I'm responding to this news post I added to the group back on April
30th 2004. It was when everyone was scared about the push
John "Bradshaw" Layfield was getting and was on his way to a main
event match against Eddie Guerrero at Judgment Day.

Since this post, JBL went on to win the WWE Championship and held
the title for almost 10 months. If someone told me this would happen
on April 30th last year I'd call them insane.

In retrospect, the JBL title reign turned out to be entertaining. It
didn't really help or hurt business all that much and JBL turned
into one of the more consistent characters on Smackdown. He evolved
from an uncredible world champion who had gone from tag team
wrestler to main eventer in the span of two months and had become
the most dominant WWE Champion in almost a decade.

For the record, JBL had a couple of classic matches along the way. I
give heavy praise to all three matches he had with Eddie Guerrero,
his last man standing match with Kurt Angle, and proving us all
wrong that he could be a capable main event force. My hat goes off
to JBL, I am sorry that I doubted him.

And it does not even pain me to say that.

-Rings-

--- In chrisbenoitandperrysaturn@yahoogroups.com,
rings_of_perry_saturn <no_reply@y...> wrote:
> The push of John Bradshaw Layfield continues to be one of the
hottest
> topics right now in the SmackDown locker room. A lot of the talent
on
> the brand feels that he won't draw at Judgment Day in the
headliner
> against Eddie Guerrero and is being pushed too hard, too quickly.
>
> There continues to be an overwhelming degree of frustration from
> other talent on the SmackDown brand due to the fact that they can
see
> Layfield isn't ready for the push that he is receiving but
management
> cannot. However, one must keep in mind that Vince McMahon is said
to
> be the mastermind behind the push of Layfield, therefore, making
it
> virtually unstoppable.
>
> It should also be taken into consideration that Layfield does have
> his fair share of enemies on SmackDown who will do anything to put
> him down. Nevertheless it appears as if more than just his enemies
> are extremely concerned with this recent mega heel push.
>
>
> Rings: I have yet to hear any good reports about Bradshaw's house
> show matches with Eddie Guerrero. I keep hearing that the crowd
has
> lost interest during each match and that Eddie just cannot carry
> Bradshaw to a good match. I am very scared about Judgment Day.