10 Most Old School Wrestlers Of WWE's Modern Era
8. The Throwback
An old school perspective was ingrained in John Layfield from the word go. His uncle is the redoubtable Blackjack Lanza; he was trained by former Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler Brad Rheingans, a protégé of Verne Gagne and Billy Robinson in the AWA, and spent the first three years of his career working all over the world.
Layfield has always given a nod to wrestling’s storied past with the characters he plays, even before they gave him a mic and a platform to open that notorious gob of his. He channelled Stan Hansen as the cowboy/mountain man Justin Hawk Bradshaw, while his tag team with Faarooq as the Acolytes (later the APA) was more or less an homage to the classic super-stiff gaijin brawler characters he recalled from his time working for NJPW.
He would cite Dallas’ J.R. Ewing as the inspiration for his Wall Street heel character JBL; however, there was obviously a good deal of ‘the Million Dollar Man’ Ted Dibiase worked in there, and even elements of AWA legend Nick Bockwinkel.
Then there’s his constant comparison of WWE performers to legitimate past and present sporting icons while on commentary; a classic old school kayfabing tactic championed by legendary territorial announcer Gordon Solie. While his contemporaries can barely keep the current WWE roster straight in their heads, JBL’s commentary is rife with references to wrestling’s history.
Respect and locker room etiquette have always been important to Layfield, and not without controversy. His infamous ribbing and hazing of rookies during his time as an active wrestler seemed to be motivated partly through an old school desire to maintain a pecking order backstage, and partly through a childish sense of humour soured by a drunken mean streak. However, despite the stories, many of the men supposedly victimised by Layfield acknowledge that he was acting in his self-appointed role as locker room enforcer at the time.
John Bradshaw Layfield is always on, always working, always picking at an angle. We might sometimes criticise the approach that he takes, but there’s no denying that his character work is seamless. For a man booked to play a monosyllabic bruiser for most of his career, his commitment to kayfabe and the nuanced art of the gimmick is impressive.