If you said to someone in 2000 that John Bradshaw Layfield would become WWE Champion four years later, they would have chuckled. JBL was certainly in the right place, at the right time and he took the ball and ran with it as the top heel on SmackDown. Layfield wasn't one of the greatest in-ring workers but he was one of the stiffest, who did not shy away from violence in his matches.
Before Bradshaw transitioned into JBL, he was in one of the most popular tag teams in WWE history with Faarooq as the APA. However, there are some moments in JBL's career that fly under the radar. Everyone remembers JBL's 280-day reign as WWE Champion, and they remember him legitimately busting The Blue Meanie's eye wide open at ECW One Night Stand 2005. The lesser aspects of his career, sadly get forgotten about, but they were still iconic moments in his career that deserve a little more love.
10 Challenged For The WWE Tag Team Titles With Faarooq At WrestleMania XX
WrestleMania XX was stacked from top to bottom, and some matches understandably get forgotten on the card. Both Raw and SmackDown's version of the WWE Tag Team Titles were on the line in a four corners tag team match.
The APA, the Basham Brothers, and the World's Greatest Tag Team challenged Rikishi and Scotty Too Hotty for the WWE Tag Team Championship. This wasn't a great match as it felt rushed but when fans think about WrestleMania XX, this match often gets lost in the shuffle.
9 Entered The 2014 Royal Rumble Match
The Royal Rumble match is notorious for having surprise entrants, and John Bradshaw Layfield was no different. At the 2014 Royal Rumble, JBL entered the bout as the 24th participant from the commentary booth, and he was wearing a suit.
It was a waste of a spot as JBL was immediately eliminated by Roman Reigns, who went on to break Kane's elimination record by eliminating 12 wrestlers from the match. Another forgotten fact about JBL's participation in the Rumble, as it was the first time that he had entered a Rumble in his JBL persona which is surprising in itself.
8 Faced Kurt Angle In A Last Man Standing Match
It's incredibly rare for two heels to go toe-to-toe in the main event of SmackDown but JBL and Kurt Angle did just that. In the lead-up to the 2005 Royal Rumble, JBL and Angle collided in a Last Man Standing match.
JBL's WWE Championship was not at stake, but it did not matter as this was an outstanding Last Man Standing match. The intensity was high, and JBL did exceptionally well to keep up with someone as technically sound as Angle.
7 Collided With John Cena At Judgment Day 2008
When fans cast their minds back to John Bradshaw Layfield, and John Cena's rivalry, they think about Cena ending JBL's 280-day WWE Championship run at WrestleMania 21. However, JBL came out of retirement in 2007 the bitter rivals reignited their feud in 2008, this time on Raw.
Three years after their brutal "I Quit" match, they squared off at Judgment Day once again. They opened up the show this time around, and this was hard-hitting as expected but it was more misery for JBL, as the result remained the same with Cena prevailing.
6 Winning The European Championship
Bradshaw has captured several championships throughout his career, but one championship reign that fans will forget is that Bradshaw's run with the European Championship. He defeated The Hurricane on the October 22, 2001, edition of Raw to win this title.
This wasn't a great championship run as Bradshaw dropped the title a week later to Christian. It was a pointless championship run but it was done as Bradshaw was a transitional champion with Christian and The Hurricane both members of The Alliance.
5 Faced Off With Faarooq In A Fatal-4-Way Elimination Match At No Mercy 1999
There were some illogical booking decisions in the Attitude Era, and the fatal-4-way elimination match featuring Bradshaw, Faarooq, Kane, and X-Pac at No Mercy 1999 was another one. The Acolytes were still functioning like a well-oiled machine, and it made no sense for them to go toe-to-toe in this type of match.
X-Pac was the underdog, and to make matters worse for Bradshaw, he was the first man to be eliminated by Kane. X-Pac prevailed but it made sense for this match to be a tag team match instead of a fatal-4-way elimination match.
4 Feud With T&A
By 2000, The APA was open for business, and they engaged in some entertaining skits backstage. Fans fondly remember The APA brawling with The Dudley Boyz, and X-Pac and Kane but their hard-hitting rivalry with T&A goes unnoticed.
At one stage, Test, Albert, and Trish Stratus took over The APA's office, and they called themselves T&APA. They were scheduled to have a six-person tag team match that involved Trish and Lita but T&A had other ideas by laying out APA backstage at No Mercy 2000. Order was restored once again as APA got their office back, and beat up T&A at Armageddon.
3 Defeated Vader In Vader's Final WWE PPV Match
Bradshaw still wasn't a household name by 1998 but he was improving rapidly, and at Breakdown: In Your House, Bradshaw competed in an Anything Goes match with Vader. Vader's run in WWE had the potential to be so much better than it panned out.
It was evident that The Mastodon was on his way out of WWE as Bradshaw had a lot of offense in this war of attrition. Bradshaw was unable to keep Vader down with his patented Clothesline From Hell but a swinging neck breaker sealed the deal. This bout turned out to be Vader's final match on a WWE pay-per-view, and Bradshaw earning a huge win over Vader was awesome.
2 Reaching The Brawl For All Final
The Brawl For All was a farce as wrestlers got seriously injured in shootfighting. However, Bradshaw was one of the toughest wrestlers in the locker room and he proved his point by advancing to the final. He beat Mark Canterbury, Marc Mero, and Droz to make it to the end.
That's as good as it got for Bradshaw as he lost to Bart Gunn in the final. Bradshaw's superb run to the final is often pushed to one side as fans remember the injuries, and Bart Gunn's burial by losing emphatically to Butterbean at WrestleMania XV. In hindsight, it's a good thing that Bradshaw did not win the final as it could have hampered his career.
1 Competed In The First Intercontinental Championship Match At WrestleMania In Seven Years
The Intercontinental Championship has a rich history, but it was defended sporadically at WrestleMania in the 2000s which was a massive shame. At WrestleMania XXV, JBL put the workhorse championship on the line against Rey Mysterio.
This was a significant title match as it was the first time in seven years that the Intercontinental Championship was being defended at the Showcase of the Immortals. Unfortunately, it was an embarrassing homecoming for JBL as he dropped the gold to Mysterio in just 20 seconds.