Arda Ocal (@arda_ocal) of The Score Television Network had a chance to speak to former WWE superstar John "Bradshaw" Layfield, in an exclusive interview. Highlights:
JBL talks about Eddies role in getting him over in the WWE:
Eddie and I were really good friends. Eddie wanted the JBL character to succeed very badly. When I first started, I had been a mid-card to an upper-mid card guy my whole career. I filled in a few main events, but I was not a main event guy. People just weren’t buying the JBL character, it was forced down on them. It was one day I was Bradshaw and the next day I was JBL, with a cowboy hat in a world title match- people just didn’t buy it. Eddie really took that personal and he took it upon himself to get me over… His brother [Chavo] was a huge instrumental piece of what we did during that time. That’s when we came up with the heart attack angle with his mother and that’s when we came up with the immigration, back and forth over the border. A lot of that was Eddie, Chavo and I sitting around in the dressing room talking. If it hadn’t been for Eddie I don’t think the JBL character would have ever worked.
JBL gives an update about his up coming climbs:
I got Kilimanjaro next which is the easiest of the seven summits. It’s very high, 19,000 feet, but it’s the easiest of the seven summits…. Some of these mountains, Aconcagua and Vincent, when you’re climbing, you got to be climbing the whole time. At Russia, we had a little bit of down time, that’s why I chose it, so I could learn mountain skills. I didn’t even know how to put cramps on when I got there. I learned a lot.
How he pitched the idea of "Tribute to the Troops" to Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn.