10 Wrestlers Who Achieved The Impossible

Riches, b*tches and scratched itches.

Cody Competed With WWE
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Really, anything is possible in the hyper unreal world of pro wrestling.

This is an industry in which disputes are settled on islands and in monster trucks as well as in the squared circle. This is an industry in which octogenarians give birth to disembodied hands, in which the stars presented as heroes are villains, the stars presented as villains are heroes. This is an industry in which the biggest pro wrestling company on the planet refuses to accept itself as a pro wrestling company. This is an industry in which the simulated combat hurts.

It is all delightfully and infuriatingly backwards - hence its ability to constantly amaze.

Conversely, unionisation in WWE is impossible. If it wasn't possible in the 1980s and 1990s, in which wrestlers would point blank refuse to put one another over lest a loss to a lesser player damage their standing, it sure as sh*t isn't happening now. This is an era in which the roster would rather tread lightly and remain compliant than stand up even for themselves, let alone their peers.

If not impossible, the feats that follow were certainly, deeply improbable, even by the wild standards of professional wrestling...

10. JBL: Midcard Lifer Turned WWE Champion

Cody Competed With WWE
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JFL was probably the more suitable acronym; as a burly beast of man who took to WWE's...idiosyncratic backstage culture with a fervent zeal, the former Bradshaw seemed destined to hold a Job For Life as both onscreen midcard fixture and offscreen toady/enforcer.

A colourless brawler prior to the Attitude Era, he used his curt wit and imposing presence to carve out a colourful career as part of the Acolytes Protection Agency. While a fun act - "I'd offer you a beer, but I only got six" - he barely excelled in-ring, even in a division literally propped up by weaponry and shortcuts. Bradshaw wrestled precisely zero memorable and or good matches in an eight-year undercard career. When an act spends that long in the middle, with no fanbase willing him to reach further heights, that act stays in the middle. The midcard was Bradshaw's ceiling.

Or so it seemed.

With the thin SmackDown roster plagued by injuries and personal strife in 2004, the renamed JBL arrived from out of nowhere with the suddenness and impact of an RKO. His push was pure smoke and mirrors stuff.

He got over in the role, somehow; substituting real charisma with a deafening and loathsome belligerence, his racist blood-letter bit just worked, and for an improbable few years, JBL brought a disturbing and entertaining brand of shortcut-laden violence to the main event scene.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and surefire Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!