How did JBL become a headliner?

Vamos Rafa

Registered User
Jan 11, 2010
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1,526
Armenia, California
From what I remember, his singles career came out of nowhere. His partnership with Farooq as the APA suddenly disappeared. Then Bradshaw just became JBL and started being a World Heavyweight contender and eventually a champion. I could understand if he was an up-and-coming young star that Vince wanted to hype, but he was already in his late 30s by the time he got out of his APA gimmick to go solo. Not that I'm complaining because I think he had a great run. Underrated mic skills.
 

Kimi

Registered User
Jun 24, 2004
9,890
636
Newcastle upon Tyne
What happened was Ron Simmons/Faarooq retired, and JBL didn't. So they did what you should always do with tag teams when one half retires, give the remaining half a singles push to see what happens. And it worked out really well. The gimmick makeover was great too, and the run went about as well as you could have hoped.
 

Blitzkrug

Registered User
Sep 17, 2013
25,785
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Winnipeg
JBL was the blueprint for hot shotting a guy into the title picture and actually having it work. He was surprisingly solid in the role, outside of it going on maaaaaybe a tad too long since he had the title for almost a year.

Vince tried almost the same thing with Jinder Mahal and it backfired.
 

The Gongshow

Fire JBB
Jul 17, 2014
25,356
7,913
Toronto
JBL's run was fantastic. Got real heel heat and everyone wanted to see him lose. It was a solid launching pad for Cena to take off, getting the JBL rub.

I remember hating JBL so much. (He was also the first WWE Champion I ever watched since 2004/05 is when I first started watching wrestling and it was just SD for a while)
 

Loosie

The Eternal Optimist
Jun 14, 2011
16,074
3,046
Kitchener, Ontario
"Because Triple H didn't want to work Tuesdays"

Damn...5 minutes too late.

In all honesty I think this was a long game picture. They wanted Cena as their champion but wanted to build him properly which they did. The also wanted him to have his WM crowning moment and have it be meaningful. So they used JBL to do it. It was perfect too with the gimmick makeover because his feud to get the belt was with Eddie and it just got the heat on him right away. Throw in a feud with the Undertaker that he won some nice heel tactics (cheating/outside help/countouts/chicken shit running away) and you have someone you just can't wait to see lose coupled with the guy that people at the time wanted to be champ. The WM 21 promos were great too using A Few Good Men under the "Wrestlemania goes Hollywood" campaign was a nice touch. And BOOM Cena is your conquering hero before he was Super Cena, and gets his first WWE Championship at WrestleMania over a hated heel.
 

BonMorrison

Registered User
Jun 17, 2011
33,611
9,296
Toronto, ON
Man, JBL's title reign was so fun. I remember hating tf out of it when it started (like the same way we hated Jinder's) but man did he change my mind by the time Cena took the belt off him at WM21.
 

Kimi

Registered User
Jun 24, 2004
9,890
636
Newcastle upon Tyne
Man, JBL's title reign was so fun. I remember hating tf out of it when it started (like the same way we hated Jinder's) but man did he change my mind by the time Cena took the belt off him at WM21.
The big difference with JBL is that he was over as part the APA for a long time before the push was ever a thing. They were a good tag team that was pushed, opposed to being a guy that was literally hired to be a jobber on TV before winning a random battle royal and then the title right after it.

So while it was all disliked, at least it wasn't completely random and fake like Jinder was.
 

These Are The Days

Oh no! We suck again!!
May 17, 2014
34,125
19,688
Tampa Bay
And looking back JBL truly was a great heel but WWE was unforgivable for how long they kept him champion. I have no problem with him as champion but I have a problem with how long it lasted in contrast to the year prior.

Keep in mind Smackdown was dominated by Lesnar's heel turn prior to Summer Slam 2003. "Sell out" Lesnar was unarguably the worst booked heel champion I have ever seen. It was so forced. Dude went from destroying Big Show to working with him in a matter of weeks, publicly dissing McMahon to kissing his ass in a matter of weeks and going from destroying guys twice his size to not being able to beat guys smaller than him and weeks of "you tapped out." Add the fact that McMahon and Heyman basically did whatever the hell they wanted and night after night topped off with terrible booking like Gowen getting thrown down staircases and Stephanie fighting in matches, the show was seldom enjoyable. THEN they turn Kurt heel too in time for Mania 20 after being the biggest babyface on the show! Then they put him in charge and you have yet another heel running the show. I know it was because he was rehabbing his neck again but again... the heels ruled the roost. There's no problem with that at all. It's a problem when it's done poorly and heaven knows I felt that way at the time.

Eddie's title run was the one, brief moment of joy fans got to have in their champion from Summer Slam 2003 to Mania 2005 while rest of it consisted of Lesnar and JBL being the biggest chickenshit champions of all time with JBL getting outside interference or divine intervention in no less than 5 or 6 times in his title defenses. Were it not for the rise of John Cena I might've stopped watching all together because JBL got very old, very quickly.

2004 should have been the greatest year in Smackdown history but that will always belong to 2003 regardless of Heyman/McMahon doing whatever they wanted because it treated us to Angle vs Lesnar on 4 separate occasions between 1 on 1 matches and Survivor Series.
 

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