10 WWE Champions You Didn't Care To Hate
2. John Bradshaw Layfield
Eddie Guerrero is dearly missed. Latino Heat's rise from troubled underachiever to the most popular babyface of his time was incredibly inspiring, and Guerrero seemed set for years as a top-level star in WWE. That didn't happen, clearly, and the Hall of Famer passed with just a single world championship reign in his trophy cabinet. A travesty, in many ways.
Another travesty is that his single reign was ended by Justin Hawk Bradshaw. Blackjack Bradshaw. Acolyte Bradshaw. BRADSHAW. Seemingly overnight, Bradshaw had gone from a beer-drinking bar-brawler to a smooth-talking Fox financial analyst, a change of gimmick that management decided was enough to catapult him into the main event scene. Bradshaw became John Bradshaw Layfield, and the rest is history.
JBL's reign was champion was frustrating for a lot of reasons. It went on forever, for one, and saw him put over by more talented and popular stars such as Booker T, Kurt Angle and The Undertaker. Like a couple of other names on the list, the booking of JBL was a desperate attempt to make a man by making him a champion, overlooking the age-old adage of the man making the championship. Shockingly, adding Orlando Jordan and The Bashams to the act didn't really help.
The whole thing made SmackDown feel even more second-tier. JBL eventually blossomed into a more than serviceable upper midcard performer, but his WWE Championship reign is best left forgotten. The fact that it came at the expense of Eddie Guerrero makes it even harder to swallow.