JBL had two great careers in one company. First he was Bradshaw, the Texas brawler with the Clothesline From Hell, and one half of the Acolytes Protection Agency with Ron Simmons, the beer-drinking, card-playing hired muscle who became one of the most entertaining acts of the Attitude Era and won three world tag team championships together.

Then in 2004 he reinvented himself as John Bradshaw Layfield, the loudmouthed Wall Street millionaire in the cowboy hat, beat Eddie Guerrero for the WWE Championship, and held it for 280 days, the longest reign of the SmackDown era at the time. He also won the United States, Intercontinental, European, and Hardcore titles, making him one of a small handful of grand slam champions in company history.

After retiring in the ring he spent years as a commentator on Raw and SmackDown and built a legitimate second life as a financial commentator and author. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame with the class of 2020 and is a proud Texan through and through.