JBL Recalls Brock Lesnar Offering To Put Him Over At WWE Live Event
The match occurred in April 2002
Oct 13, 2021
John 'Bradshaw' Layfield has recalled the time that Brock Lesnar offered to lose to him at a WWE live event so JBL's old friends could see him win.
Then just going as Bradshaw, JBL was scheduled to face Lesnar on a house show on April 14 2002, with the event taking place in Abilene, Texas.
JBL played football for Abilene Christian University before getting into wrestling and, due to his association with Abilene, the WWE Hall of Famer was treated like a hero in the city.
Heading into the match, JBL discovered he had friends attending the show and, when he went to speak to Lesnar about joining them for a drink afterwards, The Beast selflessly told Layfield he wanted to put him over.
Speaking in a YouTube Q&A, Layfield said: "I was working with Brock in Abilene and I said, ‘Hey, Brock, I wanna talk to you,’ and he goes, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, your college buddies are here. I’m gonna put you over.’
"I said, ‘Brock, they don’t care who goes over. I couldn’t care less. You win, I win, it doesn’t matter.’ I said, ‘We’re going to a place afterwards,’ and so that’s what I was telling him."
JBL would end up winning the match, which would be Lesnar's first loss in WWE following his debut earlier that month. The two would end up facing each other another four times on the WWE live event circuit that year, with Lesnar winning each of those bouts.
