John Layfield

John Charles Layfield (born November 29, 1966), better known by the ring name Bradshaw or JBL, is an American retired professional wrestler and football player.

He is currently signed to WWE, where he is an ambassador for the company.

Layfield is currently a financial commentator and is featured regularly on Fox News and Fox Business.

He is also employed by Northeast Securities as its senior vice president.

Layfield rose to prominence in WWE during its Attitude Era under the ring name Bradshaw, during which time he became a three-time WWF Tag Team Champion with Ron Simmons as part of the Acolytes Protection Agency (APA), a feared pair of strong and tough mercenaries who, aside from occasionally wrestling and doing "work" for "clients" spent most of their time sitting around in their "office" playing cards, drinking beer, fighting people backstage and then going out to bars and getting into bar fights.

Layfield was born on November 29, 1966, in Sweetwater, Texas.

Layfield was a collegiate American football player for Trinity Valley Community College and for Abilene Christian University.

At Abilene, Layfield was a two-year starter on the offensive line and was named first-team All-Lone Star Conference as a junior and senior.

Layfield signed with the Los Angeles Raiders as an undrafted free agent, but was released before the 1990 season began.

Layfield did play in the World League of American Football, starting all ten games of the 1991 season at right tackle for the San Antonio Riders, wearing jersey number 61.

Former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett was the quarterback of that team.

Layfield was trained initially by Black Bart and Brad Rheingans.

He debuted in September 1992 in the Global Wrestling Federation (GWF) in Texas.

His first gimmick was as "John Hawk," storyline cousin of the Windham brothers.

He formed the tag team "Texas Mustangs" with Bobby Duncum Jr..; they quickly won the GWF Tag Team Championship from Rough Riders (Black Bart and Johnny Mantell) on November 27 but dropped the titles to The Bad Breed (Ian and Axl Rotten) on January 29, 1993.

In January 1993, Layfield went on his first overseas trip to Japan, wrestling for George and Shunji Takano's Network of Wrestling.

Later that same year, he would also wrestle in Mexico for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), wrestling under the name "Vampiro Americano" and frequently teamed with Vampiro Canadiense.

He would also wrestle for Federacion Internacional de Lucha Libre, where he won its Heavyweight Championship.

Hawk won his second GWF Tag Team Championship with Black Bart on December 25, 1993, from Steve Dane and Chaz Taylor, eventually losing them to The Fabulous Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin and Terry Gordy) on June 3, 1994.

In June 1994, he went to Europe and toured Austria and Germany for Otto Wanz's Catch Wrestling Association (CWA) for the remainder of the year.

In January 1995, Layfield joined NWA Dallas.

He won the NWA North American Heavyweight Championship on January 14, 1995, defeating Kevin Von Erich.

Two months later, he lost the NWA North American title to Greg Valentine.

He wrestled for NWA Dallas until May 1995.

In June 1995, Layfield returned to Japan, but with NOW recently folded, he went to Genichiro Tenryu's WAR, where he went by the name "Death Mask."

From June to December 1995, he wrestled in Austria and Germany for the Catch Wrestling Association, where he won its World Tag Team Championship with Cannonball Grizzly in November 1995.

He was set to join Smoky Mountain Wrestling in December 1995, to wrestle Buddy Landel, but this did not happen due to the company closing in November.

From December 1995 to February 1996, he performed for the Confederate Wrestling Alliance in Dallas, Texas.

In December 1995, Layfield (as "John Hawk") debuted in the World Wrestling Federation, losing to Savio Vega in a dark match.

He made his televised debut on the January 27, 1996, episode of WWF Superstars as "Justin 'Hawk' Bradshaw," defeating Bob Holly in his debut match.

His initial gimmick was that of a rough and tumble Texas cowboy (similar in terms of appearance and character to Stan Hansen), with Uncle Zebakiah as his manager.

After victories, he branded his opponents with the symbol "JB" in ink, rather than being seared into the flesh.

Bradshaw remained undefeated for three months until a loss to The Undertaker via disqualification on the April 1 episode of Raw.

He lost a Caribbean Strap Match to Savio Vega on the September 22, 1996, PPV In Your House 10: Mind Games.

In 2004, Simmons retired and the APA separated, and Layfield was rebranded as the heel character JBL— a rough-mannered, brawling, blustering, bad-tempered and bigmouthed Texas elite businessman, driven into the arena by limousine.

The gimmick was built off of Layfield's real-life accomplishments as a stock market investor.

Later that year, he captured the WWE Championship and held it for 280 days.

A month before his in-ring retirement at 2009's WrestleMania 25, he became Intercontinental Champion, which made him the 20th Triple Crown Champion and the 10th Grand Slam Champion in WWE history.

After his retirement, Layfield became an on-air commentator for WWE programming.

Layfield was inducted into the 2021 WWE Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2020.