10 Twisted Times WWE Rewarded A Wrestler For Being A D*ck
5. John Bradshaw Layfield (2004)
Long before audiences realised that he could actually grow into the role, there was an uneasy air about John Bradshaw Layfield's 2004 instapush amongst WWE's hardcore online audience.
Eddie Guerrero was a beloved figure to that particular demographic, and it was with great joy that he'd been so well received by the wider audience at large. What few knew at the time was how close he was with his successor, and how he himself wanted shot of the pressure that came with being top dog.
To those on the outside, it looked as though Vince McMahon was gleefully waiting to take away the toy they loved with a replacement shaped like a younger version of himself. It was worst case scenario stuff with no obvious way out, until the unashamedly insensitive Layfield goose-stepped with a Nazi salute during a German house show.
All cheap heat claims aside, this was subtantial sh*t - substantial enough for CNBC to let him go from his role as a business analyst on their show, but not enough for McMahon to look beyond him to somebody else for one of the biggest sudden pushes of the decade. Heat was heat, so it seemed, and Bradshaw bludgeoned and bullroped his way to title glory within weeks of the misdeed.