10 Wrestlers Who Took Kayfabe WAY Too Seriously
7. JBL
In 2004, longtime tag team wrestler Bradshaw was reborn as JBL, a true titan of cheap heat. Mercilessly dissing every town he visited, the arrogant Texan would have the crowds riled up before he even got to the actual angle he was working that week.
Unfortunately, a trip to Munich saw him take the act too far, right in the midst of his first proper main event push. During a house show bout, Layfield did the unthinkable and threw up a Nazi salute, much to the horror of the German audience.
In Germany, such behaviour is considered a criminal act, something JBL quickly learned the hard way. At the time, he'd enjoyed a side gig working as a financial analyst for CNBC. In light of the backlash from the incident, however, the American news channel dropped the WWE star.
On the bright side for Layfield, Fox News didn't seem all that fussed with his eyebrow-raising antics, and he went on to do financial analysis there soon after. WWE, who were badly starved of main eventers at the time - with Brock Lesnar and Goldberg gone, and the likes of Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels dealing with injury woes - moved full steam ahead with the JBL super-push that came to dominate SmackDown all the way up to WrestleMania 21 the next year.