7 Wrestlers Whose Last WWE Match Was The Royal Rumble

3. John 'Bradshaw' Layfield

John Bradshaw Layfield Royal Rumble 2014
WWE.com

John 'Bradshaw' Layfield had a more successful career in WWE than anyone ever truly believed possible. He entered the company as Justin 'Hawk' Bradshaw, a solidly generic midcard heel who seemed destined to take part in nothing feuds and be treated as a threat in battle royals and tournaments. Somehow this led to a hugely popular tag team with Ron Simmons, and then a career-defining singles run as JBL.

The current SmackDown Live commentator wasn't so lucky when it came to his goodbyes however. JBL famously retired after being vanquished in just 21 seconds by Rey Mysterio at WrestleMania XXV. JBL returned to compete in his first WWE match in nearly five years as a surprise entrant in the 2014 Royal Rumble. It didn't work out so well however, the Wrestling God being eliminated by Roman Reigns whilst trying to hand his jacket to Michael Cole.

There is a chance JBL could compete in a WWE ring again one day in the future, but for now his final match stands as a 49 second appearance in the 2014 Royal Rumble. It may have been short, but it was still twice as long as his final one-on-one appearance.

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Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.