John Bradshaw Layfield has been with WWE since the mid-nineties, and after nearly a decade as a utility player in the tag team division he was rocketed to the main event overnight. Playing off from his real life success in the stock market he morphed from a beer swilling brawler to a Texas tycoon and was one of the most hated heels on the 2000s. JBL went into semi-retirement in 2006 and joined the commentary team for a year before returning to active competition in late 2007. He later retired for good in 2009 after losing against Rey Mysterio in twenty-one seconds at WrestleMania XV, and left WWE for a few years before returning to commentary in the wake of Jerry Lawlers on-air heart attack. In late-2013, The Authority were feuding with Cody Rhodes and the Rhodes family, and as such Triple H removed Dusty Rhodes as General Manager of NXT. He was replaced by the more Authority-friendly JBL, but Layfield was very rarely on episodes of NXT and didnt seem to interested in his job as GM. JBLs worst crime as General Manager of NXT was and still is how he treats them on Raw commentary, where he basically portrays a different character to his NXT one and acts like hes never seen any of the NXT talent wrestle before. Thankfully, JBL was replaced by William Regal who has time and again proved himself to be one of WWEs best on-screen authority figures, although JBL is still acting like he doesnt know who The Ascension are when they show up on Monday nights.
