Why did JBL quit WWE at WrestleMania 25?
John Bradshaw Layfield, aka JBL, has been one of the most established villains in WWE history. He started his wrestling career as a babyface in 1992 but went on to become a natural heat magnet, capable of swaying the crowd with his spiteful words.
The former WWE Champion recently returned on RAW to deliver a venom-tongued promo targeting the Oklahoma audience. He garnered a huge heel reaction by hailing his native city of Texas and terming the crowd as hillbillies and boomers. JBL showed why he can attract hate with the least amount of effort.
JBL Full segment on how #OUsucks #HookEm @JCLayfield https://t.co/JR4tB6kwXs
Layfield even targeted Rey Mysterio during his promo and disgraced his former rival. He highlighted Rey’s cowardice as the main factor as to why he ducked Dominik Mysterio’s confrontations and jumped ship to SmackDown. The two legends of contrasting characters have a rivalry that dates back to their glory days in 2005.
During that time, Rey Mysterio was an up-and-coming babyface capable of wooing the crowd with his high-flying antics. WWE typically used the top heel JBL to put over the Superstar. Both arch-rivals initially feuded for the World Heavyweight Title until their focus shifted to the Intercontinental Championship.
JBL pulled off a huge upset after dethroning CM Punk on the March 9th episode of RAW. However, his reign was short-lived as WWE pit Mysterio against the champion.
The Master of the 619 faced his long-time opponent at WrestleMania 25 and defeated him in 21 seconds. Following the disappointing loss, JBL announced his retirement from wrestling and took to commentary.
JBL still salty at Rey Mysterio for this. 🤣🤣🤣 #wweraw https://t.co/cdIppoQ1Dk
It was later revealed that a grievous back injury had forced the legend to retire. When asked whether he planned to retire at WrestleMania in the first place, the 7-time champion disclosed that it was a spontaneous decision:
"No, no. I didn't know. It came up during the weekend. I had some physical problems with my back that caused me just some really bad problems. So, that's when they came up with the idea out of the blue. I think it was in Phoenix, somewhere in Arizona. I wrestled Rey and quit. It happened within two days, it was just something in my back and it got really bad. I was having really bad nerve problems. I really thought I was done."
So, when I quit/retired, nobody expected me to come back. I was doing commentary and I was enjoying it but then my back started getting better. I didn't quit because I wanted to, I quit because I had to. I didn't have any lead up to it. It was just that one day I was a later, and the next day I wasn't. So, I kind of wanted to finish on my own terms. (H/T WrestlingNewsWorld)
JBL is now the manager to WWE Superstar Baron Corbin
On the September 2nd edition of WWE SmackDown, JBL was seen giving a lift (pun intended) to Happy Corbin after his loss to Shinsuke Nakamura.
The backstage segment led to massive speculations that have come true on the recent RAW show. JBL now manages Corbin and regards him as the Modern-Day Wrestling God.
The legendary mentor has worked his magic on Happy Corbin. Previously, the 2019 King of the Ring winner was struggling with a streak of losses. He is now back on the winning ways after defeating Dolph Ziggler. It will be interesting to see how the heelish dmovesove forward and make a statement on the RAW roster.