10 Wrestlers Who Were Only World Champion Because Of The Brand Split

10. JBL

Now JBL is arguably the first name that will come to the lips of many when considering talents who would never have been a World Champion had the WWE brand split never happened.

John Bradshaw Layfield actually made for a rather great heel champ during his run with the WWE Championship, taking part in some brutal matches as well as sneaking out wins in typically underhand ways.

Despite having a 280-day reign as World Champion, it's hard to believe that the Wrestling God's ascension to being "the man" (even if it was "just" on Smackdown) would ever have become a reality.

Thanks to the brand split, Bradshaw managed to break away from the tag team division. The first ever draft saw him split from long-time partner Farooq, but it would be a year later that the APA would reform and again break up in order for the WWE to push Bradshaw as a solo star under the JBL gimmick.

If Raw and Smackdown focussed on the same talent, there's no chance that JBL would've been become a World Champion. As Paul Heyman put it to JBL at the first ECW One Night Stand show, "The only reason you were Champion for a year was because Triple H didn't wanna work Tuesdays!"

Authored by Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

Posted On: 6th Jun 2015

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