Owens attacked Cena and powerbombed him on the ring apron. JBL was disgusted by Owen's actions.

** He generally was fully supportive of Wrestling/CharlotteFlair's actions during her reign as Women's Champion, but even he was disgusted when she disrespected and disavowed her father in front of a massive audience.
** Shown once again at ''Summerslam 2016'', having such a disgusted reaction to seeing Lesnar elbow Randy Orton's head repeatedly, opening it up; he vocally expressed anger by saying officials need to break it up, acting more as a face commentator than the face commentators present. After this, he continued his heel persona; giving the impression that JBL broke {{Kayfabe}} and was genuinely angered at Lesnar's actions[[note]]It's entirely possible; Wrestling/ChrisJericho was also legitimately angered by what happened and reportedly confronted Lesnar over it backstage after the match was over[[/note]].

* FunWithAcronyms: Fans would hold up signs reading "Just Born Loser" whenever JBL appeared. "Just can't Beat a Latino" was also a popular one whenever he was feuding with Wrestling/EddieGuerrero or [[Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr Rey Mysterio]].

* GracefulLoser: Not often, but when he was proved wrong by John Cena winning the World Heavyweight Championship at ''Wrestling/HellInACell 2013'' (JBL had previously dismissed it as impossible due to the speed of Cena's return from a major injury) JBL calmly admitted he was wrong and led a round of applause for the new champion.
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: While it's clear to any smark that he's technically the designated {{heel}} on commentary, he will at times refuse to condone the actions of heel wrestlers, and will even (attempt to) come to the aid of {{face}} superstars, often to the reception of HUGE crowd pops. Seemingly the only clear heel support he gives is that he will always, without question, support anything The Authority does, and disagree with anything anyone does in retaliation against them.

* HypocrisyNod: During the Shield triple threat at Battleground JBL showed wholehearted support for WWE Champ (and Smackdown's own) Dean Ambrose. When Michael Cole pointed out that JBL had previously ''hated'' the idea of Dean Ambrose getting anywhere near the WWE Championship, JBL happily admitted to all of it but noted that he was now happily supporting someone he'd previously thought of as a disgrace because Dean retaining meant his show Smackdown got the WWE Championship.

** As a commentator, he scolds Michael Cole and Josh Matthews for complaining about whatever heels do, but then HE complains about what the faces do.
** He once criticized The Miz (back when Miz was just starting out) for taking the shortcut of appearing on reality shows rather than working his way up through the territories like everyone else (although Miz ''did'' come up through ''Tough Enough''), comparing Miz to Anna Nicole Smith. But if you look at Layfield's own backstory [[NouveauRiche (rags-to-riches Texan)]], he is himself practically Anna Nicole's male equivalent!

* IgnoreTheFanservice: [[NoSell No-sold]] Wrestling/TerriRunnels' flashing him during the APA-Radicals (Wrestling/DeanMalenko and Wrestling/PerrySaturn) match on the May 21, 2001 Raw where the APA beat up Saturn as his punishment for stiffing {{Jobber}} Mike Bell on the May 12 episode of ''[[{{BShow}} Jakked]]''.

*** Claiming that Teddy Long was biased against King Booker in his 2006 series against Batista because Long was a racist. Both Long and Booker are African-American, making this one even more bizarre than normal.
*** Claiming Alberto Del Rio has supported Ricardo Rodriquez his entire life. (Rodriquez started working in the WWE in 2010.)
*** Claiming that if the Shield attacked someone, then they MUST have done something unjust.

*** During the Raw episode on December 2nd, 2013, he said that Daniel Bryan was wrong to turn down the Wyatt Family's (a band of cultists, mind you) 'kind offer' to join them. Said offer was delivered by the Wyatts ''kidnapping him'' during the last Raw.
*** When Sting showed up on the [=TitanTron=] on Raw, he claimed "That isn't Sting! That's a picture of Sting!" (in all fairness, Sting was standing ridiculously still before he eventually made his way to the stage)

** Between barbs directed at his co-announcers, JBL often accurately points out the fallacies in their statements, such as Josh Matthews claiming Swagger "stole" (implying some sort of heel tactic) a victory from Wrestling/RandyOrton in the Elimination Chamber, when all Swagger did was roll up Orton for the three count.
** He was also right to side with Damien Sandow against Cody Rhodes after Sandow supposedly "screwed" Rhodes out of a Money in the Bank Ladder Match victory, since Sandow indeed won fair and square (within the parameters of the match, that is) and Rhodes ''was'' a massively poor loser despite getting cheered by the fans for this. (Of course, Sandow ''did'' claim that he would be happy to see Rhodes win the match, but that isn't necessarily a lie.)

** He legit-stiffed Wrestling/TheBlueMeanie at the ECW ''One Night Stand'' PPV in 2005. Ironically, it was in response to Meanie having called him a bully. Thus, JBL ended up proving Meanie right.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Following the 2005 draft, WWE Champion Wrestling/JohnCena was drafted to ''Raw'', and GM Teddy Long announced the creation of a new “Smackdown Championship” to replace the title. JBL, the man Cena beat for the championship by the way, won a gruelling six man elimination match for the new title, but when Long came out, he announced that he had decided there would be no new championship, and that JBL was not the champ, but merely number one contender to the newly drafted Wrestling/{{Batista}}’s World Heavyweight Championship. It’s darkly pleasurable to watch JBL go from joy, to desperation, to misery to terror throughout the segment.

* TheNicknamer: At ''No Mercy'' 2006, JBL, then a Smackdown color commentator, called Montel Vontavious Porter or MVP (in his debut match) a "Franchise/{{Power Ranger|s}}" due to his costume design. The fans picked up on what JBL said, and began chanting "POWER RANGER!" at MVP.

* NotMeThisTime: His limo seemed to have attempted to run down Wrestling/{{Batista}} following his Royal Rumble victory in 2005...except it was actually Wrestling/TripleH using a similar looking limo to frame JBL so that Batista would challenge JBL for the WWE Championship instead of him for the World Heavyweight Championship at [=WrestleMania=].

* OnlyInItForTheMoney: As part of the APA - They didn't give a crap about ''why'' you hired them, only if you paid them.

** JBL lawndarting Hornswaggle is a grossly underrated moment at [=WM 24=].
** As JBL, he's moderately racist against Asians and Latinos, Luchadores in particular. Ironically, his partner in APA was a former Black Muslim. Over the years, however, he's {{Zig Zagg|ingTrope}}ed the ''hell'' out of this trope, siding with almost all the heels, even the nonwhite or foreign ones. Then again, he despised Sylvan Grenier for being French-Canadian, despite Grenier being a heel. Then ''again'', he was a big fan of (also French-Canadian) Maryse Ouellet, and was even inspired to learn French by his adoration of her (of course, she ''was'' smoking hot). And he was sexually titillated by Wrestling/{{Melina}} Perez despite Melina being Mexican-American and looking it. When Michael Cole pointed out that he disliked Mexicans, JBL rationalized this by retorting: "Creator/JohnWayne had a Mexican wife; why couldn't I?" Basically, depending on the situation, he's whatever will make him out to be a StrawHypocrite.

** Wrestling/VinceRusso has gone on record saying that he was sick of JBL bragging that he could take anyone in the locker room in a shoot fight, and came up with the infamous Brawl For All as an excuse to watch Bradshaw get the snot beaten out of him. He got his wish when Bart Gunn knocked a dazed and flailing Bradshaw to the canvas twice in forty seconds.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Before his retirement, Layfield was very close to [[Wrestling/VinceMcMahon Vince [=McMahon=]]] and Wrestling/TheUndertaker.

* ShownTheirWork: JBL is a veritable gold mine of old school wrestling knowledge, and will often make note of a wrestler's success outside of WWE, such as his referencing the Primo & Epico's success as multi-time tag champs in Puerto Rico, Tensai being a highly accomplished tag team star in Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling, and whenever someone goes for a lariat, he'll mention Wrestling/StanHansen (its innovator) and will make mention of Wrestling/BruiserBrody when someone hits a big running knee drop to the chest. This has helped his reputation as one the great color commentators of the modern era.

** The New Blackjacks, w/Barry Windham
** The Acolytes/APA, w/Faarooq. (Their APA gimmick may have been inspired by the WCW tag team the Hardliners/Hardline Collection Agency of Dick Slater and Dick Murdoch, who JBL was a fan of.)

* TooDumbToLive: During his 2006 feud with [[Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr Rey Mysterio]], before putting Rey in a match against a mystery opponent, JBL, mocking Rey, asked him if he even knew what day it was, to which Mysterio replied "May 19th", bringing out Wrestling/{{Kane}}, much to JBL's amusement[[note]]At the time, Kane was in a storyline where he would attack anyone who mentioned the date "May 19", the anniversary of his parents' death and the release date of his upcoming movie ''Film/SeeNoEvil''[[/note]]. Towards the end of the match, Kane got distracted by a video of his old mask on the titantron and began leaving the ring, only for JBL to stop him and [[BullyingADragon order Kane to finish the job]], saying "[[DidIJustSayThatOutLoud I'm not the one who said May 19th]]!" Cue Kane chokeslamming JBL before storming out of the ring.

* WrestlingFamily: His uncle is 2006 WWE Hall of Famer [[Wrestling/TheBlackjacks Blackjack Lanza]].

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Following the 2005 draft, WWE Champion Wrestling/JohnCena was drafted to ''Raw '', and GM Teddy Long announced the creation of a new “Smackdown Championship” to replace the title. JBL, the man Cena beat for the championship by the way, won a gruelling six man elimination match for the new title, but when Long came out, he announced that he had decided there would be no new championship, and that JBL was not the champ, but merely number one contender to the newly drafted Wrestling/{{Batista}}’s World Heavyweight Championship. It’s darkly pleasurable to watch JBL go from joy, to desperation, to misery to terror throughout the segment.

** He also went off on long rants against Wrestling/TheMiz during Miz's early days in WWE, where he insulted everything from Miz's reality-show background to the haircut that, in JBL's words, "makes him look like a [[Series/LandOfTheLost Sleestak]]!"

Outside the ring, he is a successful stock broker and a financial analyst, first for Creator/{{MSNBC}}, and later, Creator/FoxNewsChannel. He wrote a book called "Have More Money Now" (released in 2003), which is about him being involved in the stock market trade. And he, along with Wrestling/MichaelCole, also hosts two shows, one is a (mostly) political podcast, ''[[TheEponymousShow The John Layfield and Michael Cole Show]]'' and another that's more comedy oriented called ''The JBL and Cole Show''.

** According to Wrestling/{{Edge}}'s autobiography, Bradshaw's hazing was a test to "weed out the prima donnas", and to see if they really are committed to the business. Edge has experience; Bradshaw once soaped Edge's ass in the shower, but Edge said he took it in stride.

* CorruptHick: Bradshaw, and particularly Commentator Bradshaw, is an odd amalgam of money-hungry Reaganite jingoist and AllAmericanFace. For instance, he's always banging out about what an honor it is to have U.S. soldiers in attendance, giving praise to whoever is defending the U.S. Championship (Bradshaw's [[WearingAFlagOnYourHead favorite belt of course]]), and recoiling in horror whenever Wrestling/{{Rusev|AndLana}} speaks. At the same time, he bends over backwards to diss John Cena and the other babyfaces, even calling their patriotism into question.

* BourgeoisBumpkin: According to [[Wrestling/TheWorldsGreatestTagTeam Charlie Haas]]:
-->'''CHL:''' ...and I'm a big Texas blowhard that lives in New York City! Yee-haw! I'm rich, my wife's rich, heck even my dog's rich! Mamajawamaextreme.com."
-->'''JBL:''' You think I, with my pedigree and my resume am some ridiculous over the top caricature?

* NiceHat: Black cowboy hat as Blackjack Bradshaw of the New Blackjacks, white hat as JBL.

** Shown once again at ''Summerslam 2016'', having such a disgusted reaction to seeing Lesnar elbow Randy Orton's head repeatedly, opening it up; he vocally expressed anger by saying officials need to break it up, acting more as a face commentator than the face commentators present. After this, he continued his heel persona; giving the impression that JBL broke {{Kayfabe}} and was genuinely angered at Lesnar's actions.

** JBL Bomb, which is a form of release powerbomb with jbl making an additional theatrical hand sign before lifting his opponent.

* FinishingMove: The Clothesline from Hell. It is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: an extremely stiff-looking clothesline that never fails to make an [[SickeningCrunch unpleasant sound on contact]], and usually causes the unfortunate recipient to display RagdollPhysics (okay, he more often threw a lariat than a clothesline but the effect was usually the same). It's impossible to watch this move without wincing.

* BadassMustache: From the New Blackjacks run until he became JBL.

You can learn more about his career at Wiki/TheOtherWiki.

** While he normally supports wrestlers, especially the heels, 'make a statement' with an attack, if a guy appears to go out of his way to injure or maim outside of a match, JBL will call him on it. For example, even he felt Wrestling/{{Ryback}} puting Wrestling/KofiKingston through ''three'' tables for that reason was going too far and stated there's no reason for it.

* BreakupBreakout: After the APA's second breakup in 2004, Bradshaw reinvented himself as John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL). Of course, JBL would have fared better anyway because Ron Simmons was ''retiring'', but the JBL character perhaps did better than expected.

* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism: When he lost the WWE Championship, JBL hired MNM's image consultant, Wrestling/JillianHall, to turn his fortunes around. She boosted his confidence by changing his entrance to include what she thought would get the biggest CheapPop in the whatever area Smackdown was in. This was taken to its extreme when JBL beat Chris Benoit for the United States Championship. Jillian brought in what was supposedly the Charlene High School marching band, upgraded JBL's limo to a ''hummer limo'', showered him with a ludicrous amount of balloons and played pomp em circumstance instead of his usual theme! But ''champion'' JBL was harder to please. He demanded horns, strings, tenors, champagne and the New York Philharmonic, deriding the band she got as inner city refugees from a Big Brother program. Then berated her for accidentally hitting him with a cage door when she helped him win that championship, fired her, scolded himself for trusting a woman to think and told the audience they were whipped but he could handle his property.

** He showed this again at ''Hell In a Cell 2015'', expressing horror and disgust at Wrestling/TheWyattFamily beating down Wrestling/TheUndertaker, saying "There was no honour in this." Before that he'd also demonstrated ample respect for Taker's role in the match against Lesnar.

* GracefulLoser: Not often, but when he was proved wrong by John Cena winning the World Heavyweight Championship at Hell in a Cell 2013 (JBL had previously dismissed it as impossible due to the speed of Cena's return from a major injury) JBL calmly admitted he was wrong and led a round of applause for the new champion.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Layfield is currently [[https://twitter.com/#!/JCLayfield working in Bermuda,]] putting on the final touches for his Seven Summits for Kids tour: hikes up [[VideoGame/{{SSX}} deadly descents]] to raise money [[FriendToAllChildren for children around the world.]] He plans to finish in 2014. First is Mt. Elburs, Russia, June 12, 2012. The latter might be considered a RealLife CallBack, since in 2005 he - or, rather, the JBL character - voiced his admiration for UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt, who also liked to climb mountains.

** In more recent days, he despises the wrestlers' tendency to knock over his cowboy hat when they brawl near the broadcast table. Played for laughs at Night of Champions 2014: when Randy Orton makes a point of moving his hat out the way before back-suplexing Chris Jericho on the table, he visibly has no idea how to take it.

* RetiredBadass: Despite being out of in-ring action for about six years now, his Clothesline from Hell is still something to be feared. The Ascension recently found this out the hard way.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: With gusto. If he sees an opportunity to verbally eviscerate someone, he will. A recent example was during his 2012 commentary stint when, before a ''[=SmackDown=]'' show, the referees were taking their sweet time to set up the ring ropes. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X9qgp4mYvk Fear JBL's wrath.]]

* BreakupBreakout: After the APA's second breakup in 2004, Bradshaw reinvented himself as John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL). Of course JBL would fare better by comparison because Ron Simmons was ''retiring'', but the JBL character perhaps did better than expected.