JBL recounts incident with WWE Hall of Famer's mother that led to mob outrage
John "Bradshaw" Layfield sporadically appears on the WWE program today in a non-wrestling capacity. He is a recognizable name thanks to his remarkable heel work on Friday Night SmackDown between 2004 to 2005. During that time, JBL set a record as WWE Champion having kept the belt in possession for 280 days.
This run commenced when he was repackaged to the gimmick he is best known today. In his own words, a "Redneck Rich" whom he believed people would despise. But the character did not work at first until he entered a heated rivalry with the late WWE Hall of Famer, Eddie Guerrero.
Speaking on the Rosenberg Wrestling podcast recently, JBL fondly remembered Eddie, attributing the success of his career "100%" to the late legend:
"You know, when I say I owe Eddie Guerrero a 100% of my career for JBL, I owe him 100%, you know," Layfield said. He then credited Guerrero for getting the character over and noted how, at first, fans were not buying into the JBL character. "It didn't work at all," he exclaimed.
The Wrestling God then detailed the angle that put him on the map, which involved Eddie's mother. During a house show, the latter faked a heart attack while Guerrero was busted open.
The arena was filled with Latinos and this incident had the potential to become chaos, but then the late star asked JBL to leave the arena before things could go out of hand. Eddie's mother later called him to make sure he was okay.
"It was sold out that day and it was almost 100% Latino. They're all there to see Gory Guerrero's widow and Eddie Guerrero, her son and then I come out and she fakes this heart attack and Eddie has been busted open with a chair and he's down," Layfield recalled. "When that video aired, everything changed," said JBL. [H/T: Wrestling Inc.]
Eddie Guerrero and JBL wrestled two iconic matches that year on pay-per-view, with Bradshaw winning the title from Guerrero in a Texas Bull Rope bout at The Great American Bash in 2004.
JBL briefly touched upon his close friendship with the former WWE Champion
Having his sole world title reign ending at the hands of JBL in such a memorable fashion was something Eddie Guerrero considered because he loved the former's character very much.
The Wrestling God further revealed that they got closer in real life as well. Eddie wound up being one of the groomsmen at his wedding:
"He loved the JBL character. Eddie and I got along really well, you know, I did part of his eulogy at his funeral. He was a groomsman at my wedding."
Between October 2022 and February 2023, the WWE Hall of Famer was used as a manager to Baron Corbin upon the latter's return to Monday Night RAW, but the angle seemingly did not go well and was ultimately canned.