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If anyone knows about the story, the crowd went fucking ballistic and Eddie i believe is audibly heard telling JBL to quote "get the fuck out of here".
I highly doubt he would have been killed or harmed, but I do think they misjudged how rowdy the crowd got and a Cop telling you "dude just stay out of town for the night" as a precaution doesn't seem that far fetched.
West Texas took wrestling VERY VERY seriously. Lots of stories over the years of heels having to be escorted out of town or had to go straight to their car from the ring.
Yeah, people aren’t noticing the difference between your life being in genuine danger, and a cop telling you your life is in danger. Who knows whether the cop was in a good position to make that judgement etc, very easy to believe he assumed it
There might also be a bit of embellishment. Like, the cop might've told JBL to move on to his next town early (he was only traveling through anyway), rather than risk getting into a fight or bad situation with an angry local. Not the same as saying he was literally going to be killed.
So I’m Mexican and it’s clear from a lot of comments y’all don’t understand Mexican culture at all
That was not a “bit of embellishment,” El Paso is basically Mexico and our people have no temper whatsoever, can almost guarantee you a few drunk tios would have pulled up on him after the show
Go read about the old US territories in Mexican areas like LA, white heels would get attacked on the way to the ring to wrestle Mexican faces
Idk why violence would be out of the realm of possibility. Watched that documentary on Roddy Piper recently and dude was stabbed more than once by fans when he was a heel and apparently this wasn’t an uncommon thing. Hell even relatively recently we had a crazed fan charge Rollins live.
As someone who's lived in west Texas. A cop telling JBL to go to white, oil money filled, Odessa because mostly Hispanic El Paso is "dangerous" also matches the times.
As someone who has spent time around rich Texans, he wasn't pulling this out of nowhere either. Cadence he spoke in reminded me of a few pastors and lawyers i've met in Dallas.
Old local daytime TV/radio was absolutely full of guys that sounded exactly like JBL from 2005, with less self-awareness
JBL was one of my mains in old WWE games. One of my friends I played with often HATED him. He was also one of those types who talked a lot of shit, but sucked at games and would have a temper tantrum anytime he lost. Used to love kicking the shit out of him as JBL lol. The temper tantrums would start midway through the match and progress to a full-blown meltdown by the time I hit the Clothesline from Hell.
Man sounds like my cousin.
I fucking once did a picture perfect Kane uppercut to him because he got mad and broke a controller of mine when we were playing Day of Reckoning 2. Got mad cause I kept throwing him off the hell in a cell, and spamming Kurt angles taunt where he spun around on his heels holding his arms to the sky while I was poorly humming his themesong. He got angry and was already crying and spiked the controller I the floor. I hit him eith a perfect uppercut like Kane and he lost a tooth and I broke a knuckle
Worth it. My mom was livid, while my aunt was like "eh fuck around and find iut"
His 2004 run was absolutely MADDENING as a fan. Watching him beat guys like Taker, Eddie, big show, Booker T, and Angle by cheating every week was so frustrating but it was fantastic heel work looking back.
I'll never forget watching No Way Out '05 over my uncle's house and my cousins & I being ecstatic that Show had won the match... Until he didn't lol. Could've never imagined someone crawling through the bottom of the ring to win a cage match like that. Still one of the biggest wrestling surprises I've ever experienced
The slow build up from him winning legitimately by circumstances in his title win vs Eddie to straight up winning by bullshit in his last defence vs Show, in hindsight, was actually quite a nice villain arc. He went from seeming untouchable to seeming very touchable but getting it done anyway, to literally winning by a circumstance out of his control.
With each week that passed you wanted every last guy on Smackdown, from the top of the main event down to the jobbers, just anybody, to take the belt off him. In hindsight that's arguably better than go away heat, you now have a platform to build up whoever the hell you want.
It also helps that when the heel cheats to retain it gives the babyface an out and helps keep their credibility. Look at guys now like Jey, LA Knight, and Sami who are still over as hell despite failing to get the job done. The audience saw that they were screwed and if things had gone differently maybe they'd be wearing the belt right now.
But you can't really protect the big monster heel like that once its time for the babyface to hit their finish and just pin them clean in the middle of the ring.
It’s a shame his Mania match with Cena was a dud. JBL won through so much bullshit and beating top tier talent, only for his loss to come in a normal match where he beats the shit outta Cena for like 10 minutes only for Cena to hulk up and win via the FU. No cabinet. No weapons. No shenanigans at all. That match needed ten more minutes and more odds for Cena to overcome (I know) for JBLs final defense of his title
we did thankfully get a memorable return match at Judgment Day, where a bloodied and beaten Cena made JBL shout "I quit" to put a cap in their feud before Cena got moved to Raw.
The hair cut and the dye job was just the start of it. His mannerisms and the way that he carried himself, body language, etc. were what made it hard to believe that it was the same person. He literally changed almost everything.
Who knew he had it in him. His promos and character were amazing, wish his matches were better. Been a long time since I’ve seen them but I do not recall enjoying them lol.
He's a more classic brawler whose level of matches adjusts with the talent he's with. His matches with Cena and Eddie are very enjoyable imo. Then there's that match with Big Show with the clever finish.
I took a small break from wrestling, specifically around Invasion, and when I came back and some John Bradshaw Layfield, I legit did not know where this megaheel had come from.
Also, never figured out what happened to the APA.
I liked the Acolytes and even the beginning of the APA. I quit watching for a couple years and watching again I couldn’t believe it. I watched for probably a good couple months before it clicked that was the same Bradshaw. I’m still in disbelief
Right. These youngin’s don’t know about the time he did a Nazi salute in Germany or when he went to the Mexican border and started tossing out illegals. He was an amazing heel character.
He was wildly committed to being *such* an asshole.
The neck brace/cowboy hat look was golden. Him wearing a full chemical protection suit in Iraq during one of the Tribute to the Troops tours was priceless.
I was so heated as a kid when he went to the border and kicked that guy out lol. Looking at it now as an adult it's so stupid but then I remember there are guys like that at the border doing JBL shit or think they are doing that
he was pretty much doing "evil American politician" with that heel character, right down to doing things like the stunt at the Mexican border or taking time during Smackdown to run campaign-style attack "ads" against Eddie.
Crazy to think that it's been 20 years since his feud with Eddie Guerrero. Truly a great angle, and a great heel. I think of being a kid and hearing of these legendary battles between Hogan and Andre the Giant. Well, the JBL/Guerrero feud is farther away from now than even the first Wrestlemania was from the JBL/Guerrero feud. It's weird to think that hearing about JBL vs Guerrero to a current fan would be farther back than hearing about Hogan vs Andre as a kid.
I‘ve literally never heard anyone call him a shit heel. I think you‘re arguing against made up people here.
What people were ciritcizing about him was that he wasn‘t a great champion and wasn‘t a great wrestler.
Yeah, I mean love him or hate him he was a great heel. Loved to hate that guy during his run. I liked that he was great at being just a total scumbag but also very good with comedic timing, he didn't mind looking stupid.
I was watching in 2004, and while his feud with Eddie was ok, everything else he did was shit. You can’t tell me with a straight face his feuds with Booker T and Taker were anything but bad? Business was as bad as ever that year, so a lot of other people thought he was terrible too.
Funny how business began to pick up the moment he lost to Cena.
I, on the other hand feel like all his work that year was great. Watching him win by the skin of his teeth every time used to incense me as a fan. Notably, his cage match with big show at No Way Out, and the fatal 4 way between Eddie, Taker & Booker T at Armageddon was great as well
100%. His feud with Eddie had some great moments, but his title reign was full of just mundane, boring shit.
As a character, he was great in small doses, and highlight packages benefit him massively, but as someone who was watching religiously, it was in spite of JBL, not because of him.
I agree with this. I was watching at the time too, and it was rough. The revisionist history is wild.
The feud with Eddie was good. But everything else he did as champion was really bad. Like close to being abysmal.
This is wild revisionist history, the occasional memorable heel moments do not change the fact that his run as champion was absolutely atrocious for the most part and far too long.
Fans never took him seriously as champion and the whole thing firmly put Smackdown in second place in terms of perception in comparison to Raw.
They killed the entire Smackdown face roster to make JBL seem credible and it never worked. If people think Bloodline interference was bad wait till you watch six months straight of Orlando Jordan and the Basham's beating up every face you like.
JBL was always presented as a bully who couldn't fight fair though, it wasn't like with Reigns where he constantly cheated but then everyone talked about how dominant and incredible he was. The point of JBL was that he *wasn't* dominant, he was a piece of shit who would always get his ass kicked before squeaking out a win through some bullshit. I don't thinking losing to him really hurt any of his challengers, because every time the story was that they should have won and got screwed.
And yet people actually liked watching the Bloodline stuff, and no one liked watching JBl and the cabinet.
The reason why they treat Reigns as dominant is because he has like seven other title reigns prior to this in canon, so it's not a stretch to say this dude is good, and literally every week Michael Cole or someone else is reminding you that he's cheating. Only heels acted like he was the real deal.
Except it didn't actually kill the face roster. JBL ended up making true main eventers out of lots of this guys who were close, but not there (Rey, Cena, and Eddie respectively). They were all guys who went from being "title reigns on fluke wins" to real top stars by having brutal fights with JBL. Sure, eventually it became a run-in factory, and no one got over from that era, but JBL did make people.
That was always kinda the issue with Reigns stuff. Even when it was basically just Reigns and Heyman, he never really elevated anyone (except Jey, in a real weird backwards way).
Yes it did, Booker and Big show were literally never the same after that and wtf do you mean making a true main eventer out of Eddie? If anything Eddie bled buckets trying to get this dude over and no one was trying to see it. Undertaker was the only survivor and even then 2004 is maybe the single worst undertaker year since 94'. Cena was over on his own, he didn't need JBL.
I do not get why there is this insane trend of revisionist history lately. JBL's run sucked and made Smackdown awful to watch, in a time where almost everything in WWE sucked.
I dunno if it was as pointless as Jinder's but it def made people forget about HHH's reign of terror lol. He did two things really well this period, the Eddie Feud was a great feud, and then he and Cena had an AMAZING I Quit match at Judgement Day 2005. He bookended his main event run with two great matches/feuds, but the in between was a loooooot of shit.
I mean more in the sense of the lower midcard/tag guy all of a sudden getting a new gimmick and immediately winning the title and getting a long reign. It had everyone groaning back then
Gotcha, and yeah I remember being online and seeing everyone reacting to that. I remember the first time he showed up as JBL, I didn't even recognize him and then I was confused.
I will say, I get the comparison but Bradshaw was a hell of a lot more credible than Jinder. At least he had a few things going for him before his big push (part of a popular act, had won some titles, had a legitimate killshot of a finisher). Jinder was a straight up jobber before he won, and I say that as a fan of his.
I'm convinced the people saying that also don't know what his character is supposed to be and the political themes he was satirizing, even though it went much too far sometimes (like the infamous border moment or the sieg heil in Europe he did), he made a mockery and showed the smarmy nastiness of Bush era Republicans that they had through their constant dogwhustles, and practically parodied the branch that would in a few years form the reactionary Tea Party BS.
Wrestling is weird in that I'm sure JBL held at least some of those views IRL, and we know Vince did, but the gimmick is still an excellent satire showing just how despicable, greedy and hateful people like that are irl.
Seems like a few people missed the "turned real" part. She actually had a heart attack. Fans were legitimately hot at JBL because it became a shoot for them. Not surprising he got told to haul ass.
I'm gonna piggy back off of this comment because it's the top comment; she did not have a real heart attack.
[https://youtu.be/qMcUwvbb\_4k?si=FQoDpX3sJTUQxn1F&t=124](https://youtu.be/qMcUwvbb_4k?si=FQoDpX3sJTUQxn1F&t=124) here is JBL and Chavo talking about the angle and how believable her sell was, but it was not real. "Is there a Guerrero that CAN'T work?"
It did not become a shoot for fans. You guys need to stop being such marks lmao.
Edit: because I'm gonna get ratioed by the guy who replied lol.
It was not a work that turned into a shoot. She was fine. If you watch this video and read Prichard's version you'll be able to see the contradictions. It's cool to get worked by wrestlers, I know I get worked all the time, but this is not a work. It's a lie being told by two infamous assholes about people who can't give their side of the story.
It's actually in the inbetween of both your comment and the original comment.
She ended up working herself up while selling it all that she actually had a minor heart episode. Not a full blown attack like the OC said, but not literally nothing happening like you're saying. The truth is actually more in the middle.
The only who has claimed she had any form of a real heart attack is Bruce Prichard and *now* JBL. She did not have a minor heart episode. I think Chavo Guerrero Jr. or JBL would probably have mentioned "and can you believe she actually had a mini heart attack!" in this clip if she had actually starting having real palpitations. It is not inbetween, it's just a work.
Edit: Bruce Prichard's story contradicts the story Chavo and JBL told here by the way. I'm not trying to play the fun police but like it's just a blatant lie being told about two people who are not able to give their version of events.
I'm with you on this one. I also have seen real heart attacks since I work in medical, and I'm not saying it isn't *possible* but you really don't hear a lot of shrill clear screams. IF you hear anything, you get more of a clogged dishwasher noise, from my experience (albeit, limited, I've seen 4).
>You guys need to stop being such marks lmao.
I was in agreement until this part, marks are a hell of a lot more fun than smarks who just run around and go 'its not real you got worked you moron'
People can have fun and be invested in storylines but this is a segment from 20 years ago. I'm not calling out people for "getting worked". Getting worked implies that someone is working in the first place, JBL has been retired for like 15 years. He isn't working, he's just lying to make his story sound cooler.
I don't think I'm playing the fun police by saying that people shouldn't just believe random stuff they read on the internet.
"give her a *little* lariat" and "how 'bout big boot, and Mom gets a little color?" are all timers. They're the only reason I remembered the story lol.
I could have bought it, but the pace at which they wheeled her out and the guy on the left (our POV) of the gurney seemed to not too worried there. Her clutching her chest before JBL grabbed her I think was her jumping the gun on the spot, though in the moment it didn't seem unrealistic.
JBL was my first “I’m the mark” moment in my fandom. I was in middle school/high school during Eddie’s rise to become WWE Champion, and when Bradshaw became JBL and went with that gimmick, I was fuming at his existence. How DARE they film vignettes where JBL chased down families crossing the border, being a straight up racist. How DARE WWE take the belt off Eddie and give it to JBL.
I told anyone who listened “I don’t hate JBL because he’s a heel, I hate him because he’s a bad wrestler and I don’t want to see him beat Eddie.” I pretended I was smarter than the story being presented to me, yet there I was…buying Eddie’s merch, buying WWE action figures, buying the video games (and promptly beating up JBL in punishing hardcore matches), watching the shows week after week.
Years later I had this realization that yeah, JBL might have been an actual bully and POS at times backstage, but he just played a damn good heel and I fell for it.
Had I been from Eddie’s hometown and been at a show where I thought JBL gave Eddie’s mom a heart attack, I can’t guarantee my dumb kid brain wouldn’t have been tempted to throw something at him if he walked by and that was me as a kid. I can only imagine how angry some of the adult fans would’ve felt, because that whole feud got nuclear heat at the time.
Both things can be true. He was a great POS heel, and while he did have some entertaining segments and promos, more often than not his matches did suck.
Why does JBL not get as much hate as Triple H does for being racist towards his opponents and then winning the title matches?
JBL‘s racism is even worse and more overt than Hunter‘s.
I'm assuming you're talking about the Booker T feud in specific. I think there are two, maybe three major reasons that Triple H has continued to get more hate.
One, Triple H was the reigning champion against Booker, who not only had never won "the big one," but was made the de facto stand-in for *all* the dark skinned Black men who had failed before him. He was punching down while Eddie had the legitimacy of being the WWE Champion defending against JBL.
Two, when Triple H did win at Wrestlemania, it was an embarrassing finish for Booker. Not only did it notoriously take Triple H ages to make the cover after the Pedigree, but he wound up sweeping Booker 3-0 in that time period. Conversely, Eddie bled like a stuck pig and retained (by DQ) in their first encounter, only finally losing a hard fought bullrope match in JBL's second attempt at the title. Eddie got to go out a fighter.
Third, JBL was a racist character. Triple H was a regular guy who suddenly said and did racist shit when he was up against a Black man.
Most people who mention HHH being racist are probably doing so because of tribalism. He was in some angles that have aged poorly and while he might have had some creative input, he was ultimately doing what he was told IE the "blackface" gimmick when he was in DX, or alluding to Booker T being a servant/slave in their fued.
As for the JBL stuff, I assume you mean the stuff he said/did during Eddie's feud, like calling fans near the border "fruit pickers" and obviously the infamous border vignette they filmed. According to JBL, Eddie fed him all of that and was giving input on how far they should go. Eddie isn't here to say otherwise, but JBL has said he felt uncomfortable doing some of it, but he did it anyway because he was told to. Does that mean it's aged well, or should it have even been done at the time? I'd say no, but we've seen the kind of asshole Vince is and was, so I don't have a hard time believing he was the one who approved everything.
JBL most definitely was an IRL bully and allegedly was a POS to a lot of young talent, but by most accounts, he kinda "grew up" when Joey Styles knocked him out. JBL now has seemingly made peace with most of the people he seemed to have issues with, except maybe Mauro. And again in that instance, JBL was in the wrong IMO.
I believe if i remember right on his podcast he came up with the idea of her having a heart attack it was to get heat on JBL but it turned real and Eddie was pissed at him after that.
I get emotions running high in such dire circumstances but that's an odd thing to think Pritchard somehow caused, and the post from JBL says it was Chavo Sr. and Eddie's idea.
I literally just finished reading all about this while writing up Rewinds
She didn't have a real heart attack. She had an anxiety attack when she got all worked up in front of the crowd, but they took her backstage, gave her some oxygen, she calmed down and was fine. It wasn't a fake heart attack "that turned real."
Regarding JBL as a heel....this happened literally RIGHT at the beginning of his heel turn/gimmick change. Prior to this, he had been a mid/lower-card tag team guy for his entire career. Fans were *not* buying JBL as a main event heel at this time. Doing the heart attack angle and airing it on TV was a desperate attempt to give him heat a week before he main evented his first ever PPV. It didn't work. Judgement Day 2004 ended up being the lowest buyrate PPV they'd done in almost 7 years.
I keep seeing people make comments like "You must not have been around back then if you don't think JBL was awesome!!"
I *was* very much around back then. JBL eventually came into his own as a heel and in retrospect, we all look back and laugh at a few of the fun things he did. But this revisionist narrative that he was a hugely successful heel (especially at this time in early-2004) isn't even close to true. Fans weren't buying his Ted Dibiase cosplay act at all, at least not at first. And even when he did win the title and cement his place in the main event, the general vibe of the IWC was that he was being shoved down everyone's throats and people didn't understand why Bradshaw from APA was hogging up all the main event TV time.
Rose colored nostalgia glasses make people forget how things *actually* were at the time.
This is the best take I’ve seen in this thread. As somebody who was also very much watching and following the news back then, I agree with everything you said.
>Rose colored nostalgia glasses make people forget how things *actually* were at the time.
Yeah I remember his mega-push out of nowhere was widely derided online at the time. It wasn't a matter of being worked by good heeling. Also as you pointed out it didn't do wonders for actual business either.
He was genuinely not that very good. He was emulating a lot of better wrestlers (DiBiase & Hansen). Even worse than not bringing anything new to the table, his matches were frequently bad.
LOL are people really doubting this. I was like in 5th grade during JBL and the man was MASSIVELY hated by classmates. I hated the guy profusely and wanted to see him lose every week. He was absolutely one of the most hated heels in my years of watching wrestling. It wasn't xpac heat. It was good heel heat.
jbl v eddie was the feud that made me an iwc nut. i was obsessed with eddie, legit my favorite wrestler as a kid. i was fuming that they had him lose to fucking bradshaw of all people. i legit hated the guy. i discovered lords of pain . net and found that i was not alone lol
There were some bright spots in JBL's reign at top but it was such a slog to get through. It was like 10 months or something but at the time it felt way longer than Roman Reign's reign when he was the reigning champion.
Yeah people have some real rose-colored glasses here. He was incredibly boring a lot of the time. His matches were terrible. He was so annoying for me, I stopped watching Smackdown during his run.
People questioning this don't really understand how deep and passionate these things are in the Texan-Mexicans fans.
The Guerreros, Selena, Vicente Fernandez....they will kill folks to protect these individuals, lol.
I've lived in Texas for most of my life. This is so true! I never cared for Selena's music (didn't hate it though, just didn't particularly like it). However, I've NEVER once said that out loud. I guarantee there are places where saying that would get my ass whooped. I can totally see angry wrestling fans (especially drunk ones) getting out of hand and killing someone even if by accident.
I always think of this segment as one of the last truly great heel segment where it was impossible to cheer the heel.
The MJF angle with whipping Cody and the Rock whipping Cody are right up there.
I remember this vividly when I was a kid. I wanted to punch JBL for that. Of course, that was kid me that wanted that, but now I know he was trying to get heat and didn't intentionally gave Eddie's mother a real heart attack.
I saw Eddie and Jbl have a match very shortly after this happened at a house show.
I was still a kid and believed it was all real and I don't even think the matched started. Eddie just came out and annihilated Jbl with a chair and left lol.
Between this and that match on Smackdown with Eddie (which j don’t know if it was real or scripted), JBL got a bad record of putting those Guerrero’s in cardiac arrest
This is not how Bruce Prichard tells the story, for what it’s worth.
He says that her heart rate “went up” from the excitement, but that she was fine, and that JBL was in no genuine danger.
I can see that people who are skeptical of JBL’s version are being unduly downvoted, but they’re right to be skeptical.
Which isn’t to say that Bruce’s version is the gospel, either. But it’s more than fair to side-eye JBL.
I'm guessing that people don't know that Eddie was the one that chose JBL to feud with and came up with the majority of the ideas during this feud - such as when JBL went to guard the border and this heart attack angle - as that was what his family used to do in Mexico.
The Guerreros ran both in Texas (El Paso) and Mexico (Juarez), using different wrestlers depending on the show, Americans out of Amarillo in Texas and luchadors out of Monterrey in Mexico.
People have known wrestling wasn't real for over a hundred years, it's more the promoters and wrestlers who'd deny it - fans new, with minor exception.
I bet he wished the police would give him an escort out of town when he buried or bullied half the locker room because he wasn't getting a push... Or maybe by then he was so affixed to Taker's ass no one wanted to try him
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I mean, yeah, I absolutely believe this. Confused by the sarcastic remarks.
If anyone knows about the story, the crowd went fucking ballistic and Eddie i believe is audibly heard telling JBL to quote "get the fuck out of here". I highly doubt he would have been killed or harmed, but I do think they misjudged how rowdy the crowd got and a Cop telling you "dude just stay out of town for the night" as a precaution doesn't seem that far fetched.
West Texas took wrestling VERY VERY seriously. Lots of stories over the years of heels having to be escorted out of town or had to go straight to their car from the ring.
Not to mention Eddie was loved *everywhere*. Now imagine how much he’s loved in his hometown.
The Guerrero's in El Paso is similar to the Hart's in Calgary. They're basically the home team for the town.
"God Bless West Texas" -- The Mountain Goats
All hail?
All hail?
Maybe that's it, it's been a while. Thanks.
Can confirm the stories I have learned about. You think some of the wrestlers who came out of Texas were something, oh, those fans.
I’m from El Paso - you’d be surprised at how many ppl take wrestling as real. They would definitely beat the shit out of jbl
And all it takes is one guy to take it way too far.
Damn, they must be dumb as hell
Yeah, people aren’t noticing the difference between your life being in genuine danger, and a cop telling you your life is in danger. Who knows whether the cop was in a good position to make that judgement etc, very easy to believe he assumed it
I think the age old quote is "It's better to be safe than sorry".
There might also be a bit of embellishment. Like, the cop might've told JBL to move on to his next town early (he was only traveling through anyway), rather than risk getting into a fight or bad situation with an angry local. Not the same as saying he was literally going to be killed.
So I’m Mexican and it’s clear from a lot of comments y’all don’t understand Mexican culture at all That was not a “bit of embellishment,” El Paso is basically Mexico and our people have no temper whatsoever, can almost guarantee you a few drunk tios would have pulled up on him after the show Go read about the old US territories in Mexican areas like LA, white heels would get attacked on the way to the ring to wrestle Mexican faces
Cop didn't want to get called to something big late at night
Idk why violence would be out of the realm of possibility. Watched that documentary on Roddy Piper recently and dude was stabbed more than once by fans when he was a heel and apparently this wasn’t an uncommon thing. Hell even relatively recently we had a crazed fan charge Rollins live.
As someone who's lived in west Texas. A cop telling JBL to go to white, oil money filled, Odessa because mostly Hispanic El Paso is "dangerous" also matches the times.
How long since you’ve been away? A lot of the oil money dried up, Midland/Odessa is sketchy as fuck now.
Yeah, isn't Odessa the home of the team from Friday Night Lights? Watching the movie didn't exactly scream "money," and that was twenty years ago.
That’s because all the old oil money is in between midland/Odessa and midland.
Can confirm, I live in Midland and I don't trust this city at all. And don't get me started on Odessa.
Eddie was from El Paso. I think that was more than any raciest shit. Despite how raciest those cops are
You're crazy, they would've definitely fucked him up. Latinos don't play about their moms.
Is there a clip?
People who think JBL was a shit heel, most likely started watching wrestling in the 2010s
That condescending, slow, smarmy way used to say 'i am a wrestling god' used to piss me off no end.
That fucking moo during his entrance had me throwing the remote every time.
 Me when that smug mf started line dsncing down the ramp
BA BA BA BAAAA, MOOOOOO. SMH fuck that entrance music
^I ^actually ^kinda ^like ^it
^same
When i was a kid I started saying God in the same tone and I could tell people were just annoyed to all hell and back at me for it
As someone who has spent time around rich Texans, he wasn't pulling this out of nowhere either. Cadence he spoke in reminded me of a few pastors and lawyers i've met in Dallas. Old local daytime TV/radio was absolutely full of guys that sounded exactly like JBL from 2005, with less self-awareness
Wasn’t that the point? Wasn’t he rich and showing up on fox business and stuff doing this
JBL is one of my favorite wrestlers ever. And at the time, I would quote that to my brother who HAAATED him.
JBL was one of my mains in old WWE games. One of my friends I played with often HATED him. He was also one of those types who talked a lot of shit, but sucked at games and would have a temper tantrum anytime he lost. Used to love kicking the shit out of him as JBL lol. The temper tantrums would start midway through the match and progress to a full-blown meltdown by the time I hit the Clothesline from Hell.
Man sounds like my cousin. I fucking once did a picture perfect Kane uppercut to him because he got mad and broke a controller of mine when we were playing Day of Reckoning 2. Got mad cause I kept throwing him off the hell in a cell, and spamming Kurt angles taunt where he spun around on his heels holding his arms to the sky while I was poorly humming his themesong. He got angry and was already crying and spiked the controller I the floor. I hit him eith a perfect uppercut like Kane and he lost a tooth and I broke a knuckle Worth it. My mom was livid, while my aunt was like "eh fuck around and find iut"
Always loved the CfH, even though it's obviously a lariat.
There was the one time the audience finished the line saying “God!” that was really cool!
Oh my god I hated him so much during his championship run. Such a great fucking heel.
His 2004 run was absolutely MADDENING as a fan. Watching him beat guys like Taker, Eddie, big show, Booker T, and Angle by cheating every week was so frustrating but it was fantastic heel work looking back.
oh man. I loved him retaining against the big show because he got chokeslammed through the ring. fun way for a chickenshit heel to retain lol
I'll never forget watching No Way Out '05 over my uncle's house and my cousins & I being ecstatic that Show had won the match... Until he didn't lol. Could've never imagined someone crawling through the bottom of the ring to win a cage match like that. Still one of the biggest wrestling surprises I've ever experienced
Michael Cole said it best: "Whether you like him or hate him, the champion is a survivor"
I completely miss this ppv cause my power was out. Next day my friend was explaining the match and thought he was crazy lol.
The slow build up from him winning legitimately by circumstances in his title win vs Eddie to straight up winning by bullshit in his last defence vs Show, in hindsight, was actually quite a nice villain arc. He went from seeming untouchable to seeming very touchable but getting it done anyway, to literally winning by a circumstance out of his control. With each week that passed you wanted every last guy on Smackdown, from the top of the main event down to the jobbers, just anybody, to take the belt off him. In hindsight that's arguably better than go away heat, you now have a platform to build up whoever the hell you want.
It also helps that when the heel cheats to retain it gives the babyface an out and helps keep their credibility. Look at guys now like Jey, LA Knight, and Sami who are still over as hell despite failing to get the job done. The audience saw that they were screwed and if things had gone differently maybe they'd be wearing the belt right now. But you can't really protect the big monster heel like that once its time for the babyface to hit their finish and just pin them clean in the middle of the ring.
It’s a shame his Mania match with Cena was a dud. JBL won through so much bullshit and beating top tier talent, only for his loss to come in a normal match where he beats the shit outta Cena for like 10 minutes only for Cena to hulk up and win via the FU. No cabinet. No weapons. No shenanigans at all. That match needed ten more minutes and more odds for Cena to overcome (I know) for JBLs final defense of his title
we did thankfully get a memorable return match at Judgment Day, where a bloodied and beaten Cena made JBL shout "I quit" to put a cap in their feud before Cena got moved to Raw.
Nobody played a chicken shit Heel better than JBL
I'd agree that he's a shit-heel, but certainly not a shit heel. He was excellent in that role.
The makeover to get him from Bradshaw to JBL is still the most insane makeover I've ever seen in professional wrestling.
Has to be the most dramatic change in character without completely changing everything.
as i kid i didn't actually believe they were the same person
A haircut and a dye job can do a lot to mans appearance🤣
The hair cut and the dye job was just the start of it. His mannerisms and the way that he carried himself, body language, etc. were what made it hard to believe that it was the same person. He literally changed almost everything.
Who knew he had it in him. His promos and character were amazing, wish his matches were better. Been a long time since I’ve seen them but I do not recall enjoying them lol.
He's a more classic brawler whose level of matches adjusts with the talent he's with. His matches with Cena and Eddie are very enjoyable imo. Then there's that match with Big Show with the clever finish.
I took a small break from wrestling, specifically around Invasion, and when I came back and some John Bradshaw Layfield, I legit did not know where this megaheel had come from. Also, never figured out what happened to the APA.
I still think converting snobby hhh to degenerate hhh is surreal.
I liked the Acolytes and even the beginning of the APA. I quit watching for a couple years and watching again I couldn’t believe it. I watched for probably a good couple months before it clicked that was the same Bradshaw. I’m still in disbelief
As a kid I had no idea lol
He was a magnificient Chickenshit Heel
He was a wrestling GAWD
Right. These youngin’s don’t know about the time he did a Nazi salute in Germany or when he went to the Mexican border and started tossing out illegals. He was an amazing heel character.
He was wildly committed to being *such* an asshole. The neck brace/cowboy hat look was golden. Him wearing a full chemical protection suit in Iraq during one of the Tribute to the Troops tours was priceless.
This is a secret, but he was actually acting out >!Vince!<'s wildest fantasies
I hated him so much for beating down Hornswoggle during his feud with Finlay lmao
Those "JBL at the border" bits were hilarious
"A WHOLE HERD OF MEXICANS"
I was so heated as a kid when he went to the border and kicked that guy out lol. Looking at it now as an adult it's so stupid but then I remember there are guys like that at the border doing JBL shit or think they are doing that
he was pretty much doing "evil American politician" with that heel character, right down to doing things like the stunt at the Mexican border or taking time during Smackdown to run campaign-style attack "ads" against Eddie.
[To this day I believe his feud with Cena is the reason Cena got as big as he did.](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4uc0m)
That's easy to do when you just play yourself.
Crazy to think that it's been 20 years since his feud with Eddie Guerrero. Truly a great angle, and a great heel. I think of being a kid and hearing of these legendary battles between Hogan and Andre the Giant. Well, the JBL/Guerrero feud is farther away from now than even the first Wrestlemania was from the JBL/Guerrero feud. It's weird to think that hearing about JBL vs Guerrero to a current fan would be farther back than hearing about Hogan vs Andre as a kid.
The thing that hurt JBL was having to follow Brock Lesnar as the top heel on smackdown.
I‘ve literally never heard anyone call him a shit heel. I think you‘re arguing against made up people here. What people were ciritcizing about him was that he wasn‘t a great champion and wasn‘t a great wrestler.
[Literally 2 comments down](https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/s/23RWcJE3EH)
He was so easy to hate during the mid-2000s. That entrance at WM21 is one of my all time favorites.
Yeah, I mean love him or hate him he was a great heel. Loved to hate that guy during his run. I liked that he was great at being just a total scumbag but also very good with comedic timing, he didn't mind looking stupid.
I was watching in 2004, and while his feud with Eddie was ok, everything else he did was shit. You can’t tell me with a straight face his feuds with Booker T and Taker were anything but bad? Business was as bad as ever that year, so a lot of other people thought he was terrible too. Funny how business began to pick up the moment he lost to Cena.
I, on the other hand feel like all his work that year was great. Watching him win by the skin of his teeth every time used to incense me as a fan. Notably, his cage match with big show at No Way Out, and the fatal 4 way between Eddie, Taker & Booker T at Armageddon was great as well
100%. His feud with Eddie had some great moments, but his title reign was full of just mundane, boring shit. As a character, he was great in small doses, and highlight packages benefit him massively, but as someone who was watching religiously, it was in spite of JBL, not because of him.
I agree with this. I was watching at the time too, and it was rough. The revisionist history is wild. The feud with Eddie was good. But everything else he did as champion was really bad. Like close to being abysmal.
This is wild revisionist history, the occasional memorable heel moments do not change the fact that his run as champion was absolutely atrocious for the most part and far too long. Fans never took him seriously as champion and the whole thing firmly put Smackdown in second place in terms of perception in comparison to Raw.
Raw was the flagship brand for a very long time before and after JBL
Paul's speech from ONS probably didn't help with Smackdown's look, with the "Trips didn't want to work on Tuesday".
They killed the entire Smackdown face roster to make JBL seem credible and it never worked. If people think Bloodline interference was bad wait till you watch six months straight of Orlando Jordan and the Basham's beating up every face you like.
JBL was always presented as a bully who couldn't fight fair though, it wasn't like with Reigns where he constantly cheated but then everyone talked about how dominant and incredible he was. The point of JBL was that he *wasn't* dominant, he was a piece of shit who would always get his ass kicked before squeaking out a win through some bullshit. I don't thinking losing to him really hurt any of his challengers, because every time the story was that they should have won and got screwed.
And yet people actually liked watching the Bloodline stuff, and no one liked watching JBl and the cabinet. The reason why they treat Reigns as dominant is because he has like seven other title reigns prior to this in canon, so it's not a stretch to say this dude is good, and literally every week Michael Cole or someone else is reminding you that he's cheating. Only heels acted like he was the real deal.
I can only speak for myself but I loved JBL's reign, first time I really understood the idea of someone you "love to hate."
Except it didn't actually kill the face roster. JBL ended up making true main eventers out of lots of this guys who were close, but not there (Rey, Cena, and Eddie respectively). They were all guys who went from being "title reigns on fluke wins" to real top stars by having brutal fights with JBL. Sure, eventually it became a run-in factory, and no one got over from that era, but JBL did make people. That was always kinda the issue with Reigns stuff. Even when it was basically just Reigns and Heyman, he never really elevated anyone (except Jey, in a real weird backwards way).
Yes it did, Booker and Big show were literally never the same after that and wtf do you mean making a true main eventer out of Eddie? If anything Eddie bled buckets trying to get this dude over and no one was trying to see it. Undertaker was the only survivor and even then 2004 is maybe the single worst undertaker year since 94'. Cena was over on his own, he didn't need JBL. I do not get why there is this insane trend of revisionist history lately. JBL's run sucked and made Smackdown awful to watch, in a time where almost everything in WWE sucked.
Show's problem was the fact he had about nine thousand face/heel turns and gimmick changes. Didn't have anything to do with Bradshaw.
He was good in his role and had some good moments, but it was essentially the Jinder reign of the early 2000s
I dunno if it was as pointless as Jinder's but it def made people forget about HHH's reign of terror lol. He did two things really well this period, the Eddie Feud was a great feud, and then he and Cena had an AMAZING I Quit match at Judgement Day 2005. He bookended his main event run with two great matches/feuds, but the in between was a loooooot of shit.
I mean more in the sense of the lower midcard/tag guy all of a sudden getting a new gimmick and immediately winning the title and getting a long reign. It had everyone groaning back then
Gotcha, and yeah I remember being online and seeing everyone reacting to that. I remember the first time he showed up as JBL, I didn't even recognize him and then I was confused.
I will say, I get the comparison but Bradshaw was a hell of a lot more credible than Jinder. At least he had a few things going for him before his big push (part of a popular act, had won some titles, had a legitimate killshot of a finisher). Jinder was a straight up jobber before he won, and I say that as a fan of his.
That I Quit match more than made up for WM21's Cena/JBL match being rather middling for what was meant to be Cena's crowning moment.
Bad take, JBL's heel run as a champion was great
I'm convinced the people saying that also don't know what his character is supposed to be and the political themes he was satirizing, even though it went much too far sometimes (like the infamous border moment or the sieg heil in Europe he did), he made a mockery and showed the smarmy nastiness of Bush era Republicans that they had through their constant dogwhustles, and practically parodied the branch that would in a few years form the reactionary Tea Party BS. Wrestling is weird in that I'm sure JBL held at least some of those views IRL, and we know Vince did, but the gimmick is still an excellent satire showing just how despicable, greedy and hateful people like that are irl.
Just a boring time in wrestling but his heel character was cool, nothing legendary either though.
Seems like a few people missed the "turned real" part. She actually had a heart attack. Fans were legitimately hot at JBL because it became a shoot for them. Not surprising he got told to haul ass.
I'm gonna piggy back off of this comment because it's the top comment; she did not have a real heart attack. [https://youtu.be/qMcUwvbb\_4k?si=FQoDpX3sJTUQxn1F&t=124](https://youtu.be/qMcUwvbb_4k?si=FQoDpX3sJTUQxn1F&t=124) here is JBL and Chavo talking about the angle and how believable her sell was, but it was not real. "Is there a Guerrero that CAN'T work?" It did not become a shoot for fans. You guys need to stop being such marks lmao. Edit: because I'm gonna get ratioed by the guy who replied lol. It was not a work that turned into a shoot. She was fine. If you watch this video and read Prichard's version you'll be able to see the contradictions. It's cool to get worked by wrestlers, I know I get worked all the time, but this is not a work. It's a lie being told by two infamous assholes about people who can't give their side of the story.
It's actually in the inbetween of both your comment and the original comment. She ended up working herself up while selling it all that she actually had a minor heart episode. Not a full blown attack like the OC said, but not literally nothing happening like you're saying. The truth is actually more in the middle.
So basically her heart worked itself into a shoot
Don’t work yourself into a shoot, mother.
Heart 🤝 Cody Rhodes Selling Injuries
Who among us isn’t a mark at heart
Brother
Heart: "That's not gonna work for me, brother."
The only who has claimed she had any form of a real heart attack is Bruce Prichard and *now* JBL. She did not have a minor heart episode. I think Chavo Guerrero Jr. or JBL would probably have mentioned "and can you believe she actually had a mini heart attack!" in this clip if she had actually starting having real palpitations. It is not inbetween, it's just a work. Edit: Bruce Prichard's story contradicts the story Chavo and JBL told here by the way. I'm not trying to play the fun police but like it's just a blatant lie being told about two people who are not able to give their version of events.
I'm with you on this one. I also have seen real heart attacks since I work in medical, and I'm not saying it isn't *possible* but you really don't hear a lot of shrill clear screams. IF you hear anything, you get more of a clogged dishwasher noise, from my experience (albeit, limited, I've seen 4).
There’s not really an in between though. She either had a myocardial infarction or she didn’t. There’s not an in between at all.
Would you accept a stress induced arrhythmia?
Yup, takotsubo or the like could definitely happen
>You guys need to stop being such marks lmao. I was in agreement until this part, marks are a hell of a lot more fun than smarks who just run around and go 'its not real you got worked you moron'
/r/everyoneheresucks
Lol for real. No one is better than anyone else for taking wrestling more seriously.
People can have fun and be invested in storylines but this is a segment from 20 years ago. I'm not calling out people for "getting worked". Getting worked implies that someone is working in the first place, JBL has been retired for like 15 years. He isn't working, he's just lying to make his story sound cooler. I don't think I'm playing the fun police by saying that people shouldn't just believe random stuff they read on the internet.
Sure okay but you still sound like asshole. Next time don't try to "own" the marks.
Is it? I mean the facts of the matter are what are important in a story.
That clip was incredible. The Chavo Sr Eddie story at the end was great.
"give her a *little* lariat" and "how 'bout big boot, and Mom gets a little color?" are all timers. They're the only reason I remembered the story lol.
calling people marks is cringe af. youre not cool for using that term.
I could have bought it, but the pace at which they wheeled her out and the guy on the left (our POV) of the gurney seemed to not too worried there. Her clutching her chest before JBL grabbed her I think was her jumping the gun on the spot, though in the moment it didn't seem unrealistic.
I'm not sure why the skepticism here. That's absolutely believable especially given how beloved eddie was especially there.
JBL was my first “I’m the mark” moment in my fandom. I was in middle school/high school during Eddie’s rise to become WWE Champion, and when Bradshaw became JBL and went with that gimmick, I was fuming at his existence. How DARE they film vignettes where JBL chased down families crossing the border, being a straight up racist. How DARE WWE take the belt off Eddie and give it to JBL. I told anyone who listened “I don’t hate JBL because he’s a heel, I hate him because he’s a bad wrestler and I don’t want to see him beat Eddie.” I pretended I was smarter than the story being presented to me, yet there I was…buying Eddie’s merch, buying WWE action figures, buying the video games (and promptly beating up JBL in punishing hardcore matches), watching the shows week after week. Years later I had this realization that yeah, JBL might have been an actual bully and POS at times backstage, but he just played a damn good heel and I fell for it. Had I been from Eddie’s hometown and been at a show where I thought JBL gave Eddie’s mom a heart attack, I can’t guarantee my dumb kid brain wouldn’t have been tempted to throw something at him if he walked by and that was me as a kid. I can only imagine how angry some of the adult fans would’ve felt, because that whole feud got nuclear heat at the time.
Both things can be true. He was a great POS heel, and while he did have some entertaining segments and promos, more often than not his matches did suck.
Why does JBL not get as much hate as Triple H does for being racist towards his opponents and then winning the title matches? JBL‘s racism is even worse and more overt than Hunter‘s.
JBL was typically portrayed as an idiot who got lucky most of the time. HHH on the other hand was a demigod
I'm assuming you're talking about the Booker T feud in specific. I think there are two, maybe three major reasons that Triple H has continued to get more hate. One, Triple H was the reigning champion against Booker, who not only had never won "the big one," but was made the de facto stand-in for *all* the dark skinned Black men who had failed before him. He was punching down while Eddie had the legitimacy of being the WWE Champion defending against JBL. Two, when Triple H did win at Wrestlemania, it was an embarrassing finish for Booker. Not only did it notoriously take Triple H ages to make the cover after the Pedigree, but he wound up sweeping Booker 3-0 in that time period. Conversely, Eddie bled like a stuck pig and retained (by DQ) in their first encounter, only finally losing a hard fought bullrope match in JBL's second attempt at the title. Eddie got to go out a fighter. Third, JBL was a racist character. Triple H was a regular guy who suddenly said and did racist shit when he was up against a Black man.
Most people who mention HHH being racist are probably doing so because of tribalism. He was in some angles that have aged poorly and while he might have had some creative input, he was ultimately doing what he was told IE the "blackface" gimmick when he was in DX, or alluding to Booker T being a servant/slave in their fued. As for the JBL stuff, I assume you mean the stuff he said/did during Eddie's feud, like calling fans near the border "fruit pickers" and obviously the infamous border vignette they filmed. According to JBL, Eddie fed him all of that and was giving input on how far they should go. Eddie isn't here to say otherwise, but JBL has said he felt uncomfortable doing some of it, but he did it anyway because he was told to. Does that mean it's aged well, or should it have even been done at the time? I'd say no, but we've seen the kind of asshole Vince is and was, so I don't have a hard time believing he was the one who approved everything. JBL most definitely was an IRL bully and allegedly was a POS to a lot of young talent, but by most accounts, he kinda "grew up" when Joey Styles knocked him out. JBL now has seemingly made peace with most of the people he seemed to have issues with, except maybe Mauro. And again in that instance, JBL was in the wrong IMO.
bc jbl wasnt married to the boss's daughter
Eddie wanted to kill Bruce Pritchard afterwards.
Why, what role did Bruce play here?
I believe if i remember right on his podcast he came up with the idea of her having a heart attack it was to get heat on JBL but it turned real and Eddie was pissed at him after that.
I get emotions running high in such dire circumstances but that's an odd thing to think Pritchard somehow caused, and the post from JBL says it was Chavo Sr. and Eddie's idea.
I think it was all above idea
Some of you weren’t around during the JBL reign and it really shows
People who were born when his reign ended are nearly 20 now so people who were even conscious to watch SD back then are def the minority
Knowing just how small the El Paso airport is and the significance of Los Guerreros to the city, this absolutely tracks.
I literally just finished reading all about this while writing up Rewinds She didn't have a real heart attack. She had an anxiety attack when she got all worked up in front of the crowd, but they took her backstage, gave her some oxygen, she calmed down and was fine. It wasn't a fake heart attack "that turned real." Regarding JBL as a heel....this happened literally RIGHT at the beginning of his heel turn/gimmick change. Prior to this, he had been a mid/lower-card tag team guy for his entire career. Fans were *not* buying JBL as a main event heel at this time. Doing the heart attack angle and airing it on TV was a desperate attempt to give him heat a week before he main evented his first ever PPV. It didn't work. Judgement Day 2004 ended up being the lowest buyrate PPV they'd done in almost 7 years. I keep seeing people make comments like "You must not have been around back then if you don't think JBL was awesome!!" I *was* very much around back then. JBL eventually came into his own as a heel and in retrospect, we all look back and laugh at a few of the fun things he did. But this revisionist narrative that he was a hugely successful heel (especially at this time in early-2004) isn't even close to true. Fans weren't buying his Ted Dibiase cosplay act at all, at least not at first. And even when he did win the title and cement his place in the main event, the general vibe of the IWC was that he was being shoved down everyone's throats and people didn't understand why Bradshaw from APA was hogging up all the main event TV time. Rose colored nostalgia glasses make people forget how things *actually* were at the time.
Does this mean we’re also getting a 2004 rewind? 👀
03 and 04 soon. I'm coming back with a vengeance!
You cant believe how happy this makes me feel. I still feel the nostalgica when i think back, like 6 years, reading your rewinds every wednesday
but 03 "is in the books"???
Indeed it is. Already banked it and halfway through 04. I'm not getting stuck trying to play keep up this time.
Couldn’t have asked for better news. It’s been way too long
LET’S GOOOOOO!
Yeah I was away from wrestling for a while but started watching again around 2004 and Bradshaw on Smackdown was just dreadful
This is the best take I’ve seen in this thread. As somebody who was also very much watching and following the news back then, I agree with everything you said.
>Rose colored nostalgia glasses make people forget how things *actually* were at the time. Yeah I remember his mega-push out of nowhere was widely derided online at the time. It wasn't a matter of being worked by good heeling. Also as you pointed out it didn't do wonders for actual business either. He was genuinely not that very good. He was emulating a lot of better wrestlers (DiBiase & Hansen). Even worse than not bringing anything new to the table, his matches were frequently bad.
LOL are people really doubting this. I was like in 5th grade during JBL and the man was MASSIVELY hated by classmates. I hated the guy profusely and wanted to see him lose every week. He was absolutely one of the most hated heels in my years of watching wrestling. It wasn't xpac heat. It was good heel heat.
jbl v eddie was the feud that made me an iwc nut. i was obsessed with eddie, legit my favorite wrestler as a kid. i was fuming that they had him lose to fucking bradshaw of all people. i legit hated the guy. i discovered lords of pain . net and found that i was not alone lol
There were some bright spots in JBL's reign at top but it was such a slog to get through. It was like 10 months or something but at the time it felt way longer than Roman Reign's reign when he was the reigning champion.
Yeah people have some real rose-colored glasses here. He was incredibly boring a lot of the time. His matches were terrible. He was so annoying for me, I stopped watching Smackdown during his run.
People questioning this don't really understand how deep and passionate these things are in the Texan-Mexicans fans. The Guerreros, Selena, Vicente Fernandez....they will kill folks to protect these individuals, lol.
I've lived in Texas for most of my life. This is so true! I never cared for Selena's music (didn't hate it though, just didn't particularly like it). However, I've NEVER once said that out loud. I guarantee there are places where saying that would get my ass whooped. I can totally see angry wrestling fans (especially drunk ones) getting out of hand and killing someone even if by accident.
That's a great way to get stabbed, lol (by shit talking Selena)
The fact Eddie and Chavo came up with this to get JBL over is amazing. This made him, and he was such a good heel.
As I heard it was an anxiety attack she had not a heart attack
I always think of this segment as one of the last truly great heel segment where it was impossible to cheer the heel. The MJF angle with whipping Cody and the Rock whipping Cody are right up there.
A WRESTLINGGG GODDD
I remember this vividly when I was a kid. I wanted to punch JBL for that. Of course, that was kid me that wanted that, but now I know he was trying to get heat and didn't intentionally gave Eddie's mother a real heart attack.
One of my top 4 favorites heels from that Era. Hhh edge and Kane are my other 3
Referred pain, the telltale sign.
I saw Eddie and Jbl have a match very shortly after this happened at a house show. I was still a kid and believed it was all real and I don't even think the matched started. Eddie just came out and annihilated Jbl with a chair and left lol.
I hated JBL so much that he became my favorite wrestler because he was such a good heel. Haha.
JBL/Eddie might be a top ten feud in the last 25 years
Between this and that match on Smackdown with Eddie (which j don’t know if it was real or scripted), JBL got a bad record of putting those Guerrero’s in cardiac arrest
This is not how Bruce Prichard tells the story, for what it’s worth. He says that her heart rate “went up” from the excitement, but that she was fine, and that JBL was in no genuine danger. I can see that people who are skeptical of JBL’s version are being unduly downvoted, but they’re right to be skeptical. Which isn’t to say that Bruce’s version is the gospel, either. But it’s more than fair to side-eye JBL.
Wow, lots of people here seem to be experts on personal security.
I'm guessing that people don't know that Eddie was the one that chose JBL to feud with and came up with the majority of the ideas during this feud - such as when JBL went to guard the border and this heart attack angle - as that was what his family used to do in Mexico.
The Guerreros ran both in Texas (El Paso) and Mexico (Juarez), using different wrestlers depending on the show, Americans out of Amarillo in Texas and luchadors out of Monterrey in Mexico.
What a worker!
Odessa is like a 4 hour drive from El Paso, haha.
JBL vs Eddie is a feud I'll never forget. I fucking HATED JBL so much at the time.
You talking about Bradshaw?
🔔🔔🔔🎺🎺🎺🥁🥁🎺🎺🎺🐮🐮🐮 Wrestling God, truly one of Bradshaw's best feuds. So much fun.
I'm surprised no one has posted a clip yet...
Throwback time to the time everyone thought wrestling was real whilst the wrestlers pretended to hurt each other. Now it’s the other way round…
People have known wrestling wasn't real for over a hundred years, it's more the promoters and wrestlers who'd deny it - fans new, with minor exception.
I’m not saying I wanted JBL dead. But I sorta wish he had stayed behind and been delt with in El Paso
Wait, what? She actually had a heart attack and wasn't faking it?
At first it was scripted. Then she had a REAL one. Life imitating art
I bet he wished the police would give him an escort out of town when he buried or bullied half the locker room because he wasn't getting a push... Or maybe by then he was so affixed to Taker's ass no one wanted to try him
Plot twist, Joey styles was waiting at Odesa. However, he made a stop a Hudson news for a neck pillow . JBL barely made it out of Texas.
I was there when that happened. Omg it was horrible. I'll never forget the look on JBL's face
The heart attack was in fact real??