There arent many men who were more disliked backstage a decade ago by the undercard than the WWF/Es resident bully John Layfield. Even as a featured tag team player with best buddy Ron Faarooq Simmons, with no singles credentials to speak of, the then poker-playing, beer-swilling hardheaded Texan Bradshaw was constantly up in peoples faces, cheerlessly ribbing his fellow wrestlers and then fronting up to them if they became annoyed by it. When he finally found himself shoehorned into main event status as Ted DiBiase rip-off John Bradshaw Layfield, a level his talent had never really deserved and which he mostly achieved due to his size, and knowing all the right people Layfields ego went through the roof. Thats when the bully and the bullying really hit the big time. There are almost too many well-known incidents to recount. It was JBL who made the Miz life a living hell in the first few years of his WWE apprenticeship, under the guise of hazing, that piece of frat boy stupidity thats supposed to separate the men from the boys (as if the ultra-macho world of pro wrestling wouldnt do that anyway). Another rookie that Layfield mercilessly pushed around (in the ring and behind the scenes) was Chris Masters, who was mocked in promos and constantly stiffed in the ring for no real storyline reason. Brian Mailhot, performing on WWE television under the heel network authority figure of Palmer Cannon, was a potential gold mine an excellent worker and mixed martial artist with a great gimmick who demanded his release after leaving a tour of Europe, citing harassment from Layfield via that bastion of the hazing phenomenon, wrestlers court. Then theres the notorious incident involving ECWs Blue Meanie, where JBL took exception to something Meanie had said online about his bullying and, without a shade of irony, beat him to a pulp in a worked brawl in the ring. Now that hes no longer a full time professional wrestler, Layfield is by all accounts a changed man: able to leave the childish antics and overbearing persona behind, a sweet-natured guy off camera. Were it not for his rapid change of direction, hed be much higher on this list
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
