WWE News: Vince McMahon gave former WWE Champion a 'last chance' with new gimmick

What's the story?

Bruce Prichard made gave some interesting details about former WWE Champion John 'Bradshaw' Layfield in the recent edition of his podcast: Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard.

He talked about a variety of topics including JBL's friendship with Ron Simmons, and Vince McMahon's perception of JBL's singles character.

Prichard also shed light on the time when Vince McMahon had almost given up hope on JBL.

In case you didn't know...

JBL is a WWE veteran and is most famous for his tag team with Farooq called APA during the Attitude Era.

Bradshaw had one of the longest WWE Championship reigns when he won the championship in mid-2000s, and was recognized as one of the best heels in the company.

Layfield was a major part of the commentary team as well.

The heart of the matter

Here is what Bruce Prichard had to say:

“But John, the character with John, during this time, he was working with I believe MSNBC, doing a lot of guest appearances, he had his book, the financial book was flying off shelves. He’s appearing on all these television shows as John Layfield. Articulate, great advice, and people are clamoring to have him as a guest on their financial shows.

While we’re thinking of an idea we’re like, ‘Well, he’s already doing this. What if we just put a spin on it and made him a heel?’ Let him be…and again, just one more attempt. I remember Vince even saying, ‘This one doesn’t work then… it’s not gonna happen for John. Let’s make one last attempt with this Wall Street character.’

Kinda like a Michael Douglas play, he’s a real a****e, and make one last attempt and Vince gave him the ‘Come to Jesus’ meeting. ‘John if this doesn’t work then, you know, we’ve got nothing for you.’ John took it and ran with it. And the JBL character was born. But it was met with a lot of skepticism because people thought, ‘Well shit, how many times are you going to go to the well with this guy?’

And Vince just had the confidence and the wherewithal and staying power to say ‘ I’m gonna do this and we’re gonna make it work.’ And John did his part by busting his ass and doing everything he could to make this character work. And we finally found away to get the guy in the backstage on camera. And that was JBL.”

(H/T Credit: 411mania.com)

What's next?

JBL continues to occasionaly be part of the commentary team.