Raj Giri of WrestlingINC.com recently interviewed former WWE Champion John “Bradshaw” Layfield. During the interview, Layfield discussed signing with WWE, his singles push as JBL, how Eddie Guerrero helped his career, a potential return to the announcer’s booth, appearing at RAW 1000, making amends with Tully Blanchard and more. Here are some highlights:
WrestlingINC: You started in WWE back in 1996. When you made your debut as Justin “Hawk” Bradshaw, how did you see your career going after your first year?
John Bradshaw Layfield: I didn’t think I’d be there very long. I really thought I’d be there two or three years. That’s about all people were around for at that time. People came and left a lot and I really figured I’d be there two or three years and I’d go back to Japan and maybe even going back to college and being a coach somewhere. I didn’t expect to be there for 15 years or whatever. That was completely unexpected to be there that long.
WrestlingINC: When WWE let Ron Simmons go [in 2004], did you know in advance that you were being groomed for the JBL gimmick?
Layfield: No. In fact, I don’t think anybody even expected it. The JBL character, I had had in mind for a long time, a character very similar. But they were very reticent to let me do that because I was doing a lot with the troops and they didn’t need me. Then, all of a sudden at once, I think Big Show was hurt, Brock Lesnar had left the company. All of a sudden, you needed somebody immediately in that role and that’s when they did the change. All of a sudden, just one day.
I don’t think it was something thought about with a lot of forethought. Vince McMahon always said that he thought I could be a world champion and he was probably the only one in the entire company that thought that. [Laughs.] I have no idea why he thought that. But, when they came up with the JBL character, I knew this was going to be my last shot at it, so I was hoping it would work. It didn’t work at all for the first few weeks and if it hadn’t been for Eddie Guerrero, it probably wouldn’t have worked. Thank goodness, I had the right opponent and a good friend of mine and it ended up working.
WrestlingINC: I know you said that WWE didn’t have a lot of options in terms of building you up a bit more and then putting you in the title feud. Do you think that would have helped initially or do you think it’s better that it played out the way it did?
Layfield: I don’t know, you know, it turned out as well as it could have for me. We had a long pay-per-view window at that time. If we just had three or four weeks, I don’t think it would have worked. But we had time, I think five or six weeks to try this. It finally started working and it finally started getting heat on the JBL character, mainly because of Eddie.
It ended up working and I think a lot of that had to do with the long lead-up time with pay-per-view.
WrestlingINC: For a short while [in 2006], you went to commentary. I remember at that time you said you were retired for good. Did you originally think you were retired and that you wouldn’t be returning, or did you know in the back of your mind that it would probably happen at some point?
Layfield: 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. That’s when I came back and my back slowly started getting worse again. That’s when I came up with the idea to retire at WrestleMania. I just thought it was fun to have Rey do it twice. [Laughs.] Plus, the association of Rey and Eddie, it was kind of my tribute to Eddie in the same vein.
WrestlingINC: You were joking on Twitter recently and teasing a return to Smackdown! as a commentator. Is that something you’d be interested in doing?
Layfield: I am interested. The job has not been offered to me and I was just having fun with Michael Cole on Twitter. I think I said I was coming back. You know, I was having fun with Michael. I don’t mean to mislead anyone, I’m not working, so to speak, on Twitter. [Laughs.] I was simply having fun. The job does appeal to me, yeah.
I never thought the job would come open. There’s only two jobs for color commentary in WWE and Jerry Lawler may be there for another 30 years and I hope he is. He’s a great commentator. Booker moving to the general manager role opens up that job. But, that doesn’t mean it’s not filled and I don’t know it. It could be filled and they may already have plans for it — I don’t know that. I haven’t been offered the job. They haven’t told me, ‘Hey we want you to come work,’ or anything. So, yeah, it does interest me and if they called, it certainly would be very tempting to do.
WrestlingINC: Did you get the bug to come back after your appearance on Raw 1000?
Layfield: Yeah, that was a lot of it. I really have enjoyed coming back and doing stuff and I’ve really enjoyed watching the shows recently. So, that’s a big part of it, you know. It’s been a part of my entire life, I’ve wanted to be a wrestler since I was a little kid. I don’t think that ever leaves you. Me, coming back for the Hall of Fame and then Raw 1,000 — that was a lot of fun.
I miss being around it, miss being around the guys, miss being around it all. If I never get a change to go back, I’m fine with that. But if I have the chance to do something, then it’d be very tempting. Especially if it’s something like Smackdown! where it’s on a Tuesday and I still get to spend the weekend with my family.
WrestlingINC: What was that night like, going back for Raw 1,000 with all the guys being there?
Layfield: Coming back was awesome, it was like I had never left as far as being in the locker room with a lot of these guys that I had wrestled with and all. You add the legends, guys that I really idolized like ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper and Harley Race was backstage. It was really cool to be back and I wanted to come back for the show. I passed up a deal in London where I was going to be part of a big Rugby thing to do it and I’m really glad I did it.
I wanted to come back as the APA. I wanted to come back with Ron. When they called me asked me to come back, I was really happy about it. Then, when they called me a week before, they asked me if I had any old APA shirts because they couldn’t find any at the time. I was really excited that they had decided I was going to come back as part of the APA.
WrestlingINC: You’ve been involved in a lot of projects since then. You dabbled in MMA commentary, you have The Layfield Report and now the Summit Climb.
Layfield: Well, I’ll try to keep it as short as possible. I started up this program here in Bermuda, working with what society deems under-privileged kids, at-risk kids. I had an idea to do the seven summits to raise money for the kids that I work for. WWE signed to partner with me on that which was just phenomenal. I wanted to do something to raise awareness. I’ve always been a news junkie. So, LayfieldReport.com is part of what I want to turn into. Where I can do things to promote sport for change-charities around the world that work with kids like I’m doing.
There’s a wonderful group out of London, Yawn Sport, that has about 1,000 charities that they highlight. I wanted to have a way to be able to do that. Also, have a way to be able to help fund the program. So, I’m trying to build up Layfield Report to support my program. If you have a website — I’ve got a website called BeyondRugbyBermuda.com but nobody goes to it. [Laughs.] There’s no reason to go to it. Layfield Report has all your news and everything. What I can do — I’m still building on that site — is I can put stuff about our program.
There’s a great program in New York called Play Rugby USA or a great program called Project Alcatraz down in Venezuela. I can do stuff to highlight that within the news, so it’s interesting to come on there. But, a lot of LayfieldReport.com — and it’s not finished yet — was built to help fund the program, hopefully, if I can monetize it. So, I’ll be able to raise awareness about the Seven Summits and the charities that work with kids around the world.
Layfield also discussed why he chose to wrestle Rey Mysterio for his final match, his heat with Tully Blanchard and apologizing to him, Ron Simmons’ thoughts on his JBL character, how Eddie and Chavo Guerrero helped his career, and much more. You can check out the full interview at WrestlingINC.com by clicking here.
