The Complete History of the WWE Championship - Part 12

John "Bradshaw" Layfield (June 27, 2004 - April 3, 2005)

JBL: Shockingly reigned as WWE Champion for nine months

JBL's main event push seemingly came from nowhere. Onscreen he was a beer-swilling tag team specialist with long-time buddy, Ron Simmons, who had had a semi-successful run as a tandem over the prior five years. However, Bradshaw's previous forays into singles competition had always ended in failure.

Backstage, Bradshaw had been pals with Vince McMahon for years and his loyalty paid off in a big way following Brock Lesnar's departure from WWE and another serious injury to Kurt Angle.

After Eddie Guerrero failed to cope with the pressure as champion, JBL was selected above more worthy candidates such as: Booker T, Rob Van Dam, The Undertaker, and others to succeed Latino Heat as champion.

JBL unsuccessfully challenged Guerrero at Judgment Day but won the strap in a Texas Bullrope Match the following month at the Great American Bash. Both cards pulled woeful numbers on pay per view: 235,000 and 240,000 buys respectively. These numbers were the worst buyrates the company had pulled since 1997.

Business did not improve with JBL on top but with few other options to succeed him as champion, he continued to hold the belt.

His feud with The Undertaker over the summer months and subsequent defenses versus Booker T and Big Show also underwhelmed at the gate and inside the ring.

JBL neither had the moveset or stamina to wrestle long, main-event matches although he did offer entertainment outside of the ring with his excellent promo and character work.

His long reign finally ended nine months after it started when he passed the torch to WWE's latest great hope for company figurehead, John Cena at WrestleMania 21 on April 3, 2005.